Romance Languages and Literatures Courses

RL 003 Elementary Italian I (Fall: 3)

Conducted in Italian.
The purpose of this course is to introduce the students to Italian language and culture. In the first semester students will learn the Italian sound system and the rudiments of vocabulary and grammar necessary for basic communication. The approach is communicative, and while memorization and mechanical practice is required, the greater part of class time will be dedicated to practicing acquired knowledge in a conversational and contextualized atmosphere. This course is for those who have not studied Italian previously. Students with prior Italian experience admitted only by placement test.
Brian O'Connor
The Department

Last Updated: 07-JAN-09

RL 004 Elementary Italian II (Spring: 3)

Conducted in Italian.
Admitted by placement test, consent of instructor, or completion of RL 003.
This course is a continuation of RL 003 and further develops the goals of the first semester. Special attention is given this to the production more complex speech, the expression of personal opinion and a deeper knowledge of contemporary Italian culture. More formal writing exercises and reading of authentic texts aid students in reinforcing language skills. A group final project at the end of the course attempts to bring together the themes and experiences from previous study.
Brian O'Connor
The Department

Last Updated: 04-NOV-09

RL 009 Elementary French I (Fall: 3)

Classes are conducted primarily in French.
Students with prior French experience admitted only by placement test.
This beginning course is designed for students with no prior French experience and those who have studied French before and have placed into this level. (True beginners should also sign up for RL 011, the Elementary French I Practicum.) Emphasis is on building oral and written communication skills and exploring the cultural specificities of life in France. Elementary French I is a film-based course and is supplemented with web-based assignments, as well as an online language lab.
Andrea Javel
The Department

Last Updated: 07-JAN-09

RL 010 Elementary French II (Spring: 3)

Classes are conducted primarily in French.
Students with prior French experience admitted only by placement test.
This course is a continuation of RL 009 (Elementary French I) and is also open to students who have placed into this course without having completed RL 009. Course goals include laying a foundation for Intermediate French, expanding vocabulary and building oral proficiency. Elementary French II is a film-based course and supplemented with web-based assignments, as well as an online language lab. Students who need additional review and reinforcement should enroll in RL 012, the Elementary French II Practicum, concurrently.
Andrea Javel
The Department

Last Updated: 07-JAN-09

RL 011 Elementary French Practicum I (Fall: 1)

Required of students enrolled in RL 009 with no prior experience in French.
Open to other students of RL 009 only by permission of the coordinator.
Only open to students concurrently enrolled in RL 009.

This intensive one-hour supplementary course gives "real beginners" the extra conversation, listening, and reading practice they need to maintain the pace of Elementary French. All concepts presented in this course review those covered in RL 009.
Andrea Javel
The Department

Last Updated: 07-JAN-09

RL 012 Elementary French Practicum II (Spring: 1)

This intensive one-hour supplementary course gives students extra help mastering concepts presented in RL 010 through review and recycling of material. It is open to all students concurrently enrolled in RL 010 that feel they need more "time on task" to help them get a solid grasp of the basics in French.
Andrea Javel
The Department

Last Updated: 07-JAN-09

RL 013 Intermediate French Practicum I (Fall: 1)

Offered Periodically
Only open to students concurrently enrolled in RL 109.
Open to students of RL 109 who feel they could benefit from additional instruction in a small group setting. This intensive one-hour supplementary course gives students the extra conversation, listening, and reading practice they need to do succeed in Intermediate French and to build a solid base in the language. All concepts presented in this course review those covered in RL 109.
Andrea Javel
The Department

Last Updated: 17-DEC-08

RL 014 Intermediate French Practicum II (Spring: 1)

Offered Periodically
This intensive one-hour supplementary course gives students extra help mastering concepts presented in RL 110 through review and recycling of material. It is open to all students concurrently enrolled in RL 110 that feel they need more "time on task" to help them get a solid grasp of the Intermediate French curriculum.
Andrea Javel
The Department

Last Updated: 17-DEC-08

RL 015 Elementary Spanish I (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: This course is for beginners. Students with prior Spanish experience are admitted only after taking the placement test.
Classes are conducted in Spanish.
May be taken concurrently with RL 017.

This beginning course is designed for students with no prior Spanish experience, as well as those who have had some high school Spanish and are not sufficiently prepared for intermediate level work. (Students with no prior Spanish experience should also sign up for RL 017.) Emphasis is on building oral and written communication skills and acquiring a greater awareness of the Hispanic world. Class instruction is supplemented by videos, CD-ROM and web activities.
Debbie Rusch
The Department

Last Updated: 07-JAN-09

RL 016 Elementary Spanish II (Spring: 3)

Classes are conducted primarily in Spanish.
Students with prior Spanish experience admitted only by placement test.
This course is a continuation of RL 015. Course goals include readying students for Intermediate Spanish, expanding vocabulary, and building oral proficiency. Students will deepen their understanding of Hispanic culture through short literary and cultural readings, videos, and films. Emphasis is on building oral and written communication skills and on acquiring a greater awareness of the Spanish-speaking world.
Debbie Rusch
The Department

Last Updated: 07-JAN-09

RL 017 Elementary Spanish Practicum I (Fall: 1)

Required of students enrolled in RL 015 with no prior experience in Spanish.
Open to other students of RL 015 only by permission of the coordinator.
Only open to students concurrently enrolled in RL 015.
This intensive one-hour supplementary course gives "real beginners" the extra conversation, listening, and reading practice they need to maintain the pace of Elementary Spanish. All concepts presented in this course review those covered in RL 015.
Debbie Rusch
The Department

Last Updated: 07-JAN-09

RL 018 Elementary Spanish Practicum II (Spring: 1)

This intensive one-hour supplementary course gives students extra help mastering concepts presented in RL 016 through review and recycling of material. It is open to all students concurrently enrolled in RL016 that feel they need more "time on task" to help them get a solid grasp of the basics in Spanish.
Debbie Rusch
The Department

Last Updated: 07-JAN-09

RL 021 Elementary Italian Practicum I (Fall: 1)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian.
This intensive one-hour supplementary course gives "real beginners" the extra conversation, listening, and reading practice they need to maintain the pace of Elementary Italian. All concepts presented in this course review those covered in RL 003.
Brian O'Connor
The Department

Last Updated: 29-JAN-09

RL 022 Elementary Italian Practicum II (Spring: 1)

Last Updated: 29-JAN-09

RL 023 Elementary Portuguese I (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
This beginning course is designed for students with no prior experience in Portuguese. Emphasis is on building oral and written communication skills and acquiring a greater awareness of the Portuguese culture.
The Department

Last Updated: 22-JAN-08

RL 024 Elementary Portuguese II (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
This course is a continuation of RL 023. Students will continue to expand their vocabulary and develop their fluency in Portuguese, both written and oral.
The Department

Last Updated: 22-JAN-08

RL 041 Intensive Elementary Spanish for Oral Proficiency (Spring: 6)

Classes are conducted in Spanish.
Open to students with no prior experience in Spanish.
The course meets five days per week.
The aim of this six-credit course is to provide motivated beginning students an opportunity to study Spanish language and culture in an intensive oral environment. The course's materials are particularly suitable for students wishing to acquire listening comprehension and speaking skills that may be put to immediate use. Reading and writing assignments complement aural/oral activities.
The Department

Last Updated: 07-JAN-09

RL 042 Intensive Elementary French for Oral Proficiency (Spring: 6)

Conducted in French.
Open to students with no prior experience in French.

The aim of this six-credit course is to provide motivated beginning students an opportunity to study French language and culture in an intensive oral environment. The course's video-based materials are particularly suitable for students wishing to acquire listening comprehension and speaking skills that may be put to immediate use. Reading and writing assignments complement aural/oral activities. The course meets four days per week (75 minutes each class).
Margaret Flagg

Last Updated: 07-JAN-09

RL 043 Intensive Elementary Italian (Spring: 6)

Conducted in Italian.
This course is for beginners.
Students with prior Italian experience admitted only by placement test.
Meets five times per week.
The aim of this total immersion, six-credit course is to provide students with an opportunity to study Italian language and culture in an intensive oral environment. While reading and writing are important elements of the learning process, the main focus will be on oral expression in everyday situations. Successful completion of this course will qualify students for RL 113 Intermediate Italian I the following fall, or participation in the Parma summer language program or in the fall semester at Parma.
Brian O'Connor
The Department

Last Updated: 04-NOV-09

RL 065 Intensive Reading in French (Summer: 1)

The course objectives are (1) to develop the ability to read French readily and accurately through the study of grammatical structures and vocabulary; (2) to develop techniques for the reading of French-language material; and (3) to provide practice in the translation of French texts in general and of texts related to the students' major fields of study and research. This course may be taken for a grade, for pass/fail, or may be audited (as a registered auditor). Students desiring a pass/fail grade must file this grading preference with the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
The Department

Last Updated: 06-APR-09

RL 109 Intermediate French I (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: RL 010 , RL 042, or admission by placement test
Conducted in French.
The emphasis will be on building upon prior study and developing a practical knowledge of the French language, as spoken by native speakers in contemporary France. Our goal is to help students develop oral and written proficiency in the language. The emphasis is on contemporary French culture and history, vocabulary expansion, accuracy of expression, and interactive language use. Short literary and cultural readings will provide authentic insight. Classroom work will be supplemented with web-based assignments and an online audio-program.
Andrea Javel
The Department

Last Updated: 12-JUN-09

RL 110 Intermediate French II (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: RL 109 or admission by placement test
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Conducted in French.
This course is a continuation of RL 109 (Intermediate French I) and is also open to students who have placed into this course. Students will continue to expand their vocabulary and develop their fluency, both written and oral. Emphasis is on active student participation and a broadening of historical and cultural knowledge. Francophone culture will be explored through literary excerpts by authors from France, Africa, and the Caribbean. Classroom work will be supplemented with film, web-based assignments and an online audio program.
Andrea Javel
The Department

Last Updated: 07-JAN-09

RL 111 Intermediate Italian Practicum I (Fall: 1)

Conducted in Italian.
This intensive one-hour supplementary course provides extra conversation, listening, and reading practice to students who have had trouble in Elementary Italian or other language courses. It will help these students maintain the pace of and succeed in Intermediate Italian. All concepts presented in this course review those covered in RL 113.
Brian O'Connor
The Department

Last Updated: 17-DEC-08

RL 112 Intermediate Italian Practicum II (Spring: 1)

Last Updated: 17-DEC-08

RL 113 Intermediate Italian I (Fall: 3)

Conducted in Italian.
Admitted by placement test, consent of instructor, or completion of RL 004.
The prime objective of the course is to improve reading and writing skills, to continue building oral proficiency, and to provide a lively and current cultural background of contemporary Italy. A review of the elements of language will be supplemented by the reading of selected texts, oral practice, and individual research, all presented within the context of contemporary Italian society and classic Italian culture. Students will develop their ability to satisfy basic survival needs and to engage in conversation on a fairly complex level.
Brian O'Connor
The Department

Last Updated: 12-JUN-09

RL 114 Intermediate Italian II (Spring: 3)

Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Conducted in Italian.
Elective for the Italian minor when taken as first course in language sequence.
Admitted by placement test, consent of instructor, or completion of RL 113.

The prime objective of the course is to improve reading and writing skills, to continue building oral proficiency, and to provide a lively and current cultural background of contemporary Italy. A review of the elements of language will be supplemented by the reading of selected texts, oral practice, and individual research, all presented within the context of contemporary Italian society and classic Italian culture. Students will develop their ability to satisfy basic survival needs and to engage in conversation on a fairly complex level.
Brian O'Connor
The Department

Last Updated: 07-JAN-09

RL 115 Intermediate Spanish I (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: RL 016, RL 041, or admission by placement test
Conducted in Spanish.
This course builds on previously acquired language skills and helps prepare students to interact with native speakers of Spanish. Emphasis is on vocabulary expansion, accuracy of expression, and interactive language use. Short literary and cultural readings will provide authentic insight into the Hispanic world. Students will have the opportunity to work with videos, films, the internet, and other multimedia.
Catherine Wood Lange
The Department

Last Updated: 12-JUN-09

RL 116 Intermediate Spanish II (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: RL 115 or admission by placement test
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Conducted in Spanish.
This course is a continuation of RL 115. Students will expand their vocabulary and develop written and oral fluency. Emphasis is on active student participation and broadening historical and cultural knowledge. Short literary and cultural readings will provide authentic insight into the Hispanic world. Students will have the opportunity to work with videos, films, the internet, and other multimedia.
Catherine Wood Lange
The Department

Last Updated: 07-JAN-09

RL 123 Intermediate Portuguese I (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
This course builds on previously acquired language skills. Emphasis is on vocabulary expansion, accuracy of expression, and interactive language use.
The Department

Last Updated: 22-JAN-08

RL 124 Intermediate Portuguese II (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
This course is a continuation of RL 123. Students will expand their vocabulary and develop written and oral fluency. Emphasis is on active student participation and broadening historical and cultural knowledge.
The Department

Last Updated: 22-JAN-08

RL 151 Italianissimo: Intermediate Italian II, Track 2 (Spring: 3)

Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Conducted in Italian.
Elective for Italian minor when taken as first course in language sequence.
Admitted by placement test, consent of instructor, or completion of RL 113.
This course is designed for motivated students interested in continuing the study of Italian language, culture, and literature beyond the Intermediate level, and especially for those students who intend to major or minor in Italian or study at Parma. The development of oral proficiency is emphasized, but there is a new focus on reading and writing in accurate Italian. Readings include current newspaper and magazine articles and literary texts: short stories, poems, and two short novels. Particular attention will be given to the development of consistency in grammatical accuracy, and to creating more complex and expressive speech.
Brian O'Connor

Last Updated: 12-JUN-09

RL 153 Adelante I (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: RL 016, RL 041, or admission by placement test
Conducted in Spanish.
Adelante I can be taken in lieu of Intermediate Spanish I. It is especially targeted toward students who have a solid preparation in Spanish and a strong motivation to further expand their knowledge of the language and its cultures. It also provides excellent preparation for study abroad. Adelante I builds on previously acquired language skills. Emphasis is on vocabulary expansion, accuracy of expression, and interactive language use. Short literary and cultural readings will provide authentic insight into the Hispanic world. Students will have the opportunity to work with videos, films, the internet and other multimedia.
The Department

Last Updated: 12-JUN-09

RL 154 Adelante II (Spring: 3)

Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Conducted in Spanish.
Adelante II is a continuation of RL 153 and can be taken in lieu of Intermediate Spanish II to fulfill the language requirement. It is targeted toward students who have a solid preparation in Spanish and a strong motivation to further expand their knowledge of the language and its cultures. It also provides excellent preparation for study abroad. Students will expand their vocabulary and develop written and oral fluency. Short literary and cultural readings will provide authentic insight into the Hispanic world. Students will have the opportunity to work with videos, films, the internet and other multimedia.
The Department

Last Updated: 02-FEB-09

RL 181 Intensive Intermediate Spanish for Oral Proficiency (Fall: 6)

Prerequisite: RL 016, RL 041, or permission of instructor
Conducted in Spanish. The course meets five days per week.
The aim of this six-credit course is to provide motivated students an opportunity to study Spanish language and culture in an intensive oral environment. The course's materials are particularly suitable for students wishing to strengthen previously acquired conversational skills. Reading and writing practice helps students develop greater accuracy in self-expression.
The Department

Last Updated: 12-JUN-09

RL 182 Intensive Intermediate French for Oral Proficiency (Fall: 6)

Prerequisite: RL 010, RL 042, or permission of the instructor
Conducted in French.
The aim of this six-credit course is to provide motivated students an opportunity to study French language and culture in an intensive oral environment. The course's video-based materials are particularly suitable for students wishing to strengthen previously acquired conversational skills. Reading and writing practice will help students develop greater accuracy in self-expression. The course meets four days per week (75 minutes each class).
Margaret Flagg

Last Updated: 12-JUN-09

RL 201 Introduction to Hispanic Studies (Spring: 3)

Satisfies Cultural Diversity Core Requirement
Satisfies Literature Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in English.
This course will introduce Latin American and Latino literatures and cultures in their historical context. Special attention will be given to selected literary texts to understand how they represent major developments in those cultures and in society. Students will also learn about Hispanics in the United States and their diverse heritage. This course serves as a general introduction and does not count toward the Hispanic studies major or minor.
Kathy Lee

Last Updated: 09-JUN-09

RL 209 French Conversation, Composition, and Reading I (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: RL 110, RL 182, or admission by placement test
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Conducted in French. An elective towards the French minor when taken as first course in sequence.
This course will focus on the further development of oral and written language skills. Films, videos, songs, selected literary and cultural readings, interviews, and Internet activities will form the basis for classroom discussions and compositions. This course is especially recommended for students who intend to use French to increase their professional opportunities, to broaden the scope of their social interactions, and to enrich their travel and study experiences abroad.
Jeff Flagg
The Department

Last Updated: 12-JUN-09

RL 210 French Conversation, Composition, and Reading II (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: RL 110, RL 182, or admission by placement test
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Conducted in French.
Counts as an elective towards the French major or minor when taken as first course in sequence.

This course will focus on the further development of oral and written language skills. Films, videos, songs, selected literary and cultural readings, interviews, and Internet activities will form the basis for classroom discussions and compositions. This course is especially recommended for students who intend to use French to increase their professional opportunities, to broaden the scope of their social interactions, and to enrich their travel and study experiences abroad.
Jeff Flagg
The Department

Last Updated: 12-JUN-09

RL 213 Italian Conversation, Composition, and Reading I (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Admitted by placement exam, consent of instructor, or completion of RL 114 or RL 151
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Conducted in Italian. Elective for major and minor in Italian.
The course topic, "Italian through Fiction and Films", allows development of oral and written language skills. Centered on the analysis of short stories and films related to contemporary Italian society, attention will be paid to analytical and lexical enrichment. Other sources (articles from the Italian Press, audio-visual programs and the Internet) will provide additional avenues of interpretation. Practice consists of guided writing assignements, group projects and in class presentations. As final project students will write, under the instructor's supervision, a short story or a brief screenplay modeled (thematically and structurally) on one of the works examined in the course.
Cecilia Mattii

Last Updated: 02-FEB-09

RL 214 Italian Conversation, Composition, and Reading II (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Consent of instructor or completion of RL 213
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Conducted In Italian. Elective for Italian major or minor.
In this course students will continue to strengthen and expand their language skills through oral and written practice. The analysis of a contemporary novel and its cinematographic adaptation will be the basis for class discussion, written assignments and oral presentations. Both RL 213 and 214 are strongly recommended for students who intend to use Italian to enrich their study experiences at home and abroad.
Cecilia Mattii

Last Updated: 02-FEB-09

RL 215 Spanish Conversation, Composition, and Reading I (Fall/Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: RL 116, admission by placement test, or appropriate score on SAT II or AP Exam
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Conducted in Spanish.
This course will focus on the further development of oral and written language skills. Films, videos, and selected cultural and literary readings, all centering on contemporary Spain, will form the basis for classroom discussions and compositions.
Kathy Lee, Christopher Wood
The Department

Last Updated: 02-FEB-09

RL 216 Spanish Conversation, Composition, and Reading II (Fall/Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: RL 215, admission by placement test, or appropriate score on SAT II or AP Exam
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Conducted in Spanish.
Hispanic Studies major or minor elective.

This course will focus on the further development of oral and written language skills. Films, videos, and selected cultural and literary readings, all centering on contemporary Mexico, will form the basis for classroom discussions and compositions.
Kathy Lee, Christopher Wood
The Department

Last Updated: 02-FEB-09

RL 217 French CCR Practicum I (Fall: 1)

Students preparing to study in France or another Francophone country and students desiring extra conversation, listening, reading and writing practice are invited to register for this one-credit, fifty-minute weekly supplementary practicum.
The Department

Last Updated: 02-FEB-09

RL 218 French CCR Practicum II (Spring: 1)

Last Updated: 02-FEB-09

RL 292 Modern Middle Eastern and Arabic Literature (Fall: 3)

Cross Listed with EN 348, SL 148
Satisfies Cultural Diversity Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
All works are read in English translation.
This course examines the complex, multicultural nature of the Middle East by surveying twentieth century literature of Arabic-speaking lands, Israel, and Turkey. Topics include identity, culture, religion, nationalism, conflict, and minority narratives. Of Arabic works, we will read at the writings of Adonis, Darwish, and Qabbani. Of Hebrew works, we will examine the writings of Amichai and Bialik. Of the works written French, English, Kurdish, Syriac, Turkish, and various Middle Eastern dialects, we will survey the writings of Andree Chedid, Mario Levi, Charles Corm, Louis Awad, Said Akl, and Orhan Pamuk.
Franck Salameh

Last Updated: 07-JAN-09

RL 300 The French and the Peoples of America (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Four years of high school French or RL 210
Satisfies Literature Core Requirement
Satisfies Cultural Diversity Core Requirement
Conducted in French.
Elective for French major or minor.

From the early modern period to the present, letters, travel accounts, engravings, essays and narrative fiction have borne witness to attempts of the French to understand peoples different from themselves in the Americas. We will explore issues of cultural diversity and commonality as we analyze accounts of their encounters with Native Americans, descendants of African slaves, Colonial Boston's Puritans, New Yorkers of the 1940s, and New England's university students, politicians and writers. Students also work on topics of French grammar through guided exercises.
Jeff Flagg

Last Updated: 05-MAR-09

RL 302 Racism: French and American Perspectives (Spring: 3)

Cross Listed with BK316
Satisfies Cultural Diversity Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in English.
Elective for French major or minor.

French visitors have been observing and commenting on race relations in the United States since before the Civil War. During the twentieth century Paris became a magnet attracting disillusioned African-American artists, musicians and writers in search of a home and an opportunity to express their talents. And today the French confront a history of colonialism and struggle to combat racism as they interact with immigrants from former colonies. What is racism? What are the influences that shape attitudes towards race relations? We will explore these issues in the writings of Tocqueville, Beauvoir, Wright, Baldwin and Fanon, among others.
Jeff Flagg

Last Updated: 02-FEB-09

RL 304 Boston et Ses Rencontres Françaises (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Four years of high school French or RL 209
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
Counts as an elective for the French major.

In this course, we will examine French documents bearing witness to encounters between Bostonians and peoples from France and the Francophone world from the colonial period to the present. We will explore evidences of the impact of these encounters on Boston's political, literary and artistic life. Students will collaborate in a writing project culminating in the composition of a collection of essays reflecting on the significance of these encounters.
Jeff Flagg

Last Updated: 06-APR-09

RL 305 Introduction to Drama and Poetry (Fall/Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Four years of high school French or RL 209 or RL 210
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Conducted in French.
Fulfills one of the 300 level requirements for the French major.
This course is open to any students interested in expanding their linguistic and cultural horizons, while developing their literary skills through writing in French. Guided compositions will help students to gain precision and sophistication in their written French and in their writing in general. Selected poems and plays explore a chosen theme and allow students to learn the basics of literary analysis in each genre. Grammar review is tied to the readings. This course will prepare students for 400-level courses in literature and culture.
Stephen Bold (Fall)
Norman Araujo (Spring)

Last Updated: 07-JAN-09

RL 306 Introduction to Narrative Forms (Fall/Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Four years of high school French or RL 209 or RL 210
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Conducted in French.
Fulfills one of the 300-level requirements for the French major.
This course is designed to help students with a good background in French to progress to the next level. Students in this course will continue to solidify their mastery of French grammar through structural exercises tied to the readings as well as through discussion and written analysis of selected short stories, novels, and narrative film. The stories have been chosen and presented to allow students to progress substantially both in their basic reading skills in French and in their awareness of critical aspects of storytelling such as narrative voice, point of view, and plot structure.
Matilda Bruckner (Fall)
Joseph Breines (Spring)

Last Updated: 07-JAN-09

RL 307 Masterpieces of French Literature (Fall/Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Four years of high school French or RL 209 or RL 210
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Conducted in French.
Fulfills one of the 300-level requirements for the French major.
This course allows students to proceed to a more advanced level of study in French through the reading and discussion of a selection of important works of French literature. It will provide an introduction to the history of the French literary tradition through the study of a specific theme. The selected works will be studied from a variety of literary, historical, and cultural perspectives. This course is designed as an important part of the French major and is also open to all students who want to continue to strengthen and deepen their skills as readers, writers, and speakers of French.
Norman Araujo (Fall)
Matilda Bruckner (Spring)

Last Updated: 07-JAN-09

RL 308 Advanced Language Studies (Fall/Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Four years of high school French or RL 209 or RL 210
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Conducted in French.
Fulfills one of the 300-level requirements for the French major.

This course will help students expand their understanding and strengthen their command of advanced structures of modern French. Students also continue to work on advanced topics of French grammar through structural exercises and guided written compositions. This course prepares students for 400-level courses in literature and culture.
Ourida Mostefai (Fall:Writing)
Stephen Bold (Spring:Phonetics)

Last Updated: 04-MAR-09

RL 308.01 Advanced Language Studies in French: Writing (Spring 2008-2009: 3)

Prerequisite: Four years of high school French or RL 209 or RL 210
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Conducted in French.
TNE Course
This course is an advanced introduction to the study of the sounds, intonational patterns, and phonological structure of the French language. Basic principles of phonetics and phonology will provide the basis for our largely comparative study of French and English sound systems. The course will allow students to monitor and build their own skills in pronunciation and should be of special use for those who plan to teach French in the schools, where phonetic accuracy is an important and often illusive goal. This course is a TNE course which means it has been designed to address issues of teacher training in the language as mandated for certification by the Massachusetts Department of Education and it also fulfills a major/minor foundation course requirement.
Stephen Bold

Last Updated: 07-JAN-09

RL 308.01 Advanced Language Studies in French-Writing (Fall 2009-2010: 3)

Prerequisite: Four years of high school French or RL 209 or RL 210
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Conducted in French.
This course will help you deepen your mastery of the structures of written French, develop your appreciation of style and enrich your vocabulary. Selected topics of advanced grammar and stylistics will be examined in context in order to help you prepare for a wide range of exercises in written composition. Special attention will also be given to the enrichment of your active vocabulary. As you develop your analytical reading skills, you will use a wide variety of textual models for your own writing.
Ourida Mostefai

Last Updated: 07-JAN-09

RL 308.01 Advanced Language Studies in French-Phonetics (Spring 2009-2010: 3)

Prerequisite: Four years of high school French or RL 209 or RL 210
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement

Stephen Bold

Last Updated: 07-JAN-09

RL 308.02 Advanced Language Studies in French: Phonetics (Spring 2008-2009: 3)

Prerequisite: Four years of high school French or RL 209 or RL 210
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
The main objective of this course is to help students gain advanced proficiency in speaking and writing French. Through the comparative study of French and English students will consolidate and expand their vocabulary and learn to analyze the linguistic and cultural characteristics of both languages. The major problems and techniques of translation will be explored through exercises in comparative stylistics and translation.
Stephen Bold

Last Updated: 07-JAN-09

RL 308.02 Advanced Language Studies: Translation (Spring 2009-2010: 3)

Prerequisite: Four years of high school French or RL 209 or RL 210
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Conducted in French.
This course will help you deepen your mastery of the structures of written French develop your appreciation of style and enrich your vocabulary. Selected topics of advanced grammar and stylistics will be examined in context in order to help you prepare for a wide range of exercises in written composition. Special attention will also be given to the enrichment of your active vocabulary. As you develop your analytical reading skills, you will use a wide variety of textual models for your own writing.
Ourida Mostefai

Last Updated: 03-FEB-09

RL 309 Topics in French Culture and Civilization (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Four years of high school French or RL 209 or RL 210
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Conducted in French. Fulfills one of the 300-level requirements for the French major.
This course introduces students to the study of French culture and its tradition by exploring questions related to contemporary France, its cultural history, monuments and institutions. Discussions and students' work focus on a selection of relevant documents chosen from a variety of print and audio-visual documents. Students also continue to work on advanced topics of French grammar through structural exercises and guided written compositions. This course prepares students for 400-level courses in culture and civilization.
Anne Bernard Kearney (Fall)

Last Updated: 04-MAR-09

RL 309.01 Topics in French Culture and Civilization: World War II (Fall 2006-2007: 3)

Prerequisite: Four years of high school French or RL 209 or RL 210
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
This course focuses on the artistic, intellectual, political, and social life of France during the period of the Second World War. We will be reading poetry and short stories published during the Occupation, recent magazine articles on the clandestine press, an anti-war play from the immediate pre-war period, essays published just after the Liberation, and very short selections on the history of the period. We will see a number of recent French films whose stories draw on the dynamics and psychology of resistance and collaboration, as well as a French documentary film on the propaganda newsreels produced by the Vichy government, and another of interviews conducted during the 60s. We will hear recollections of the Liberation of Paris and interviews with men who joined the Charlemagne division of the German "SS," songs of resistance and songs of collaboration, poetry read by some of the great voices of French theater, and classical music by French composers of the period. All students will be responsible for two short class presentations and will gain precision in their written French through a number of compositions which will be submitted, corrected, and resubmitted.
Joseph Breines

Last Updated: 13-MAR-06

RL 309.01 Topics in French Culture and Civilization: Artists and Their Writings (Spring 2006-2007: 3)

Prerequisite: Four years of high school French or RL 209 or RL 210
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Conducted in French
In this course, students will study French culture through some key artists of the turn of the century. The course will explore the rapport between their visual work, their writings (or writings about them) and their lives. The central artists studied will be Van Gogh, Gauguin, Matisse, Picasso, Rodin, Camille Claudel and Cézanne. We will look at the evolution of their work in conjunction with their biographies, reading extracts from their letters or pronouncements on art and life.
Anne Bernard Kearney

Last Updated: 17-DEC-08

RL 309.01 Topics in French Culture and Civilization (Fall 2009-2010: 3)

Prerequisite: Four years of high school French or RL 209 or RL 210
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement

Last Updated: 07-JAN-09

RL 309.01 Topics in French Culture and Civilization (Spring 2009-2010: 3)

Prerequisite: Four years of high school French or RL 209 or RL 210
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement

Last Updated: 07-JAN-09

RL 310 Frentes: The Spanish Civil War Remembered and Imagined in Contemporary Spanish Media (Spring: 3)

Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish.
Elective for Spanish major or minor.

Examination and analysis of how the Spanish Civil War is portrayed in popular media. We will read stories, novels and print journalism and watch television series and films in an attempt to understand how the War is currently understood and manipulated in today's political and ideological battles. Short essays, group projects and intensive, daily in-class discussions and debates will provide students with ample opportunity to improve their proficiency in Spanish. This course can be taken simultaneously with CCR or Naturalmente.
Christopher Wood

Last Updated: 04-FEB-09

RL 311 From the Text to the Stage (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Consent of instructor or completion of RL 214
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian.
Elective for Italian major and minor.

In this course we will work on the adaptation of literary texts (of any genre) for performance on stage as a means to better understand their various semantic and artistic implications. Video and other visual materials will be used as an inspiration for script and performance preparation. The students will work in small groups, discussing, writing and performing.
Rena A. Lamparska

Last Updated: 17-DEC-08

RL 312 Italian Identity (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: RL 213 or permission of instructor
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian.
The debate about the Italian identity is very much alive. Using different materials from literature, cinema and mass-media, with an interdisciplinary approach, we will address both questions: are there realities that could define Italy or is it better to talk about "Italies"? are there in the past and at present common elements that could describe the inhabitants of Italy, or are some of them only stereotypes? Course objectives will be to improve your abilities in reading, writing, listening, and speaking.
The Department

Last Updated: 24-JAN-08

RL 314 Studies in Italian Culture and Civilization (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Consent of instructor or completion of RL214
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian.
Elective for Italian major and minor.

Thematic in approach, this interdisciplinary course will introduce students to the major social, cultural, artistic and intellectual trends of the Italian Middle Ages and Renaissance. Previous topics: the individual and daily life (love and death); the individual and the public arena (political ideals and realities; womens' lives).
Cecilia Mattii

Last Updated: 24-JAN-08

RL 320 Le Francaise des Affaires (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Four years of high school French or RL 209 or RL 210
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Conducted in French.
Elective for French major or minor.

This course offers an introduction to the French vocabulary and syntax specific to business and politics. Students will learn advanced French language communication skills, will study the functioning of the French business world, and review the essential grammatical structures of the French language. This course prepares for the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry examinations. Students will obtain an official certificate attesting to their proficiency in French for Business. This course is especially designed for students interested in international business affairs or those who intend to work in French speaking countries.
Nelly Rosenberg

Last Updated: 12-JUN-09

RL 321 Film and Society (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Consent of instructor or completion of RL 214
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian.
Elective for Italian major and minor.

An introduction to contemporary Italy through film. The course will examine the significant components--historical, socio-economic, political, cultural--that shape modern Italian society, its values, beliefs, achievements, traditions and innovations. Emphasis will be given to crucial moments of Italian life (Fascism, Resistance and the shaping of the Republic); to radical changes (industrialization and social transformation); and to outstanding concerns (national identity and regionalism; family structures and gender relations; immigration and issues of cultural diversity). Practice consists of in-class discussions, oral presentations and short term papers.
Cecilia Mattii

Last Updated: 17-DEC-08

RL 323 Navigare l'Italia (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Consent of instructor or completion of RL114
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian.
Elective for Italian major or minor.
A comprehensive course which will put you in touch with contemporary Italy through reading different texts (short stories, poems, articles), viewing films and listening to music from various regions. Emphasis will be on oral skills, especially during class work, but writing will be part of the evaluation. Students will be expected to actively participate in the process of learning by contributing to seminar-style class discussions.
The Department

Last Updated: 04-FEB-09

RL 324 Surrealism (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Open to undergraduates with permission of instructor
Cross Listed with FA 458
Offered Periodically
Conducted in English.
Elective for Hispanic Studies major.
This course will explore twentieth-century crosscurrents in literature and art by examining the artistic works and the literary influences of the Surrealist movement. This movement was expressed in a revolution of forms and ideas drawing from psychology, African cultures and indigenous American cultures. In the process, as Jean-Paul Satre noted, the dominant European colonial tradition was "colonized in reverse". Six readings and artistic works will be chosen from but will not be limited to the following list: André Breton, Paul Eluard, Federico García Lorca, Octavio Paz, Alejo Carpentier, Salvador Dalí, and Max Ernst among others.
Claude Cernuschi, Elizabeth T. Goizueta

Last Updated: 17-DEC-08

RL 331 Writing Tutorial I (Fall: 0)

Offered in conjunction with RL courses beyond the 300-level and by arrangement only. Includes individual work with a writing tutor for students whose written French is in need of improvement.
The Department

Last Updated: 04-FEB-09

RL 332 Writing Tutorial II (Spring: 0)

Last Updated: 04-FEB-09

RL 334 Topics in African Literature: From the Oral Tradition to the Written Word (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Four years of high school French or RL 210
Cross Listed with BK 334
Satisfies Cultural Diversity Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
Elective for French major or minor.

From the oral tradition to written word, African literary history is rich and varied. This course will examine selected genres from the francophone African literary tradition including oral literature, poetry and the novel. The writers we will be studying include Djibril Tamsir Niane, Cheikh Hamidou Kane, Leopold Sedar Senghor, Mongo Beti, and Ken Bugul.
The Department

Last Updated: 17-DEC-08

RL 335 Fronteras (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: CCR I or equivalent proficiency with the permission of instructor
Satisfies Cultural Diversity Core Requirement
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Satisfies Perspectives on Spanish American inter-disciplinary major.
Counts as an elective toward the Hispanic Studies major and minor.

Borders are geographical, linguistic, cultural, moral and imaginative. This course will explore what happens on all of these frontiers where the U.S. meets Latin America. This course will include historical, political and literary readings. In order to improve linguistic comprehension elements of comparative linguistics will be introduced. This course can be taken simultaneously with CCR or Naturalmente.
Kathy Lee

Last Updated: 04-FEB-09

RL 337 Telemundo: Spanish Language Media in the United States (Spring: 3)

Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
This course can be taken concurrently with CCR and Naturalmente, but is open to all students with at least Naturalmente I proficiency.
This course counts towards the major.

This course will provide an overview of Hispanic media in the U.S. and explore the representations and distortions of the Hispanic experience in the U.S. found in Spanish language media. Print and broadcast journalism, talk shows, soap operas and variety shows are the materials through which students will gain a perspective on a growing and powerful aspect of culture in the U.S., and at the same time continue to develop oral comprehension, writing and speaking skills.
Christopher Wood

Last Updated: 28-JAN-08

RL 339 Imaginary Spain (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: CCR I or equivalent proficiency with permission of instructor
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Counts as an elective toward the Hispanic Studies major and minor.
This course can be taken simultaneously with CCR or Naturalmente.

Bullfighting, flamenco, gypsies, devout old ladies. This course will examine the truth and the distortions of the images which have fixed Spain in the world's imagination and explore the ambivalence with which Spaniards understand these stereotypes as they move toward greater integration with the new European community. Will address both oral and written proficiency growth through class discussion and essays.
Christopher Wood

Last Updated: 04-FEB-09

RL 341 Medieval Literature Meets Modern Film (Spring: 3)

Cross Listed with EN 256
Offered Periodically
Conducted in English.
This course sets up a dialogue between the present and the past, visual and verbal arts, to explore how the middle ages and its greatest stories continue to inspire retellings through their reinterpretation in the modern medium of film. We will compare textual and cinemagraphic representations of Tristan and Iseut's love story, Arthurian chivalry and the quest for the Grail, and finally Joan of Arc's Passion.
Matilda Bruckner

Last Updated: 28-JAN-08

RL 346 Mapping the Latin American Essay (Fall: 3)

Cross Listed with EN 369
Offered Periodically
Conducted in English.
This course will look at the Latin American essay from the nineteenth century to the present following the historical evolution of the notion of America. We will examine the process of Nation building and identity vis a vis the political and intellectual changes that defined the continental history of the Americas. We will look at a series of essays from Domingo Faustino Sarmiento and Joséé Marti to Nééstor García Canclini, and Carlos Monsivais. We will explore the multiple incarnations of a continental idea.
Ernesto Livon-Grosman

Last Updated: 17-DEC-08

RL 347 Francophone Literature of West Africa (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Four years of high school French or RL 209 or RL 210
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
This course will introduce Francophone West African writers, including Mariama Bâ, Ahmadou Kourouma, Ferdinand Oyono and Camara Laye. Although the principal focus of this course will be on readings and discussions of selected novels, we will also study the historical and cultural contexts in which these novels were written. Students will also study a number of poems about Francophone Africa. This course will focus in particular on the problematic relationship between Francophone Africa and the Western world during the periods of colonialism and post-colonialism.
The Department

Last Updated: 17-DEC-08

RL 350 Jewish Writers in French Literature (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Four years of high school French or RL 209 or RL 210
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
Elective for French major or minor.

The course will introduce French Jewish literature from the nineteenth century to the present. Students will research and discuss the main events that have shaped the recent history of France and influenced French Jewish writers such as Patrick Modiano, Georges Perec, Elie Wiesel and others. The works of these writers will be examined in several contexts: social, historical, intellectual and personal, with the goal of both enriching the students' knowledge of French literature and developing their critical thinking.
Nelly Rosenberg

Last Updated: 07-JAN-09

RL 356 Masterpieces of European Drama (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: CCR I or equivalent proficiency with the permission of instructor
Satisfies Literature Core Requirement
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Counts as an elective toward the Hispanic Studies Major and Minor.
Examination and analysis of how the Spanish Civil War is portrayed in popular media. We will read stories, novels and print journalism and watch television series and films in an attempt to understand how the War is currently understood and manipulated in today's political and ideological battles. Short essays, group projects and intensive, daily in-class discussions improve student's proficiency in Spanish. This course can be taken simultaneously with CCR or Naturalmente.
Christopher Wood

Last Updated: 28-JAN-08

RL 357 Memory and Literature (Fall: 3)

Cross Listed with EN 084.02
Offered Periodically
Conducted in English.
Fulfills one of the 300-level requirements for the French major or minor.
This course explores the dynamic interaction between literature and memory across time and genre. Readings include extracts from Genesis (Joseph's story), Augustine's Confessions (Book 10), essays by Montaigne (eg, I, 9 on liars; II, 6 on practicing to die), the opening movement of Proust's great novel In Remembrance of Time Past, Sebald's Austerlitz, and Manea's The Hooligan's Return, a Memoir. Secondary readings from Freud and recent scientific research on memory and the brain, as well as the film Memento, will support our literary excursions.
Matilda Bruckner

Last Updated: 04-FEB-09

RL 360 Literature et Culture Francophones (Fall: 3)

Satisfies Cultural Diversity Core Requirement
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
Elective for French major or minor.

Reading works by Francophone writers from North Africa, the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Quebec. This course explores the variety of voices, groups, and societies in Francophone literatures. Intended as an introduction to the literary personality of each area, the course considers issues of history, resistance, identities and race as a response to the legacy of colonial France. The writers whose works will be discussed are the following: Tahar Ben Jelloun, Assia Djebar, Leila Sebbar, Aimé Césaire, Leopold Senghor, Aminata Sow Fall, and Anne Hébert.
Nelly Rosenberg

Last Updated: 04-FEB-09

RL 362 Translation Workshop: Italian/English and English/Italian (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Consent of instructor or completion of RL 214
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian and English.
Elective for Italian major and minor.

A study of the techniques and art of translation through a variety of texts: fiction and non-fiction. The course will focus on the analysis of the major linguistic and cultural differences between Italian and English. Translation from both languages.
Cecilia Mattii

Last Updated: 17-DEC-08

RL 363 Italian Popular Music and Culture (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Admitted by placement test, consent of instructor, or completion of RL 114
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian.
A melodious exploration of Italian culture and society through the medium of the country's popular music, studying song lyrics, artist biography, and historical background. We will focus on more recent history (from the 1950s to the present) but will also take a look at the country's "Greatest Hits" of earlier periods (nineteenth and early twentieth centuries). The course will offer opportunity for grammar review as well as frequent practice of reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills.
Franco Mormando

Last Updated: 17-DEC-08

RL 364 The Literary Voyage of Exploration (Spring: 3)

Satisfies Literature Core Requirement
Conducted in English.
This course will focus on an important sub-genre of modern literature in Europe: the fictional voyage of exploration. From Rabelais and More to Carroll and Calvino, many western thinkers have turned to the novel of discovery in order to represent the explorations in thought that could not be easily expressed otherwise, for reasons of logic, difficulty, or ideology. Students will do a creative project, two short papers, and a final.
Stephen Bold

Last Updated: 17-DEC-08

RL 366 Spanish Culture and Civilization (Fall: 3)

Corequisite: RL 216, concurrent enrolment in RL 391, or permission of instructor
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish.
Elective for Hispanic Studies major or minor.

This course will examine Spain's multicultural civilization from the prehistoric cave paintings of Altamira through post-Franco Spain. The history of Spanish civilization will be integral to the study of examples of Spanish literature, art and film. We will consider struggles of religion, class, minority groups, and power in the creation and questioning of national identity.
Kathy Lee

Last Updated: 06-MAR-09

RL 370 History, Literature, and Art of Early Modern Rome (Spring: 3)

Cross Listed with FA 480, HS 480
Offered Periodically
Conducted in English.
Not open to students who have already taken HS 232.
Elective for Italian major and minor.

This course focuses on early modern Rome from the interdisciplinary perspectives of history, art, architecture, and literature. Jointly taught by professors from the history, fine arts department, and Romance Languages departments, the course will consider the connections between society and culture in the Renaissance and the Baroque. Rome will be discussed as an urban environment, as the artistic capital of Europe, and as a center of Italian culture. The city will also be explored as the world center of Roman Catholicism, with attention to the importance of historical, literary, and artistic developments for the shaping of culture and piety.
Stephanie Leone
Franco Mormando
Sarah Ross

Last Updated: 04-FEB-09

RL 373 Love, Sexuality, and Gender in the European Literary Tradition (Spring: 3)

Cross Listed with EN 084.02
Satisfies Literature Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted entirely in English. Elective for Italian major and minor.
This course explores the modern conception of "romantic love" by examining its birth and development in prominent literary works (by men and women) of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. We will also investigate allied notions of sexuality, gender, and marriage, in both a heterosexual and same-sex ("homosexual") context. For contrast and comparison, the course begins with a study of the Bible and ancient Greek and Roman texts and ends with a look at the depiction of our themes in contemporary cinema as well as a discussion of the current debate in American society over the nature and purpose of marriage.
Franco Mormando

Last Updated: 01-APR-09

RL 375 History of Italian Cinema (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Admitted by placement test, consent of instructor, or completion of RL 114.
Conducted in Italian.
This course offers an introduction to Italian cinema starting from the post-war years till the late 70s. By analyzing and discussing works by film directors such as Rossellini, Visconti, Fellini and Pasolini, students will get to know some of the landmarks of Italian cinema and will develop a deeper understanding of recent Italian history and society today.
Rita Filanti

Last Updated: 04-FEB-09

RL 376 Conversational Approach to Contemporary France (Spring: 3)

Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Conducted in French.
Counts as an elective towards the French major or minor.
This course is designed to familiarize students with the political and social features of contemporary France while helping them to develop oral communication skills in French. Using authentic documents (television, videos, films, songs, newpapers and magazines), we will discuss current events and socio-political issues. Students will develop their vocabulary, increase their knowledge of idiomatic expressions and further their command of spoken French by engaging in structured dialogues based upon real-life situations.
The Department

Last Updated: 04-FEB-09

RL 377 Prison, Trial, and Judgment (Fall: 3)

Cross Listed with EN 084
Satisfies Literature Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in English
Elective for the major in French
This course will focus on the theme of imprisonment in selected novels of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, examining in each case the social, moral, and artistic implications of the author's treatment of the subject matter. Students will read Stendhal's The Red and the Black and The Charterhouse of Parma; Hugo's Les Misérables and The Last Day of a Condemned Man; Malraux's Man's Fate; Camus' The Stranger.
Norman Araujo

Last Updated: 04-FEB-09

RL 380 Advanced Studies in Language: Translation Workshop (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Consent of instructor or completion of RL 214
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian
Elective for Italian major and minor
The course offers a study of the techniques and art of translation through a variety of texts, both fiction and non-fiction. We will focus on the analysis of the major structural and stylistic differences between Italian and English, as well as lexical nuances and distinctions. Translating from both English and Italian, students will enhance and refine their linguistic skills. This course is strongly recommended for students who wish to improve their proficiency in Italian.
Cecilia Mattii

Last Updated: 04-FEB-09

RL 384 Heritage Speakers (Spring: 3)

Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish.
Open to undergraduates with permission of instructor.
Elective for Hispanic Studies major or minor.

This course is for the heritage Spanish who is comfortable speaking but is looking for formal grammar study. The course will emphasize writing skills, vocabulary development and comparisons between English and Spanish grammar.
Kathy Lee

Last Updated: 04-FEB-09

RL 389 Italian for Business and Travel (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: RL 214 or equivalent or by permission of instructor
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian.
Elective for Italian major or minor.
Italy is one of the leading economic powers of Europe and most popular tourist destinations. This course is designed to help those contemplating a visit to Italy or a career involving the Italian business world to develop the necessary skills (reading, writing, and oral communication) and cultural background. The course will also be useful to those who simply seek to improve their command of Italian and acquaint themselves better with the culture of contemporary Italy, especially the practicalities of daily life: traveling by train or air; using banks; making hotel reservations, reading newspapers, etc.
Franco Mormando

Last Updated: 04-FEB-09

RL 390 Reading, Writing, and Telling (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: RL 213 and RL 214 or by permission of the instructor
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian.
Strongly recommended for Italian majors and minors.
May be taken concurrently with 500-level courses.

In this course, designed as a bridge between RL 213, RL 214 and the 500-level courses, we will read a small number of stories by Italian contemporary authors. Our purpose is twofold: to examine and analyze the theme, structure, and syntax and style of the text, and subsequently have the students write, through guided activities, original short stories modeled on the stories they have studied. In brief, the course aims at strengthening Italian writing and communication skills.
Cecilia Mattii

Last Updated: 04-FEB-09

RL 391 Naturalmente I (Fall/Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: RL 216 or, with the permission of instructor, the equivalent level of proficiency
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Conducted in Spanish. Counts as elective for Perspectives on Spanish America (LSOE).
Counts as elective for Hispanic Studies major and/or minor.

This is an intensive course in advanced Spanish proficiency. The proficiency goals for this course are the accurate and spontaneous control of the communicative functions associated with narration of the past. Films, videos, and selected cultural and literary readings, all centering on Hispanic immigration in the United States, will form the basis for classroom discussion and essays.
Kathy Lee, Christopher Wood
The Department

Last Updated: 04-FEB-09

RL 392 Naturalmente II: Spanish Proficiency for Advanced Speakers (Fall/Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: RL 391 Naturalmente I, with permission of the instructor, or the equivalent level of proficiency
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Conducted in Spanish.
This is an intensive course in advanced Spanish proficiency. Enrollment is limited and the course is designed to allow for small group work, debates and other interactive activities. The goals for this course are the accurate and spontaneous control of the communicative functions associated with the subjunctive. Films, videos, and selected cultural and literary readings, all centering on contemporary Latin American politics, will form the basis for classroom discussion and essays.
Kathy Lee, Christopher Wood
The Department

Last Updated: 04-FEB-09

RL 393 Life Stories: Life at the Limit (Spring: 3)

Cross Listed with EN 084.01
Satisfies Literature Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in English.
Elective for the French major.
This course will concentrate on texts following the path of a person on his/her journey from alienation, loss, hardship, through a turning point. We will read stories of people who were caught in a major life crisis but who managed to keep a deep connection with themselves and the world. People who survived to share their experience with others. We will read 3 books, a play, as well as letters, book extracts and Nobel Prize addresses in a coursepack. Some films will be discussed. The course will be discussion based. Each student will do two presentations.
Anne Bernard Kearney

Last Updated: 09-NOV-09

RL 395 Contextos: Introduction to Literary Analysis in Spanish (Fall/Spring: 3)

Satisfies Literature Core Requirement
Conducted in Spanish. Required for Hispanic Studies majors and minors and priority for enrollment is given to them.
Contextos is an introduction to critical reading and writing. The course includes a range of authors who represent different periods and genres, and introduces students to basic research skills.
Kathy Lee, Christopher Wood
The Department

Last Updated: 04-FEB-09

RL 397 El Espanol de Los Negocios (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: RL 391, RL 392, or equivalent
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Conducted in Spanish.
In this advanced level language course, students learn vocabulary and basic concepts used in oral and written transactions in the Hispanic business world, in such areas as management, finance, and marketing. At the same time, cultural differences that affect Hispanic and American business activities will be explored. An overview of Hispanic geography, politics, and current economic standing is also presented.
Catherine Wood Lange

Last Updated: 04-FEB-09

RL 399 Readings and Research (Fall/Spring: 3)

By arrangement

The Department

Last Updated: 04-FEB-09

RL 403 Introduction to Linguistics for Students of French (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
Fulfills a Ph.D. requirement in French when RL 705 is not offered
This course is designed to allow students of French literature to investigate the basic theories and practices of modern linguistics. After using Saussure's seminal Cours de linguistique générale as our introduction, we will survey and apply the basic techniques of linguistic analysis to the study of the French language, from the levels of sound to the sentence. In the final section of the course we will see how the linguistic model has been used to explain the structure and meaning in cultural and literary discourse.
Stephen Bold

Last Updated: 30-JAN-08

RL 406 Versailles: A Cinematic Look at French Culture of the 'Grand Siècle' (Spring: 3)

Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
This course will focus on the cultural moment when modern France was born: the age of Louis XIV and his palace at Versailles. We will study the grandeur and the conflict that define this summit of French history through a variety of documents, including a number of recent films that reconstruct the period, and contemporary masterpieces of painting, architecture and music. We will also read a variety of literary, historical, and eyewitness texts that portray the age as it was or wanted to be.
Stephen Bold

Last Updated: 05-FEB-09

RL 410 Monsters in the French Imagination (Fall: 3)

Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
This is a seminar for undergraduates only, designed to explore the play between the monstrous and the fantastic as represented in French literature. These stories ask us to explore the nature of the human and the inhuman, the threshold of credibility and the real, our fear of the unknown, the allure as well as the dangers of the hybrid. A variety of texts chosen from the medieval to the modern period will include tales of werewolves, the story of Melusine (woman & serpent), Hugo's Hunchback of Notre-Dame, and Tournier's twentieth-century ogre, le Roi des Aulnes.
Matilda Bruckner

Last Updated: 05-FEB-09

RL 411 Growing Up and Growing Old in Medieval French Literature (Spring: 3)

Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
This mini-survey of Old French literature includes works from the twelfth through the fifteenth centuries, which introduce students to some of the major types of medieval story telling: epic, romance, lyric and narrative poetry, fabliaux and short stories. No previous experience with medieval literature is required and readings are in modern French translations where appropriate.
Matilda Bruckner

Last Updated: 05-FEB-09

RL 412 Exploring Provence through Literature and Film (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
Undergraduates Only.
An exploration of the "Midi," the culture of southern France, through film, literary, historical and cultural documents. Topics include love and power politics (troubadours and trobairitz), rural and urban life (Pagnol's Marseilles in the Fanny trilogy; his autobiographical writings; Jean de Florette and Manon des sources), religious and spiritual struggles (Montaillou & Catharism, Conques & pilgrimage, the nature of evil explored in Bernanos' novels), regional differences (including language, geography, and customs) vs. a centralized France.
Matilda Bruckner

Last Updated: 11-AUG-09

RL 413 Violence: Medieval French Responses (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
Elective for French major or minor
This course asks students to look at one of the perennials of human experience to explore the relationship between violence and human nature in the context of medieval French culture. What can the Middle Ages teach us today about violence then and now? How does art interact with and transform violence? A selection of texts will include a variety genres: romance (Le Conte du Graal); chansons de geste (Roland, Raoul de Cambrai, Charroi de Nîmes); animal fables (Renart; Marie de France); theater (Jeu d'Adam); poetry (Villon, Le Testament).
Matilda Bruckner

Last Updated: 18-DEC-08

RL 414 Medieval Arras, the City and Its Literary Expression (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
Requires no previous experience with medieval literature.
This course explores the rich and complex world of medieval Arras, a major commercial and cultural center, by highlighting two authors, Adam de la Halle and Jean Bodel. Their works span the gammut of literary forms practiced from the late twelfth through the thirteenth century: from bawdy tales and pastourelles to sacred plays and comic reviews. Focusing on the urban context of Arras, we will concentrate particularly on lyric poetry and theater, two genres especially linked to the dynamics of performance.
Matilda Bruckner

Last Updated: 09-FEB-09

RL 415 Joan of Arc in Literature, History, Politics, and Film (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French
Joan of Arc is one of the rare medieval figures whose public and even private life is amply documented in the historical record. Yet she remains a profound mystery and continues to inspire interpretations from a multiplicity of perspectives. This course will explore different representations of Joan from the fifteenth to the twentieth century in trial records, literature, political and scholarly discourses, and film.
Matilda Bruckner

Last Updated: 09-FEB-09

RL 420 Performing the Middle Ages (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following RL305, RL306, RL307, RL308, RL309
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
Elective for French major or minor.
Performing the Middle Ages" invites students to discover the dramatic potential of medieval French literature, which continues to come alive in our own experience, as it did in the life and times of medieval France. Reading in and off the written page, we'll examine a variety of texts from the 11th c. to the 15th, including lyric poetry, theater, and short narratives. Our focus on the dynamics of performance will involve both what we can learn about medieval representation and reception of these works, as well as what the students' own performances can reveal.
Matilda Bruckner

Last Updated: 04-MAR-09

RL 425 Animals in Medieval Literature (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following RL305, RL306, RL307, RL308, RL309
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
Foxes and lions, dragons and werewolves exercise their fascination over the medieval imagination. Animals, whether domestic or wild, real or imaginary, speak to our human need to explore ourselves and our world, the overlapping boundaries between the natural and the unnatural, the human and the nonhuman, as we try to define ourselves and fix our identity. The medieval French texts chosen from the 12th to the 14th c. suggest that such a project was as complex and ever shifting in the Middle Ages as it remains in the modern world.
Matilda Bruckner

Last Updated: 09-FEB-09

RL 427 Studies in Rabelais and Montaigne (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
Conducted in French
We will be reading selected works of the two great prose writers of the French Renaissance: Rabelais' Pantagruel and Montaigne's Essais. Some critical writing on these authors will also be considered, including essays by Bakhtine, Auerbach and Starobinski.
Joseph Breines

Last Updated: 09-FEB-09

RL 431 Classicism in Seventeenth-Century French Literature (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
This course offers an advanced introduction to the literature of France's classical age. We will conduct a close reading of some of the century's greatest works by its greatest writers (Corneille, Descartes, Racine, Pascal, Lafayette, et al.) and covering the major genres (tragedy comedy, philosophical essay, novel). Along the way we will come to understand better the meaning of Classicism in French literature, the complex and delicate doctrine of simplicity that tries to capture light not in a bottle but in a text.
Stephen Bold

Last Updated: 09-FEB-09

RL 432 Faith and Reason (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French
Fulfills one of the 300-level requirements for the French major or minor
The French seventeenth century, commonly referred to as France's "grand siècle," is also known as both the century of saints and the beginning of the age of reason. The double impetus of faith and reason brought about enormous creativity and, at times, considerable conflict. In this course we will explore these fundamental poles of French classical literature in thought through the study of major authors including Saint François de Sales, Descartes, Pascal, and Cyrano de Bergerac, as well as selections from Bossuet, Malebranche, Bayle, and Leibniz.
Stephen Bold

Last Updated: 09-FEB-09

RL 433 The Duke and His Letters: Literature and Society in Seventeenth-Century France (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French
The course examines the literature of the grand siécle from an historical and sociological perspective. We will study works that reflect (and reflect upon) the beginnings of France's transition from a feudal society into modern state, dominated by an emerging bourgeoisie. We will consider primarily works by well-known authors including Corneille, Pascal, Moliére, La Fontaine and La Bruyére.
Stephen Bold

Last Updated: 09-FEB-09

RL 435 Tragedy (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
This course will focus on the interrelated problems of morality, destiny, and esthetics as they affect the construction of the early modern hero.
Stephen Bold

Last Updated: 09-FEB-09

RL 436 Moliére (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
This course will offer an in-depth survey of all aspects of Molière's work, from his farces to the "grandes comédies" and the "comédies ballets."
Stephen Bold

Last Updated: 09-FEB-09

RL 440 Images of the Family in Eighteenth-Century French Literature (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307,RL 308, RL 309
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
This course will study the emergence of the private sphere in the Enlightenment by focusing on the changing representation of the family in eighteenth-century French literature and culture. A selection of novels and plays from the period will be read, as well as theoretical texts and artistic documents.
Ourida Mostefai

Last Updated: 09-FEB-09

RL 441 Literature and Culture of the French Enlightenment (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
This course seeks to examine the idea of "Lumières" in eighteenth-century France through the reading of the major texts of the period. We will analyze the concepts central to the French Enlightenment: tolerance, progress, nature, and culture, as they are formulated both in the fiction (tales and novels) and in the major theoretical texts of Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau, and the Encyclopedists.
Ourida Mostefai

Last Updated: 09-FEB-09

RL 442 Women of the Enlightenment (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
Offered Periodically
This course will focus on a number of women who participated in the Enlightenment as artists, scientists, salonnieres, novelists, pamphleteers, and playwrights and who thus played an important role in the transformation of the role of women in French society. We will analyze their works, as well as their contribution to the often heated debates surrounding the question of woman's legal, social and sexual status. We will study the representation of women in eighteenth-century art and culture and read works by Francoise de Graffigny, Olympe de Gouges, Isabelle de Charrière as well as by Diderot, Laclos, and Rousseau.
Ourida Mostefai

Last Updated: 09-FEB-09

RL 443 Eighteenth-Century French Theater: Staging Philosophy (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French
This course examines the controversy surrounding the question of the theater in eighteenth century France. We will focus on the role of the stage in the eighteenth century as a major instrument of philosophical and political propaganda for both the Enlightenment and its adversaries. The dramatic theories of Diderot and Beaumarchais as well as Rousseau's critique of dramatic representation will be studied in the context of the reform of the theater. Plays by Lesage, Voltaire, Marivaux, Diderot, Sedaine, and Beaumarchais will be read.
Ourida Mostefai

Last Updated: 09-FEB-09

RL 444 Yearnings of the Heart (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
Open to advanced undergraduates and graduate students. No previous work in medieval literature required.
This course is designed as an introduction to Medieval French Literature focused on a complex and fascinating topic: the multiple desires of the human heart. Medieval writers explore that contradictory and compelling locus in a variety of forms and themes, as they follow the heart's desires from the body to the spirit, in courtly and uncourtly modes, in religious and profane contexts, through the language of love poets, the heroic exploits of knight lovers, and the sacrifice of saints.
Matilda Bruckner

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 446 Eighteenth-Century French Novel (Spring: 3)

Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
This course examines the development of the novel as a genre in eighteenth-century France. We will read some of the major novels of the period (by Prévost, Marivaux, Crébillon, Rousseau, Laclos and Diderot), focusing in particular on the questions of class, gender, and education.
Ourida Mostefai

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 448 The French Revolution (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
This course will study the literature and culture of the revolutionary period in France. Through a variety of media (books, pamphlets, songs, plays, films, and art) we will analyze some of the most profound changes in French society during the period: the abolition of privileges, the declaration of rights, freedom of the press, and national festivals. We will also examine the contradictions of the French Revolution, including the failure of the anti-slavery movement, the exclusion of women from citizenship, and the suppression of regional languages. Works by Rousseau, Sade, Mercier, Robespierre, Danton, Olympe de Gouges, as well as contemporary films.
Ourida Mostefai

Last Updated: 09-FEB-09

RL 449 Libertinage (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French
Libertinage in eighteenth-century France is characterized by the desire for a radical emancipation from all constraints and the systematic pursuit of pleasure. This course will focus on this cultural and intellectual phenomenon, which has recently received much critical attention. We will trace its evolution and analyze its multiple manifestations in ancien-régime French society: in religion, politics, morals, literature, philosophy and the arts. Readings will include pieces of fiction and philosophy of major authors (Crébillon, Marivaux, Diderot, Laclos, Sade) as well as lesser-known writers. Painters (Boucher, Watteau, Fragonard) and other artists who participated in this important movement will also be studied.
Ourida Mostefai

Last Updated: 09-FEB-09

RL 451 Romanticism in French Literature (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
This course will offer a study of Romantic currents in French poetry, drama, and narrative literature with detailed analysis of the masterpieces. The poets featured will be Lamartine, Musset, Vigny, and Hugo. Plays by Musset and Vigny will also be included. Narrative literature will be represented by the novelists Stendhal and Balzac and the short-story writer Mérimée. There will be a systematic attempt throughout to show in what major respects the Romantic movement reflected a conscious reaction against the canons of Classicism in the name of modernity.
Norman Araujo

Last Updated: 09-FEB-09

RL 452 Realism in French Literature (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
This course will offer a study of Realism in French poetry, drama, and narrative literature of the nineteenth century. Gautier and Leconte de Lisle will be examined as poetic representatives of the Art for Art's Sake doctrine and the Parnassian movement respectively. Flaubert, Fromentin, and Zola will be used to illustrate the trajectory of the novel from Realism to Naturalism, the latter movement also being exemplified in the short stories of Daudet and Maupassant and in the theater of Becque. Finally, Rostand's dramatic virtuosity will be appreciated as an idealistic reaction against the excesses of Naturalism.
Norman Araujo

Last Updated: 09-FEB-09

RL 454 Contemporary Francophone Women Writers (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
Cross Listed with BK 208
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
Elective for French major or minor.

Borrowing from Hélène Cixous' model of Ecriture feminine, this course explores the specificity of francophone women's writing in a contemporary context. We will examine narratives from a wide variety of geographic locations including the Caribbean, North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. The question of genealogy is central to this course as we attempt to delineate a matrilineal francophone literary tradition. As such we will also consider these narratives in relation to feminist theory, history, socio-cultural politics, culture and ethnicity. Some of the themes we will study include silence and voice, the female body, mother-daughter relationships, migration and immigration, and canon formation.
Régine Michelle Jean-Charles

Last Updated: 09-NOV-09

RL 455 French Novel (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Conducted in French.
An examination of some of the most significant French novels, paying particular attention to their social, political and literary contexts.
The Department

Last Updated: 05-MAY-08

RL 456 From Dream to Fiction (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
This course will study the ways in which literary fictions represent their own relation to the everyday world. Starting from the natural opposition between waking and sleeping, the course will ask about the meaning of dreams, an intermediate state that shares elements of both sleep and consciousness. Special attention will be paid to texts that explore the possibility and consequences of dreaming and fiction-writing as a second or more wakeful consciousness. Some of the authors to be considered: Descartes, Pascal, Diderot, Freud, Nerval, Proust, Breton, Duras, and M.L. King.
Kevin Newmark

Last Updated: 09-FEB-09

RL 457 Passion Staged and Upstaged: Nineteenth-Century French Theater (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French
Through its study of Romanticism, Realism, and Naturalism in the French drama of the nineteenth century, this course will show how Romantic passion is progressively subverted and defeated as the materialistic values of a bourgeois society successfully combat it, finally substituting for the Romantic hero the unscrupulous businessman. Students will read Hugo's Préface de Cromwell, Hernani and Ruy Blas; Musset's Les Caprices de Marianne and Lorenzaccio; Vigny's Chatterton; La Dame aux Camélias by Dumas fils; Becque's Les Corbeaux; and Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac.
Norman Araujo

Last Updated: 09-FEB-09

RL 458 Contes et Nouvelles in the Nineteenth Century (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
Conducted in French.
While devoting proper attention to the general evolution of the conte in the nineteenth century, the course will center on the most significant works of Mérimée, Maupassant, and Daudet.
Norman Araujo

Last Updated: 09-FEB-09

RL 459 Nineteenth-Century French Poetry (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
The literary doctrine, themes, and artistic virtuosity of the Romantic and Symbolist poets as they appear in the most significant works of Hugo, Vigny, Nerval, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, and Mallarmé. Against the backcloth of a shifting conception of the character and use of the symbol, this course will chronicle the gradual transformation, in the evolution of nineteenth-century French poetry, of the poet's view of his place and role in the universe, his relationship to his fellow human beings and to nature, and his response to the challenges posed by the problematics of lingual expression.
Norman Araujo

Last Updated: 09-FEB-09

RL 460 Poetry in Prose (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French
This course explores the nature and meaning of prose poetry in French from the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries. It begins with the necessary question of definition, asking whether there exists any objective criteria for making distinctions between prose and poetry. A first emphasis on the act of writing will subsequently lead to a consideration of the way reading and interpretation intervene in any determination of form. Readings focus on the way prose poetry tends to arise where reflection upon nature, the city, intersubjective consciousness, and language itself becomes particularly acute. Authors include Rousseau, Nerval, Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Michaux, and Ponge.
Kevin Newmark

Last Updated: 09-FEB-09

RL 461 From Olympus with Love: Hugo's Literary Revolution (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
Offered Periodically
The impact of Hugo's personality and creative genius on the development of French poetry and prose in the nineteenth century. The course will indicate how and why this titanic man of letters, who managed to surpass in prestige and influence his early literary model Chateaubriand, became the most dominant literary figure in France in the first half of the nineteenth century and the conscience of the nation during his period of exile in the second half. The exploration of his work in different literary genres will focus on that work's revolutionary originality, its remarkable realization of the fecund potential of Romanticism.
Norman Araujo

Last Updated: 09-FEB-09

RL 462 The Love of Literature (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
This course will study some ways in which love plays an important role in literary texts, prose as well as poetry, written in French during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Beginning with representation of love as a familiar sentimental experience that is commonly described in literature, the course examines how such love stories often end up confronting the reader of literary texts with a much more radical and unsettling encounter with the unknown lying at the heart of all existence. Some of the authors to be considered: Balzac, Flaubert, Nerval, Hugo, Baudelaire, Valèry, Eluard, Proust, Gide, Colette, Camus, and Duras.
Kevin Newmark

Last Updated: 09-FEB-09

RL 463 Mallarmé; and the Question of Poetry (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
This course will examine in detail some of the major texts in prose and poetry of Stéphane Mallarmé. Special attention will be accorded to Mallarmé's pivotal status within the French tradition as both a unique practitioner and theoretician of poetic language. The course will also consider the ongoing critical importance played by the reception of Mallarmé in the twentieth century by a number of important writers.
Kevin Newmark

Last Updated: 09-FEB-09

RL 464 Existentialism from A to Z (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French
This course will examine some of the fundamental literary, philosophical, and historical components of French Existentialism. It will examine the way that the major writers of this movement in twentieth-century thought developed their ideas against the backdrop of Surrealism in literature, existential phenomenology in philosophy, and the historical upheavals of World War II. Of primary concern will be the manner in which the themes, concepts, and experiences of Meaninglessness, Engagement, Occupation, Resistance, and Liberation are confronted and rearticulated in the texts considered. Authors will include: Sartre, Camus, Malraux, de Beauvoir, Duras, Ponge, Blanchot.
Kevin Newmark

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 465 Francophone African and Caribbean Literature (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
Cross Listed with BK 465
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
This course will cover several countries in two major regions of the francophone world: the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa. Taking on multiple literary genres including poetry, manifestos, theater, short stories and novels, we will examine francophone literature's evolution, variety, and historical context. To this end we will address dominant themes such as the role of language, identity and subject formation, racial and gender "difference," colonization and decolonization, and the politics of writing. We will also explore different conceptual approaches to examining francophone literature ranging from postcolonial theory to the use of anthropological studies in literary analysis.
Régine Michelle Jean-Charles

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 468 The Poetry of Modernity: Baudelaire and Mallarmé (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
This course will examine the inauguration by Charles Baudelaire of the poetic, historical, and critical concept of modernity. What is modernity, and what makes poetry essential for a genuine experience of modernity? The course will address these questions by treating key examples of lyric poetry, prose poetry, and prose criticism from both Baudelaire and his first major "reader" Stéphane Mallarmé. It will also consider the reception of these two poets by Paul Valéry, Walter Benjamin, Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Blanchot, Paul de Man, and Jacques Derrida, among others.
Kevin Newmark

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 469 Literature and Liberty (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
This course will ask what literature has to do with the concept and practice of liberty. Freedom of thought and freedom of speech imply the possibility of imagining and writing things independently of criteria that govern other aspects of human behavior. In fact, this possibility can be taken as one sense of the word "fiction." How do literary texts interrogate and exemplify individual acts of freedom? What sort of promise and/or pitfalls do such acts hold out to us? Readings will be taken from texts by Diderot, Sade, Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Lautréamont, Gide, Breton, Sartre, Beckett, and Duras.
Kevin Newmark

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 475 Emile Zola (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French
This course will offer a study of some of Emile Zola's best-known novels, each of which is set in a particular Second Empire milieu: the Parisian working class and alcoholism (L'Assommoir), the Impressionist painters (L'Oeuvre), the emergence of the department store (Au Bonheur des Dames), the railroads (La Bête humaine). In addition to the novels, we will be reading selected essays from Zola's theoretical writing (Le Roman expérimental, Mes haines, Les Romanciers Naturalistes) and will consider various possible relationships between naturalist theory and the naturalist novel.
Joseph Breines

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 476 Francophone African Cinema (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL305, RL306, RL307, RL308, RL309
Cross Listed with BK 239
Offered Periodically
Conducted in English.
Elective for French major or minor

This class focuses on cinematic traditions of francophone Africa by looking at both narrative film and documentaries. We will consider how African filmmakers use film as a medium for creative expression, historic representation, and political engagement. How do filmmakers analyze social questions on screen? How has film discourse developed in relation to colonialism, post-colonialism, and globalization? How are issues of language, identity and nation approached stylistically and thematically? These questions will guide our inquiry as we examine the works of Sembene Ousmane, Safi Faye, Abderrahmane Sissako, and Jean-Marie Teno among others.
Régine Michelle Jean-Charles

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 477 Twentieth-Century Fiction (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
This course engages in a detailed study of some exemplary literary texts written in French during the twentieth century. Questions of meaning will be addressed by way of theme as well as form. Theoretical issues such as modernism, existentialism, feminism, post-modernity, and post-colonialism will also be considered in passing. Works will be chosen from authors such as Proust, Gide, Breton, Colette, Queneau, Bataille, Sartre, Fanon, Blanchot, Camera Laye, Duras, Perec, Ben Jelloun, Djebar, Des Forêts, Modiano, among others.
Kevin Newmark

Last Updated: 14-JAN-09

RL 483 Twentieth-Century French Theater (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Two courses from the following: RL 305, RL 306, RL 307, RL 308, RL 309
Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
This course will study a number of plays written in French during the twentieth century. Authors will include Cocteau, Anouilh, Giraudoux, Sartre, Beckett and Genet. As many of the plays are remakes of Greek tragedies and legends (the Oedipus Cycle, the Trojan War, for instance) we will be posing questions such as: How does one explain the flurry of remakes at this time in France? How are classical notions of causality (Fate, Destiny) transposed in the modern versions? In what ways do the modern plays self-consciously express their status as remakes? Theoretical writings on theater will also be considered.
Joseph Breines

Last Updated: 17-DEC-08

RL 495 Second Language Acquisition (Fall: 3)

Cross Listed with SL 378
Offered Periodically
The course focuses on research carried out since the development of the "interlanguage hypothesis"; the role of the learner's native language, Krashen's Monitor Model; application of Greenbergian language universals in the analysis of learner language; generative grammar-based proposals; debate about the role of input and interaction; research on the social and psychological factors that bear on second language learning. Emphasis is on the acquisition of second-language morphology, grammar, and vocabulary by adults, with some treatment of child language acquisition.
Margaret Thomas

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 499 College Teaching of Foreign Languages (Fall: 1)

Conducted in English.
This course introduces students to foreign language pedagogy. Although theory in Second Language Acquisition research will be discussed, the emphasis will be on teaching. Upon completion of this course students will be better able to construct communicative lessons, gain an understanding of major tenets in SLA, and be familiar with professional journals and organization. Students will also be able to better present themselves in an interview situation for a teaching position at all levels of instruction. Students will also learn about groups at BC that provide assistance to students.
Debbie Rusch

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 507 Impossible Love in Italian Literature (Fall: 3)

Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Conducted in Italian.
Required for Major
Through the analysis of "impossible love" in selected works by Foscolo, Leopardi, Verga, D'Annunzio, Tozzi e Gozzano, the cultural and intellectual forces underlying the protagonists' drama will be examined. We will also examine literary genres and the modes of expression chosen by the authors in order to understand better their originality and the literary trends within which they worked. The shifting dynamic of adverse forces in love relationships as presented in the texts analyzed in class, will also be discussed in comparison with selected video-stories situated in diverse cultural periods.
Rena A. Lamparska

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 511 Manzoni's I Promessi Sposi (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian
Elective for Italian major or minor
Admitted by placement test, consent of instructor, or completion of RL214 (CCR II)
A critical reading of Alessandro Manzoni's nineteenth-century novel, I Promessi Sposi, the fascinating story of simple but star-crossed peasant lovers, seen against the turbulent historical backdrop of the Spanish domination of seventeenth-century Lombardy. Universally acclaimed as the greatest and most important novel of Italian literature as well as one of the foundational texts of post-unification Italian national identity, the novel will be analyzed from a multiplicity of interdisciplinary perspectives (literary, political, theological, psychological, etc.). Accompanying our reading of the text will be a study of the two film versions of the novel produced in the 1940s and 1960s.
Franco Mormando

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 516 Merchants and their Tales: Short Stories of Boccaccio and Other Renaissance Writers (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian
The Decameron has been called the merchant's epic. Why was this bold, bawdy, profound work so popular amoung the new class of entrepreneurs and leaders? How did it spark an explosion of short-story writing in the fifteenth century? This course addresses some of the fundementals of understanding and interpreting literature through a close reading of the tales from the Decameron and the writers Boccaccio inspired.
Cecilia Mattii

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 518 Un Grido Lacerante" an Italian Novel (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted In Italian
Selected texts by leading writers from Italo Svevo e Federigo Tozzi to Natalia Ginzburg and Anna Banti will be read and discussed to explore the authors' presentation of the nature of human passions and behavior. Through the analysis of the protagonists crisis we will try to discover the deeper implications of its social and psychological nature. Students will also be introduced to narrative as a literary genre, and will be taught to read the texts critically in order to understand and appreciate the art of the novels discussed. Discussions and exams in Italian or in English.
Rena A. Lamparska

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 519 Italian Mysteries (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian.
Required for Italian majors and minors.
The course explores the Italian detective novel. From the Sicilian village society bound by omertà in Sciascia's mafia mystery, Il Giorno Della Civetta, to the wealthy Northern Italian bourgeois in Chiara's I Giovedì di Signora Giulia, to the anxiety of modern urban women in Maraini's Voci, to the competition of modern Firenze in the stories of Bruni, detective fiction evokes the complex lives of ordinary people in the many landscapes of twentieth-century Italy. The class is an introduction to the study of Italian literature. Improvement of reading, writing and speaking skills is the goal of all class activities.
Laurie Shepard

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 522 The Most Beautiful Pages of Italian Literature (Spring: 3)

Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian.
The course is for undergraduates only.
Fulfills the requirements for Italian major and minor.
In our itinerary through selected texts of Italian literature (from Marino to Calvino) we will be exploring the most compelling and profound thoughts, ideas and feelings. The analysis and the discussion of their significance, of their modes of expression and impact on the reader will be the focus of class meetings.
Rena A. Lamparska

Last Updated: 05-MAR-09

RL 524 The Mystery of the Mafia in Fiction and Film (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian
Elective for Italian major or minor
The class, a demystification of the Mafia, examines its Sicilian roots, history, and the contest between the Italian state and the Cosa Nostra in the end of the twentieth century. The social context and costs of omertà are explored in several novels and films.
Laurie Shepard

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 526 Dante's Divine Comedy in Translation (Fall: 3)

Cross Listed with PL 508, TH 559, EN 696
Offered Periodically
Conducted in English.
Elective for Italian major or minor.
An introduction to and critical reading of the Divine Comedy (in English translation), one of the world's greatest epic poems, produced by "the chief imagination of Christendom" (Yeats). Dante's journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise will be analyzed at its multiple levels of interpretation: literal and allegorical, theological, philosophical, political, and literary. Compendium of an entire epoch of European civilization, the Comedy will also be interrogated for its responses to the fundamental questions of human existence: God, the Cosmos, the Self, Good and Evil, Right and Wrong, Suffering, and Happiness.
Laurie Shepard

Last Updated: 12-JUN-09

RL 550 In Search of the Meaning of Life (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian.
The course focuses on choices of identity and the meaning of life in existential, social and religious situations. We will start with the discussion on the origin and essence of values as presented in selected writings. The nature of human passions and behavior will be explored in texts by modern Italian novelists and poets. Questions include a protagonist's alienation in modern society, the search for ones place in family and society, sacrifice as the ultimate confirmation and defense of one's values, apathy as a response to life's problems, determination in the pursuit of goal.
Rena A. Lamparska

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 551 Renaissance Teenagers (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian.
The course will begin with an introduction to the daily life of young people in the Italian Renaissance: their life expectation, job and marriage prospects, pastimes, dreams and fears. We will then examine the protagonists in two Renaissance bestsellers, Boccaccio's Decameron (1350) and Castiglione's Il Libro del Cortegiano (1528), most of whom are the same age as undergraduates in America today. To what extent do these young Italians share our civic, moral and spiritual values? Our dreams, hopes and ambitions? What are the important issues of their times?
Laurie A. Shepard

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 560 The Image of Women in Italian Drama (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian
We will examine various images of women, as represented in modern and contemporary Italian plays by male and female authors, and we will discuss these representations in relation to the place and role of woman in the social landscape and intellectual life of the times. Special attention will be brought to the question of freedom, love, womens' positions in the family and in the society. Topics include the question of dramatic form and means of dramatizing individual identity through stylistic strategies. In some cases discussion will be complemented with video.
Rena A. Lamparska

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 561 Modern Italian Drama (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian.
A study of the selected dramas by Giovanni Verga, Luigi Pirandello, Italo Svevo, and Ugo Betti in the context of their theoretical writings as well as in relation to the European literary trends of the period.
Rena Lamparska

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 563 Italian Theatre on Stage (Spring: 3)

Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
This course fulfills the requirement for Italian Major and Minor.
Discussion and presentations in Italian and/or English.
This course combines the study of drama as a literary genre and as a text for stage performance. We will study four works by selected Italian playwrites to analyze their structure, discourse, meaning and to identify the implications therein for performance. We will discuss the dramatic conventions of the author's time, as well as a variety of views regarding the relation between the written and performed word. Class work will culminate in a group performance of selected excerpts of the plays studied in class.
Rena A. Lamparska

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 566 Modern Italian Short Stories (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian
In our discussion of selected short stories by the prominent twentieth century Italian writers such as L. Pirandello, A. Moravia, N. Ginzburg, B. S. Donghi, G. Celati, M. Vergani, we will focus on the comic and the tragic in the structure and meaning of the text. The character of these categories will be at the center of our discussion: are they disinterested aesthetic elements, or a means of a social criticism?
Rena Lamparska

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 569 Twentieth-Century Italy in Fiction and Film (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian.
Elective for Italian major or minor.
The class presents a panorama of twentieth-century Italy. Focusing of four distinct historical periods, we will explore the ways in which some of Italy's greatest authors and film directors interpret specific historical events and, more generally, the spirit of the times. The first objective of the class is to introduce the history of the Italian people in the twentieth century. The second is to explore the interpretive functions of literature and film. The final objective is to improve the Italian-language competency of all students.
Laurie Shepard

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 570 Immigrant Voices in Contemporary Italy (Spring: 3)

Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian.
The class will examine the new reality of Italy as a nation with a significant population of immigrants. Focusing on the evolving meaning cultural identity in Italy today, we will read short works by four immigrant Italian writers of Italian: Amara Lakhous, originally from Algeria, Laila Wadia from India, Gabriella Ghermandi from Ethiopia, and Igiaba Scego from Madagascar. The class is also designed to improve the oral and written linguistic competency of all students. This course serves as an elective for the Italian major or minor.
Laurie Shepard

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 572 The Comparative Development of the Romance Languages (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Knowledge of one Romance language or Latin
Conducted in English. Fulfills a requirement for Ph.D. in French when RL 705 is not offered.
Why do the French say "pied," the Italians "piede," and the Spanish "pie"? The class, an introduction to Romance Philology, explores the common and distinctive linguistic features of Spanish, French and Italian, as well as the historical and cultural contexts in which each language developed. The second part of the course is dedicated to an examination of three early texts, one from each of the languages.
Laurie A. Shepard

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 597 Foreign Language Pedagogy (Fall: 3)

Cross Listed with ED 303
Conducted in English. This course can count as an elective for the French, Italian, or Hispanic Studies majors, but not for the minors.
This course introduces students to research in second-language acquisition and assessment while providing ample opportunity to put into practice what is taught. Emphasis is placed on developing classroom techniques and lesson plans for teaching to meet the five standards of communication, culture, connections, comparison, and community. Students are introduced to professional organizations, observe actual classes, and evaluate materials (electronic, audio, video, and print). Students will learn about the Massachusetts State Frameworks for foreign language education. This course is particularly recommended for students who plan to teach a foreign language and fulfills the Massachusetts licensure requirement methods in foreign language education.
Kathy Lee

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 611 Medieval Spain-Crossroads of the World (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Contextos or permission of instructor
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Conducted in Spanish.
Fulfills Peninsular pre-1800 major requirement.
This course is devoted to Spanish literature composed between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. We will examine the main literary genres of the period, including lyric and epic poetry, exemplary tales, and the origins of the novel. Special attention will be given to the Poema de mio Cid, Libro de buen amor, and Celestina. Each work will be studied within its socio-historical context.
Dwayne E. Carpenter

Last Updated: 30-MAR-09

RL 613 Modern Spanish Literature and Culture (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Contextos, or permission of Instructor
Conducted in Spanish.
Fulfills post-1800 Peninsular requirement.
This course is an overview of Spanish texts from the Enlightenment period to the post-Civil War period of the 1950's. Periods covered include the Enlightenment, and the fin de siècle through the post-Civil War period.
Irene Mizrahi

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 614 The Colonial Imagination: History and Identity in Spanish America (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Contextos or permission of instructor
Conducted in Spanish.
Fulfills Latin American pre-1800 major requirement.

This course provides an overview of texts written from the colonial period to the nineteenth century and their connections to contemporary works. We will focus on the representation of historical actors (conquerors, captives, others) as well as on geographical spaces (city, jungle, pampa) as imaginary regions where history and identity are forged. Readings will be drawn from a variety of genres (historiography, novel, short story, essay, poetry) and will include selections by authors such as: Bernal Díaz, Cabeza de Vaca, El Inca Garcilaso, Rodríguez Freile, Sarmiento, Palma, Gorriti, Paz, Borges, and Garro.
Sarah H. Beckjord

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 615 Latin American Writers of the Twentieth Century (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Contextos, concurrent enrollment in Contextos, or permission of instructor
Satisfies Cultural Diversity Core Requirement
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish.
Fulfills Latin American post-1800 major requirement.

Selected texts from various genres (short story, theater, novel, poetry and essay) are read and discussed for the key insights their authors offer into the Latin American mind and heart regarding human relationships, society, the environment, and cultural issues in general.
Harry L. Rosser

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 618 Write-On: Advanced Grammar & Writing Seminar (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Contextos, or permission of instructor
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish
Counts as an elective toward the Hispanic Studies major and minor.
This course is designed to improve writing skills through ample practice and the study of grammar, syntax, vocabulary and style. For students who have studied abroad, are able Spanish speakers, or are native speakers of Spanish.
Dwayne E. Carpenter

Last Updated: 09-NOV-09

RL 627 Passion at Play (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Contextos or equivalent
Conducted in Spanish.
Fulfills the pre-1800 Peninsular requirement for majors.

In this course, students interrogate the relationship between love and passion, using early modern theater and love poetry as tools. The themes uniting the dramas examined will be love, honor, and death, with particular attention paid to those works in which violence is represented. What would lead a society to sanction such violent behavior in the name of love? To what extent is that definition still engrained in Hispanic Culture today? And in our own?
Elizabeth Rhodes

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 629 Latin American Novels (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Contextos or permission of instructor.
Satisfies Cultural Diversity Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish.
Fulfills post-1800 Latin American requirement for major.
The focus of this course will be on the shift in Latin American novels of the twentieth century from exterior descriptions to the interior dimensions of the self. Themes and techniques of selected writers such as Ernesto Sábato, María Luisa Bombal, Alejo Carpentier, Carlos Fuentes, Mario Vargas Llosa, Elena Poniatowska, Gabriel García Márquez, Laura Esquivel, and Antonio Skarmeta.
Harry L. Rosser

Last Updated: 30-MAR-09

RL 633 Aesthetics and Politics of Anti-Slavery Literature of Cuba (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Contextos, or permission of Instructor
Conducted in Spanish.
Fulfills the pre-1800 Latin American requirement for Majors in Hispanic Studies
This course will examine the aesthetic and political debates embodied in the tradition of the anti-slavery narrative in Cuba, from the colonial period to the twentieth century. Particular attention will be given to issues of race, gender, criollo culture and emerging nationalism, as well as a thoughtful dialogue with continental literary trends. We will begin by reviewing early writings on the slavery issue and European literary perspectives on the subject and conclude with twentieth-century interpretations by Carpentier and Montejo. Readings will be drawn from a variety of genres: essays, autobiography, novel, short story, and travel writing.
Sarah Beckjord

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 635 Crime and Punishment/Sin and Damnation in Medieval Spanish Literature (Fall: 3)

Estudio avanzado for Hispanic Studies majors
Conducted in Spanish
Church and State have long felt constrained not only to reward the righteous but also to condemn the wicked. This course will examine ecclesiastical and secular authorities' punishment of sins and crimes during the Spanish Middle Ages (1200-1500). Topics include notions of Purgatory, Hell and Heaven; the role of the Inquisition; torture; and salvation.
Dwayne E. Carpenter

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 636 Borderlines: Films of Immigration & Exile (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Contextos, RL671 (Intro to Hispanic Film) or permission of instructor
Offered Periodically
Conducted entirely in Spanish.
Satisfies the Hispanic Studies post-1800 Peninsular requirement.

This is an advanced undergraduate seminar in film analysis, using recent works of cinema that represent the drama of immigration into first-world countries (Spain, the United States). Students will explore the historical, economic and cultural motivations and consequences of the immigration of people and drugs, and the ways in which directors marshal specific cinematographic techniques to achieve their political and artistic objectives in each film. Emphasis will be on the Mexico/US border and the Straight of Gibraltar, the deadliest point of immigration in the world. We will begin with George Nava's "El norte" (1983) and finish with Moisés Salama's "Melillenses" (2004).
Elizabeth Rhodes

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 637 Spanish-American Short Story (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Contextos, or permission of Instructor
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Satisfies Cultural Diversity Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish
Fulfills post-1800 requirement in Latin American literature for Hispanic Studies Majors
Close study and discussion of major contributors to the genre in Spanish America in the twentieth century, among them Darío, Quiroga, Bombal, Borges, Cortázar, Rulfo, Donoso, García Márquez, Allende, and Ferré.
Harry L. Rosser

Last Updated: 20-JAN-09

RL 638 Building the Modern Latin American Metropolis (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Contextos or permission of instructor
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish.
Fulfills Latin American post-1800 major requirement.

This course will explore, through poetry, fiction and film the development of the modern Latin American city. We will discuss the cultural and political implications of its evolution, from patterns of space distribution to inner city violence and ecological crisis looking closely at social issues and their representations. We will discuss among others works by Allison Anders, Roberto Arlt, Washinton Cucurto, González Tuñón, Fernando Vallejo and Luis Zapata.
Ernesto Livon-Grosman

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 640 What's Modern About Modernismo? (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Fulfills the post-1800 Latin American requirement for Majors in Hispanic Studies
Beginning with Modernismo this course will explore, through some of the most relevant writers of the period, the idea of Modernity and its impact as a major cultural force in Latin America. We will focus on the innovative cultural and textual politics of writers such as Rubén Darío, Leopoldo Lugones, Delmira Agustini and José Juan Tablada among others.
Ernesto Livon-Grosman

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 641 We Were There Too: Minorities in Medieval and Renaissance Spain (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Contextos or permission of instructor
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish.
Fulfills pre-1800 requirement in Peninsular Literature for Hispanic Studies majors.

The margins become the center in our text-based analysis of religious, ethnic, and gender minorities in Spain during the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries. Using a variety of literary, artistic, and legal sources, we will explore the role of Muslims, moriscos, Jews, conversos, Protestants, witches, homosexuals and other marginalized groups in Spanish society. Of particular interest is the role of institutions, including the Church and State-sponsored Inquisition, and their attitudes and policies toward minorities.
Dwayne E. Carpenter

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 645 El Marco de la Historia: Medieval Stories and How to Read Them (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Contextos or permission of instructor
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish. Fulfills Peninsular pre-1800 requirement.
The common characteristic of all the texts read in this course is the technique of embedding traditional stories within narrative frames. In works such as La disciplina clericalis, Calila y Dimna, Sendebar y El Conde Lucanor, the frame, too often ignored by readers, conditions the way we read the stories, just as a jeweler's setting effects the way we look at a diamond. We will analyze these frames as the thresholds we must cross from cultural and historical contexts to the literary texts themselves.
Christopher Wood

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 646 The "Eye" of Latin American Film (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Contextos or permission of instructor.
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish.
Fulfills post-1800 Latin American requirement for major.
This course focuses on recent Latin American cinema in order to explore the aesthetic and critical trends of its most recent films. How are those films shaped by always changing political circumstances? And what do they tell us about Latin America's present political realities? We will see films and read texts by Gonzalo Aguilar, Carlos Reygadas, Fernando Solanas and Robert Stam among others. This class requires that in addition to critical readings students watch movies outside class time. Screenings will be on Wednesday evenings. (Class in Spanish, readings in English and Spanish)
Ernesto Livon-Grosman

Last Updated: 30-MAR-09

RL 647 Spanish Short Stories since Clarin (Spring: 3)

Corequisite: Contextos or permission of instructor
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Fulfills post-1800 requirement in Penisular Literature for Hispanic Studies majors.
A panoramic study of Spanish short fiction since Leopoldo Alas (Clarin). We will study this genre, which achieves its most mature expression in the twentieth century. During the semester, we will analyze a representative sample of writers of both sexes, paying particular attention to modern and postmodern contributions.
Irene Mizrahi

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 648 Literature of Cultural Migration in the Americas (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Contextos, concurrent enrollment in Contextos, or permission of instructor
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish.
Fulfills pre-1800 requirement in Latin American literature for Hispanic Studies majors.
Ever since Columbus, the culture and literature of the Americas has been forged by the conflictive and yet rich mixing of peoples and cultures. In this course we will focus on three regions: the Caribbean, the Andes, and Latinos in the United States, basing our inquiry on major literary texts spanning the colonial to modern periods, as well as sources in music and film, as we seek to grapple with questions of coloniality and modernity, transculturation and assimilation, in an increasingly global world.
The Department

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 650 The Hero's Other Half: Bad Guys and Girls in Early Modern Spain (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Contextos or permission of Instructor
Offered Periodically
Fulfills Peninsular pre-1800 major requirement
Conducted in Spanish
Based on the idea that heroes depend on anti-heroes to exist, this course examines Early Modern Spanish heroic figures in light of social misfits and minorities, such as women, fools, and sinners. The changing nature of the heroic figure across the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is considered.
Elizabeth Rhodes

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 651 Exile in Medieval and 20th Century Spanish Literature (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Contextos, concurrent enrolment in Contextos, or permission of instructor.
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish.
Elective for Hispanic Studies major or minor.
Fulfills pre-1800 Peninsula requirement for major.
Fulfills post-1800 Peninsular requirement for major.
A narration of exile, the eleventh century Cantar de mío Cid, is a foundational work in the Spanish literary canon, and exile is a structuring principle in a vast corpus of significant Spanish texts from the Middle Ages to today. In this course students read several narratives either about exile or by exiled writers, and in the process study important intersections of history and literature, in a sense drawing a geographical and ideological map of the exilic text.
Christopher Wood

Last Updated: 12-JUN-09

RL 652 Hispanic Nobel Prize Winners in Literature (Fall: 3)

Satisfies Literature Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish.
Fulfills Peninsular or Latin American post-1800 major requirement.

A wide variety of Spanish and Latin American writes have been honored by the Swedish Academy since the first literary Nobel Prize award in 1901. The literary achievements of these authors play an essential role in the development of twentieth-century Hispanic literature. Although all the Hispanic prize recipients will be taken into account, we will concentrate on eight winners spanning the twentieth century, Gabriel García Márquez and Camilo José Cela among them. By studying limited selections of their representative works, of different genres, students gain an understanding of linguistic and ideological dimensions responsible for the Nobel award to each laureate.
Irene Mizrahi

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 654 Topics in Latin American Culture (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Contextos, or permission of Instructor
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish
Fulfills post-1800 Latin American requirement
This course explores current intellectual and theoretical issues pertinent to contemporary Latin America. Context will vary per semester; interested students should contact professor.
The Department

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 658 Don Quijote and You (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Contextos, concurrent enrollment in Contextos, or permission of instructor
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish
Fulfills the pre-1800 Peninsula requirement for Majors in Hispanic Studies
Don Quijote is universally recognized as one of the most important texts of all literary history. Why? What does this funny, poignant book continue to say to ongoing generations? Students will read the entire text of Cervantes' masterpiece, and consider its relationship to texts of other media and other ages (Velázquez, Cortázar, the Russian film version, The Man of La Mancha, for example). Contextos extremely helpful.
Elizabeth Rhodes

Last Updated: 12-JUN-09

RL 660 Literature of the Hispanic Caribbean (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Contextos, concurrent enrollment in Contextos, or permission of instructor.
Cross Listed with BK660
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish.
Fulfills the pre-1800 requirement for Hispanic Studies Majors.
Elective for Latin American Studies Minors.

This course will examine the literature of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, from the colonial period to the 20th-century. Particular attention will be given to the ways in which writers seek to represent social concerns related to issues of race, gender, criollo culture, and emerging nationalism in the context of aesthetic and political debates. Course materials will explore the phenomenon of transculturation in literature (essay, short story, autobiography, novel, poetry), as well as in film, music, and the visual arts.
Sarah Beckjord

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 661 Contemporary Spanish Theater (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Contextos or permission of instructor.
Satisfies Foreign Language Proficiency Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish.
Fulfills Peninsular post-1800 major requirement

An intense examination of post-Civil War Spanish drama. We will discuss the dramatic structure, stagecraft and thematic content of ten plays written by exemplary figures such as Buero Vallego, Sastre, Arrabal, Olmo, Gala, Pedrero, and Manuela Reina. Special attention will be given to the national context, including the experience of dictatorship, transition and democracy.
Irene Mizrahi

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 662 Violence in Hispanic Culture (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Contextos
Satisfies Cultural Diversity Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish.
Fulfills Peninsular pre-1800 major requirement.
In this writing-intensive course, students will interrogate the nature and representation of violence in specific Peninsular and Latin American texts, from the pre-Columbian to the contemporary periods. Painting, plastic arts, cinema and literature are considered. Discussion-based class meetings with heavy emphasis on vocabulary building.
Elizabeth Rhodes

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 664 Visions of the New World: Totems and Taboos in the New World (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Contextos or permission of instructor
Offered Periodically
Fulfills pre-1800 requirement in Latin American literature for Hispanic Studies Majors.
Conducted in Spanish.
A survey of key texts from the period of discovery and conquest to the nineteenth century and connections to contemporary works. We will focus on the representation of the self and the Other in the New World, as well as on changing notions of civilization and barbarism, totem and taboo. Readings will be drawn from a variety of genres (travel writing, historiography, novel, short story, essay), and course materials will also include film and visual arts.
Sarah H. Beckjord

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 665 The Culture and Civilization of Latin America: 1492-1900 (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Fulfills Latin American pre-1800 major requirement.
Readings and class discussions in English.
See instructor for permission to enroll.
This interdisciplinary and multimedia course will examine representative works from and about the period from the Conquest to the nineteenth-century. We will examine historical contexts in addition to select contemporary reinterpretations of foundational texts and moments. Authors will include Cort¿s, Bernal D¿az, el Inca Garcilaso, and Neruda on the period of conquest and colonization; Catalina de Erauso and Sor Juana on the Baroque, Bol¿var and Garc¿a Mßrquez on Independence, and G¿mez de Avellaneda and Manzano on the slavery question.
Sarah H. Beckjord

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 666 The Devil Made Me Do It: Sin, Deviance, and Crime in Spanish Literature and Life (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish
Fulfills the pre-1800 Peninsular requirement for Majors in Hispanic Studies
This course examines notions of evil in medieval and early modern Spanish literature. Topic include the devil, witchcraft, sexual deviance, blasphemy, and crime, alongside concepts of religious and racial tolerance, penitence, pardon, and salvation. Authors include Glonzalo de Berceo, Fernando de Rojas, Calderón de la Barca, and Tirso de Molina.
Dwayne Carpenter

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 667 The Generation of '98 (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
Estudio avanzado for Hispanic Studies majors
Conducted in Spanish
Detailed study of the essays, novels, poetry and theater of major turn-of-the-century writers: Unamuno, Baroja, A. Machado, "Azor¿n," and others.
Irene Mizrahi

Last Updated: 10-FEB-09

RL 668 The Experimental Tradition (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Fulfills post-1800 Latin American requirement for major.
Through a combination of poetry, theory and visual art this course will follow the impact of the historical avant-garde in Twentieth Century Latin America. Attention will be paid to the dialogue between different experimental and critical texts by a variety of poets and critics, in particular to the idea of poetry as the praxis of theory. From César Vallejo, Vicente Huidobro and Pales Matos and critics such as Peter Bürger, Haroldo de Campos and Beatriz Sarlo we will look at the evolution of Latin American experimental poetics in and out of the printed page.
Ernesto Livon-Grosman

Last Updated: 30-MAR-09

RL 669 Hispanic Women Writers: Making it in a Macho World (Spring: 3)

Conducted in Spanish.
Fulfills post-1800 Peninsular requirement for Majors in Hispanic Studies

This discussion-based course introduces students to the principles of gender in language and literature, upon which a reading, in reverse chronological order, of literary works by women from Spain and Latin America, is conducted. Searching for a common thread in the fabric of Hispanic texts by women, we will examine such issues as the subjects chosen by these authors, the presentational modes they prefer, and the ways in which their works differ from those by their male contemporaries.
Elizabeth Rhodes

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 670 Spanish American Civilization (Spring: 3)

Satisfies Cultural Diversity Core Requirement
Conducted in Spanish
Civilization and culture are more than the aesthetic expressions of a people through their arts. They also integrate the customs, ideas, and values of the people that determine them. The primary objective of this course is to explore the historical- aesthetic solidarity of a vast region of the world that continues to seek and establish its true Latin American identity.
The Department

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 671 Introduction to Hispanic Film (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: RL 395 Contextos, or permission of instructor.
Cross Listed with FM 471
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish.
It's easy to watch a movie, but can you see it? This course uses films of several genres from Spain and Latin America to teach students to view visual culture intelligently. Principles of mise en scène, sound, narrative games, and techniques of propaganda and horror are among the components studied. Students build on the skills acquired in Contextos (RL395), learning to apply them to visual media. Films include Fresas y Chocolate, Todo Sobre Mi Madre, Como Agua Para Chocolate, and others.
Elizabeth Rhodes

Last Updated: 12-JUN-09

RL 672 Spanish Romanticism (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish.
This course provides detailed analyses of major works (prose, poetry and theater) of 19th-century Spanish Romanticism. The first part is dedicated to the historical romantic drama of Martínez de la Rosa, Duque de Rivas, García Gutiérrez, Harzenbuch and Zorilla. The second part concentrates on Larra's Artículos literarios y de costumbres, and the third focuses on the lyric poetry of Espronceda, Bécquer, Campoamor and Rosalía de Castro.
Irene Mizrahi

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 674 Latin American Modern Period (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Contextos or permission of instructor.
Conducted in Spanish.
Fulfills Latin American post-1800 major requirement.
Readings and discussion of key texts from the 18th-20th centuries for an understanding of emerging literary and cultural trends in various regions of Spanish America.
The Department

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 675 Fabricating Memory (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Contextos, concurrent enrolment in Contextos, or permission of instructor
Offered Periodically
Fulfills post-1800 Peninsular requirement for major
Conducted in Spanish
Readings will focus on contemporary Spanish novelists and their recreation of Spanish identity through the historical novel. Students will analyze issues of history in literature as well as the creation of a national identity. Attention will be focused on the contemporary understanding of the Spanish Civil War, post-war period, transition to democracy and globalization of Spain.
Kathy Lee

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 676 Narratives of Conquest (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Estudio avanzado for Hispanic Studies majors
Conducted in Spanish
Reading and discussion of key portions of major chronicles that serve as documentary history, repository of myths, and early literary traditions.
The Department

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 678 Early Spanish American Women Writers (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish. Fulfills pre-1800 requirement in Latin American literature for Hispanic Studies Majors.
A close study of the intellectual and literary productions of women writers from the colonial period and nineteenth century, with special attention to Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Readings will be drawn from different genres and will also include works by Catalina de Erauso, la Madre Castillo, Juana Manuela Gorriti, Clorinda Matto de Turner, and Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda.
Sarah H. Beckjord

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 679 Topics in Spanish-American Literature (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
Estudio avanzado for Hispanic Studies majors
Conducted in Spanish
Key texts will be studied for their focus on the continuing nature of cultural and literary synthesis, or "mestizaje literario", in Spanish-America.
The Department

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 680 A Contrastive Analysis of Spanish and English (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish.
Elective for Hispanic Studies majors and minors.
Especially appropriate for LSOE students.
This course is a rigorous introduction to Spanish linguistics; especially, phonology and second language acquisition. Emphasis will be placed on a contrastive study of Spanish and English. This course is required of students seeking certification to teach Spanish in Massachusetts.
Kathy Lee

Last Updated: 06-NOV-09

RL 682 Latin American Perspectives: Civilization and Culture (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Contextos or permission of Instructor
Satisfies Cultural Diversity Core Requirement
Offered Periodically
Fulfills Capstone course for Latin American Studies Program Minor.
Conducted in Spanish.
Fulfills post-1800 Latin American requirement.
Selected texts showing cultural similarities and differences among countries of Latin America will be studied for the ways in which their authors reveal the perspectives, customs, and products of their people. The primary objective of the course is to introduce and explore the aesthetic and ideological solidarity of a vast region of the world that continues to seek and establish its true identity in the midst of global change.
Harry L. Rosser

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 684 Escritoras Hispánicas (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish
This course will explore the works of twentieth-century woman writers from both Latin America and Spain. The course will address the historical, aesthetic, social and cultural elements of these texts in their development of feminist as well as national identities.
Kathy Lee
Susan Naughton

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 688 Waiting to Exile: Fictions of the Other Spain (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
An examination of Spanish writers in exile from the dictatorship of Francisco Franco (1939-1975), as well as representative selections from writers able to accommodate themselves to the regime. Exile will be explored as a theme of the stories, poems, and novels of the period, as well as the historical condition of their creation. In addition to an analysis of many of the most important works of this literature, we will also touch on the literary history of exile in Spain. Attention will be paid to the cultural and historical ambience in which exiles spent their formative years.
Christopher R. Wood

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 689 Harmony and Dissonance: Christians, Jews, and Muslims in Medieval Spain (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Contextos or permission of instructor
Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish
Fulfills pre-1800 Peninsula requirement for major
Medieval Spain is unique in its tricultural heritage, the result of long-standing convivencia on the part of Christians, Jews, and Muslims. This coexistence was often characterized by simmering suspicion, if not outright hostility; at its best, however, it was capable of producing an extraordinarily rich cultural symbiosis, as expressed in architecture, science, music, and literature. Through an examination of the art and literature of the period, we will endeavor to achieve an appreciation of the enduring contributions made, separately and collectively, by members of the three religions.
Dwayne E. Carpenter

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 691 Spanish Lyric Poetry: Origins to the Twentieth Century (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish
The focus of this course is lyric in its various guises. Attention will be paid to historical, social, and formal aspects of lyric poetry, as well as to its aesthetic qualities.
Dwayne E. Carpenter

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 694 The Making of Pedro de Almódovar: Hispanic Film (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Estudio avanzado for Hispanic Studies majors
Conducted in Spanish
This course acquaints students with masterpieces of Spanish and Spanish-American literature, as interpreted in the medium of film. Both literary analysis and film criticism will constitute important elements of this course.
The Department

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 696 Questing mysteries: A Course on Recent Spanish-American Film (Spring: 3)

Prerequisite: Contextos or permission of instructor
Offered Periodically

Ernesto Livon-Grosman

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 698 Honors Research Seminar (Fall: 3)

This semester is devoted to defining and researching the thesis. Students will work closely with their thesis director and meet regularly as a group with the program coordinator to discuss their work in progress. At the end of the semester students will present a clear statement of their thesis, accompanied by an outline, a bibliography of works consulted, and one chapter.
The Department

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 699 Honors Thesis Seminar (Spring: 3)

This semester is devoted to the writing and completion of the thesis. Students will continue to work closely with their thesis director, and to meet as a group with the program coordinator. Upon submitting the final copy of their thesis, students will make a short oral presentation to the faculty and to other students during the annual reception honoring their achievements.
The Department

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 704 Explication de Textes (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
First-year masters' candidates in French are very strongly encouraged to enroll in this course as an introduction to graduate studies in literature.
This course offers graduate students an advanced introduction to the practice of close reading and textual analysis in the French mode. A variety of shorter works and excerpts selected from a wide chronological and generic spectrum will be used to help students read texts analytically and organize their commentaries effectively. Students will have the opportunity to work extensively on their written French and to discuss their progress during regular consultations with the instructor.
Stephen Bold

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 705 History of the French Language: The Middle Ages (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Open to undergraduates with permission of instructor only
Fulfills a Ph.D. requirement in Romance Languages and Literatures
Conducted in French
The seminar examines the development of Late Latin into Old French, and the earliest linguistic and literary monuments of ancien Français, including the Serments de Strasbourg and the Séquence de Sainte Eulalie. The second half of the semester will be devoted to the phonological, morphological, syntactic and lexical features of texts composed in the major literary dialects and the development of Middle French.
Laurie Shepard

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 713 The Birth of Vernacular Lyric (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in English
Elective for French major or minor
Open to undergraduates with permission of instructor
This course focuses on selected poems in their original language to introduce students to the first vernacular lyric in Europe. The earliest traces appear at the end of the eleventh century in the courts of southern France with the songs of William IX. The troubadours' art of love reaches its classic expression with Bernart de Ventadorn in the mid-twelfth century and expands across Europe to northern France, Italy, Germany, and Spain. These poems raise tantalizing questions about the role of women in song and society, the links between performance and life at court, the power of language and melody.
Matilda Bruckner

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 723 The Poet's Lyre: Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century French Poetry (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
This course will focus on the decisive contribution of Pléiade poets Joachim du Bellay and Pierre Ronsard to modern French lyric poetry. We will also consider the metaphysical poetry of one of their French precursors, Maurice Scève, as well as the aftermath of the Pléiade in Malherbe's seventeenth-century reform.
Stephen Bold

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 735 Masterpieces of Seventeenth-Century French Literature (Spring: 3)

For graduate students
Open to undergraduates with permission of instructor only
Conducted in French

This course offers an introduction to the prose literature of France's golden age. Through a close reading of some of the century's greatest works by its greatest prosateurs, including Descartes and Pascal; d'Urfé, Scudéry and Lafayette; La Rochefoucauld, Sévigny, and La Bruyère - we will examine essential seventeenth-century concepts including classicism, Cartesianism, honnêteté, and préciosité. Our focus will be, as much as possible, equally balanced between ideological and aesthetic questions.
Stephen Bold

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 741 Medieval Yearnings: At the Crossroads of Body, Mind, and Spirit (Fall: 3)

Open to advanced undergraduates and graduate students
No previous work in medieval literature required
This course is designed as an introduction to Medieval French Literature focused on a complex and fascinating topic: the multiple desires of the human heart. Medieval writers explore that contradictory and compelling locus in a variety of forms and themes, as they follow the heart's desires from the body to the spirit, in courtly and uncourtly modes, in religious and profane contexts, through the language of love poets, the heroic exploits of knight lovers, and the sacrifice of saints.
Matilda T. Bruckner

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 752 Mirror or Mirage in the Realistic Novel? (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in French.
Undergraduates may enroll with permission of the instructor.
This course traces the evolution of the realistic novel in the nineteenth century, endeavoring to determine what realism meant for each of the novelists studied, what devices were selected to represent it in a work of fiction, and how much success was achieved in this representation. This success will be appreciated in the broader framework of inquiry as to the novel's ability, as a literary genre, to accommodate realism. Students will read Stendhal's Le Rouge et le Noir and La Chartreuse de Parme; Balzac's Le Père Goriot and La Cousine Bette; Flaubert's Madame Bovary and L'Education sentimentale.
Norman Araujo

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 762 Mallarmé and the Question of Poetry (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
This course will examine in detail some of the major texts in prose and poetry of Stephane Mallarmé. Special attention will be accorded to Mallarmé's pivotal status within the French tradition as both a unique practitioner and theoretician of poetic language. The course will also consider the ongoing critical importance played by the reception of Mallarmé in the twentieth century by such writers as Jean-Paul Sartre, Georges Poulet, Jean-Pierre Richard, Maurice Blanchot, Gerard Genette, Yves Bonnefoy, Paul de Man, and Jacques Derrida.
Kevin Newmark

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 777 Twentieth-Century Fiction in French (Spring: 3)

Conducted in French
This course engages in a detailed study of some exemplary literary texts written in French during the twentieth century. Questions of meaning will be addressed by way of theme as well as form. Theoretical issues such as modernism, existentialism, feminism, post-modernity, and post-colonialism will also be considered in passing. Works will be chosen from authors such as Proust, Gide, Breton, Colette, Queneau, Bataille, Sartre, Fanon, Blanchot, Camara Laye, Duras, Perec, Ben Jelloun, Djebar, Des Frets, Modiano, among others.
Kevin Newmark

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 780 Readings in Theory (Spring: 3)

Cross Listed with EN 780, PL 780
Offered Periodically
Conducted in English
Open to undergraduates with permission of instructor only
Fulfills a Ph.D. requirement in Romance Languages and Literatures.
This course is organized as an introduction to the reading of literary theory for graduate students in various disciplines. Its aim is to develop in students an awareness and sensitivity to the specific means and ends of interpreting literary and extra-literary language today. The course seeks to provide students with a basic familiarity with some of the most formative linguistic, anthropological, philosophical, and literary antecedents of the diverse and often contentious theoretical models occupying, some would say, plaguing, the contemporary literary critical scene. Readings from Saussure, Levi-Strauss, Jakobson, Barthes, Lacan, Ricoeur, Geertz, Austin, Derrida, and de Man, among others.
Kevin Newmark

Last Updated: 08-JUN-09

RL 799 Readings and Research (Fall/Spring: 3)

By arrangement

The Department

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 802 Methods in Advanced Research (Spring: 3)

Conducted in Italian
An introduction to new, interdisciplinary approaches to advanced literary analysis and scholarly research, conducted by the Italian faculty in three, separate, four-week sections. The semester's work will culminate in the preparation of a major research project incorporating the newly acquired methodologies.
Franco Mormando
Rena Lamparska
Laurie Shepard

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 805 La Novella Premoderna: Boccaccio, Sercambi, Sermini, Masuccio e Bandello (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian.
The seminar focuses on Boccaccio's Decameron, a fourteenth-century masterpiece. With this collection of tales Boccaccio sought to renew and elevate the bourgeoisie, then emerging as the dominant class in Florence, and in the final analysis the Decameron teaches us the difficult lessons of personal virtue in troubled times. The invention of the novella genre, the author's art of narration, and the author's device of a frame to structure the interpretation of his tales will be among the topics discussed.
Laurie Shepard

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 806 Il Romanzo e la Saggistica di Italo Calvino (Spring: 3)

Conducted in Italian
Undergraduates may enroll with permission of the instructor

A study of Calvino's major works from the perspective that "there are things that only literature can give us, by means specific to it." Issues as "certain values, qualities, or peculiarities of literature," "Written and Unwritten World," la metaletteratura nel racconto, l'arte combinatoria, la logica della potenzialit will be discussed in-depth.
Rena A. Lamparska

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 807 Tasso and His World (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian
Undergraduates may enroll with permission of the instructor
The course explores Tasso's Gerusalemme liberata in the context of late sixteenth-century Italian society, a period when the Church sought to extend its moral authority. Turks threatened invasion, Protestantism was severing nations from the Church's body, and the known world was expanding rapidly. Tasso portrays Christian soldiers gradually becoming aware of their egocentric lust for sex and glory, then repenting to find their way back to a society governed by obedience and Truth. Readings will include Tasso's writings on aesthetics, excerpts from his Gerusalemme conquistata, and works on politics, religion, and exploration.
Laurie Shepard

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 808 Machiavelli and Tasso (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted In Italian.
The parabola of Italian intellectual history in the sixteenth century opens with the classicizing humanism of Pope Leo X and closes with the project to renew literary and artistic culture in the spirit of the Council of Trent. In representative works of three genres, the course explores two poles of Renaissance thought: the empirical analysis of Niccolò Machiavelli, (La Mandragola and Il Principe) and the spiritually tormented lyricism of Torquato Tasso (Gerusalemme liberata). We will examine how these two opposing intellectual and artistic traditions contribute to produce the unique Italian culture in the early modern period.
Laurie Shepard

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 810 Poesia Lirica: Medioevo e Rinascimento (Spring: 3)

Conducted in Italian
This seminar will survey Italian lyric poetry, the most dynamic and prestigious genre of the medieval period when the literary language was being formulated. The course will cover the development of lyric poetry from the thirteenth-century Scuola Siciliana to the sixteenth-century petrarchisti, but the principal focus of the course is the Canzoniere of Francesco Petrarca. Discussions will include orality and manuscript/print transmission of poetry, the complex relation of the individual poet to the tradition, the theory of imitation, and literary Neoplatonism.
Laurie Shepard

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 812 Boccaccio and Petrarca (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian.
Elective for Italian major or minor.
Open to undergraduates with permission of instructor.

Tradition has designated Petrarch's Rerum vulgarium fragmenta or Canzoniere and Boccaccio's Decameron as opposite poles of fourteenth-century Italian literary innovation. Nevertheless, the friendship between the two men was profound and productive, and has been called the most important in the history of Italian literature. The class will explore the friendship, preserved in letters, and the complex and moral concerns shared by the two authors as they are expressed in the two great masterpieces.
Laurie A. Shepard

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 813 Dante's "Divina Commedia" (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian.
A reading of the Divina Commedia in its entirety, examined at its multiple levels of meaning, literal and allegorical, theological, political, psychological, and artistic. The course will also introduce the student to the most current schools of interpretation and analytical methodologies, as well as interrogate the poem for its responses to the fundamental questions of human existence: God, the Cosmos, the Self, Good and Evil, Right and Wrong, Love and Hate, Suffering and Happiness.
Franco Mormando

Last Updated: 01-APR-09

RL 814 Ariosto e Tasso (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian
The seminar will explore two Italian Renaissance chivalric epics: Orlando furiosoof Ludovico Ariosto and Gerusalemme liberataof Torquato Tasso. Of central concern will be the question of artistic freedom or la licenza del fingere in view of the claims of history, prestigious literary models, pressures of the court, and the artistic strategies of the Post-Tridentine Church. In addition to the two epic poems, we will investigate the treatises and letters that furthered the debate over the proper ends and norms of epic poetry throughout the century.
Laurie Shepard

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 817 Advanced Studies in Language: Translation Workshop (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian
The course offers a study of the techniques and art of translation through a variety of texts, both fiction and non-fiction. We will focus on the analysis of the major structural and stylistic differences between Italian and English, as well as lexical nuances and distinctions. Translating from both English and Italian, students will enhance and refine their linguistic skills. This course is strongly recommended for students who wish to improve their proficiency in Italian.
Cecilia Mattii

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 820 La Trieste Letteraria Nei Tempi di Svevo e di Joyce (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian.
Il rapporto reciproco (di selezione ed esclusione o di accoglienza e rispetto) tra le culture nazionali, la loro specificità, l'identità e dall'altra il carattere "mondiale" della letteratura, assumono oggi una valenza particolare all'interno delle discussioni sull'identità e unitarietà della cultura europea. La situazione culturale-letteraria di Treste dei tempi di Svevo e di Joyce, città multietnica e multiculturale, offre un eloquente esempio di tale tematica. Il seminario si propone di discuterla in base alle opere di Svevo e in particolare al suo rapporto con Joyce. L'apparato storico e critico sarà fornito da scritti scelti (E. Montale, C, Magris, e al.)
Rena Lamparska

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 821 I Ritratti Femminili Nella Letteratura Italiana (Fall: 3)

Conducted in Italian.
We will examine portrayals of women in modern and contemporary Italian literature from Verga to Morazzoni, and discuss these representations in relation to the place and role of woman in the changing social landscape and intellectual life of the times. Attention will be brought to the question of freedom, love, and women's positions in the family and society. We will also focus on the literary convention authors write within and against; the stylistic strategies of dramatizing the protagonists individual identities, and whether we can we distinguish between points of view in depiction of women protagonists by male and female authors.
Rena A. Lamparska

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 822 Renaissance Comedy (Fall: 3)

Conducted in Italian.
The course will explore the language, setting, public, theory, and evolution of comedy in the Italian Renaissance. Works by Ariosto, Machiavelli, Aretino, Ruzzante, and Bruno will be the focus of our discusions. The influence of the Decameron on comic language will also be examined.
Laurie Shepard

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 826 Fifteenth-Century Florence: The Humanists (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian.
The seminar will examine the arc of fifteenth-century Florentine Humanism, from its expansive opening with Salutati and Bruni, to its introverted close with the lessons of Savonarola. Readings will also include texts by Bracciolini, Alberti, Landino, Ficino, Lorenzo, Valla, della Mirandola, and Poliziano. Humanism transformed the way in which texts are read and our relationship with the past, and it became the impetus for renewal in almost every field of human endeavor. We will explore Humanism's impact, and ask how such intellectual creativity was nurtured in a century of civil strife, periodic famine and plague, warfare and ecclesiastical turmoil.
Laurie Shepard

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 828 Remembrance and Poetic Image in Italian Modern Literature (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian
Undergraduates may enroll with permission of the instructor

According to Giambattista Vico's New Science: "Memory has three different aspects: memory when it remembers things, imagination when it alters or distorts them, and invention when it gives them a new turn or puts them into proper arrangement and relationship." In our analysis of selected works by Alfieri, Foscolo, and Leopardi, we will focus on the formation of their poetic images in light of Vico's statement. Our discussion will be extended to the contemporary thought related to this specific kind of poiesis, as represented by Gusdorf, Starobinski, Calvino, and others.
Rena A. Lamparska

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 830 Rome in the Age of Bernini (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian.
Open to undergraduates with permission of instructor.

An interdisciplinary study of Italian literature and culture, focusing on the city of Rome during the age of Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), the glorious era of the Baroque. Against the backdrop of the political and institutional crises and social-religious metamorphoses of the period, we will explore the fertile and intimate inter-relationship between literature (elite and popular, sacred and profane) and the arts, both visual and performing.
Franco Mormando

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 832 L'autobiografia del Settecento Italiano (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian
The seminar will center on the following questions: the eighteenth-century Italian autobiography by Giambattista Vico, Paolo Mattia Doria, Carlo Goldoni, Vittorio Alfieri, Giacomo Casanova et. al.; the Italian autobiography as a new genre within the larger context of the intellectual trends of the period; its birth and development through the century; and contemporary theoretical discussion on autobiography.
Rena A. Lamparska

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 833 Il Verismo Italiano (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian.
Undergraduates may enroll with permission of the instructor.

A study of the major novels and theoretical writings of Luigi Capuana and Giovanni Verga in the context of Italian Verismo as well as in relation to the European scientific and literary trends of the period.
Rena A. Lamparska

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 836 Foscolo and Leopardi (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian.
The literary trends of Foscolo's and Leopardi's epoch. Their place in the European discussion on Neoclassicism and Romanticism. Their works and their poetics.
Rena A. Lamparska

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 840 Il Teatro Italiano (Spring: 3)

Conducted in Italian
Il seminario si propone di analizzare aspetti della poetica teatrale del Settecento italiano presentati nel pensiero teorico del tempo (Caloprese, Muratori, Gravina, Metastasio, Alfieri) e nella produzione drammatica (Maffei, Alfieri, Goldoni). Tra i temi discussi si troverà la questione dell'evolversi delle categorie antiche quali il "fato" o la "catarsi." Nell'esame della tragedia alfieriana cercheremo d'identificare aspetti del neoclassicismo preromantico, il carattere della "invenzione", il linguaggio e lo stile tragico; in Goldoni cercheremo l'essenza della sua riforma del teatro comico. Nello studio del teatro dell'attore ovvero della Commedia dell'Arte cercheremo di confrontare la visione goldoniana di quest'attività con le prospettive critiche.
Rena A. Lamparska

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 842 Giacomo Leopardi (Fall: 3)

Conducted in Italian
Leopardi and the literary trends of his epoch. His poetics, his Canti, Operette morali, Pensieri, and Zibaldone.
Rena A. Lamparska

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 843 Renaissance Habits of Highly Effective People (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian.
Centuries before Covey's 1989 classic, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Castiglione's Il libro del Cortegiano became an international and perennial best seller. Castiglione offers a prolonged and often poignant conversation about taste, manners, masculinity and femininity, influence, and power in a court. It inspired a raft of guides to good conduct for people of all classes, both male and female. The meaning and success of such texts, past and present, will be explored as a reflection of the psyche of the early-modern period and today.
Laurie Shepard

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 844 La Cultura Letteraria del Tardo Seicento Italiano (Fall: 3)

Temi del seminario: Due modelli culturali: la "repubblica letteraria" di Magliabechi (Firenze) e di Muratori (Modena) e la "monarchia" arcadica. L'editoria napoletana (Antonio Bulifon) e la trasmissione di "notizie letterarie." La crisi del Barocco letterario e la sua eredità. Le nuove tendenze letterarie relative alla "conditione dell'huomo" contro la retorica tradizionale e la precettistica. Gli Investiganti tra medicina e lirica. Gregorio Caloprese: filoaofia, anatomia e passioni; anatomia e poesia; ragione fantasia. La ripresa e il tramonto del petrarchismo. Dalle passioni al sensismo settecentesco.
Rena A. Lamparska

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 850 The Plague in Italy: From Boccaccio to Manzoni (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian
Undergraduates may enroll with permission of the instructor
An interdisciplinary exploration of Italian literature and culture from the fourteenth to nineteenth centuries, from the perspective of the bubonic plague, the disastrous medical scourge that struck the peninsula every generation from the late Middle Ages through the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Literary sources will be supplemented by contemporary scientific treatises, religious tracts, personal diaries, and historical chronicles, as well as by documentation offered by the visual arts.
Franco Mormando

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 859 Plague in Italy (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian
An interdisciplinary exploration of Italian literature and culture from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries from the unique perspective of the bubonic plague, that "universal calamity" that struck the peninsula with disastrous frequency from the late medieval to early modern periods. Analysis of the literary texts will be accompanied by a reading of scientific and ecclesiastical treatises, historical chronicles, diaries and other primary sources, together with the documentation offered by the visual arts, especially painting. Our goal is to arrive at a global understanding of the social-medical-literary-religious phenomenon of the plague and changing Italian response to it.
Franco Mormando

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 860 Il Teatro di Luigi Pirandello (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Italian.
The course will focus on the theatrical and theoretical works of Luigi Pirandello. The following themes will be analyzed and discussed within the larger European context: the concept of dramatic art, the "uneasiness" (il "disagio") of dramatic writing, the relation between the written word and its theatrical representation, the role of the actor and the audience in drama, the author-director-actor relation, as well as major "existential" themes and concerns of texts analyzed. Class will include film viewing among which the plays discussed in class and the history of modern ideas on the theatre (Stanislawski, Craig, Meierchold, Kantor, et al.).
Rena A. Lamparska

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 880 Ph.D. Thesis Seminar (Fall/Spring: 1)

Offered Periodically
For Ph.D. students only.
This bimonthly seminar provides Ph.D. students with a forum in which to discuss their works in progress and further develop the variety of skills necessary for conducting effective academic research and bringing to successful completion the writing of their dissertation.
The Department

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 888 Interim Study (Fall/Spring: 0)

Required for master's candidates who have completed all course requirements but have not taken comprehensive examinations. Also for master's students (only) who have taken up to six credits of Thesis Seminar but have not yet finished writing their thesis.
The Department

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 899 The Art and Craft of Literary Translation (Fall: 3)

Prerequisite: Knowledge of a Classical, Germanic, Romance, or Slavic language beyond the intermediate level.
Cross Listed with SL 427, EN 675
Offered Periodically
Permission of instructor required in the cases of Hebrew, Yiddish, and other languages.
Literary translation as an art. Discussion of the history and theory of literary translation in the West and in Russia, but mainly practice in translating poetry or artistic prose from Germanic, Romance, Slavic, or Classical Languages, into English. Conducted entirely in English as a workshop. Instructor's permission required for undergraduates and for other languages.
Maxim D. Shrayer

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 901 Advanced Textual Analysis in Spanish (Fall: 3)

Conducted in Spanish.
Required of all beginning graduate students in Hispanic Studies.

An intensive writing workshop designed to improve students' skills in textual analysis, this course includes the practice of various types of professional writing: summaries, critical analyses, book reviews, as well as oral presentations. Students confront a sophisticated range of critical terms from the fields of linguistics and critical theory, and practice using those terms. Class members engage in peer review, summarize critical readings, and conduct advanced bibliographic research.
Irene Mizrahi

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 903 Travel Literature in Latin America (Fall: 3)

Conducted in Spanish
The course examines Latin American as well as European travel narratives and their contribution to the process of national representation. Special attention will be given to the different ways in which travelers inscribed the landscape as a cultural institution. Readings include travel accounts by Antonio Pigafetta, Charles Darwin, Florence Dixie, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Francisco P. Moreno, Claude Levi-Strauss, and critical texts by Roland Barthes, Tzvetan Todorov, and Joan-Pau Rubiés among others.
Ernesto Livon-Grosman

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 905 History of the Spanish Language (Spring: 3)

Conducted in Spanish.
Required for Ph.D. in Hispanic Studies.

This course focuses on the evolution of medieval Spanish from Latin. Although primary attention will be given to the period from 1000 to 1500, later linguistic developments will also be studied. The course is divided into two main parts: phonology and morphology, with a brief look at dialectology. There will be abundant exercises to supplement the lectures. Students will benefit from having at least some acquaintance with Latin.
Dwayne E. Carpenter

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 911 Alfonso, el Sabio (Fall: 3)

Conducted in Spanish
Strong reading skills in Spanish required
An examination of the entire range of literary, legal, historical, and scientific works attributed to Alfonso. Considerable attention will be devoted to the historical and cultural context in which they were produced. Although designed for graduate students, undergraduates with superior preparation may be admitted.
Dwayne E. Carpenter

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 913 Medieval Spanish Literature (Spring: 3)

Conducted in Spanish.
Chronologically broad, politically chaotic, and religiously charged, the Spanish Middle Ages is also a literary cornucopia, abounding in epic poetry, oriental folktales, gaming treatises, ballads, erotic poetry, and novelistic stirrings. While gaining an overview of the entire literary spectrum, students will pay particular attention to the Poema de mio Cid, Libro de buen amor, and Celestina. The works' social, artistic, and historical context will be considered in detail.
Dwayne E. Carpenter

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 914 Heroic Paradigms of Early Modern Spain (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish
This course takes a historicist approach to the changing figure of the hero across Spain's imperial age (1492-1650), examining texts of multiple genres. An introduction to the period, it examines the role of the imagination in the production of and representation of history. Parallels with twentieth-century American imperial icons are encouraged: Amadís de Gaula with Luke Skywalker, the literary sheperds with the hippies: the pícaros (and pícaras) with sports heroes, saints with rock stars, baroque poets with inhabitants of the Matrix.
Elizabeth Rhodes

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 918 Il Libro Dize ál" Perversions of the Subject in the Libro de Buen Amor and La Celestina (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish
Through a reading of Libro de buen amor and La Celestina, as well as other, related, literary texts, criticism and theory, this course will look into the figures of the subject and the problems of interpretation which confront the reader of these two fundamental medieval Spanish texts.
Christopher Wood

Last Updated: 11-FEB-09

RL 931 Cervantes and the Foundation of Hispanic Narrative (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish.
This seminar studies Don Quijote as the master script of Hispanic narrative, focusing on the innovative narrative strategies of Cervantes which were most useful to future authors. Works by other authors, such as Galdós and García Márquez, will be included. Students are encouraged to have read Don Quijotebefore the seminar if possible.
Elizabeth Rhodes

Last Updated: 06-MAR-09

RL 936 Documentary Effect: Film, Literature, and the Comeback of Realism (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish.
This course focuses on Latin American documentary film and literature in order to explore the politics and poetics of representation. Does the "real" matter? How is it shaped by different mediums? Among others we will see films and read texts by Edmundo Desnoes, Fernando Birri, Ernesto Cardenal, Andrés Di Tella, and Albertina Carri. This class requires that in addition to critical readings, students watch movies during outside class time and includes hands on component. Readings in English and Spanish.
Ernesto Livon-Grosman

Last Updated: 19-DEC-08

RL 937 Imperial Seduction: Texts and Contexts (Spring: 3)

Conducted in Spanish
The early modern Hispanic Empire (XV-XVII) constitutes the foundational period of an imperial mythology which has been invoked across history in a wide variety of ways. María de Zayas writing in 1647, reconstructed the Imperial Age with acute nostalgia; for Francisco Franco in 1936, the same mythology provided the basis for severe repression. This seminar studies the actual period via its most seductive and repressive ideologies: honor, machismo, global power and Inquisition.
Elizabeth Rhodes

Last Updated: 24-JAN-07

RL 940 Dramatic Syntax in Early Modern Spanish Theater (Spring: 3)

Conducted in Spanish
This seminar considers the ontological syntax of seventeenth-century comedia,studying in particular the dynamic of subject versus object on the imperial stage. What constitutes an objectifying plot? Who can constitute a legitimate theatrical subject, and under what conditions, during the age of slavery, mysticism, and magic? Dramatic works by men and women, religious and secular, are studied.
Elizabeth Rhodes

Last Updated: 24-JAN-07

RL 943 Historiography, Memory, and Autobiography in Colonial Spanish American Texts (Spring: 3)

Conducted in Spanish
An in-depth examination of narrative technique in major chronicles of the Conquest of America. We will explore the ways in which these authors inscribe themselves as narrators as well as their writings in the context the historiographical tradition and humanist norms for historiography. Consideration will also be given to recent thinking on problems of writing history. Special attention will be given to the Historia verdaderaby Bernal Díaz and the Comentarios reales by Garcilaso Inca de la Vega. Theoretical readings by White, de Certeau, Rigney, Cohn, and Lejeune.
Sarah Beckjord

Last Updated: 24-JAN-07

RL 945 Introduction to Literary Theory (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish
Organized as a seminar, this course will discuss some of the most influential theoretical schools of the last hundred years. From Structuralism, through Deconstruction to Cultural Studies and beyond we will read a selection of essays as if in direct dialogue with each other not so much to create a linear sense of history but to point at the different concerns put forward by each of them. Those readings will include critical works by Latin American critics such as Josefina Ludmer, Carlos Monsivais, Silviano Santiago, Néstor García Canclini and George Yùdice among others.
Ernesto Livon-Grosman

Last Updated: 19-DEC-08

RL 951 Latin American Colonial Literature (Fall: 3)

Conducted in Spanish.
Close study of key texts from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, such as those of Las Casas, Valbuena, Díaz del Castillo, Cabeza de Vaca, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Sigüenza y Góngora, Del Valle y Caviedes, El Inca Garcilaso, Rodríguez Freile, and Carrií de la Bandera.
Sarah Beckjord

Last Updated: 19-DEC-08

RL 952 Spanish Romanticism (Spring: 3)

In this course we will study the major works (prose, poetry, and theater) of nineteenth-century Spanish Romanticism. We will consider romantic irony, as well as the relations of gender differences to literature, and read essays in criticism, feminist history, theory, and interpretation.
Irene Mizrahi

Last Updated: 19-DEC-08

RL 955 Baroque Literary Culture of Spanish America (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish.
A close study of major Spanish American works of the seventeenth century with special emphasis on Sor Juana. We will begin with a review of important twentieth-century statements concerning the nature and importance of the "barroco de Indias" and baroque culture in general as a framework for our readings. Texts will be drawn from a variety of genres, including poetry, narrative, theater, and historiography, and we will read them with an eye to common themes and stylistic concerns, from strategies of self-portrayal (revelation, apology, disguise) to explorations of the criollo world and also imaginative attempts to escape from its strictures.
Sarah Beckjord

Last Updated: 31-JAN-08

RL 958 Writings of the Colonial Period: Origins of the Spanish American Literary Tradition (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish.
A close study of key texts of the Spanish American colonial period. Readings and class discussions will focus both on the rhetorical conventions and precepts that informed the writing of these texts as well as on important critical debates and approaches of our times.
Sarah H. Beckjord

Last Updated: 20-FEB-08

RL 960 Against Authority: Twentieth-Century Spanish Poetry (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
This course studies the evolution of Spanish poetry from the end of the nineteenth century. While the emphasis is on poetry, and in particular, the development of its anti-authoritarian manifestations, there will be regular considerations of criticism and current literary theory.
Irene Mizrahi

Last Updated: 13-FEB-09

RL 961 The Dynamics of Dissent in Contemporary Spanish-American Novels (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish.
A study of the ideological formation and stylistic development of major Spanish American novelists of the twentieth century, with special attention to the "Boom" and "post-Boom" periods. Works by such writers as Carpentier, Fuentes, Vargas Llosa, Allende, García Máquez, Poniatowska, Mastretta, and Ferré, among others, will be examined in detail. Focus on structure, characterization and use of language will lead to an understanding of the directions that genre has taken in recent decades.
Harry L. Rosser

Last Updated: 13-FEB-09

RL 963 Spanish Women Writers Since 1980 (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish
An in-depth study of texts written by women in Spain over the last 25 years. The short stories, plays, novels, poems and essays we will discuss deal with critical issues of contemporary Spanish society and with its complex dynamics of class, race, and gender.
Irene Mizrahi

Last Updated: 13-FEB-09

RL 965 Modern and Postmodern Spanish Short Story (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
The course acquaints students with the development of the genre since the end of the 19th century. Members of the class acquire a detailed knowledge of a selected number of representative works covering the main themes and techniques of the genre, and an ability to comment on its development and its major trends. We will also apply a range of critical theories to the texts and situate them in relation to prior, or subsequent counterparts.
Irene Mizrahi

Last Updated: 28-APR-09

RL 966 Contemporary Spanish Drama (Spring: 3)

Conducted in Spanish
This course offers an intense examination of post-Civil War Spanish theater. We will discuss the dramatic structure, stagecraft and thematic content of ten plays written by exemplary figures, such as Buero Vallejo, Sastre, Arrabal, Olmo, Gala, Nieva, and Sanchis Sinisterra. Special attention will be given to the national context, including the experience of dictatorship, transition and democracy.
Irene Mizrahi

Last Updated: 13-FEB-09

RL 967 Contemporary Spanish Novel (Fall: 3)

Conducted in Spanish.
An in-depth study of the Spanish novel from post-war to post-Franco. We will discuss the works and their evolution from Social Realism to New Realism in the context of political, social and cultural changes. We will also pay attention to the way in which the Spanish novel has interfaced with trends in Europe and the Americas. Theoretical selections from formalism to post-structuralism will be considered as well.
Irene Mizrahi

Last Updated: 13-FEB-09

RL 968 Shorties: Pre-modern Hispanic Short Fiction (Fall: 3)

Conducted in Spanish
This seminar focuses on short prose narratives of the early modern period, beginning with Italian sources and concluding with Baroque horror tales, passing through Timoneda and Cervantes. The relationship between textual and political discourses will serve as the unifying motif of the seminar. Texts of the saints' lives, one of the most important, popular, and little-known genres of the period, will mediate the tempered Renaissance tale and the pre-Gothic Baroque stories. Students will work with unedited hagiographic sources.
Elizabeth Rhodes

Last Updated: 13-FEB-09

RL 969 Contemporary Spanish Novel (Fall: 3)

Conducted in Spanish.
An in-depth study of the Spanish novel from post-war to post-Franco. Discussion will focus on the novel's evolution from Social Realism to New Realism within the context of political, social, and cultural changes. Attention will be paid to the Spanish novel and contemporaneous literary trends in Europe and the Americas.
The Department

Last Updated: 13-FEB-09

RL 971 Exilic Textualities: Narration of the Spanish Exile During the Dictatorship of Franco (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish
Exile will be examined as a literary theme and as a condition of literary production in some of the most representative novels of the Spanish exile during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco (1939-1975). Sub-themes will include: the efficacy of language in exilic writing; love and lyric after the exile of the poets; memory and oblivion in the exile narrative; narrative as escape or witness; the possibility of art or the necessity of political engagement. Readings from various theoretical perspectives will supplement and challenge the literary texts of the course.
Christopher Wood

Last Updated: 13-FEB-09

RL 973 The Latin American 60's (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish.
From essays and fiction to protest songs and underground films, this course explores the dramatic political, and cultural changes triggered by the revolutionary movements of the sixties in Latin America. Special attention will be paid to the relation between politics and literature, women's role in society and the emergence of new genres like the testimonial novel and Latin America's cinema verite in light of today's renewed concern for the relation between art and politics. We will analyze, among others, works by Ariel Dorfman, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Nicolasito Guillén Landrián, Elena Poniatowska and Pino Solanas.
Ernesto Livon-Grosman

Last Updated: 06-MAR-09

RL 975 The Dreams of Reason: Literature of the Fantastic in Latin America (Fall: 3)

Readings and discussions in Spanish.
This course will examine both the nineteenth-century roots of this rich and varied vein in the Latin American literary tradition and some of the remarkable experimentation by writers of the twentieth century, from the reinventions of the "marvels" of colonial times, to incursions in science fiction, modernista fantasies, and the internationally acclaimed creations of later years. Readings will include short works by Palma, Gorriti, Holmberg, Darío, Lugones, Borges, Hernández, Bioy Casares, and Cortázar, as well as comparative works from other traditions and recent theoretical approaches.
Sarah Beckjord

Last Updated: 13-FEB-09

RL 978 The Latin American Avant-Garde (Spring: 3)

Through a combination of poetry, theory and visual art this course will follow the impact of the historical avant-garde in twentieth century Latin America. Attention will be paid to the dialogue between different experimental and critical texts by a variety of poets and critics, in particular to the idea of poetry as the praxis of theory. From Cesar Vallejo, Vicente Huidobro and Pales Matos and critics such as Peter Berger, Haroldo de Campos and Beatriz Sarlo we will look at the evolution of Latin American experimental poetics in and out of the printed page.
Ernesto Livon-Grosman

Last Updated: 06-MAR-09

RL 981 Finding Identity: Founding Nationhood in the Latin American Novel (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish
Study of representative early to mid-twentieth-century novelists, considering historical context, socio-political circumstances and aesthetic movements that influenced them. Focus on texts and techniques used for integrating history into literature and literature into history. Authors include José Eustacio Rivera, Mariano Azuela, Rómulo Gallegos, Martín Luis Guzmán, Arturo Uslar Pietri, Alejo Carpentier, María Luisa Bombal, Ricardo Güiraldes.
Harry L. Rosser

Last Updated: 13-FEB-09

RL 982 The Art of the Short Story in Spanish America (Fall: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish.
Beginning with the elements of oral tradition, reflected in early writings, the development of the genre of the short story will be traced to the present. Attention will be given to major literary currents and their effects on form and content.
Harry L. Rosser

Last Updated: 13-FEB-09

RL 985 Twentieth-Century Spanish Theater (Spring: 3)

Conducted in Spanish
This close examination of Spanish plays of the twentieth century centers on the dramatic structure, stagecraft, and content of a variety of plays composed by world-class Spanish dramatists. Special attention will be devoted to the national context of the works, including the effects of dictatorship, transition, and democracy.
The Department

Last Updated: 13-FEB-09

RL 987 Colonial Textuality (Fall: 3)

Major "crónicas," epic, and Baroque poetry from the centuries of interfacing between Spain and Spanish-America will be examined for their blend of history and imagination, as well as for adherence to or departure from traditional modes of representation.
The Department

Last Updated: 13-FEB-09

RL 988 Latin American "Pensadores" and the Literature of Ideas (Spring: 3)

The origins and evolution of the essay as a genre in Latin America will be studied for its expressions of aesthetic and philosophical concerns in the development of key countries in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. As a vehicle for "activist" people of letters, the essay is a rich and varied source of intellectual and emotional insights.
Harry L. Rosser

Last Updated: 11-MAR-09

RL 989 Baroque Spanish Literature: Poetics of "Decadence" (Spring: 3)

Politically correct interpretation today eschews the analysis of the baroque imperial age as decadent. Rather than apologize for the end of the imperial age, this seminar will render an anatomy of the creative forces of repression and crisis, marshaling theories of trauma response to analyze the relationship between perceived moral and political decay and baroque art. Textual focus is on baroque poetry and novelas.
Elizabeth Rhodes

Last Updated: 24-JAN-07

RL 996 Advanced Film Analysis (Spring: 3)

Offered Periodically
Conducted in Spanish.
This seminar introduces students to fundamentals and advanced concepts of film analysis, such as mise en scène, narrative and thematic structures, as well as theories of cinematography. Films used to illustrate these concepts are by Spanish, Latin American and Caribbean filmmakers of the last forty years. A workshop course in analysis, the class will not include the history of film nor the relationship between literature and cinema, but will emphasize skills of seeing and analyzing the artistic components of the medium, preparing students for continued film studies and teaching film.
Elizabeth Rhodes

Last Updated: 06-MAR-09

RL 998 Doctoral Comprehensive (Fall/Spring: 1)

For students who have not yet passed the Doctoral comprehensive, but prefer not to assume the status of a non-matriculating student for the one or two semesters used for preparation for the comprehensive.
The Department

Last Updated: 13-FEB-09

RL 999 Doctoral Continuation (Fall/Spring: 1)

All students who have been admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree are required to register and pay for the doctoral continuation during each semester of their candidacy. Doctoral Continuation requires a commitment of at least 20 hours per week working on the dissertation.
The Department

Last Updated: 13-FEB-09