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Course Offerings for Spring 2006 Core Courses Elective Courses Core Courses ARTH229 Topics in Contemporary Latin American Art M - W 3:00-4:20 This course will present a comprehensive overview of the artistic practices and intellectual discourses relevant to contemporary art production in Latin America. Painting, sculpture, photography, video, glass, ceramics, textiles, performance and installation art will all be examined, along with the theoretical issues that inform them. Some of the many topics to be discussed include post-colonial theory, the history of abstraction in Latin America, national identities, the legacy of Muralism, religious syncretism, ecologies, and Border issues. Although this course is open to all students, taking Survey of Latin American Art prior to this is highly suggested. PS 259 From Anarchy to Democracy M-W 12:00 – 1:20 During the 20th century, Spain went from a paradigm of anarchist politics and civil war during the inter-war years to an emblematic example of fascist leaning right-wing authoritarianism during the cold war to a stunning case of democratic transition and consolidation by the late 1970s. This course explains the factors behind this series of dramatic and often traumatic political transformations. The hope is to learn about the nature of Spanish politics but also about the domestic and international sources of political development in general and the rise of democracy in particular. Along the way, the course will touch on the wide range of themes that animate the study of Spanish politics. Key among them: the failure of liberalism and democracy during the inter-war years, industrialization and mass culture under the Franco regime, the reconstruction of the memory of the Spanish Civil War, the rise of separatist politics and terrorism in the Basque country, the recent wave of immigrants to major Spanish cities and Spain's rising profile in international affairs. SPAN 302 Introduction to Latin American Literature M-W 1:00 – 2:20 Old: B New: Foreign Language, Literature, and Culture This course serves as an introduction to the interpretation of literary texts from Latin America. It covers a broad range historically—from pre-Conquest times to the present—and presents all literary genres, including poetry, short stories, novels, essays, and plays. This course is intended to prepare students for more advanced and specialized courses in Hispanic literature. A great deal of attention is paid to the development of critical skills, both verbally and in writing. Frequent essays with revisions; class discussions and presentations. Please note: Spanish 301 or 302 are prerequisites for all 300-level literature seminars in Spanish. Prospective students must speak with instructor prior to registration. Elective Courses ARTH 323 “Crossroads of Civilization” Monday 4:30 – 6:50 Crosslisted: Medieval Studies The course traces over 1,300 years of the art and architecture of the Iberian peninsula. it begins with a brief look at the Celtiberian culture and the colonial activities of the Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans. The focus, however, is on four primary areas: Visigothic art; Al-Andalus, the Islamic art of Spain; Asturian and Mozarabic art; and Romanesque art of the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. Students investigate the complex patterns of exchange, appropriation, assimilation, and tension among the Islamic, Judaic, and Christian traditions, and attempt to assess the effects of this cross-fertilization of cultures on the visual arts. Open to students outside of art history. Susan Aberth Tuesday 1:30-3:50 In the decades following the Mexican Revolution muralists, largely sponsored by the new leftist government, strove to convey utopian notions of nationhood in order to generate an awareness of patriotic values among the masses. Popular themes included scenes of Revolutionary combat, the Spanish conquest, the social customs and festivals of Mexico's indigenous population, and glorified conceptions of the country's pre-Hispanic past. This course will examine the movement's philosophical origins, the murals of Orozco, Rivera and Siqueiros, and the work of lesser known Mexican muralists. Also studied will be the movement's wide ranging impact on murals executed under the WPA in the United States throughout the 1930s, in Nicaragua during the 1970s, in urban Chicano communities, and in recent contemporary art. Students will be required to write an extensive research paper and give an oral presentation with slides. Survey of Latin American Art is highly suggested, but not required. Special permission of the instructor. PS 214 U.S.-Latin American Relations M-W 3:00 – 4:20 Old: C New: Social Science / Rethinking Difference Cross-listed: Human Rights A comprehensive overview of the relationships between the United States and the nations of Latin America, how this process was affected by historical and ideological events, and what possibilities exist for its future. The course is divided into three sections: first, historical overview of the events that shaped US-Latin American relations, emphasizing US military interventions in Latin America, US attempts to establish political and economic hegemony, and US efforts to export democratic government; second, an examination of the principal issues that currently dominate the relations between the US and its southern neighbors: economic integration, trade, drugs, and immigration; third, a close look at the relationships between the United States and three countries of special interest to it and its domestic politics: Cuba, Mexico and Puerto Rico. SPAN 334 T 9:30 – 11:50 Old: D New: Foreign Language, Literature & Culture / Rethinking Difference Referred to as “the little thumb” of the hemisphere, “the sweet waist of America,” or as “the dubious strait,” the Central American isthmus and its literature will be the central focus of this course. We will read a selection of twentieth-century authors from the region in order to familiarize students with texts that are often marginalized from the Latin American canon. We will explore particular aesthetic and ideological concerns and situate our readings within the violent political and historical context that often becomes, in itself, a recurring theme in Central American fiction. Among the authors we will read are Miguel Angel Asturias, Gioconda Belli, Roque Dalton, Tatiana Lobo, and Sergio Ramírez. Conducted in Spanish. Prerequisite: Spanish 301 or 302. Prospective students must speak with instructor prior to registration. SPAN 346 T – Th 1:00 – 2:20 Old: D New: Foreign Language, Literature & Culture / Rethinking Difference In this course we will read a variety of Latin American and Peninsular travel writers, beginning with French and North American revolutionary hero Francisco de Miranda and continuing through El País columnist Maruja Torres’s sentimental journey through Latin America. The course will pay special attention to the transatlantic dialogue between Europe and America— Spanish visions of the New World, North and South, and Latin American visions of North America and Europe—as well as to the raging political and aesthetic debates behind the writing—civilization versus barbarism, and the various political uses of the exotic. Texts will range from travel diaries to fully-conceived travel books to Juan Ramón Jiménez’s technically innovative poetic notebook of his visit to the United States. Readings, class discussions and assignments will be in Spanish. Prerequisite: Spanish 301 or 302. Prospective students must speak with instructor prior to registration. Back to course list Back to top |
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