¹On leave full year.
²Part time.

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, or the equivalent, 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 admission 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."

Note: Spanish 135 or permission of the instructor is required for all literature courses numbered 200 or higher.

Course Offerings

125, 126, 127 Intensive Spanish in Spain An intensive Spanish language course given in Salamanca, Spain. Twelve credit hours. FACULTY

125f, 126fs Elementary Spanish I, 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. Spanish 125 is prerequisite for 126. 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. Three credit hours. MR. OLIVARES AND MS. SASAKI

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

135fs Introduction to Literary Analysis Introduction to literary analysis through Spanish and Spanish-American texts. Prerequisite: Spanish 131. Three credit hours. L. MS. HERRMANN AND MR. MILLONES

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

[255] 19th-Century Spanish Literature Representative works of Romanticism and Realism. Four credit hours. L.

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

[257] Modern Spanish Literature The literature of 20th-century Spain. 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. Analyzing 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. MRS. 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 From Resistance to Democracy: The Contemporary Novel in Spain An examination of four novels representing various literary trends from the period of Spain's transition from dictatorship to democracy. Readings focus on political and gendered contexts in particular. Four credit hours. L. MS. HERRMANN

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. MS. 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.

334s 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. MRS. DOEL

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. MS. SASAKI

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

[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 Conquest and Colonization of America An introduction to the rich textual production of the Spanish-American colonial period, focusing in particular on the multiple discursive reactions elicited by the encounter with the New World. Readings include representative texts by authors such as Colnt, Cortés, Fernández de Oviedo, Pané, Las Casas, and Cabeza de Vaca. Four credit hours. L.

397f 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. Four credit hours. L. MR. MILLONES

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. Two 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

493s Senior Seminar: Arenas of Desire: Cuba, Exile, and Same-Sex Sexuality in Reinaldo Arenas Reinaldo Arenas (1943-1990), perhaps the most important writer to come out of Revolutionary Cuba, was ostracized in his native country for both his political views and his sexual orientation. His literary production will be studied in the context of Cuba's official attitude towards homosexuality, which evolved from the oppressive policies of the 1960s and the 1970s to the somewhat less intolerant views of the 1990s. Four credit hours. L, D. MR. OLIVARES