Texas State University
 
Department of Modern Languages
Centennial Hall, Rm 214
Texas State University-San Marcos
601 University Dr.
San Marcos, TX 78666

Dr. Robert Fischer, Chair
Ph: (512) 245-2360
Fax: (512) 245-8298
info@modlang.txstate.edu
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SPAN 5304

 

Spanish Graduate Courses

 

Spring 2008

 

Spanish 5311: Conceptions of Honor, Gender, and Sexuality in Medieval and Early Modern Spanish Literature

Professor: Dr. Yuri Porras                                                             Index # 329318

Time: Tuesday 6:30-9:15 PM                                                                                                                   

Description: Literature provides an exciting space within which we might progressively learn more about the ways honor, gender, and sexuality have been envisioned, imposed and challenged in Medieval and Early Modern Spain (sixteenth and seventeenth centuries). This course will pay special attention to the diffusion of these codes and, particularly, to how they were represented and spoken about in different historical contexts. How is honor represented during medieval times? What was expected of the ³ideal² man or woman of the Renaissance and Baroque? Studying a wide range of Spanish texts from El cantar de mío Cid and La Celestina to Lope de Vega and the creation of a ³national² theater within their literary and socio-political context, we will consider their importance in the formation and later the maintenance of the Spanish Empire.

 

Spanish 5322: Spanish for the Professions

Professor: Dr. Yasmine Beale-Rivaya                                                     Index # 329320

Time: Wednesday 6:30-9:15 PM                                                                                                             

Description: In this course we will explore where Spanish is needed in the application of a broad spectrum of professions and identify the specific skill needs and desires of organizations such as: the health professions, social services, justice agencies, and translation and interpretation services, amongst others. We will discuss the areas in which these professional bodies have a shortage in either manpower or skill. This course will cover a variety of practical aspects for the application of Spanish in the non-academic as well as the academic world. I will provide the opportunity for graduate students to explore various professional avenues that they may not have previously considered upon completing their master¹s degree. (Business Spanish will not be covered extensively in this course as it was the focus of this course when last offered)                             

 

Spanish 5314: The Stories We Tell: Approach to Caribbean and Central American Literature

Professor: Dr. Tanya Weimer                                                                      Index #: 329319

Time: Thursday 6:30-9:15 PM                                                                                                                 

Description: The testimonial genre has been both popular and controversial in Latin American Literature. Its popularity stems from the immediacy of the first person narration as a means of telling the stories of subaltern subjects and is attested to by the inclusion of the testimonial as a special category in the Casa de las Américas literary prizes. The controversy starts with the desire to define the genre against other first person accounts, such as autobiography; continues with the questioning of the factuality of many of these texts; and ultimately rests in the aesthetic and psychological issues surrounding the ways in which we tell stories. This course will explore these issues in testimonies from the Caribbean and Central America including Me llamo Rigoberta Menchú y así me nació la conciencia, La montaña es algo más que una inmensa estepa verde, El furor y el delirio and Something to Declare. We will as well consider the ways in which filmic testimonies differ from these written ones.