Chair, Associate Professor Betty Sasaki

Professors Priscilla Doeland Jorge Olivares; Associate Professor Sasaki; Assistant Professors Gina Herrmann, Luis Millones-Figueroa, and Barbara Nelson; Visiting Assistant Professors Meriwynn Grothe and Yvonne Sanavitis; Visiting Instructor James Roberson

The Department of Spanish offers Spanish language and Spanish and Spanish-American literature courses in all periods, genres, and major authors as well as seminars in particular topics. The major in Spanish builds upon a close reading and detailed analysis of literary texts, taking into account ideological, cultural, and aesthetic issues. Students have the opportunity to participate in Colby's language semester program in Salamanca, Spain, and to spend their junior year abroad at Colby's program in Salamanca, or at approved programs in other countries. Like most liberal arts majors, the study of foreign languages should be considered as a background leading to a wide variety of careers. Some students go on to pursue advanced degrees in Spanish. When languages are combined with course work in areas such as anthropology, history, government, economics, sociology, or the natural sciences, career possibilities in law, medicine, business, and government are enhanced.

Achievement Test: If a student offers a foreign language for entrance credit and wishes to continue it in college, that student must either have taken the College Board SAT-II test in the language or take the placement test during orientation.

Requirements for the Major in Spanish
Spanish 231 and at least seven additional semester Spanish courses numbered above 131, including two courses at the 200 level or above on literature written before 1800 and two on literature after 1800 (of these four courses, two must be in Spanish literature and two in Spanish-American literature). All seniors must take a literature course at the 300 or 400 level each semester. If taken during the senior year, Spanish 231 does not replace a literature course. Majors are strongly advised to spend one academic year studying abroad at the junior level. A minimum of one semester's study abroad at the junior level is required of majors. Majors must matriculate in a study-abroad program that offers university-level courses (not in a language acquisition program); all course work abroad must be conducted in Spanish. A minimum grade point average of 2.7 is required for permission to study abroad. All study-abroad plans for students majoring in Spanish must be approved in advance by the chair of the Department of Spanish.

The following statements also apply:
(1) The point scale for retention of the major is based on all Spanish courses numbered above 131.
(2) No major requirements may be taken satisfactory/unsatisfactory.
(3) Students must receive a grade of C or better for the course to count toward the major.
(4) No more than the equivalent of four semester courses of foreign study or transfer credit may be counted toward the major.
(5) All majors must take at least one course in Spanish approved by the major advisor each semester until graduation.

Honors in Spanish
Students majoring in Spanish may apply during the junior year for admission to the honors program. Permission is required; guidelines are established by the department. Successful completion of the work of the honors thesis and of the major will enable the student to graduate "With Honors in Spanish."

COURSE OFFERINGS

125f    Elementary Spanish I    An introductory course in Spanish that emphasizes an interactive approach to the study of grammar in order to acquire communicative skills and cultural awareness. Four credit hours.    NELSON, OLIVARES

126fs    Elementary Spanish II    An introductory course in Spanish that emphasizes an interactive approach to the study of grammar in order to acquire communicative skills and cultural awareness. Prerequisite: Spanish 125. Four credit hours.    FACULTY

127fs    Intermediate Spanish I    A grammar review at the intermediate level with continued emphasis on interactive communication and cultural awareness. Prerequisite: Spanish 126 or appropriate score on the College Board Spanish SAT-II test. Four credit hours.    FACULTY

128fs    Intermediate Spanish II    Continued development of the skills acquired in Spanish 125-127 with particular emphasis on reading and discussion. Prerequisite: Spanish 127. Four credit hours.    SASAKI

131fs    Conversation and Composition    Language review with emphasis on oral expression, written composition, and vocabulary development. Enrollment limited. Prerequisite: Spanish 128. Four credit hours.    DOEL, SANAVITIS

135fs    Introduction to Literary Analysis    Introduction to literary analysis through Spanish and Spanish-American texts. Prerequisite: Spanish 131. Four credit hours.  L.    HERRMANN, MILLONES, ROBERSON

198s    Spanish Grammar and Social Issues     Two credit hours.    SASAKI

231fs    Advanced Spanish    A review of Spanish grammar at the advanced level. Prerequisite: Spanish 131. Four credit hours.    OLIVARES

[256]    The Generation of 1898    The principal figures of this generation: Unamuno, Azorín, Baroja, Valle-Inclán, and Machado. Four credit hours.  L.    

[261]    Spanish-American Literature I    Spanish-American literature from the colonial period to 1888. Four credit hours.  L.    

[262]    Spanish-American Literature II    Spanish-American literature from 1888 to the present. Four credit hours.  L.    

271f    Questions of Identity, Spaces, and Power    An exploration through selected readings of the rich and complex multicultural heritage of the Iberoamerican world, focusing on the broad questions of identity, spaces, and power. Analysis of relationships between Arab and Christian worlds, church and state, conquering and conquered peoples, dictatorships and revolutions/civil wars, men and women. Readings from novels, short stories, drama, and poetry to study the richness of both structures and themes. Four credit hours.  L.    DOEL

[273]    Contemporary Spanish-American Short Story    An examination of the uncanny, the marvelous, and the fantastic short story in Latin America. Topics for discussion include modernization and experimentation in contemporary narrative fiction, and the relations between art and politics as well as between literature and mass media. Readings include representative texts by authors such as Borges, Carpentier, Castellanos, Cortázar, Ferré, Fuentes, and Rulfo. Four credit hours.  L.    

298As    The Short Novel in Spanish America    Close readings of contemporary Spanish American "short novels" by representative authors such as Mario Bellatín, José Bianco, Rosario Ferré, Carlos Fuentes, Gabriel García Márquez, Elena Poniatowska, and Zoe Váldes. Topics for discussion include the representation of sexualties, eroticism, and gender politics within the contest of the social and political realities of Spanish America. Four credit hours.  L.    OLIVARES

298Bs    U.S. Latina/Chicana Women Writers    An examination of a selection of novels, short stories, poetry, theater, and non-fiction by United States Latina and Chicana women writers. Interdisciplinary in approach, the course will focus on the relationship between the texts read and several important contemporary issues. Topics include feminism, the social and cultural construction of race and ethnicity, immigration, cultural nationalism, and identity formation. Readings are in English. Four credit hours.  L, D.    SASAKI

[332]    Contemporary Spanish-American Novel    Close readings of contemporary Spanish-American novels by representative authors such as Borges, Cabrera Infante, Carpentier, Cortázar, Fuentes, García, Márquez, Puig, Valenzuela, and Vargas Llosa. Topics for discussion include texts and contexts, narrative perspective, the role of the reader, and the carnivalesque. Four credit hours.  L.    

[334]    Women in Hispanic Texts    Works by both male and female Hispanic authors are included in a study of the portrayal of women in Hispanic poetry and fiction. Selections from the Middle Ages through modern times reflect both traditional and nontraditional portrayals of women in what has been a particularly male-oriented culture. Four credit hours.  L, D.    

351f    Ideology and Ethics in Spanish Golden Age Literature    An examination of specific literary works as responses to Spain's changing political climate during the 16th and 17th centuries. How the literary work reinforces or questions, creates or undermines, an official discourse that, in both Reformation and Counter-Reformation Spain, seeks to define national identity in ethical and ideological terms. Four credit hours.  L.    SASAKI

352s    Don Quijote    Analysis of Miguel de Cervantes's masterpiece. Four credit hours.  L.    DOEL

[358]    The Contemporary Spanish Novel    The Spanish novel after the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). Readings include representative texts by authors such as Carmen Martín Gaite, Miguel Delibes, Adelaida García Morales, Javier Marías, and Juan Marsé. Four credit hours.  L.    

[371]    The Colonial Experience: European and Amerindian Responses to the Cultural Encounter    An exploration of texts and iconography produced to report, understand, legislate, and record the various dimensions of the cultural encounter during the 16th and 17th centuries. The course emphasizes the efforts by both Europeans and Amerindians to control the memory of events and to position themselves in colonial society. Requires close reading of representative primary documents from all parts of the colonial Spanish World. Formerly listed as Spanish 397. Four credit hours.  L.    

483fj, 484s    Senior Honors Thesis    The senior honors thesis will be undertaken in addition to all required courses for the major; it does not replace any part of the major. The thesis, which will be written in Spanish, is to be a substantial study of a carefully defined literary topic supported by critical sources. Prerequisite: A 3.5 or higher major average at the end of the junior year and permission of the department. Three credit hours.    FACULTY

491f, 492s    Independent Study    Individual projects in areas where the student has demonstrated the interest and competence necessary for independent work. Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor. Two to four credit hours.    FACULTY

493Af    Senior Seminar: Representing New World    An interdisciplinary exploration of the emergence and conflicts of Latin American colonial societies: the capture of new lands and the colonial city; New World nature: its challenges and interpretations; the spiritual conquest and indigenous resistance; and women's writings inside and outside the convent. Close readings of 16th and 17th century texts as well as selected criticism. Four credit hours.    MILLONES

493Bs    The Culture of Politics in the Spanish Civil War    An interdisciplinary analysis of the varied cultural production from the Spanish Civil War period: poster art, music, and political discourse. Literary and cinematic texts include fiction by Rodoreda, Cela, Matute, Ayala, and Goytisolo as well as films by Ken Loach, Vicente Aranda, and others. Special attention to the role of women in this important period of Europe's history Four credit hours.    HERRMANN