Spanish (SPAN-UA)

The city of Madrid will be the primary object of study in this course: its history, its architecture, its people, its neighborhoods, and its place in the Spanish imaginary. Through readings, film viewings, walking tours, and the production of their own documentary shorts, students will have an opportunity to explore, engage with, and document aspects of this protean city. The course, moreover, will provide an introduction to documentary theory, tradition and practice, will encourage students to look, listen and explore Madrid with a documentarian’s gaze, to represent the city from new perspectives, and to seek out stories that deepen their understanding of Madrid and Spain.

Open to students with no previous training in Spanish and to others on assignment by placement test. Beginning course designed to teach the elements of Spanish language structure and vocabulary through a primarily communicative approach. Emphasis is on building on the four basic language skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking) to encourage spontaneous language use in and out of the classroom.

Open to students who completed SPAN-UA 1 and to others on assignment by placement test. This course is the continuation of the beginner level designed to teach the elements of Spanish language structure and vocabulary through a primarily communicative approach. Emphasis is on building on the four basic language skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking) to encourage spontaneous language use in and out of the classroom. After completing SPAN-UA 2 or SPAN-UA 10 (see below), students who wish to continue studying Spanish at an intermediate level may enroll in SPAN-UA 3, which is preparation for SPAN-UA 4, or SPAN-UA 20 (see below) Completion of either SPAN-UA 20 or SPAN-UA 4 satisfies the Core Curriculum foreign language requirement.

This course builds on the four basic language skills and deepens the cultural component by introducing literary readings, short films, and various opportunities for social interaction in the language. After completion of this course, students take SPAN-UA 4 in order to fulfill the Core Curriculum foreign language requirement. Prerequisite: SPAN-UA 2 OR SPAN-UA 10 OR qualifying placement score.

This course continues the development of the four key language skills through real-world scenarios and writing tasks. It emphasizes the acquisition of new vocabulary and grammar in culturally relevant contexts. Successful completion of this course fulfills the Core Curriculum foreign language requirement. Prerequisite: SPAN-UA 3 or qualifying placement score.

Open to students with some previous training in Spanish or another Romance language, and to others on assignment by placement exam or in consultation with the Directors of the Language Program. This is a one-semester intensive course that covers the equivalent of one year of elementary Spanish (SPAN-UA 1 and SPAN-UA 2). After completing this course, students may enroll in SPAN-UA 3, which is preparation for SPAN-UA 4, or continue to the following intensive course in the sequence, SPAN-UA 20 (see below). Completion of either SPAN-UA 20 or SPAN-UA 4 fulfills the Core Curriculum foreign language requirement.

An introductory course in Spanish designed for heritage students who understand spoken Spanish but need to develop their reading and writing skills. This course serves as a formal introduction to Spanish language structure. In addition to grammar and vocabulary review, this course incorporates cultural and literary readings in Spanish to develop written and oral communication skills. Enrollment requires permission from the Directors of the Language Program.

This is a one-semester intensive course that covers the equivalent of one year of intermediate Spanish (SPAN-UA 3 and SPAN-UA 4) in one semester. Successful completion of this course fulfills the Core Curriculum foreign language requirement. Prerequisite: SPAN-UA 2, SPAN-UA 10, OR qualifying placement score.

This course is designed to expand and consolidate the student’s lexical and grammatical understanding of the language and to introduce the fundamental principles of expository writing as they apply to Spanish through exercises, cultural and historical readings, and intensive practice of various prose techniques and styles. Prerequisite: SPAN-UA 4 OR SPAN-UA 20 OR qualifying placement score OR 4 or 5 on the AP Language Exam OR 6 or 7 on the IB Spanish Exam OR A or B on A-Levels.

This course is designed to provide advanced heritage Spanish-speaking students with a formal understanding of the language and to deepen their knowledge of various aspects of Hispanic culture. To this end, the course integrates grammar content with literature, news media, and video materials. Prerequisites: Qualifying placement score AND written assessment in the Spanish department.

This course is designed to improve verbal communication and pronunciation, and to develop a more natural and advanced use of the language through films, songs, and literature. For non-heritage and non-native Spanish speakers only. Prerequisite: SPAN-UA 4 OR SPAN-UA 20 OR 4 or 5 on the AP Language Exam OR 6 or 7 on the IB Spanish Exam OR A or B on A-Levels.

Taught in Spanish. Not for native/heritage speakers. Advanced Spanish Conversation is designed to expand students’ speaking skills beyond the practical, day-to-day language functions. The aim is to achieve a more elaborate and abstract use of the language through the practice of pronunciation, vocabulary, idioms, and structures, within the contexts of selected subject areas. Although the main concentration of the course is on the oral component, reading and writing skills are practiced as well, as a basis for oral expression. The goal of the course is to generate active participation through thought-provoking discussions and creative activities that stimulate critical thinking as well as conversation. This is achieved through authentic readings from contemporary sources — newspapers, magazines, literature, films, music, videos, etc. — that sensitize students to the actual concerns of Spanish. A process of recording, transcribing and editing actual conversations will also help students better their Spanish. Finally, various listening comprehension activities will be included to fine tune the student’s ear to Spanish sounds.

Quechua is the most important and most widely spoken indigenous language in South America, with about 10 million speakers living from the high mountains to the tropical lowlands in Colombia (where the language is called Ingano), Ecuador (where it is called kichwa or runa simi, "human speech"), Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina (where it is usually spelled Quechua and called, by its speakers, runa simi). Studying Quechua opens a window onto alternative ways of thinking about social worlds, about space and time, family, and humans' relationship with the natural world.

Continuation of Elementary Quechua I (SPAN-UA 81)

Continuation of Elementary Quechua II (SPAN-UA 82)

Continuation of Intermediate Quechua I (SPAN-UA 83) which serves as the prerequisite. Quechua is the most important and most widely spoken indigenous language in South America, with about 10 million speakers living from the high mountains to the tropical lowlands in Colombia (where the language is called Ingano), Ecuador (where it is called kichwa or runa shimi, "human speech"), Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina (where it is usually spelled Quechua and called, by its speakers, runa simi). Studying Quechua opens a window onto alternative ways of thinking about social worlds, about space and time, family, and humans' relationship with the natural world. Quechua is recommended for students anticipating travel to the Andean region, those interested in language and linguistics, and those interested in indigenous literatures and cultures. Students who satisfactorily complete Intermediate Quechua will be well-prepared for intensive summer study at one of many summer study abroad programs in Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia that will put them in closer contact with the indigenous world. This course satisfies the College Core Curriculum's foreign language requirement.

The ultimate goal of these courses is to expand, refine, and solidify students’ knowledge of the Spanish language, cultures, and literatures. Some courses emphasize vocabulary and contexts relevant to professional fields such as business and medicine, preparing students to communicate effectively in specialized areas.

This course explores the principles and challenges of translation through a combination of readings and in-class workshops. It focuses on translation theory from the 20th and 21st centuries, examining both its historical context and contemporary developments. It delves into Spanish-English translation skills by working with a variety of genres, including poetry, short stories, film, comics, advertisements, medical and legal documents.

This course explores both the theory and practice of literary translation, with an emphasis on how texts navigate cultural boundaries. The assigned theoretical readings not only guide students through the translation process but also offer fresh perspectives on the understanding of literature. A key component of the course is hands-on engagement with the act of translation itself. Students translate works from a variety of genres, including children’s literature, poetry, chronicle, and short stories. Throughout the course, students reflect on the structural differences between English and Spanish, considering aspects such as tone, style, and power dynamics. The course also examines enduring challenges in translation, such as issues of fidelity, literalness, and imitation.

This course introduces core concepts and practical skills of oral translation (interpretation) through theory, classroom exercises, and live practice. It covers key 20th and 21st century interpretation theories, emphasizing their relevance today. Students develop Spanish-English interpretation skills for various settings, including community, film dubbing, conferences, and legal, medical, and educational contexts. Practice includes consecutive, simultaneous, and sight interpretation, focusing on active listening, memory, note-taking, and quick reformulation. Readings and discussions explore topics like interpreter ethics, cultural mediation, and balancing fidelity with adaptability.

In this applied workshop, students reflect on the creative process while crafting and producing their own texts in Spanish in the genres of short story and poetry. Students encounter some of the most dynamic, influential writers in the Spanish-speaking world and engage in exercises that expand their writing skills in relation to these model texts. Students regularly share their work and engage in constructive peer review.

Offered every semester. 4 points. Students refine their skills in poetry writing through close reading of individual poems, excerpts from poetry collections, and complete books of poems written by contemporary Latin American and Spanish poets. In class, students reflect on the creative process of poetry writing while they work on their own poems. Collaborative work and individual meetings with the instructor are key to the dynamics of this workshop.

In this applied workshop, students explore and expand their writing of poetry in Spanish through a range of exercises and the reading of model texts from across Latin America. The course engages in dialogue with hybrid forms and languages, and makes connections with visual arts, music, ecology, and more. At the same time, students learn to refine and polish their own work through public presentation, peer review, and collaboration.

Esferas is a 2-credit course designed to support the journal Esferas, the online and print on demand undergraduate journal of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. The journal works as an extension of the academic learning in the department, and each year features one of the subject areas covered in our courses. Students will learn and perform all activities related to the publication of an academic journal, including but not limited to performing peer review, editing, and online and on page editing and proofreading. Students will also learn how to read, interpret and write about the featured topic, acquiring the necessary proficiency in the scholarship available to write an introduction for the journal. The final paper, which will consist of an introduction for the journal, will be selected from the students’ final project and published.

Prerequisite: Permission of the director of undergraduate studies. Open only to majors. Course credit for internship projects in approved businesses, schools, social service agencies, and cultural or governmental offices. Interested students should apply to the department early in the semester before they wish to begin their internship.

Prerequisite: Permission of the director of undergraduate studies. Open only to majors. Course credit for internship projects in approved businesses, schools, social service agencies, and cultural or governmental offices. Interested students should apply to the department early in the semester before they wish to begin their internship.

Majors who have completed preliminary requirements for the major (“foundations” courses) may have the opportunity to pursue directed research for 2 or 4 credits under the supervision of a professor in the department, in most cases a professor with whom they have previously taken an upper-level literature/culture course. Students should first contact the professor to discuss this possibility; the student and professor will devise a syllabus to be submitted for approval to the Director of Undergraduate Studies. ​​For majors only, no exceptions. Requires the agreement of the sponsoring professor and permission of the Director of Undergraduate Studies.

Majors who have completed preliminary requirements for the major (“foundations” courses) may have the opportunity to pursue directed research for 2 or 4 credits under the supervision of a professor in the department, in most cases a professor with whom they have previously taken an upper level literature/culture course. Students should first contact the professor to discuss this possibility; the student and professor will devise a syllabus to be submitted for approval to the Director of Undergraduate Studies. ​​For majors only, no exceptions. Requires the agreement of the sponsoring professor and permission of the Director of Undergraduate Studies.

Taught in English. We cannot know contemporary Latin America and Spain without understanding the dynamic period of expansion of the Iberian monarchies in the Early Modern Atlantic World. In that period Castilian, Portuguese, Mediterranean, West African, Mesoamerican and Andean peoples, among others, became — through coercion, free will, or accident — protagonists in a dramatic history that imposed and contested imperial rule. The course combines the disciplinary perspectives of cultural studies and history to understand key historical formations of the Early Modern Atlantic World, including colonial expansion; slavery, labor, and economic exploitation; religion; race/gender/sexuality; and claims for rights and revolution. For each of these, we delve into primary sources and relevant artistic production, including judicial records, testimony, letters, drama, visual art and architecture, and travel writing. The course is structured through key critical concepts and we undertake a larger reflection on both the nature of historical memory and the contemporary legacy of the colonial past.

This course explores specialized topics in the Cultural History of the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world, offering interdisciplinary perspectives for understanding how cultures shape, and are shaped by historical contexts. Students will engage with historical,aesthetic, and theoretical works, encouraging critical analysis and relational thinking. Topics and prerequisites vary by semester.

This course provides an introduction to the making of modern Latin America through the study of key cultural practices in literature, visual art, film, and performance from the 19th century to the present. The course is organized around key concepts, which may vary by semester and by instructor.

What makes a text “important”—and who gets to decide? This course introduces students to key works from Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Iberian Peninsula, while asking critical questions about what has been included (and excluded) from the literary canon. We’ll look closely at how reading and writing were used as tools of power by elite writers and thinkers, and how ideas about citizenship, nation, and modernity shaped cultural expression. At the same time, we explore the vibrant worlds of oral storytelling, performance, popular literature, and folklore—often left out of traditional accounts. How do race, class, gender, and sexuality affect whose voices are heard? Through a mix of classic and lesser-known texts, students will gain insight into how culture is created, contested, and reshaped from the ground up. Taught in Spanish or English, depending on the semester and instructor.

Taught in English. Words like modernity, memory, race, or identity are more than dictionary entries—they carry the weight of history, everyday experience, and cultural imagination. In this course, we explore “keywords” that have helped shape the ways that people in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Iberian Peninsula understand themselves and their worlds, and which, in turn, have shaped critical approaches to the culture, literature, and aesthetics of these regions. We treat these terms not as fixed definitions, but as evolving sites of debate—where shifting values, ideas, and social relations become visible. We focus especially on how artists, writers, musicians, and performers have taken up and transformed these keywords, drawing on poetry, film, visual art, theater, music, and essays. Students will encounter cutting-edge research taking place at NYU as different faculty members visit the class to present and discuss their research.

Taught in Spanish. This course provides an introduction to the making of modern Spain through the study of key cultural practices in literature, visual art, film, and performance from the 19th century to the present. The course is organized around key concepts, which may vary by semester and by instructor.

Taught in Spanish. Women’s writing is a changing archive, and feminist writing traverses any number of bodies, challenges to the dominant order, and distributions of the sensible. The course will analyze gender in the Latin American corpus, from early writings testifying to marginalization and resistance, to contemporary feminist discourses addressing cross-class injustices; intersectionality; black and indigenous thought; queer, trans* and nonbinary subjectivities; and activisms.

This course provides an introduction to Latin American Cinema, and may focus on particular national cinemas, transnational cinematic trends, genres or periods within its history in Latin America, or may be organized thematically around specific issues and ways of examining cinema history, including gender or class histories and may include different technologies of cinematic production. This class may be offered in English, Spanish, or Portuguese and will be indicated in the semester course description. Prerequisite: (SPAN-UA 50 OR SPAN-UA 51 OR any course numbered SPAN-UA 1## OR SPAN-UA 3## OR SPAN-UA 93## where # represents any number OR Advanced Placement Examination Spanish Literature >= 4)

Taught in Spanish. The Argentinean writer Julio Cortázar (1914–1984) remains one of the most important Boom authors in Latin America. His incursions into the fantastic genre, his development of a new theory of the novel in Hopscotch or 62: A Model Kit, his exploration of popular culture in texts like the hybrid around the Day in Eighty Worlds or the comic-strip novel Fantomas, and his political essays like Nicaraguan sketches, trace not only his own developments as an author but also the development of Latin American culture and politics in the 20th century. This advanced seminar will follow the evolution of Cortázar’s writing with a specific emphasis on his fantastic stories and their relationship to Poe and Borges, his strategic use of popular culture, specifically his use of visual language and jazz music as a means of questioning the limits between high and low, the influence he received from the Cuban revolution, and the political struggles he faced as émigré writer in France.

Explores the impact of photography on writing through texts that take photography as their main concern (but where no photographs appear) and texts that play on the page with the relationship between image and word.

Taught in Spanish. In the context of growing social inequality and new forms of political struggle, the notion of precarity has become central to Latin America’s cultural imagination in recent decades. Cultural reflections on labor, gendered and racial violence, migration, and environmental degradation often converge around “precarious life” as the terrain on which our experiences, sensibilities, and collective struggles take shape. This centrality of the precarious poses a narrative challenge: how do we tell stories when the future—individual, social, planetary—is marked by risk, indeterminacy, and insecurity? How do we narrate when survival itself is at stake? This course investigates these questions through cultural materials produced in Latin America over the last thirty years. Combining literature, film, theory, and activist interventions, we will explore narrative forms, rhetorics of futurity, the role of bodily vulnerability, and modes of collective alliance in an age shaped by precarity. Readings include works by Samanta Schweblin, Roberto Bolaño, Selva Almada, Diego Zúñiga, and cartonera publishers, alongside films by Patricio Guzmán, Eduardo Coutinho, Naomi Klein, and Laura Citarella. Theoretical texts by Judith Butler, Ignacio Lewkowicz, and the NiUnaMenos collective will also be included.

Taught in Spanish. Dance and literature have always been seen as heterogeneous practices; dance works with real bodies in motion, while literature moves through words, and produces bodies in movement. The purpose of this course is to examine the space of articulation that brings together these two practices, while responding to several questions: 1. How does philosophy think and write about dance and movement? 2. In what ways, and to what ends, are gesture, movement and dance used in literary texts? 3. How does theory and criticism use gestures, movement and dance as metaphors for thought? 4. How can we use movement and the gestures of dance and literature as the ground for knowledge and thought? 5. How does dance produce literature and vice versa? This course will include texts by Cirilo Villaverde, García Lorca, Luis Palés Matos, Alejo Carpentier, Julio Cortázar, Andrés Caicedo, Claudia Salazar and Mario Bellatin; the films of Almodóvar; flamenco dance representation and the choreography of José Limón, Marha Graham, Pina Bausch, Oscar Araiz, Arthur Aviles and Alicia Díaz. Prerequisite: SPAN-UA 200 (Critical Approaches) or permission by professor.

Taught in Spanish. Topics address a wide range of cultural expressions of the Spanish-speaking world as well as their historical and sociopolitical contexts. As a 300-level course taught in Spanish, this course provides structured opportunities to advance critical thinking skills through the use of written Spanish. May be taken up to four times in total (16 total credits) as content changes and with the advice of the department.

Taught in Spanish. Topics address a wide range of cultural expressions related to Latin America as well as their historical and sociopolitical contexts. As a 300-level course taught in Spanish, this course provides structured opportunities to advance critical thinking skills through use of written Spanish. May be taken up to four times in total (16 total credits) as content changes and with the advice of the department.

Taught in Spanish. Topics address a wide range of cultural expressions based in the Caribbean as well as their historical and sociopolitical contexts. As a 300-level course taught in Spanish, this course provides structured opportunities to advance critical thinking skills through use of written Spanish.

Taught in Spanish. Topics address a wide range of cultural expressions related to Spain as well as their historical and sociopolitical contexts. As a 300-level course taught in Spanish, this course provides structured opportunities to advance critical thinking skills through use of written Spanish. May be taken up to four times in total (16 total credits) as content changes and with the advice of the department.

This course seeks to familiarize students with the historical, geographical, ethnic, and socio-linguistic factors that contributed to the large variety of Spanish dialects spoken on the Iberian Peninsula, in the Americas, and in other Spanish-speaking parts of the world, including the Philippines and the Balkans. A web of factors combined to create a wide range of variations to the Castilian Spanish brought to America, itself the result of drastic changes since its evolution from its Latin roots. This class is about two things: the Spanish language, and difference in time and space. The course will offer students a panorama of the similarities and differences in the ways that the Spanish language has been used by speakers in different times and different places from the Middle Ages in Spain to the present day throughout the Spanish-speaking world; and second, it will contextualize those similarities and differences in their social, historical, and linguistic contexts. Through a combination of assigned readings, lecture, discussion, and collaborative problem-solving, students will gain an understanding of how and why Spanish changes over time and space, and what those changes look like in practical, day-to-day usage in a variety of contexts: formal, informal, professional, historical, etc. In each class meeting we will pay careful attention to different interesting aspects of the Spanish language, and each of these aspects will be presented along with the social and historical context in which it occurs. This will help students in learning the technical side of the material while also allowing them to ask and answer more interpretive questions: What is a language? How does it function in the lives of its speakers? Why and how does it change? What do those changes look like? What are the consequences of those changes? By the end of the semester, each student will come to his/her/their own answer to the question: Is Spanish one language, or many?

In Spanish. This course will focus on Spanish cultural production in a variety of genres and artistic forms such as photography, essays, fiction, poetry, film, advertising, popular music, comics, etc., from 1936 to the present. Over the course of the semester, we will examine the evolution of Spain’s cultural and political identities from the Spanish Civil War to today. We will study material related to surrealism and the avant-garde movements of the 1930s, the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), repression and censorship under Francisco Franco’s dictatorial regime (1939–1975), political dissidence and anti-fascist discourse (1955–1975), the Transition from dictatorship to democracy (1975–1982), the death of Franco and the Movida Madrileña, regional identities and Spanish nationalism(s), the recuperation of historical memory, Spanish identity within the European Union, and present-day issues such as immigration from North Africa and Latin America and responses to the economic crisis. We will think about the role of cultural production in relation to marginalized identities, consider the relationship between memory/forgetting and individual/collective identity, and reflect on how different genres create and question accepted narratives.

Applied Spanish Linguistics is a field that connects the study of linguistics with practical applications of Spanish in the real world. Course topics vary by semester and instructor, and may include linguistics training for translation and interpretation; discourse and conversation analysis; language learning/use and technology; and corpus linguistics, among other subjects. As a 300-level course taught in Spanish, this course provides structured opportunities to advance critical thinking skills through writing in Spanish.

Taught in Spanish. This course centers the experience of pueblos originarios/povos originários (first/originary peoples) within Meso-American, Andean, Amazonian Indigenous and other formations. Course topic varies by semester and instructor, but may focus on specific cultural, artistic, and linguistic practices; struggles for land and ancestral rights; sovereignty, autonomy and survivance; alternative epistemologies and ontologies; resistance against extractivism, de-Indigenization and ethnocide. As a 300-level course taught in Spanish, this course provides structured opportunities to advance critical thinking skills through the use of written Spanish. May be taken up to four times in total (16 total credits) as content changes and with the advice of the department.

Taught in Spanish. Topics address a wide range of cultural expressions of the Spanish-speaking world as well as their historical and sociopolitical contexts.

Recent topics include: New Borderlands in Latin America and Spain, Cultures of the Mexican Revolution, Myth and Literature, Hispanic Cities, Latin American Film, Intimacy and Precarity, Performance and Human Rights in Latin America, Literature and Animality, and Is Spanish One Language?

Taught in Spanish. Topics vary by semester, and focus on Latin American literature as well as its historical and sociopolitical context.

Topics vary by semester.

Topics vary by semester.

Culturally as well as economically and politically charged ideas of space and place have been key to the mapping of the New World since the beginnings of Western colonial expansion. The ‘New World’, from this point of view, has in fact often functioned as a heterotopia of the Old. Heterotopias, in Michel Foucault’s coinage, are counter-sites that exist within the fabric of social or even natural space but that also contest, challenge and invert it. Museums, gardens and hospitals but also boats and colonies are examples of such places that stand out from the surrounding spatial order, thus also making the latter ‘readable’ from a marginal point of view. In the Americas, the colonial organization of space also triggered a proliferation of ‘heterotopic’ sites: from the ‘frontiers’ crossing cities and regions that render transparent the violent and contradictory foundations of American societies, to slave cemeteries and prison islands, to clandestine torture camps and strip-mined mountains. Yet heterotopias are also sites of radical experimentation and freedom, from Thoreau’s cabin at Walden Pond to urban hangouts of counterculture and sexual dissidence from Tango to Camp. The methodology of this course is highly participative, encouraging students to explore physical as well as virtual places and to contribute to the production of a dynamic, online-based archive of locations under analysis.

Taught in Spanish. Topics address a wide range of Latin American cultural expressions as well as their historical and sociopolitical contexts.

The goal of this course is to analyze the role and history of photography and its relationship with the written word in writers working in the 20th and 21st centuries. The course first answers the questions: What is a photograph? How is it read? We will follow the history of Latin American photography, from its beginnings in the decade of 1830 to the present, and follow readings engaging the tension of the photograph as a historical document or as an artistic work. The main role of the course, however, is to see how photographs affect writing; we will read texts where photography is the main concern (but where no photographs appear) and texts that play on the page with the relationship between image and word. Several main themes are discussed: photography and history, photography and archive, photography and madness, photography and sexuality.

See Topics in Peninsular Spanish Literature and Culture

Close readings of the principal prose works, particularly Don Quijote and/or the Novelas ejemplares, supplemented by critical and historical readings. Special attention paid to questions of madness and desire, authorship, the seductions and the dangers of reading, the status of representation, the relation between history and truth, the Inquisition, Spanish imperialism, the New World, the Morisco expulsion, etc.

This survey examines the major artists, movements, and institutions that shaped the course of Spanish art from the end of the nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth. Centered around some of Spain's most prominent artists and architects, including Antoni Gaudí, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dalí, Antoni Tàpies, Equipo Crónica, and Pedro Almodóvar, we will explore such issues as: the reception of the European avant-garde, the debate between "pure" and "social" art, the use of history and myth in the construction of national artistic styles, center and periphery, and the role of academies, galleries, exhibitions, and cafés in the formation of artistic identities.

This course studies the role that Spain has played throughout history in the relationship between Islam and the West. From the 8th century until the 17th century, Islam played a crucial role in the history of the Iberian Peninsula. While we look at the history of Al-Andalus (the Islamic state in the Iberian Peninsula in the Medieval period) and assess the importance of the contributions of Al-Andalus to Europe, we also evaluate the significance of its legacy in modern Spain.

This course will consist of a general vision of the linguistic structure of the Spanish language, the basic tools (sound and word combinations) that enable speakers of different areas to understand each other, the study of sentence meaning and of how the language varies according to social, geographic and pragmatic factors. The first module will concentrate on the sounds of Spanish

Courses offered under this rubric focus on the theory and practice of translation, addressing the philosophy of language (theorizing the task of the translator) and/or specific contextual uses of translation in literature or in the professions.

Taught in Spanish. This course offers advanced approaches to the experience of pueblos originarios/povos originários (first/originary peoples) within Meso-American, Andean, Amazonian Indigenous and other formations. Course topic varies by semester and instructor, but may focus on specific cultural, artistic, and linguistic practices; struggles for land and ancestral rights; sovereignty, autonomy and survivance; alternative epistemologies and ontologies; and resistance against extractivism, de-Indigenization, and ethnocide. May be taken up to four times in total (16 total credits) as content changes and with the advice of the department.

N/A

Continuation of Senior Honors Seminar (SPAN-UA 498)

Taught in English. Topics address a wide range of cultural expressions of the Spanish-speaking world as well as their historical and sociopolitical contexts.

Taught in English. Topics address a wide range of Latin American cultural expressions as well as their historical and sociopolitical contexts.

Taught in English. Advanced study of cultural expressions based in the Caribbean as well as their historical and sociopolitical contexts.

Taught in English. Advanced study of cultural expressions from Spain considered within their historical and sociopolitical contexts. May be taken up to four times in total (16 total credits) as content changes and with the advice of the department.

Courses offered under this rubric focus on the theory and practice of translation, addressing the philosophy of language (theorizing the task of the translator) and/or specific contextual uses of translation in literature or in the professions.

Identical to LING-UA 30. How and why American varieties of Spanish and Portuguese differ from European varieties, as well as the distribution and nature of dialect differences throughout the Americas. Examines sociolinguistic issues: class and ethnic differences in language, the origin and development of standard and nonstandard varieties, and the effects of contact with Amerindian and African languages. Considers Spanish- and Portuguese-based creoles and the question of prior creolization.

Taught in English. This course offers advanced approaches to the experience of pueblos originarios/povos originários (first/originary peoples) within Meso-American, Andean, Amazonian Indigenous and other formations. Course topic varies by semester and instructor, but may focus on specific cultural, artistic, and linguistic practices; struggles for land and ancestral rights; sovereignty, autonomy and survivance; alternative epistemologies and ontologies; resistance against extractivism, de-Indigenization and ethnocide. May be taken up to four times in total (16 total credits) as content changes and with the advice of the department.

Open to students with no previous training in Spanish and to others on assignment by placement test. 4 points. Beginning course designed to teach the elements of Spanish grammar and language structure through a primarily oral approach. Emphasis is on building vocabulary and language patterns to encourage spontaneous language use in and out of the classroom.

Prerequisite: SPAN-UA 9001 or SPAN-UA 1 or by placement exam. Focus is on the basic elements of Spanish grammar not covered in SPAN-UA 1/9001. Emphasis is on building vocabulary and language patterns to encourage spontaneous language use in and out of the classroom.

Prerequisite: SPAN-UA 9002 or SPAN-UA 9010 or by placement exam. Review of grammar, language structure, and culture, concentrating on fluency and accuracy through listening, speaking, reading, and writing activities.

Spanish 9004 (Intermediate Spanish II) is a four-credit intermediate level course that reviews and continues the material covered in Spanish 9003. Readings and discussions of contemporary Hispanic texts and review of the main grammatical concepts of Spanish. Completion of this course fulfills the CORE foreign language requirement. The principal goal of this course is to provide you with the opportunity to improve your oral and written communication skills in the language, by applying all the grammar rules you have learned and will be reviewing. You will be expected to substantially increase your working vocabulary and make solid progress in reading and writing skills.

Intensive Elementary Spanish, SPAN-UA 9010, is an accelerated 6-credit course that combines Spanish for Beginners I and II. This course focuses on the development of communication language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. These four skills will be approached and practiced in order to help students immerse and interact in a Spanish language context. Grammar will be taught through a communicative approach; classroom activities will integrate the language skills mentioned above. Classes will be conducted in Spanish. There will be emphasis on verbal practice, which will be carried out beyond the sentence level. Use and understanding of basic grammatical terminology will also be a necessary component of the course.

This course promotes students' familiarity with several important social and cultural issues in contemporary Spain, with an emphasis on the development of conversational skills. The course explores six topics to encourage students' understanding of the country while expanding their vocabulary and improving their oral and written skills. The course does not focus on a formal review of Spanish grammar but rather on learning and practicing the grammar skills needed for class participation, oral presentations, and the writing of short essays. Co-curricular activities will include trips to sites in Madrid. Students will also complete a Final Research Project.

Intensive Spanish for Advanced Beginners is a six-credit intensive language course designed to help students with limited knowledge of Spanish strengthen their language skills and develop their cultural competency. Our immediate and ultimate goal is on improving communication skills ins Spanish through listening, speaking, reading and writing. Interaction and building learning communities are emphasized in all of our classroom and at-home activities. The course covers the material of Spanish 2 and Spanish 3 in one semester. Successful completion of this course prepares students for a fourth semester college Spanish language course. By the end of the semester, students will be able to demonstrate knowledge of reading and writing skills at the appropriate level. They will be able to read, write, speak and present information in Spanish with more fluency and confidence.

SPAN-UA 9020.002 (Intensive Intermediate Spanish) is a six-credit course that continues and reviews the introductory level Spanish learned in SPAN-UA.1 and SPAN-UA.2, or in SPANUA. 10, while introducing literary readings, short films, and more complex composition exercises. The course involves an integration of the four basic skills: listening, speaking,reading and writing with the aim to improve communication in Spanish. Through this integrated approach, you will participate in a practical application of vocabulary, grammar,and culture. The course emphasizes mastery of language skills through specific contexts and dialogical situations.At the end of the course students will read a novel which will also be used to review many of the grammatical points covered in the textbook and class work, to improve analytical thinking and literary criticism skills, as well as to verbally express opinions about the situations presented in the novel. The goals of this course are to provide you with the opportunity to improve your oral and written communication skills in the language, by applying all the grammar rules you have learned and will be reviewing. You will be expected to substantially increase your working vocabulary and make solid progress in reading and writing skills.

Spanish for Healthcare Professionals is a two-credit course for beginner to intermediate level students, designed to expand students' speaking skills beyond the practical, day-to-day language functions in the medical environment. The goal of the course is to serve as a complement for the beginner and intermediate level student pursuing a career in the health care professions or a student generally interested in communicating with patients in Spanish. It has been structured to serve the specific needs of the nursing, medical and global public health student community. Students will typically take this course in conjunction with a beginner or an intermediate level Spanish language course. This course may not be used toward completion of the CORE language requirement.

The course is designed for students at the intermediate level that would like to perfect their Spanish, as they expand their knowledge regarding literature, cinema, and social and political problems that exist today within modern Spanish society. The reading of different texts, such as newspaper articles and short stories, and various videos and films throughout the semester will serve to expand lexicon, strengthen grammar and improve students' language oral and written skills. The students will participate actively in class discussions and be guided to conduct their own research on topics related to Spain today.

The course is designed for students who want to perfect their Spanish as they expand their knowledge regarding social and political issues within modern Argentine society. The reading of different dramatic texts and viewing of various films throughout the semester will serve to expand lexicon, strengthen grammar and improve the student's style. The objective of this course is that the students familiarize themselves with everyday language of current newspapers and magazines, at the same time as they enter into the world of local culture. To this end, every week the students will analyze and debate the cultural and literary content texts that are to be studied and every two weeks the students will present a written composition of the topics covered in class. In the classroom linguistic correction will be emphasized along with auditory practice through the use of a wide range of materials and resources: theoretical explanations, comprehension and vocabulary exercises, film viewing, as well as exercises that highlight certain morphological aspects or grammatical usage of Spanish. Classes will be conducted in Spanish.

Spanish for Spanish Speaking Students is a two-credit course, designed for students who are native or near-native speakers, with little or no formal training in the language. These students are usually raised in a household where Spanish is the main language spoken. As this class is taken concurrently with an Intermediate or Advanced Grammar level course, we will focus on native speakers’ specific needs to expand their vocabulary choices, learn formal discourse conventions, and develop reading and writing competency. It is important to point out that by no means is this a class that imposes a specific variety of Spanish.

For non-native speakers only. Expands and consolidates students' lexical and grammatical understanding of the language and introduces them to the fundamental principles of expository writing. Utilizes exercises, readings, and intensive practice of various prose techniques and styles.

This course is designed to provide advanced heritage Spanish-speaking students with a formal understanding of the language and to deepen their knowledge of various aspects of Hispanic culture. To this end, the course integrates grammar content with literature, news media, and video materials. Prerequisites: Qualifying placement score AND written assessment in the Spanish department.

This course aims to develop students’ awareness about the contemporary culture of Spain, while improving students’ oral competence in Spanish. The culture and daily life of Spain in the 21st century will be examined throughout oral presentations, formal and informal conversations, interviews, reports, etc. Spain will be presented in its diversity, richness, and uniqueness with the help of supporting materials such as newspaper articles, TV and radio programs, commercials, short films, chats, etc. Finally, our goal is that the students gain an understanding of the new culture and that they be able to create new intercultural spaces by means of the comparisons to their own culture. This course is based on culture, language and training in oral communication.

This course is designed for students who wish to attain a command of Spanish in relation to the worlds of business and international relations. Special emphasis on the development of oral expression through activities that focus on business practices.

La lengua de Buenos Aires is an advanced conversation course, which seeks to makestudents familiar with the most outstanding features of the Spanish of the Rio de la Plata area. It does also work as an introductory map to the main problems and questions of the culture of the city of Buenos Aires. Through a lively discussion of current cultural conflicts in politics, literature, music, drama and film, the course will enhance the listening and reading abilities of the students, while improving their speaking and writing proficiency in Spanish. These said conflicts and their transformations are key to an understanding of the way porteños speak and think. From a first section devoted to political discourse, we will move on to a consideration of its rhetorical precedents in argentine literature. This will give us the critical tools we need to further our inquiries in other fields such as rock, drama, journalism and film.

Topics vary by semester.

This course is designed for students of advanced Spanish who are interested in perfecting their Spanish in direct contact with their native language (English). For this purpose, we have chosen texts of very diverse film scenes, mainly from contemporary movies and TV series. The translation of these texts will serve to broaden the lexicon, reinforce the grammar and perfect the style, while at the same time comparing the morph-syntactic peculiarities of each language.

This course will provide students with basic journalistic skills so that they may report on their cultural experience in Spain. We will work with newspaper articles, podcasts, radio and TV programs from the Spanish media to cover current social, political and cultural issues, such as immigration, national identities, regional differences, gender roles, tourism and famous personalities. The coverage of political and cultural developments in Spain in the American media will also be examined to complement our newsgathering and research. Course projects include the publication of a blog with articles on the students´ experience at NYU in Madrid – planned trips, visits to museums and other activities - as well as visits to a radio or TV station in Madrid. Our aim will be to acquire a broad understanding of contemporary Spanish society while developing new linguistic skills in Spanish.

Topics vary by semester. See course notes for more information.

The purpose of this course is to study Latin American cities, landscape and architecture as they appear in aesthetic representations, from the 19th century to the present, paying special attention to Argentinean and Brazilian examples. Historical analysis will be used better to understand present day cultural formations. To this end, we will explore the spatial and landscape designs from the Argentinean pampa that led to the conception of Sarmiento's civilización-barbarie dichotomy, especially through the intellectual networks established by Victoria Ocampo with Le Corbusier and the poet Elizabeth Bishop in Brazil with Lota de Macedo Soares; we will follow the (political) history of the creation of the Palermo parks; and we will trace the aesthetic and political writings of the River Plate from 19th century to the present.

Mitos, Íconos y Tradiciones Inventadas seeks to make students familiar with the rich and complex history of Latin America through the study of some of its most known and iconic cultural expressions. It does also work as an introductory map to the most influential and widespread approaches in Latin American social sciences, cultural studies and literary criticism. Thus, students will not only have a first encounter with key historical processes that lie behind some well know cultural icons, but also will be introduced to arguments and ways of writing that help constitute modern Latin American educated Spanish. The course is structured in four topics. The first two weeks work as an introduction, and are devoted to ways of representing political authority in Latin America. The core of the course seeks to study and discuss three issues that are crucial for an understanding of our present: Violence in Latin America, Drugs and the Narco-machine, The Economy of Latin American Passion. Students will study these topics through a variety of cultural materials, including literary texts, film, papers from several disciplines, theater plays, art shows and songs.

This course is designed to introduce students to some of the most important problems and debates about Latin American history, society and culture. Latin America is a complex region full of contrasts. Its population is both racially and culturally heterogeneous. Its many countries share some common cultural roots and political origins, but also have distinct histories. National histories and individual societies did not always follow parallel paths. We will consider the general as well as the specific paths, and study the successes, failures, contrasts and future challenges facing the region. The structure of this course is primarily chronological but also thematic. We will start with the Conquest and its legacies and we will end with the problems that we experience today in big cities in Latin America. We will pay particular attention to the enduring legacies and challenges of some specific historical issues, such as slavery and the particular entrance of Latin America into global capitalism. The course favors a multi-disciplinary approach, and therefore we will use a different array of materials including films, letters, photographs and essays. We will emphasize first hand accounts of the topics we discuss.

This course aims to introduce students to an array of critical and methodological approaches to cultural production, particularly in relation to the Iberian, Latin American and Luso-Brazilian world. It presents interdisciplinary approaches to the formidably diverse cultural traditions and productions from these cultural geographies, their national/local particularities and their global projections. From oral and written cultures to performance and aural worlds, from colonial to neocolonial configurations, the study of Iberian, Latin American and Luso-Brazilian cultures requires an interdisciplinary, multi-perspective approach. The structure of the course functions as an introduction to the cutting-edge research in our department, as different professors will present and discuss their research and offer an introduction to particular areas of study and expertise. The student will become acquainted with key critical notions that shape our fields of study at the same time that he/she will explore the research potential of these concepts by confronting diverse object of studies —from literature and the performing arts to film and print culture– in order to produce critical responses that will foster the development of analytical and writing skills. By the end of the course, the student will have an up-to-date sense of the critical discussions in the field, and an array of tools that will be central for his/her future courses in the department as well as in other lines of study. Even though the course will normally be taught in English, students may also be working through reading materials in Spanish and Portuguese, thus helping the language acquisition at a university level.

This course provides an introduction to the making of modern Spain through the study of key cultural practices in literature, visual art, film, and performance from the 19th century to the present. The course is organized around key concepts, which may vary by semester and by instructor.

Sample topics include literature of the fantastic, history and fiction in Spanish America, literature of the neobaroque, cultural relations between Spain and Spanish America, literature and ethnicity, and construction of gender in Spanish American literature.

The course comprises topics related to culture, cultural identity and cultural and identity politics referred to five cases located in Latin America: 1) indigenous peoples in Argentina (areas of Chaco: Qom/toba- Wichí and Mocoví, and Patagonia-Pampa: Rankülche) and indigenous peoples in Amazon (Achuar) and, 2) Andean farmers (Aymaras) and indigenous workers of Chaco (Toba), 3) popular sectors of the City of Buenos Aires ("villeros" [shanty town residents], pickets, "barras bravas" [soccer hooligans]) and 4) middle class in San Pablo and Buenos Aires. Through this empirical tour students will learn about and analyze different records related to the debate on "culture" that commenced years ago: essentialism and constructivism, redefinition of opposing concepts nature/culture, multiculturalism, domination and resistance, activism, etc.

The course is designed to introduce students to the work of Jorge Luis Borges, one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. Through reading, analysis, and discussion of short fiction or poems and critical bibliography, the students will examine the dichotomy civilization-barbarism in Borges works (in connection to the Argentine cultural tradition since nineteenth century); some key topics in his texts such as tigers, labyrinths and libraries; the relationship between writing and translation (specifically in the English translations of his fictions); the political aspects of the literature produced by Borges and other contemporary Argentine writers on Eva Perón. The course will also develop the connections between Borges and other contemporary Argentine writers.

Sample topics include the medieval epic, Spanish mysticism, theory and literary practice in the Spanish baroque, Spanish romanticism, contemporary Spanish poetry, Spanish postmodernism, and contemporary Spanish culture.

The course offers students a formal and theoretical analysis of some of the most important Spanish films from recent decades, highlighting the wide variety of genre and style in Spanish cinematographic production. Discussion of the movies will give relevance to their historical and social context. Special emphasis will be given to the three most relevant Spanish film directors of today: Pedro Almodóvar, Alejandro Amenábar, and Alberto Rodríguez.

The course description for this Topics course varies depending on the topic taught. Please view the course description in the course notes section below.

The course description for this Topics in Spanish course varied depending varies depending on the topic taught. Pleas view the course description in the course notes section below.

Culturally as well as economically and politically charged ideas of space and place have been key to the mapping of the New World since the beginnings of Western colonial expansion. The ‘New World’, from this point of view, has in fact often functioned as a heterotopia of the Old. Heterotopias, in Michel Foucault’s coinage, are counter-sites that exist within the fabric of social or even natural space but that also contest, challenge and invert it. Museums, gardens and hospitals but also boats and colonies are examples of such places that stand out from the surrounding spatial order, thus also making the latter ‘readable’ from a marginal point of view. In the Americas, the colonial organization of space also triggered a proliferation of ‘heterotopic’ sites: from the ‘frontiers’ crossing cities and regions that render transparent the violent and contradictory foundations of American societies, to slave cemeteries and prison islands, to clandestine torture camps and strip-mined mountains. Yet heterotopias are also sites of radical experimentation and freedom, from Thoreau’s cabin at Walden Pond to urban hangouts of counterculture and sexual dissidence from Tango to Camp. The methodology of this course is highly participative, encouraging students to explore physical as well as virtual places and to contribute to the production of a dynamic, online-based archive of locations under analysis.

This course examines the different ways in which terror appears and unfolds in Argentine culture, from the beginning of the 20th century to the present, with special emphasis on state terrorism linked to the Argentine military dictatorship that ruled the country between 1976 and 1983, whose traces are felt today. Terror is a constitutive element of Argentine culture. It is manifested in political, philosophical, and historical contexts as well as in cultural and literary engagements that shed as much or more light on the functioning of terror than other forms of analysis. This course begins by reviewing key definitions and concepts related to "terror" and "terrorism," and then analyzes different expressions of terror in Argentine culture, including literature and eye-witness accounts and also cinema, painting, and music. In each case, we explore the intersection between politics, art, and terror—a relationship that is differently configured at different moments but whose foundational intersection remains constant. Chronologically, the course begins at the start of the 20th century, when Argentine society witnessed large-scale immigration and, with it, the arrival of revolutionary political ideas such as anarchism, which quickly became the most visible and spectacular face of "terrorism." This moment is framed in a longer Latin American cultural tradition that contrasts "civilization" to "barbarism": the idea of America as the original and proper space of a barbarism that always threatens to return. This idea, which is the source of tension in many narratives, is visible, for example, in the literature of Julio Cortázar in the 1940s. This period saw the emergence of Peronism in Argentine politics and society, which in turn was reflected in a series of stories by various authors in which fear is linked to issues of race, class, and gender. The cycles of dictatorship that followed in the second half of the 20th century culminated in the bloodiest of all, the dictatorship that began in 1976 and ended in 1983. First headed by General Jorge R. Videla, that government unleashed the worst state-sponsored terrorism in Argentine history, around which a series of texts and films arose that we will analyze. The last set of readings aims to account for more contemporary fears, linked to the legacies of the dictatorship on Argentine society and also to other social issues of the present.

Topics and prerequisites vary by semester.

Close readings of the principal prose works, particularly Don Quijote and/or the Novelas ejemplares, supplemented by critical and historical readings. Special attention paid to questions of madness and desire, authorship, the seductions and the dangers of reading, the status of representation, the relation between history and truth, the Inquisition, Spanish imperialism, the New World, the Morisco expulsion, etc.

Only a tiny fraction of what we call art ends up in the frames and cases of museums. And unlike the artistic impulse, museums have only been around for a few centuries. In this course we will shift the focus on art as it is often studied in humanities departments: from product to process, from decontextualized works exhibited for strangers to tentative and site-specific expressions of diverse individuals and communities. The non-museum art-world of Madrid (artists’ studios, collectives, art fairs, auction houses) will be our textbook and laboratory. The course has an art- making component; no previous artistic experience is required.

From the 8th century until the 17th century, Islam played a crucial role in the history of the Iberian Peninsula. Today this period is often portrayed as one of inter-religious harmony, while al-Andalus is simultaneously mourned in contemporary Islamist discourse as a lost paradise. While we look at the history of Al-Andalus and assess the importance of the contributions of Al-Andalus to Europe and America, we evaluate the significance of its legacy in modern Spain. Furthermore, we will study the protagonist role that Spain has played in relations between Europe and the Mediterranean Islamic countries during the Modern Age. Students will gain further understanding and contextualization of current Arab-Muslim geopolitics. As a case study, we will address the Spanish Protectorate in Morocco, as well as its ensuing process of decolonization and the consequences that shape the current international relations between the two neighboring countries, Spain and Morocco.

This course uses documentary filmmaking to explore, observe and interrogate Madrid, its people, its neighborhoods, and its place in the Spanish imaginary. Through the intensive, semester-long process of producing a 5-7 minute documentary film in a small team, students will have an opportunity to explore, engage with, and document aspects of this protean city. It will encourage students to look, listen and explore Madrid with a documentarian’s gaze, to represent the city from new perspectives, and to seek out stories that deepen, contextualize or counterpose pre-existing notions of Madrid and Spain. The course, moreover, will provide a short introduction to documentary theory, tradition and practice.

Migration and Cultural Diversity in Spain” analyzes current migratory flows and their implications, one of the key topics in Spain and the European Union today. This course explores anthropological approaches to developing theoretical and analytical frameworks for understanding the diversity and complexity of migrations and their effects on society and culture.

Migration and Cultural Diversity in Spain analyzes current migratory flows and their implications, one of the key topics in Spain and the European Union today. This course explores anthropological approaches to developing theoretical and analytical frameworks for understanding the diversity and complexity of migrations and their effects on society and culture. Taught in English.

In the last decade, many Latin American nations have witnessed decisive progress in the legal recognition of non-normative sexualities and gender identities. The conventional map of “advanced democracies” crafting models of democratization to be exported to “less developed” nations seems definitely challenged: a new understanding of the multiple temporalities of queer cultures in North and South America is even more necessary than ever. In order to explore this multi-layered landscape, this course is aimed at reconstructing the historical detours of queer cultures in Buenos Aires and New York, considered enclaves of queer cultures in Argentina and the US respectively. The course revisits the last three decades in order to question the dominant and frequently reductive narratives of lineal progress. Taught simultaneously in Buenos Aires and New York, the class includes critical readings of queer cultural production as well as work on local archives and interviews with activists and GLTTBI organizations.

From its inception in the late 19th century, tango has engaged central aspects of Argentine culture, including gender identity and its tensions, as well as class and race conflicts. Guided by the methods of cultural studies, our study of tango extends beyond its musical aspects and aims to understand key dynamics that structure the relationship between culture and society. Drawing on tango lyrics, films, and short stories, we will discuss the different conceptions of national, racial, and gender identity that were intertwined in a society working to define itself. Through its lyrics and imagery, tango has given rise to a series of narratives about the city of Buenos Aires, with notable effects on local literature and cinema. Thus, this class will focus on the convergence of tango as a mass culture phenomenon with Argentine literature and cinema, and also consider tango as a narrative trigger. Studying tango in cinema and literature will allow us to consider how mass culture helped to define popular ideas about passion and love, and its relation to gender relations. The class format combines lectures with seminar discussions, in which participation is required. Students are expected to read and analyze texts in advance, and be prepared to discuss them in class.

(Taught in English) This course introduces students to anthropological approaches to the study of historical memory through one important and controversial topic in contemporary Spain: the effects and after-effects of the unburial of mass graves of civilians executed during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) as well as during the postwar years. Most of the exhumations occurring during the last 15 years are of mass graves containing Republican militants and sympathizers executed in what has been labeled by historians as politicide, genocide or even Holocaust. To understand contemporary engagements with this violent past, we will explore the main landmarks of the current exhumation campaign. This includes attention to the origins of these graves, their genealogy since the end of the Civil War, and especially the impact of the exhumed bodies on various milieus from the judicial system and forensic labs to popular culture and the arts.

Close readings of the principal prose works, particularly Don Quijote and/or the Novelas ejemplares, supplemented by critical and historical readings. Special attention paid to questions of madness and desire, authorship, the seductions and the dangers of reading, the status of representation, the relation between history and truth, the Inquisition, Spanish imperialism, the New World, the Morisco expulsion, etc.