Graduate Course Offerings
Spring 2010
Below you will find the content of the advanced/graduate classes offered by the department of MCLL for the Spring 2010 semester. Consult the Schedule of Classes for meeting times and course numbers.
Classic Spanish Films
Usually listed as SPAN 515P, this is a pre-session class taught by Dr. Bravo-Elizondo. The course introduces Surrealist directors like L. Buñuel, among others. If you haven't taken this course, now is your chance: this will be the last time Dr. Bravo-Elizondo will be offering it at WSU.
Latin American Novel
The class is usually listed as SPAN 625 / SPAN 832B. It will be taught by Dr. Maria Akrabova. Novel genres will range from the melodrama, the journalistic account, the chronicle and the social criticism narrative to texts that incorporate science fiction, fantasy-horror, magical realism and postmodern parody. Both graduate and undergraduate students will read the following novels:
- Los de abajo, Mariano Azuela
- La invención de Morel, Adolfo Bioy Casares
- El reino de este mundo, Alejo Carpentier
- Pedro Páramo, Juan Rulfo
- Aura, Carlos Fuentes
- Crónica de una muerte anunciada, Gabriel García Márquez
In addition, graduate students will read:
- Cien años de soledad, Gabriel García Márquez
- El materialismo histérico, Xavier Velazco
Two more novels will be represented by their film versions: Doña Bárbara by Rómulo Gallegos and La ciudad y los perros by Mario Vargas Llosa.
Survey of Spanish Literature / Spanish Romanticism
The course is usually listed as SPAN 531 / SPAN 831I, and will be taught by Dr. Eunice Myers. The class explores main currents of Spanish literature from 1700 to the present. Among other works, students will study a 19th-century future "monster-in-law named Perfecta, the best-known Don Juan, great love poetry and a thriller of a short story. The graduate seminar covers most of the works from the MA Reading list for Peninsular Literature (17th-20th centuries).
Textbook: Ibarra, Fernando, and Alberto Machado Da Rosa. Antologia de autores espanoles: Modernos. Vol. 2 only! Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1972. ISBN 0-13-387085-5
Seminar in Literary Theory: Barthes, Derrida, Cixous
The class will be listed as FREN 815C and will be taught by Dr. Wilson Baldridge. The course will cover a list of basic readings in continental philosophy and literary theory. The objective is to respond to the question, “What is meant by poststructuralism?” Classes will be conducted in English and open to any interested graduate students. Discussions of the books and their theoretical ramifications will proceed chronologically in keeping with the authors’ birth dates. Texts:
- BARTHES, Roland, The Semiotic Challenge, trans. Richard Howard, University of California Press, 1994 [ISBN 0-520-08784-4].
- DERRIDA, Jacques, Acts of Literature, ed. Derek Attridge, Routledge, 1992 [ISBN 0-415-90057-3].
- CIXOUS, Hélène, “Coming to Writing” and Other Essays, ed. Deborah Jenson, Harvard University Press, 1991 [ISBN 0-674-14437-6].
This is a valuable course for any student interested in poetics and semiotics, and especially beneficial to all who are considering an advanced graduate degree. Classes will meet for 2 1/2 hours once a week. Time and place will be scheduled with the registrar's office once a time slot convenient for all participants is identified.