SPANISH LITERATURE

Introduction to Medieval Literature
G95.1211  4 points.
Theoretical and practical introduction to the meaning of “letters” and literature in the Middle Ages and the methods and techniques to approach them. Major themes, literary “topoi,” and trends are illustrated with readings from the “jarchas” and Cantar de mío Cid through Libro de buen amor and La Celestina.

Spanish Romanticism: Lyric, Drama, Essay
G95.1621  4 points.
Concentrates on the break with canons of neoclassic practice—the theatre of Duque de Rivas, Zorrilla, essays of Larra, and the poetry of Bécquer.

The Generation of 1898: Representative Writers
G95.1711  4 points.
The impact of the events of 1898 as unifying factor in the creation of a common set of preoccupations concerning Spain’s past and future. Works of Azorín, Baroja, Unamuno, Valle-Inclán, and Machado.

Spanish Theatre of the 20th Century
G95.1721  4 points.
Study of the theatre from the traditionalist practices of Benavente through the theatrical innovations of Unamuno, Valle-Inclán, Lorca, and on to Sastre and Ruibal.

García Lorca and His Poetic Generation
G95.1776  4 points.
Examination of the heritage of French symbolist poetic practice in the works of Juan Ramón Jiménez and Jorge Guillén and the major texts of García Lorca—Canciones, Poema del cante jondo, Romancero gitano, and Poeta en Nueva York.

Spanish Medieval Epic and Mester de Clerecía
G95.2141  4 points.
Examines two major forms of narrative poetry in the Spanish Middle Ages: the “popular” epic of the “juglares” and the “learned” poetry as exemplified in Cantar de mío Cid, Poema de Fernán González, Libro de Alexandre, and Libro de Apolonio, as well as in some masterpieces of vernacular hagiography.

Medieval Spanish Prose: Intellectual and Cultural Crosscurrents
G95.2231  4 points.
Spanish narrative prose and its impact on the intellectual and cultural life of a multiethnic society. Works of Don Juan Manuel and Alfonso X as well as biographies by Pero López de Ayala, Pérez de Guzmán, and others are discussed within a larger social and political context.

Medieval Spanish Prose: Fiction and Other Genres
G95.2233  4 points.
Origins of fiction in Spain, from oriental narratives through development of the short story and the chivalric novel. Among texts to be discussed: Calila e Dimna, El Conde Lucanor, Caballero Cifar, Amadís de Gaula, and Corbacho.

Spanish Medieval Epic and Romancero
G95.2241  4 points.
Origins, formation, and development of the Castilian epic from the 12th to the 15th centuries and its relationship with the romancero of the oral tradition. Close analysis of major works Cantar de mío Cid, Infantes de Lara, and Poema de Fernán González and their influence on/from the romances of the cycle.

Libro de Buen Amor
G95.2245  4 points.
Approaches LBA both as “summa poetica” in terms of themes and techniques and as literary “miscellany,” encompassing the most popular narrative and lyric traditions of 14th-century Europe.

La Celestina: Seminar
G95.2282  4 points.
New developments on authorship and textual and literary criticism. The seminar concentrates on the topic “love fools,” with emphasis on the character of the “go-between” as instrument of sexual corruption and death and on the “servants” as social class, incapable of love, driven only by sexual passion and greed.

Mysticals and Contemplatives
G95.2311  4 points.
Major texts of Francisco de Osuna, Santa Teresa, San Juan de la Cruz, Fray Luis de León, and Miguel de Molinos. Attention to role of Renaissance Platonism and hermeticism.

Spanish Theatre Before Lope de Vega
G95.2321  4 points.
Ecclesiastical origins of Spanish drama: Auto de los Reyes Magos and works of Gómez Manrique; later works of Juan de Encina, Torres Naharro, and Gil Vicente.

Golden Age and Baroque Theatre
G95.2323  4 points.
The development of the comedia from the late 16th century through the canonization of national norms in Lope’s Arte nuevo to their culmination in Calderón de la Barca. Studies theoretical texts from the period and plays by representative authors, including the comedias and entremeses of Cervantes.

Calderón de la Barca
G95.2326  4 points.
Major themes as seen in Calderón’s dramas, autos, and comedias: faith, honor, God’s grace, free will, reason of state, and moral probabilism. El médico de su honra, La hija del aire, El gran teatro del mundo, La vida es sueño, La dama duende.

The Humanists: Poetry and Prose of the 15th Century
G95.2361  4 points.
The literature of humanism, courtly love, 15th-century historiography and allegory, and the image of the prince. Major texts of Nebrija, Juan de Valdés, Diego de San Pedro, and Juan de Mena and sonnets and eclogues of Garcilaso.

Cervantes
G95.2472  4 points.
Intensive reading of the two parts of Don Quijote de la Mancha, 1605 and 1615. Major topics: linguistic perspectivism, satire and poetry, humor and irony. Don Quijote as first novel and last romance. In addition, La Galatea, Novelas Ejemplares, and Persiles and Sigismunda are studied.

The Picaresque Novel
G95.2475  4 points.
The rogue and the outcast as seen in three major narrative works of the 16th and 17th centuries: Lazarillo de Tormes, Guzmán de Alfarache, and El Buscón. Reference also to works of Vélez de Guevara, Vicente Espinel, and Cervantes.

Quevedo and Gracián
G95.2476  4 points.
The literature of the Counter-Reformation in Spain. Major topics: the picaresque, Menippean satire, theory of state and statesmanship, the education of the prince, Senecan prose style, and neostoicism.

Poetry and Poetics in the Baroque: Quevedo, Góngora, and Sor Juana
G95.2478  4 points.
The baroque in Spain and colonial Mexico, with emphasis on El Polifemo and Soledades of Góngora, the Primero Sueño, and the sonnets of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Quevedo as satirist.
The Enlightenment and the Spanish World
G95.2540  4 points.
Comparative analysis of the philosophy, literature, and political systems of the Enlightenment in Europe, Spain, and Latin America. European thinkers studied include Francis Bacon, Locke, Kant, Adam Smith, and Rousseau. The texts of Feijoó, Blanco White, and Sarmiento speak for the Spanish-speaking world, along with the art of Goya.

Contemporary Spanish Novel
G95.2833  4 points.
Development of the novel from the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939 until the present. Innovation, social criticism, the break with traditional canons of 19th-century Spanish realism. Texts range from Cela’s La familia de Pascual Duarte to Benet’s Una meditación.

Contemporary Spanish Poetry: Miguel Hernández to the Present
G95.2843  4 points.
Poetry after the Generation of 1927 in relation to the historical era, culminating in the Spanish Civil War, and literary modes ranging from surrealism to poesía social. Miguel Hernández, Claudio Rodríguez, José Hierro, José Angel Valente, Gil de Biedma.

Special Topics in Spanish Literature
G95.2965, 2966, 2975, 2976  4 points per term.

Guided Individual Readings in Spanish and Spanish American Literature
G95.2891, 2892, 2893, 2894  1-4 points per term.

Research
G95.3991, 3992  1-4 points per term.

SPANISH AMERICAN LITERATURE

Spanish American Colonial Poetry and Theatre
G95.1483  4 points.
Study of poetry and theatre within the context of contemporary colonial studies. Authors may include Ercilla, Balbuena, Sor Juana, and others.

Spanish American Colonial Prose
G95.1484  4 points.
Study of narrative forms within the context of contemporary colonial studies. Authors may include Colón, Cortés, Las Casas, Inca Garcilaso, Sor Juana, and others.

Spanish American Romanticism
G95.1613  4 points.
Readings in romantic novel, poetry, and essay as foundational Spanish American works within a historical and theoretical framework, with emphasis both on indigenous roots and European romantic literature. Works by Heredia, Echeverría, Sarmiento, Isaacs, Mármol, Mera, and Villaverde.

The Literature of the Gaucho
G95.1614  4 points.
Examination of the roots of rioplatense culture: the polemical issue of national identity, the dialectic of city versus pampa, the transformation of the gaucho into national myth. Texts include Martín Fierro, Santos Vega, Fausto, Don Segundo Sombra, among others.

Literature of the Mexican Revolution
G95.1732  4 points.
Study of the history and literature of the Mexican Revolution as a vehicle for the creation of a national consciousness, with reference to the role of mural painting and cinema in shaping this narrative. Works by Azuela, Guzmán, Vasconcelos, Campobello, among others.

Spanish American Short Story
G95.1735  4 points.
Focuses on the short story through representative authors: Quiroga, Cortázar, Rulfo, Onetti, Borges. Readings on the theory of the genre by Poe, Quiroga, Cortázar, Propp, and Todorov.

The Literary Image of Women in Spanish America
G95.1737  4 points.
Images, stereotypes, and archetypes of female characters in the Spanish American novel of the 19th and 20th centuries. Texts range from Isaacs’s María through those of Castellanos and Poniatowska.

Contemporary Spanish American Poetry
G95.1748  4 points.
Contemporary trends after Paz, Neruda, and Parra. Representative authors include Mutis, Cardenal, Lihn, Pacheco, Sabines, and Zurita.

Spanish American Novel Before 1960
G95.1833  4 points.
Examines the novel before the “boom,” with emphasis on national narratives before the advent of “magic realism” and lo real maravilloso. Examples from works of Gallegos, Rivera, Guiraldes, Alegría, and Yáñez.

Literature and Revolution in Latin America
G95.1861  4 points.
The literature of revolutionary ideology in various genres: poetry, novel, and essay. Authors include Azuela, Neruda, Mariátegui, Carpentier, Cardenal, Desnoes, Nicolás Guillén, and Eduardo Galeano.

The Contemporary Spanish American Novel
G95.1933  4 points.
Theoretical reorientation and narrative innovation in contemporary novelists reacting against realism. Major texts of Carpentier, Cortázar, Fuentes, García Márquez, Vargas Llosa, Onetti, and Rulfo.

Baroque and Neobaroque Literature
G95.2211  4 points.
Study of the neobaroque in Spanish American poetics with a retrospective reading of baroque texts. Authors include Góngora, Sor Juana, Lezama Lima, and Lamborghini.

Modernismo
G95.2673  4 points.
Study of modernismo both as literary practice and as tool for Continental self-definition. Topics: cultural appropriation and manipulation, literature and cosmopolitanism, women as objets d’art, decadence and regeneration, politics and dandyism. Prose and poetry of Casal, Silva, Darío, Martí, Rodó.

From Modernismo to Vanguardia: Aesthetics and Ideology
G95.2677  4 points.
Scrutiny of modernista and vanguardista aesthetics in works of Darío, Martí, Lugones, Girondo, Macedonio Fernández, Huidobro, and Neruda. Examines relationship between vanguardista ideas and political
circumstances.

Literature of the Caribbean
G95.2724  4 points.
Topics include colonialism and self-definition, slavery and nationalism, masking language, and musical idiom. Major texts of Luis Palés Matos, Cabrera Infante, Nicolás Guillén, Juan Bosch, Luis Rafael Sánchez, and Julia de Burgos.

Literature of the Fantastic in Spanish America
G95.2737  4 points.
Examines the theoretical formulations of Poe, Caillois, and Todorov. Reads major authors in this modality: Quiroga, Borges, Macedonio Fernández, Felisberto Hernández, Cortázar, Bioy Casares, and Onetti.

The Essay in Spanish America
G95.2763  4 points.
The essay as social commentary, ideological manifesto, and aesthetic discourse. Major texts range from works of Sarmiento and Rodó through Mariátegui, Martínez Estrada, Paz, and Fernández Retamar.

Avant-Garde Movements in Spanish America
G95.2769  4 points.
Examines use of manifestos, proclamations, and polemical texts; studies both theory and practice of the avant-garde in Spanish America. Topics: the “nativist” problematic; experiments with language; varying allegiances to futurism, cubism, dadaism, etc.

Latin American Theatre
G95.2822  4 points.
Most recent trends in contemporary theatrical practice—theatre of the resistance in Chile, critical realism in Mexico, campesino theatre in Peru, Colombian collective theatre. Tradition and innovation in the new theatre of Latin America.

Feminist Theories and Latin American Literatures: Women and Writing
G95.2853  4 points.
Brings together feminist critical and theoretical texts both European and Latin American and examines poetry and fiction by 20th-century Latin American women writers.

Spanish American and Contemporary North American Novel
G95.2935  4 points.
Common themes in the literature of the Americas: the frontier (Cooper/ Sarmiento); Poe in Spanish America (Quiroga/Cortázar); the novel of the manse (James/Donoso); and Faulkner and Hemingway in Spanish America.

New Voices in Mexican Narrative
G95.2943  4 points.
Study of Mexican literature after 1968/Tlatelolco. Topics include testimony and the marginal voice, subversion and demythologization, redefinition of narrative structure and language, and women’s voice.

Trends in Contemporary Poetics: Lezama Lima, Paz, Cardenal
G95.2955  4 points.
The major practice of Paz and Lezama Lima along with the seldom studied poetry of Xavier Villaurrutia, Enrique Molina, Roberto Juarroz, David Huerta, and Ernesto Cardenal.

Special Topics in Spanish American Literature
G95.2967, 2968, 2977, 2978  4 points per term.

Borges
G95.2980  4 points.
Evolution of Borges as poet and short story writer, with collateral readings in his essays. Texts include Ficciones, El Aleph, Otras Inquisiciones, Obra poética.

Autobiographical Writing in Spanish America
G95.2984  4 points.
Different forms of self-portraiture in Spanish American autobiographies of the 19th and 20th centuries. Major texts by Sarmiento, Manzano, Cané, Norah Lange, Vasconcelos, and Victoria Ocampo.

BRAZILIAN AND PORTUGUESE LITERATURE

Portuguese for Spanish Speakers
G87.1104  4 points.
Comprehensive approach to Brazilian Portuguese for advanced (native/near-native) Spanish speakers. Teaches grammar at an accelerated pace to prepare students for literature classes in Portuguese.

The Brazilian Novel
G87.1831 4 points.
The history and development of the Brazilian novel, with emphasis on works of Machado de Assis, Mário de Andrade, Graciliano Ramos, Lins do Rego, Guimarães Rosa, and Clarice Lispector.

Brazilian Modernismo
G87.2773  4 points.
History, chronology, and aesthetics of this major cultural revolution in Brazil. Readings include Mário de Andrade, Oswald de Andrade, Paulo Prado, Gilberto Freyre, Manuel Bandeira, Carlos Drummond, and Graciliano Ramos, among others.

Guimarães Rosa
G87.2775  4 points.
Guimarães as linguistic innovator and seminal experimentalist in narrative structure in both short story and novel. Texts include Sagarana, Corpo de Baile, Grande Sertão: Veredas, and Primeiras Estórias.

Contemporary Brazilian Literature
G87.2810  4 points.
Topics in contemporary Brazilian literature in three major genres: novel, short story, and poetry. Authors include Lispector, Guimarães Rosa, Rubem Fonseca, and the poets of concretismo.

Brazilian Poetry
G87.2841  4 points.
The major phases of the most representative poets in their respective times: baroque, neoclassic, romantic, Parnassian, symbolist, modernismo, and concretismo.

Guided Individual Readings in Portuguese and Brazilian Literature
G87.2891, 2892, 2893, 2894  1-4 points per term.

Special Topics in Brazilian and Portuguese Literature
G87.2967, 2968, 2977, 2978  4 points per term.

Doctoral Research
G87.3991  1-4 points.

SPANISH PHILOLOGY AND LINGUISTICS

Methodology of Spanish Language Teaching
G95.1120  Required of all entering students. 4 points.
Provides a theoretical foundation and practical experience for teaching Spanish to English speakers at beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels. Divided into three segments: comparative study of basic structures of Spanish and English as related to teaching Spanish grammar, classroom techniques, and contrastive phonology.

History of the Spanish and Portuguese Languages
G95.2106  4 points.
Traces origins and development of Romance languages of the Iberian Peninsula from the Roman period to the 16th century, with focus on Castilian and Portuguese. Provides students with tools for understanding written documents and literary works of the Spanish Middle Ages.

DOCTORAL SEMINAR

Doctoral Seminar
G95.3545  Required of all doctoral candidates. 4 points.
Workshop to direct students toward the basic approaches and structure of the future dissertation, with the goal of writing a finished proposal.

TRANSLATION STUDIES

Theory and Practice of Translation
G95.1102  4 points.
Foundation in the theory of translation, through readings in contemporary translation studies and practice in translation. Literary texts drawn from works related to the Hispanic and Portuguese-speaking worlds.

HISPANIC LANGUAGE, HISTORY, AND CULTURES

The following courses are available only through the NYU in Madrid M.A. program.

The Spanish Language: A Semantical Approach
G95.9101  4 points.
Topics: conventions of literary language; its relationship to social dialects—vulgarisms, lengua de germanía, naturalidad versus artificio y ornato. Texts from Lazarillo de Tormes through Valle-Inclán and Goytisolo.

Phonetics of Contemporary Spanish
G95.9103  4 points.
Articulatory mechanisms, pronunciation, and intonational patterns of Spanish as spoken in Spain and Spanish America, with attention to national and regional variations and expression.

Composition and Advanced Grammar
G95.9108  4 points.
Study of the more sophisticated and complex forms of literary and spoken syntax as exemplified by contemporary texts. Explication, drill, and practice also aimed at giving a complete command of verbal and written expression.

History and Literature in the Early Spanish Renaissance
G95.9360 
4 points.
Topics: Renaissance concept of history as art (Diego Hurtado de Mendoza); the historical novel (Pérez de Hita); political memoirs (Oviedo); the fictional journey.

Five Contemporary Spanish American Poets
G95.9801  4 points.
Topics: the poetic voice in creacionismo (Huidobro); avant-garde and commitment (Vallejo); hermeticism and passion (Neruda); time and fiesta (Paz); grimace and “antipoetry” (Parra).

Culture and Society in Contemporary Latin America
G95.9811  4 points.
Contemporary Latin American culture within the context of its past and present sociopolitical dynamics. Topics: conquest and dependence; the polemics of national identity; repression and revolution. Works by Galeano, García Márquez, Fuentes, Cardenal, and Neruda.

Contemporary Spanish American Theatre
G95.9823  4 points.
Tradition and innovation in shaping a theatrical idiom within a specific contemporary context. Topics: political theatre, theatre of resistance, campesino theatre, and collective theatre.

Hispanic Literature and Art
G95.9847  4 points.
Relation of theatre and poetry to painting in the Golden Age; Goya and the romantic vision in literature; expressionism and perspectivism in the Generation of 1898. Art criticism of José Ortega y Gasset.

Literature in Its Social Context
G95.9852  4 points.
The novel of the dictator in Spanish America, with major texts of Valle Inclán, Asturias, Roa Bastos, García Márquéz, Rulfo, and Fuentes. Examines literature of political commitment from Mariátegui through Scorza.

Literature, Criticism, and Society in Contemporary Spain
G95.9854  4 points.
Dialogue between fiction and political criticism. Relationship between history and the literary imagination of Spain from its 19th-century roots to the 20th century. Spanish realism and liberal ideology, Unamuno, Ortega, crisis of the Civil War in its representative novels.

Spanish Civilization
G95.9863  4 points.
Spanish culture from an interdisciplinary perspective. The historical processes of the 19th and 20th centuries through the post-Franco transition to contemporary Spain.

Spanish American Civilization
G95.9864  4 points.
Topics: unity and diversity in culture and language; conflicting visions of Latin American history; role of the arts in the political process; the writer and the state. Works by Sarmiento, Martí, Rodó, García Márquez, and Rulfo.

Contemporary Spain: 1939 to the Present
G95.9865  4 points.
Traces the development of issues and problems of contemporary Spain through several narrative voices of the 20th century. The narrative of the Franco and post-Franco eras within its wider sociopolitical context. Authors: Delibes, Cela, Goytisolo, Martín Gaite, Fernández Santos.

Introduction to Reading and Criticism of Hispanic Texts
G95.9881  4 points.
Topics: traditional theory of literature (Salinas and Menéndez Pidal); theory of creative criticism (Octavio Paz); ideological criticism (Blanco Aguinaga); writer as critic (Donoso); destruction of the sacred (Goytisolo).

Spain and Spanish America: A Dialogue of Ideas
G95.9882  4 points.
The intersection of Spain and Spanish America. Topics: new world consciousness vis-à-vis Spain in Latin American writers; Spain seen from exile; cultural interaction between Spanish America and Spain in the contemporary world.

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