Catalogue

Foreign Languages, Cultures, and Literatures

flcl.bard.edu

 

Faculty

Olga Voronina (director), Stephanie Kufner (coordinator), Ranjani Atur, Franco Baldasso, John Burns, Nicole Caso, Odile S. Chilton, Robert L. Cioffi, Lauren Curtis, Ziad Dallal, Elizabeth N. Holt, Franz R. Kempf, Marina Kostalevsky, Lu Kou, Yichen Lee, Huiwen Li, Gabriella Lindsay, Patricia López-Gay, Oleg Minin, Melanie Nicholson, Karen Raizen, Dina Ramadan, James Romm, Nathan Shockey, Wakako Suzuki, Éric Trudel, David Ungvary, Marina van Zuylen, Thomas Wild, Li-Hua Ying

Overview

At Bard, the study of a foreign language provides students with the opportunity to acquire a critical appreciation of foreign cultures and literatures in addition to language skills. Integral to the process is the mastery of the foreign language and its use in the study of written texts—not only literature, but also texts from such fields as philosophy, history, and theology—and of nonverbal expressions of culture such as art history, music, and cinema. 

Languages currently taught at Bard include Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, and ancient Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit. Bard maintains a state-of-the-art language facility, the Center for Foreign Languages and Cultures, at the F. W. Olin Language Center, which offers the Bard community many  different ways to explore foreign languages and cultures outside the regular language and literature classes. See flcl.bard.edu/language-lab for more details.

Most of the languages taught through the Foreign Languages, Cultures, and Literatures (FLCL) Program offer an intensive format that allows students to complete the equivalent of one and a half years of language study within just a few months. Such courses include a one- or two-month summer or winter program in a country where the target language is spoken. After studying abroad, students demonstrate an impressive increase in linguistic capacity. They also gain cultural knowledge, and the exposure to different manifestations of cultural activity makes them aware of the interrelatedness of diverse disciplines. Most students choose to continue their path toward linguistic and cultural fluency by taking courses at the intermediate and advanced levels.

Requirements

While each area of language study has its own intellectual and academic plan, all are connected by the study of literature and other cultural expressions through the medium of language. Students are free to work with the languages and texts of more than one culture; thus they can combine the plans of more than one language for Moderation and in their Senior Project. Moderation requirements may vary depending on the focus language; students should refer to information provided by the specific area of study. For all FLCL students, a Senior Project can be a purely literary project (typically involving critical interpretation and translation) or any combination of literary and nonliterary expressions of a given culture.

Recent Senior Projects

• “‘Apprendre avec inquiétude’: The Relationship between Philosophy and Poetry in Heidegger, Gleize, Mallarmé” (French Studies/Philosophy)
• “Bodies Inscribed in the Landscape: Poetic ‘Exhumations’ of Chile and Argentina’s Desaparecidos” (Spanish Studies)
• “The Lover’s Way: Reevaluating Proustian Desire” (French Studies)
• “Seize the Means of Reproduction! Gender War in Zamyatin’s We” (Russian and Eurasion Studies)

Courses

The descriptions below are a sampling of courses from the past four years.

Arabic

Elementary Arabic
Arabic 101-102
This course focuses on speaking, reading, writing, and comprehension skills in Modern Standard Arabic, the form of Arabic shared by all Arab countries. Classroom time is devoted to conversation and grammar exercises stemming from DVDs and other materials. Emphasis is also placed on authentic resources that derive from current cultural contexts, realities, and creative work of the Arab world.

Intermediate Arabic
Arabic 201-202
The class focuses on the functional use of Arabic in a natural communication setting. The basic language skills—reading, speaking, listening, and writing—are dealt with simultaneously. Aspects of Arab culture and differences between Modern Standard Arabic and the spoken language are highlighted.

Advanced Arabic
Arabic 301-302
Students in the course develop a significant level of linguistic and communicative competence in the language. Modern literary and expository texts, as well as a selection of texts from Arab media, are read in order to expand active and passive lexicon and grammatical structures. Aspects of Arab cultures are also highlighted.

Chinese

Beginning Chinese
Chinese 101
An introduction to Mandarin Chinese, designed to help students understand, speak, read, and write everyday Chinese language—and have fun in the process. By the end of the course, students are able to conduct simple, practical conversations with Chinese speakers on a variety of topics, and read and write short passages in Chinese. The course is a prelude to Chinese 106 (Intensive Chinese), at the culmination of which students can choose to travel to Qingdao, China, for an eight-week summer program.

Intensive Chinese
Chinese 106
The course focuses on both the oral and written aspects of the language, giving students a basic understanding of standard Chinese and the ability to engage in simple conversations. A summer immersion program in China follows (financial aid is available to cover part of the costs).

Intermediate Chinese I-II
Chinese 201-202
This course is for students who have taken one year of basic Chinese at Bard or elsewhere. Continued emphasis is on the basic skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Daily practice, frequent use of the language lab, and one session with the Chinese tutor are required.

The Chinese Novel
Chinese 215
It has been said that The Story of the Stone has the critical acclaim of James Joyce’s Ulysses, the popular appeal of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind, and is twice as long as the two combined. Students read, in its entirety, a beautiful, scholarly, and complete translation of a work that one fifth of the world’s population considers to be the best novel ever written. They also learn something about the cultural history of China, in particular attitudes and conceptions of gender.

Exotic Landscapes: Travel and Travel Writing in China’s Borderlands
Chinese 216
CROSS-LISTED: ASIAN STUDIES, EUS, HUMAN RIGHTS, LITERATURE
Representations of China’s borderlands (Mongolia, Tibet, Xinjiang, Yunnan, etc.) and its ethnic minorities are explored through Western and Chinese travel writings. The focus is on two periods, the first between 1850 and 1911, a time of extensive and often violent encounters between China and the West; and the early 1980s to the present. Authors include Sven Hedin, Isabella Bird, Archibald J. Little, Alexandra David-Neel, George E. Morrison, Ma Jian, and Sun Shuyun.

Advanced Chinese I-II
Chinese 301-302
These courses are for students who have taken at least four semesters of basic Chinese at Bard or elsewhere. The goal is to expand students’ reading and speaking capacity and enrich their cultural experiences. Texts are mostly selected from Chinese newspapers, journals, and fictional works.

Reflections of China in Film
Chinese 403
With the primary goal of enhancing speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills, this course examines films from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, exploring such topics as the origin of Chinese cinema, nationalism and revolution, cinematic representation of contemporary and historical themes, the search for roots in the post-Mao era, the Fifth Generation and experimental fiction and film, Hong Kong popular culture in the commercial age, feminism and sexuality, and representations of exile, diaspora, and the new immigrants. Conducted in Chinese.

Chinese Pop Culture
Chinese 405
The course examines contemporary Chinese popular culture and asks how it represents, reflects, and negotiates the drastic social and political changes that happened in China from 1949 to 2019. It also focuses on the politics of popular art in China: how popular culture becomes a “weapon” wielded by the proletariat to instigate revolution; how it embraces global capitalism; and how it serves as a propaganda machine to shape collective mentality. Taught in Chinese.

Performing Chinese: Culture, Identity, and Politics
Chinese 415
How does performance in everyday Chinese society shape one’s identity, culture, and political affiliation? Can a person of non-Chinese origin who speaks and writes the language claim to be Chinese? How does one perform “Chinese-ness”? This course examines the relationship between the individual, state, and society, with a focus on the ways that language, politics, and culture shape identity. Texts include newspaper articles, films, political treatises, and plays that have shaped and/or divided Chinese communities.

Classics

Introduction to Greek Tragedy
Classics 111
An introduction to the texts and traditions of Greek tragedy, which flourished in Athens during the fifth century BCE. Close study of the major plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides (in English translation) gives students familiarity with the genre of tragedy as a complex art form and, in particular, as a vehicle for the transmission of core Western values—moral, political, and aesthetic.

The Greek World: An Introduction
Classics 115
This introductory course explores the social, cultural, and political history of the Greek world from its earliest beginnings in the Bronze Age to the “renaissance” of Greek literature and culture under the Roman Empire. The class examines the creation of political forms (from democracy to tyranny), contacts and conflicts between Greece and the East, the rise and fall of world empires, and the invention of literary genres. Materials studied include vase paintings, inscriptions, and texts by Aeschylus and Aristophanes. All readings in English.

Greek Tragedy in the 21st Century
Classics 119
In ancient Athens, citizens used the spectacle and storytelling of Greek tragedy to explore urgent questions. How do we deal with the trauma of war? How can marginalized people navigate an oppressive state? In an uncertain world, why should we put our faith in traditional religion? Centuries later, artists continue to adapt classical tragedies in response to pressing issues. This course examines Aeschylus’s Oresteia, Sophocles’s Antigone, and Euripides’s Medea and Trojan Women in relation to adaptations by, among others, Luis Alfaro, Yaël Farber, Sara Uribe Sánchez, and Itab Azzam. 

The Roman World: An Introduction
Classics 122
An exploration of the social, cultural, and political history of Rome from its earliest beginnings as a small city-state to the dominant imperial power that still influences the language we speak, the art we make, and the laws we follow. The class considers a range of literary, visual, and material primary sources: inscriptions, coins, wall paintings, archaeological data, and texts such as Vergil’s Aeneid, Livy’s history of Rome, and Pliny’s Letters. All readings in English.

Alexander the Great
Classics 201 / History 201
See History 201 for a full course description.

Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World
Classics 211 
The course explores the gendered relations of men and women in the ancient Greco-Roman world, focusing on literary and historical sources, in order to understand the social history of ancient sexuality and its manifestations. Topics include women’s lives in classical Athens; Greek homoerotic relationships; sexuality as part of Greek drama, religion, and mythology; and women in Roman myth, literature, and history.

Herodotus and Thucydides
Classics 232
CROSS-LISTED: HISTORICAL STUDIES
Herodotus and Thucydides are generally called historians, but the word only begins to describe them. Herodotus uses the chronicle of the Persian Wars to explore geography, anthropology, religion, and ethical philosophy; Thucydides weaves into his account of the Peloponnesian War debates on foreign policy, political science, justice, and morality. The two address themselves to timeless concerns of democracies and hegemonic powers. Works are read in their entirety, with attention paid to the questions they raise in both ancient and modern contexts.

Thinking Politically with the Greeks
Classics 234
DESIGNATED: COURAGE TO BE SEMINAR, ELAS COURSE
Students learn to creatively apply knowledge of ancient Greek politics to political problems that matter to them today. The course develops a multifaceted picture of the Greek polis, from readings by Plato and Aristotle to ancient Greek history, poetry, oratory, tragedy, and comedy. Also considered: how modern thinkers, including Hannah Arendt, Paul Tillich, and C. L. R. James, have drawn inspiration from the Greeks. Concepts discussed: democracy, equality, freedom, justice, revolution, imperialism, slavery, elitism, tyranny, and dissent.

The Fall of the Roman Empire
Classics 236
At the end of the third century AD, the Roman Empire stretched from Spain to Asia Minor. It was so vast that its administration was divided into eastern and western zones. Two hundred years later, the empire lost control of most of its western provinces. The events associated with these losses constitute the “Fall of the Roman Empire.” This course explores the causes behind the collapse and assesses the afterlife of Roman culture in the “Barbarian” West. Readings (in English) from Gregory of Tours, Boethius, Augustine, and Sidonius Apollinaris.

The Classical Epic
Classics 237
Epic poetry was the most prestigious form of poetic expression throughout antiquity, and a grasp of its history, techniques, themes, structure, and ideologies is essential to understanding the classical and, indeed, world literary tradition. This course examines the evolution of the epic in the Greek and Roman worlds from its origins as an oral genre in the Archaic Greek period to its final efflorescence in the Late Antique period (late fourth/early fifth century CE). Readings from Homer, Apollonius, Lucretius, Vergil, Lucan, and others.

Classical Mythology
Classics 242
What is the meaning of our mythologies? How do we understand and interpret traditional stories about the past? What is the relationship between mythology and history? This course seeks to answer these questions by examining selected myths of ancient Greece and Rome and applying to them theoretical approaches to interpreting myth. Topics include origin myths, Greek gods and heroes, war, the human-divine relationship, madness, divine love and lust, death and the afterlife, and Greco-Roman mythology in its wider Mediterranean context. Readings in English translation.

Ancient Fictions
Classics 313
CROSS-LISTED: LITERATURE
Long before Fyodor Dostoevsky and Virginia Woolf, Henry James and Zadie Smith, there were action-packed narratives full of youthful romance, travel to the edges of the earth, human travails, shipwrecks, and pirates. Best known to modern readers through Petronius’s Satyricon, Apuleius’s Golden Ass, and Longus’s Daphnis and Chloe, these texts represent an important new literary form in the Roman imperial period: prose fiction. The class reads all surviving Greek and Roman novels, selected prose fiction from other cultures, and works by contemporary literary theorists and critics.

Roman Arts of Self-Improvement
Classics 327
CROSS-LISTED: RELIGION
Behind every self-help book lies the supposition that reading and self-formation are inextricably entwined. This assumption raises a host of questions about the self and its reinvention. How do we change through reading and writing? What are we endeavoring to change (a mind, a belief, a soul)? From where did we inherit these ideas, and how have they changed over time? This course explores such questions in the context of the Roman world, through readings from Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Apuleius, Boethius, and Augustine. 

Ancient Greek

Basic Greek I-II
Greek 101-102
In this two-part course, Greek grammar and fundamental vocabulary are introduced, with attention given to pronunciation and recitation of poetry and prose. Readings include significant passages from Homer and important classical Greek authors, in Greek. No prior knowledge of Greek is required.

Intensive Greek
Greek 106-107
This course makes it possible for students with no background in ancient languages to read Homer, Plato, Greek tragedy, Herodotus, and other classical texts after one semester. Daily drills and frequent quizzes, together with ample access to tutoring and extra help, ensure that students stay on track as they master Greek grammar and vocabulary. In Greek 107, the focus is on consolidating knowledge of forms and syntax, and gaining exposure to a variety of classical authors.

Intermediate Greek I: Chariton
Greek 201
This course, a continuation of Greek 102, further develops students’ abilities to read and translate connected Greek prose. It begins with the fundamentals of Greek grammar and concludes with selections from Chariton’s Callirhoe, the earliest of the extant Greek novels. Chariton follows the trials and tribulations of his young, beautiful, and star-crossed protagonists from the moment they fall in love through false deaths, separations, and encounters with pirates to his story’s happy conclusion. Prerequisite: Greek 102 or its equivalent.

Intermediate Greek II: Euripides’s Alcestis
Greek 202
A close examination of Euripides’s tragicomic play Alcestis, which explores themes such as gender dynamics, the nature of sacrifice, and the possibility of cheating death. Students read extensive passages in ancient Greek and the entire play in English translation. Along the way, they also review essential points of grammar and syntax, investigate poetic meters, and develop an understanding of the social and political environment in Classical Athens.

Advanced Greek: Plato’s Phaedrus
Greek 301
The course explores one of Plato’s most enigmatic dialogues, the Phaedrus (375–365 BC). Socrates and his interlocutor begin their conversation with a review of a speech by the orator Lysias, but their discussion swiftly evolves in the pursuit of definitions for love, memory, rhetoric, and truth itself. The Phaedrus therefore compels readers to confront the self-reflectivity of ancient Greek literature, classic Platonic models of anamnesis and the Forms, and the enduringly problematic relationship between writing and knowledge. Prerequisite: Greek 202 or permission of the instructor.

Disease and Deception in Sophocles’s Philoctetes
Greek 302
Students further develop their Greek reading fluency and research skills in this close look at Philoctetes, a play about persuasion and deception, isolation and disease, which was produced in the final years of the Peloponnesian War. Topics addressed include Athenian drama and society, including the relationship between young and old; and Greek views of disease, the body, religious pollution, and forgiveness. 

Advanced Greek: Euripides’s Bacchae
Greek 305
Performed posthumously in 405 BCE, the Bacchae narrates the return of Dionysos, the Greek god of theater, wine, and ecstasy, to his birthplace in Thebes. The tragedy is both a traditional story of homecoming and vengeance and an innovative exploration of the nature of divinity and myth, self and society, and tragedy itself. The class further develops reading fluency while gaining a range of critical approaches to the play. Prerequisite: Greek 201-202 or permission of the instructor.

Homer’s Iliad
Greek 312
Students read selections from Homer’s Iliad, which ancient Greeks considered their most important literary document and whose resonances today—especially its themes of trauma, loss, bravery, and forgiveness amidst the fog of war—are just as powerful. They develop reading fluency in Homeric Greek while exploring a range of critical approaches to Homer, including theories of composition and transmission (the so-called “Homeric Question”) and questions about narrative, storytelling, and Iliad’s place in the history of epic. Prerequisite: Greek 201-202 or permission of the instructor.

Advanced Greek: Aristophanes’s Frogs
Greek 315
Aristophanes’s comedies, at once bawdy and wordy, revolutionary and reactionary, combine mass entertainment with social commentary on Athens in the fifth century BCE. Students read (in the original Greek) Aristophanes’s Frogs, in which the god Dionysus descends to the underworld to choose one of the recently deceased tragic playwrights, Aeschylus or Euripides, to return to help the city in crisis. The class also develops further reading fluency in Greek and research skills in the classics. Prerequisite: Greek 201-202 or permission of the instructor.

Lucian of Samosata: Fantasy, Literary History, and Satirical Imagination
Greek 313
Students read selections from the works of Lucian, a Syrian intellectual from the second century ce whose wide-ranging writings influenced the history of satire, comedy, fantasy, and science fiction from Shakespeare to Rabelais. Texts include the True History, the earliest known work of fiction to include travel to outer space; The Dream, in which he narrates his self-discovery as a writer; and other stories and dialogues. Students develop their reading fluency in Attic Greek while exploring critical approaches to Lucian. Prerequisite: Greek 201-202 or permission of the instructor.

Latin

Beginning Latin
Latin 101-102
In the first semester of a two-semester sequence, students begin to master classical Latin—the language of Cicero, Tacitus, Ovid, and Vergil. The approach foregrounds reading original Latin literary texts and primary documents with an emphasis on mastering grammar and syntax; by the end of the full-year sequence, students are ready to read most Latin texts in the original. No prior experience is expected.

Basic Intensive Latin
Latin 106
Students learn to read authors such as Vergil, Ovid, Cicero, and Augustine in the original language after one semester’s intensive work (the equivalent of two semesters of college Latin). Daily drills and frequent quizzes are combined with readings: students begin with short selections and read longer passages by midterm.

Intermediate Latin: Love and Politics in Republican Rome 
Latin 201
Designed for students reading continuous Latin for the first time, the course focuses on readings from the poetry of Catullus and from Cicero’s defense speech of 56 BCE, the Pro Caelio. Composed in the same literary and cultural environment of Rome in the last days of the Republic, these works offer insights into the intersection of political power, gender relations, and shifting morals in the first century bce. Prerequisite: Latin 102 or 106 or the equivalent.

The Age of Nero
Latin 202
Despite its slide into autocracy, the age of Nero (54-68 AD) saw a great flowering of Roman literature, including the comic novel Satyricon by Petronius and the tragedies and essays of Seneca, as well as the mysterious historical drama called Octavia. The class reads selections from several of these texts, which span a wide range of styles in both poetry and prose. Readings in English help situate the texts against the troubled history of Nero’s reign.

Reading Medieval Latin
Latin 205
In this introduction to the traditions of postclassical Latin literature, readings include a wide range of styles, in both poetry and prose, from the period of Late Antiquity to the end of the Middle Ages (c. 500–1500 CE). Texts may include selections from Boethius, the Carmina Burana, and Petrarch. The course also explores concepts and disciplines integral to the study of Medieval Latin, such as textual transmission, paleography, and the cultural history of the Middle Ages.

Advanced Latin I: Remaking the Classics
Latin 301
CROSS-LISTED: THEOLOGY
In the fourth century AD, citizens of the Latin West underwent a profound intellectual and identity crisis. The spread of Christianity, especially among the Roman elite, not only instigated reflections on theology and cosmology, but also triggered reconsiderations of canonicity, authority, and authorship in the fields of education and literature. This course examines two works that embody those emergent tensions between the classical and the Christian in the late Roman world: Proba’s Cento and Augustine’s Confessions. Prerequisite: Latin 202 or permission of the instructor.

Advanced Latin II: Roman Medea
Latin 302
An examination of how the mythic figure of Medea was reimagined and reinterpreted by the Romans, in particular Ovid and Seneca. The class reads works of both authors in Latin, together with their Greek sources, Euripides and Apollonius of Rhodes, in English.

The Idea of Latin Lyric
Latin 303
Among its ancient Greek inventors, lyric verse was primarily defined by its specific meters and musicality. When Roman poets, especially Catullus and Horace, appropriated it, the theory and practice of lyric became a subject of constant renegotiation. The course seeks to understand how lyric evolved socially and aesthetically in the hands of these Latin poets and their successors from a genre of musical performance into a literary vehicle for exploring the complexities of emotion, personal experience, and voice. Prerequisite: Latin 202 or permission of the instructor.

Horace’s Odes
Latin 312
The class reads a selection of Horace’s Odes, four books of Latin lyric that range from the funny to the philosophical, and considers the poetry’s relationship to Greek and Roman literary traditions, Horace’s other works, and his cultural and historical contexts. Prerequisite: Latin 201-202 or permission of the instructor.

Sanskrit

Sanskrit I, II
Classics 140, 141 / Religion 140, 141
See Religion 140 and 141 for course descriptions.

French

Basic Intensive French
French 106
For students with little or no experience of French who wish to acquire a strong grasp of the language and culture in the shortest time possible. Students complete the equivalent of three semesters of college-level French in a semester course that meets 10 hours a week and is followed by a four-week stay in France.

Intermediate French I-II-III
French 201-202-203
This introduction to contemporary French civilization and culture is for students who have completed three or more years of high school French or who have acquired a solid knowledge of elementary grammar. Students reinforce their skills in grammar, composition, and spoken proficiency through the use of short texts, newspaper and magazine articles, and video.

French through Translation
French 215
For students with three to four years of high school French or who have acquired a solid knowledge of elementary grammar. In this course, designed as an introduction to contemporary French civilization and culture, students are able to reinforce their skills in grammar, composition, and spoken proficiency, through the use of short texts, newspaper and magazine articles, as well as video. They meet in small groups with the French tutor for one extra hour per week.

French through Film
French 220
This course explores major themes of French culture and civilization through the study of individual films ranging from the silent era to the present, and covering a wide variety of genres. The class considers the interaction between the French and their cinema in terms of historical circumstances, aesthetic ambitions, and self-representation. Conducted in French.

Comic Literature in the French Tradition
French 228
Laughter, an essentially humanizing behavior, can be as much a release of tension as a form of malice. Its ambiguity has been exploited in literary works over the centuries, from Rabelais’s fart jokes to Flaubert’s digs at bourgeois values, and from Molière’s critique of hypocrisy to Vian’s mockery of philosophical fads (Jean-Sol Partre!). This course delves into examples of humor in French and Francophone literatures, and explores several texts of a theoretical nature dedicated to the mechanics and messages of comedic writing.

Quarrels of the Ancients and the Moderns: Past, Present, and Future in the French Literary Tradition
French 235
The “querelle des anciens et des modernes,” the conflict that raged at the heart of French letters from the late 17th century to the early 18th, pitted those who found the ancient Greeks and Romans to be untouchable in terms of artistic merit against those who considered contemporary innovations to be a progression beyond the inheritance of antiquity. This course explores the roles played by the past, present, and future in the French literary tradition, with a focus on several authorial oppositions: Corneille/Racine, Voltaire/Rousseau, Balzac/Flaubert, and Sartre/Blanchot.

Topics in French Literature
French 240
The class explores the ways in which, over the past three and a half centuries, literature (novels, short stories, poems, plays, essays) has attempted to grasp its own essence. Why literature? How can literature serve as a response to a problem (be it personal or political), or, taken from another angle, why is the questioning at the heart of literature often seemingly the sole solution? Readings from Diderot, Rousseau, Stendhal, Balzac, Nerval, Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Breton, Sartre, and Duras. In French.

Advanced Composition and Conversation
French 270
Students consider a diverse selection of writings (short works of fiction, poems, philosophical essays, political analysis, newspaper editorials, magazine articles) loosely organized around a single theme. The readings provide a rich ground for cultural investigation, intellectual exchange, in-class debates, in-depth examination of stylistics, and vocabulary acquisition. A general review of grammar is also conducted.

Class Matters: Vocabularies of Contempt from Balzac to Eribon
French 321
CROSS-LISTED: LITERATURE
In Le Peuple (1846), the French historian Michelet proclaims that almost all those who benefit from social mobility end up betraying the character of their initial class. “The hard thing,” he writes, “is not [so much] to ascend, but while ascending, to remain oneself.” What is gained in culture and knowledge, he adds, is lost in “originality and authentic distinction.” This seminar scrutinizes works by Stendhal, Balzac, Eribon, Huysmans, and Proust for insights into the psychodynamics of prestige and acceptance, success and failure, and the symbolic violence that marks social cleavages

Baudelaire, Rimbaud, and Mallarmé
French 335
A poetic revolution was brought to the theory and practices of 19th-century French poetry by three of its most illustrious figures: Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, and Stéphane Mallarmé. As Victor Hugo’s age of lyric romanticism came to an end, these poets took full measure of a modern subjectivity in crisis by making it a crisis of form, with increasing disenchantment, irony, self-reflexivity, and obscurity. Readings: Les Fleurs du Mal and Le Spleen de Paris (Baudelaire), Illuminations and Une Saison en enter (Rimbaud), and Poésies (Mallarmé).

Theorizing the French Novel
French 342
CROSS-LISTED: LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIOLOGY
How have philosophy and critical theory bestowed on French fiction and film a new ethical and aesthetic vocabulary, moving novelists and filmmakers to rethink their positions? Bourdieu, Rancière, Derrida, Balibar, Cixous, Levinas, and
de Fontenay, among others, have made a significant mark on French literature and cinema. This seminar explores issues including the aftermath of colonialism (Glissant/Fanon), reproductive politics (Foucault/Ernaux), social and cultural issues of secularism and identity (Plenel/Houellebecq), the clash between Paris and the banlieues (Balibar/Bon/Mathieu), and citizenship and migration (Chamoiseau/Daoud/Slimani).

The Lost and Found Art of Conversation from Montaigne to Beckett
French 344
Since Socrates, conversation has been admired for its seamless ability to integrate knowledge into society, and supplement savoir (knowledge) with savoir-vivre (the art of living). But conversation has often been condemned as merely artful, dangerous for its proximity to the decadent and the idle. This course examines how these tensions are played out on rhetorical and thematic levels. Texts by Montaigne, Beckett, Aristotle, Marx, Nietzsche, Pascal, Lafargue, Stendhal, and Proust.

Literature of Private Life
French 354
The representation of private life in the 19th- century French novel coincided with the advent of realism. Realism described both the institutions that shaped private life (marriage, education, religion) and the discrete dramas occurring backstage—the solitude of the spinster (Flaubert’s Un Cœur Simple), plight of the child (Vallès’s L’Enfant), despair of domesticity (Maupassant’s Une Vie), and nature of neuroses (Zola’s Nana). The course examines writings (novels, stories, journals, correspondence) previously considered too personal to be viewed as literature.

German

Intensive German I, II, III
German 106, 107, 108 
The first part of this accelerated sequence is designed to enable students with little or no previous experience in German to complete two years of college German within one year: 12 credits at Bard Annandale plus a 4-credit summer session at Bard College Berlin. Students progress from learning the language for everyday communication to reading and discussing classical and modern texts by, among others, Goethe, Heine, Kafka, and Brecht. In Berlin, they further explore German language and culture.

Accelerated Transitional German
German 200
An accelerated course for students with varied backgrounds in German. Emphasis is placed on a review of elementary grammar and the sharpening of all four language skills (speaking, comprehension, reading, writing), as well as cultural proficiency. Extensive reading, speaking, and vocabulary training exercises are combined with conversational practice, reading and dramatization of short classical and modern German texts, and weekly writing of simple compositions. Successful completion of this course (covering three semesters’ worth of material) allows students to continue with German 202 in the spring.

Intermediate German
German 201-202
Designed to deepen the proficiency gained in Intensive German, this course increases students’ fluency in speaking, reading, and writing, and adds significantly to their working vocabulary. Selected 20th-century literary texts and films include the cinematic classic Der blaue Engel and Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s play Die Physiker.

German Opera and Ideas
German 213
CROSS-LISTED: MUSIC
This course traces German intellectual history from the Enlightenment to Modernism and beyond through the study of major operas and the literary works that spawned some of them. Operas include Mozart’s The Magic Flute (1791), Beethoven’s Fidelio (1805/1814), Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischütz (1821), Richard Strauss’s Salome (1905), Bertolt Brecht’s and Kurt Weill’s Threepenny Opera (1928), and Hans Werner Henze’s Der Prinz von Homburg (1960), among others. Taught in English. Students with advanced proficiency in German can read selections in the original for extra credit

Grimms’ Märchen
German 303
Unfortunately, we seem to know the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm only in adaptations that greatly reduce their power to touch our emotions and engage our imaginations. Through a close reading of selected tales, this course explores the tales’ poetics and politics, and their origins in folklore and myth. The class considers major critical approaches (Freudian, Marxist, feminist); creative adaptations (Disney, classical ballet, postmodern dance); and other fairy-tale traditions.

Weltschmerz: Old Style, New Style
German 311 
Goethe’s early novel Die Leiden des jungen Werther (1774) and Ulrich Plenzdorf’s Die neuen Leiden des jungen W., published in 1972 in East Germany, are more than scandal-filled successes about a love triangle between a couple and an odd man out who dies in the end. They are variations on the theme of weltschmerz, a phenomenon that can be defined as the inability of a young eccentric genius to adapt to the hard realities of the world. Analysis of these works focuses on the central issue, as well as literary style and concepts such as Sturm und Drang and Empfindsamkeit.

Modern German Short Prose
German 320
A survey of great works of mainly 20th-century prose, including Novellen, Erzählungen, parables, and other short forms. Detailed literary analysis is combined with discussion of the social, political, and historical contexts of each work and interspersed with frequent creative writing assignments. Readings from Hoffmann, Kafka, Musil, Mann, Kleist, Benjamin, Bachmann, Dürrenmatt, Aichinger, Handke, Erpenbeck, Tawada, others. Conducted in German.

Words and Flowers: The Poem between Myth and Botany
German 322
Literature draws on the world of flowers and trees to create meaning. What kinds of lives do these neglected protagonists lead in literary texts? When one names a flower, what kind of knowledge is tacitly imparted? How do folklore, local life, mysticism, and observation of the natural world interact in literature? The course focuses on modern German-language poetry, and includes close readings of poems by Celan, Goethe, Heine, and Hölderlin. In German.

Confronting Injustice
German 324
CROSS-LISTED: HUMAN RIGHTS
This course looks at literary representations of and confrontations with injustice in the 19th and 20th centuries. Texts include works by Heinrich Heine, Rosa Luxemburg, Else Lasker-Schüler, Franz Kafka, Gerhard Hauptmann, Bertolt Brecht, Paul Celan, and the Book of Job in conversation with selections from Margarete Susman’s study of Job’s legacy. Topics discussed also include representations of perseverance against anti-Semitism, workers’ struggles, and the relation of the individual to the law.

Literature between Languages
German 326
Some of the finest literary writings in German over recent decades are by authors whose first language is not German. This course explores poems, prose, and essays of writers who live and work between German and other languages, among them Japanese-born Yoko Tawada, Turkish-born Emine Özdamar, Hungarian-born Terézia Mora, and Ukranian-born Katja Petrowskaja. Also considered: theoretical writings on transnational and multilingual literature

Poetry and Philosophy
German 331
Is there something like sensory reasoning? Who has the capacity to formulate the unspeakable? Is humor a thought or a sentiment? Poetry and philosophy have for centuries offered fascinating responses to such questions—not least in the German tradition. Poets, philosophers, and poetic thinkers have addressed these concerns, including Goethe, Kant, Schiller, Hölderlin, Heidegger, Rilke, Benjamin, Brecht, and Arendt. The beauty and precision of their language(s) provokes a semester of conversations with these thinkers of and in the German language.

Life of the Mind: Hannah Arendt
German 337 / Philosophy 337
See Philosophy 337 for a full course description.

Heinrich Heine
German 408
For Nietzsche, Heine was “the highest conception of the lyric poet.... He possessed that divine malice without which I cannot conceive of perfection.” Acquiring an appreciation of both the music and malice of Heine’s artistry is the seminar’s primary goal. In addition to reading the collected poems and selected prose works, attention is paid to the cultural and political contexts of Heine’s works, with readings drawn from Marx, Hegel, Feuerbach, and Madame de Staël. In German

German Expressionism
German 418
Less a style than a Weltanschauung of a rebellious generation, German Expressionism—flourishing roughly between 1905 and 1925—is generally seen as an artistic reflection of a common feeling of crisis, the disappearance of individualism in burgeoning urban centers, the hypocrisy of Imperial Wilhelminian Germany, and the soulless materialism and (self-)alienation of increased industrialization. Texts by Wedekind, Benn, Heym, Lasker-Schüler, Kafka, Kaiser, and Trakl. Painting, music, and film are also considered.

Contemporary German Literature and Film
German 422
What is at stake for contemporary German writers, filmmakers, and intellectuals? What topics do they address in their movies, novels, poems, and plays? How do these artworks reflect Germany’s multiethnic society and its pivotal role in a rapidly changing Europe? Discussion centers on texts by Herta Müller, W. G. Sebald, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Terézia Mora, Ingo Schulze, and Emine Sevgy Özdamar, among others; and on films by Fatih Akin, Hans-Christian Schmid, and Michael Haneke.

Baroque Mourning and Melancholy: Text and Image
German 428
Writers in 17th-century Germany inherited and transmitted medieval and Renaissance theories of affect during a time of political and religious tumult. Twentieth-century readers of Walter Benjamin’s decisive study, The Origin of the German Mourning Play, have looked to the Baroque as a primal scene of modernity—and yet few have read Benjamin’s sources. Class readings include works from the German Baroque period in dialogue with passages from Benjamin’s study, as well as texts by Gryphius, Lohenstein, Luther, Benjamin, Panofsky, and Sebald.

Hebrew

See Jewish Studies.

Italian

Intensive Italian
Italian 106
This course enables students with little or no ­previous knowledge of Italian to complete three semesters of college Italian in five months: 8 credits at Bard and 4 in Italy, where students continue daily intensive study of the language and culture while living with Italian families. The course methodology is based on a communicative approach, which includes grammar drills, guided compositions, oral practice, role-playing, and readings and analysis of authentic material.

Intermediate Italian I-II
Italian 201-202
Designed for students who have completed the equivalent of one year of college Italian, the course ­offers practice in writing and conversation. Students engage in discussion and must complete compositions and oral reports based on Italian literary texts and cultural material.

Topics in Italian Culture: Love and Lust in 14th-Century Italy
Italian 217
CROSS-LISTED: LITERATURE
Courtly love was big in the 14th century. Lovers and bards serenaded angelic ladies, praising their perfection. But there were also tales of earthier kinds of love and lust—a woman who, by having sex, could perhaps become a horse; a woman who placed her beloved’s decapitated head in a basil plant; lovers who fell in love because they were bad readers. This course explores these narratives of love and lust in 14th-century Italy. Texts include excerpts from Dante’s Commedia, Boccaccio’s Decameron, and Petrarch’s Rime.

Italian Crimes / Italian Fictions
Italian 222
Crime fiction in Italy is called il giallo, after the color of the popular books that invaded the Italian market in the 1930s. The genre has become a major player in Italian self-representation even beyond Hollywood clichés. The course approaches modern Italian novels, including Sciascia’s A Ciascuno Il Suo and Moravia’s Il Conformista (and their filmic adaptations) with a focus on the fascist mentality, the evolution of mafia as a modern global enterprise, social and gender exclusion, and other issues. In Italian.

Sicily and Writing
Italian 227
South of Europe but at the center of the Mediterranean world, Sicily has been at the crossroads of cultures and peoples since Homer. The majestic, skeptical, bitter narratives of Sicily’s writers, from Giovanni Verga to Luigi Pirandello and Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, trace a philosophical counternarrative to Italy’s modernity. Filmmakers such as Luchino Visconti and Francesco Rosi amplify the tensions of Sicilian narrative through visually striking cinematic interpretations. Prerequisite: Italian 202 or permission of the instructor.

Renaissance Theater
Italian 232
The course aims to enhance students’ oral and written production in Italian through an exploration of the Renaissance’s diverse theatrical traditions—from Harlequin’s mask to learned comedy, operatic gesture to tragic endings. Through texts, music, and performance, the class puts the Italian Renaissance into dialogue with broad theatrical traditions, ancient and modern. Texts include Machiavelli’s La Mandragola, pastoral plays, excerpts from epic texts, and stage directions for commedia dell’arte productions.

Imagining Italian Cities
Italian 235
CROSS-LISTED: EUS
Unlike other European countries, Italy has no central stage in the construction of national culture. Instead it grounds its multifold identity on the difference and peculiarities of cities such as Florence, Venice, Naples, Trieste, and Milan. With a multidisciplinary approach from poetry to visual arts, this course constitutes an introduction to Italian civilization for students who have completed Intermediate Italian. Authors and filmmakers discussed may include Dante, Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Marinetti, Calvino, Ferrante, De Sica, Fellini, Pasolini, and Benigni.

Italy and Exile
Italian 236
Students enhance their oral and written production in Italian through the lens of exile, a crucial aspect of Italian consciousness from the medieval period to today. The course explores the idea of exile broadly, as both exile from a place and exile to another place, in selected works ranging from Dante to the 21st century. Texts include excerpts from Dante’s Comedy, Machiavelli’s The Prince, Antonio Gramsci’s political writings, the prison letters of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, and Igiaba Scego’s novel La mia casa è dove sono.

Italy and Baroque Mediterranean
Italian 237
An exploration of Italian literature and theater at a critical juncture of Mediterranean culture. Trade routes, technological imports, and political conquests shaped the Baroque period and immersed Italy in cultural exchange, impacting Italian figurations of selfhood and the self’s relation to others. Texts include excerpts from Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata, various iterations of the Don Juan narrative, and Wu Ming’s novel Altai. Also considered is Italian popular theater as it related to theatrical traditions from the Ottoman Empire. Prerequisite: Italian 202 or permission of the instructor. In Italian.

Love and Death in Dante
Italian 3205 / Literature 3205
See Literature 3205 for a course description.

Democracy and Defeat: Italy after Fascism
Italian 331
CROSS-LISTED: HUMAN RIGHTS
This seminar takes an interdisciplinary approach to the cultural and intellectual history of Italy from 1943 to 1950. The heterogeneous aspects of the Italian cultural field after World War II are considered in a wide-ranging framework, in which postwar histories are informed not simply by the external context of the Cold War but also by preceding wartime discourses. Readings from Italo Calvino, Curzio Malaparte, Carlo Levi, Primo Levi, and Rosetta Loy. Prerequisite: Italian 202 or permission of instructor.

To Remake Italy: Italian Cinema from Fellini and Rossellini to the Present
Italian 366
CROSS-LISTED: FILM AND ELECTRONIC ARTS, ITALIAN STUDIES
The phrase rifare l’Italia (remake Italy) was a refrain for many Italian filmmakers of the 1940s and 1950s whose works dealt with their nation’s struggle to rebuild itself after two decades of fascism and years of world (and civil) war. The course focuses on the works and legacies of the vaunted neorealist movement, whose directors (Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, Luchino Visconti) trained or influenced a generation of the so-called auteur filmmakers (Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Pier Paolo Pasolini).

Japanese

Elementary Japanese I-II
Japanese 101-102
This two-semester sequence introduces the ­fun­da­mentals of modern Japanese. Students ­sys­tematically develop listening, speaking, writing, and reading abilities. Because fluency in Japanese requires sensitivity to the social setting in which one is speaking, the course also provides an introduction to basic aspects of daily life and culture in contemporary Japan.

Intermediate Japanese I-II
Japanese 201-202
The first part of this two-semester sequence builds upon the foundational knowledge acquired in the first year of Japanese language study. Students develop their abilities in the four primary skills: listening, speaking, writing, and reading. Coursework consists of extensive study of basic grammar, language lab work, conversation practice, and simple composition exercises. The second semester accelerates the acquisition of Chinese characters and introduces more complex grammatical patterns and expressions.

Advanced Japanese I
Japanese 301
The course introduces more complex grammatical structures, especially those common to written material, and accelerates character acquisition and advanced vocabulary. Students learn the fundamentals of dictionary use and acquire the skills necessary for speed-reading and accurate composition of written material. Prerequisite: Japanese 202 or the equivalent.

Advanced Japanese II
Japanese 302
In this continuation of Japanese 301, students concentrate on complex grammatical patterns while further accelerating the acquisition of characters and advanced vocabulary. They build oratory skills through debate on relevant social topics and through individual research presentations. Composition is also emphasized. Conducted in Japanese. Prerequisite: Japanese 301 or equivalent.

Advanced Reading: Japanese Culture
Japanese 311
This course focuses on the four skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing, with an emphasis on reading a variety of more complex Japanese prose in various genres, styles, and formats. Course materials include essays, articles, short stories, and manga, which serve as subjects for interpretation, discussion, and translation. Open to any students who have completed Japanese 202, or with permission of the instructor. Students returning from abroad or who have previously completed other advanced-level classes are especially encouraged to enroll.

Translating Japanese
Japanese 315
For students who have had at least three years of Japanese and who can read at the advanced level. The class considers the nature and limits of translation within the Japanese context. While focusing on the techniques and craft of translation, students are also introduced to translation theory, both Western and Japanese, and examine well-known translations by comparing source and target texts. Prerequisite: Japanese 302 or equivalent.

Russian

Beginning Russian I-II
Russian 101-102
An introduction to the fundamentals of the spoken and written language as well as Russian culture. Creative expression is encouraged through autobiographical and fictional compositions.

Russian Intensive
Russian 106
Designed for beginners who have had little or no prior knowledge of Russian, the course focuses on the fundamentals of the spoken and written language, and introduces students to Russian culture. Creative expression in autobiographical and fictional compositions is also encouraged. In addition to regular class meetings, students are required to attend a weekly one-hour tutorial. 

Intermediate Russian I-II
Russian 201-202
The focus of this sequence is on the continuing acquisition of advanced grammar, pertinent vocabulary, and reading and conversational skills that enable students to communicate effectively. Advanced grammar constructions are introduced through a wide variety of adapted texts and contexts. In addition to textbook material, students read literary and journalistic texts.

Continuing Russian
Russian 206-207
Students continue refining and engaging their practice of speaking, reading, and writing Russian. Advanced grammar topics are addressed through a variety of texts and contexts.

An Appointment with Dr. Chekhov
Russian 220 / Literature 220
While studying to become a doctor at Moscow University, Chekhov began writing in order to earn money. Students analyze how his “general theory of objectivity” had an impact on his writing and how his “treatment” of human nature and social issues brought an entirely new dimension to Russian literature. Readings include Chekhov’s prose, plays, and letters.

Art of the Russian Avant-Garde (1900–34)
Russian 225
This multidisciplinary course addresses major developments in Russian modern and avant-garde art in the first three decades of the 20th century. It looks at particular movements, ideas, and seminal names, from Vrubel and symbolism to Tatlin and constructivism. The course also offers a methodology and context for the appreciation of the evolution of Russian visual culture and its contribution to the international art arena.

Stalin and Power
Russian 233/ History 233
See History 233 for a full course description.

Russian Opera: Staging History, Shaping Myths
Russian 327
CROSS-LISTED: MUSIC
An exploration of Russian history through the medium of Russian opera, which absorbed and confronted, transformed and blended the creative achievements of the Old World with the unique Russian experience. In the 19th century, opera became a powerful agent in Russia’s search for national identity. Operas studied: Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar, Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina, Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride, Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades and Eugene Onegin, Prokofiev’s War and Peace, and Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.

Between Friends: Letters of Russian Writers
Russian 328
This advanced-level course looks at everyday life, literature, and the culture of the times through the letters of famous Russian writers of the 19th century, including Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Chekhov. Conducted in Russian.

Advanced Russian: The Grammar of Poetry:
Russian 329
This course offers a practical approach to the fundamentals of Russian grammar and syntax through reading and analyzing poetic texts by Pushkin, Lermontov, Tyutchev, Blok, Akhmatova, Mandelstam, Tsvetaeva, Pasternak, Mayakovsky, Brodsky, and others. Also addressed: the history of Russian versification, the technical aspects of poetry, and translation of selected poems. Special attention is paid to principles of phonetics, intonation, and poetry recitation.

Russia and Its Theater
Russian 330
CROSS-LISTED: THEATER AND PERFORMANCE
An examination of the evolution of Russian dramaturgy in connection with parallel developments in both literature and theater. Students explore various aspects of Russian culture by discussing the specifics of Russian drama. Special attention is given to issues of genre and style, tradition and innovation, criticism and theory. Readings include plays by Fonvizin, Griboedov, Gogol, Pushkin, Ostrovsky, Chekhov, Bulgakov, Mayakovsky, Erdman, and Petrushevskaya, as well as theoretical texts by Stanislavsky, Meyerhold, and Mikhail Chekhov. Conducted in English.

The World Upside Down: Carnivalesque Narratives in Russian Literature
Russian 3441 / Literature 3441
See Literature 3441 for a full course description.

Translation: Russian to English
Russian 390
A practical and theoretical course consisting of regular weekly readings and translations of a variety of literary texts. Students also work on an independent project throughout the semester. Texts include short stories and poems by Bunin, Chekhov, Babel, Tolstaya, Dovlatov, Akhmatova, Pasternak, and others.

Kino Po-Russki: Advanced Russian through Film
Russian 418
This creative exploration of the Soviet cinematic canon also offers an in-depth study of Russian idiom, grammar, and syntax. Films discussed include Grigoriy Aleksandrov’s Circus, Nadezhda Kosheverova and Mikhail Shapiro’s Cinderella, Vladimir Menshov’s Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears, Eldar Ryazanov’s The Irony of Fate, and Andrei Tarkovsky’s The Mirror. Listening comprehension, reading, and writing assignments alternate with discussions and reenactment exercises.

Spanish

Accelerated First-Year Spanish
Spanish 103-104
Designed for the student with prior exposure to Spanish or command of another Romance language, the course covers major topics in grammar with intensive practice in speaking, comprehension, reading, and writing. Practice with a Spanish tutor and work in the language lab are required. The course prepares students for summer language programs abroad or for Spanish 201. 

Basic Intensive Spanish
Spanish 106
This course enables students with little or no previous knowledge of Spanish to complete three semesters of college Spanish in five months (8 credits at Bard and 4 credits in Mexico). Students attend eight hours of class per week, plus two hours with a Spanish tutor. Oral communication and reading and writing skills are developed through a variety of approaches.

Intermediate Spanish I
Spanish 201
This course is designed to perfect the command of all four language skills (speaking, comprehension, reading, writing) through intensive grammar review, conversation practice, reading of modern Spanish texts, writing simple com­po­sitions, and language lab work. Prerequisites: Spanish 106 or 110 (or equivalent), and permission of the instructor.

Intermediate Spanish II
Spanish 202
In this course, students continue to refine their mastery of the four basic skills: reading, writing, speaking, comprehension. The textbook offers an integration of literature, culture, and film. The study of visual and written texts focuses on critical thinking, interpretation, speaking, and writing skills. Prerequisite: Spanish 201 or the equivalent.

Engaging Latin American Poetry
Spanish 2027 / Literature 2027
See Literature 2027 for a full course description.

Spanish for Heritage Speakers
Spanish 212
Designed for students who have been exposed to Spanish at home and wish to achieve confidence in speaking, writing, and reading the language. Grammar study capitalizes on prior contact with the language and allows more rapid progress than in a standard setting. Written ­composition, grammar review, and discussion of issues pertinent to Hispanic ­cultures are emphasized.

Cultures and Societies of Latin America and Spain
Spanish 223
The Spanish-speaking world comprises a rich variety of cultures that have historically been in dialogue, as well as resistance, over the centuries. This course focuses on key moments and events that have defined the multifaceted societies of Spain and Latin America. Special emphasis is placed on elements such as social movements, questions of race and ethnicity, postmodernity, constructions of gender and sexuality, and national and diasporic identities. Prerequisite: Spanish 202 or permission of the instructor.

Short Narrative / Latin American Literature
Spanish 230
This course traces the development of brief narrative forms from the Modernista period at the beginning of the 20th century to the present. Expanding the boundaries of the traditional short story, the class reads the stories of Jorge Luis Borges and short novels by Juan Rulfo, Elena Poniatowska, and Antonio Skármeta. Texts also include works by Horacio Quiroga, Julio Cortázar, Rosario Castellanos, Rosario Ferré, and Roberto Bolaño, among others. Conducted in Spanish.

Reading the Beast: Bestiaries and Beast Fables in Modern Literature
Spanish 238
DESIGNATED: TAI COURSE
What place do animals hold in our conception of the world in the 21st century? How do cultural representations of animals, particularly in literature, reflect (or fail to reflect) our interactions with the flesh-and-blood creatures that have inspired them? The bestiary and the beast fable are two traditional ways humans have used animals to tell stories about themselves. This course examines the surprising reemergence and reconfiguration of these modes in texts by Apollinaire, Borges, Cortázar, Lispector, Neruda, and Sedaris.

Testimonies of Latin America
Spanish 240
CROSS-LISTED: GSS, HUMAN RIGHTS
How best to represent memories of violence and pain? What are the ultimate effects of ­mediations of the written word, translations to hegemonic languages, and interventions of well-intentioned intellectuals? Students engage critically with texts that serve as a public forum for voices often silenced in the past. The course integrates diaries, testimonial narratives, and films.

Intermediate Spanish for Heritage Speakers
Spanish 248
This course is for students who have been exposed to Spanish at home and wish to achieve confidence in speaking, writing, and reading the language. Grammar study capitalizes on prior contact with the language and allows more rapid progress than in a standard setting. The intermediate level assumes some prior study of Spanish.

Introduction to Spanish Literature
Spanish 301
This course explores some of the major literary works produced on the Iberian peninsula from the Middle Ages to the present day. Students become familiar with the general contours of Spanish history and study in depth masterpieces by Cervantes, Colón, Teresa de Jesús, Don Juan Manuel, Calderón de la Barca, Larra, Galdós, Unamuno, Lorca, Laforet, Llamazares, Orejudo, and Vila-Matas, among others.

Introduction to Latin American Literature
Spanish 302
This course covers a broad range historically—from ­pre-Conquest times to the present—and explores all literary genres, including poetry, short stories, novels, essays, and plays. In order to make sense of the broad chronological and geographical span of this literature, the class focuses on seven ­separate modules, each ­highlighting a core moment or key figure in the development of Latin American culture.

Rebellious Poets of the Spanish-Speaking World
Spanish 321
CROSS-LISTED: LAIS
Readings include late 20th- and early 21st-century Spanish language poetry defined by a sense of rebelliousness. How do these poets situate their work as markedly oppositional? What norms, expectations, or limitations are they fighting against? With a focus on work by writers from Chile, Mexico, and Spain, the class studies the poets’ distinct national contexts and the ways in which their writing enters into dialogue with the broader poetic traditions of Spanish America and Spain. Prerequisite: Spanish 301 or 302, or permission of the instructor.

The Broken Voice: Surrealist Poetry and Crisis in Spain
Spanish 324
Spanish poetry in the late 1920s and early 1930s—between the Great War (1914–18) and that somber prelude to the Second World War, the Spanish Civil War (1936–39)—was torn between its allegiance to the dehumanizing principles of the avant-garde and the growing pressures of political commitment. Against this backdrop, surrealism emerged as the last expression of the European intelligentsia and its promise to suture all wounds. Readings include works by Lorca, Alberti, Cernuda, and Aleixandre.

Archive Fever: Literature and Film
Spanish 325
CROSS-LISTED: HUMAN RIGHTS, LITERATURE 
Contemporary societies are marked by a widely shared desire to create personal and collective archives as a way of witnessing and memorializing our lives. With an emphasis on, but not limited to, Spanish and Latin American cultures, this course invites students to explore literary and filmic manifestations that are symptomatic of today’s archive fever. Selected films by Buñuel, Almodóvar, and Varda, among others, are put in conversation with literary works by Martín Gaite, Lispector, Chacel, Semprún, Partnoy, and Cercas.

Spanish Literary Translation
Spanish 356
Designed for students who have completed at least two years of college Spanish. In each class meeting, students discuss theoretical texts concerning translation and write short reaction papers in Spanish. The first half of the semester is dedicated to translation of brief texts from various genres, selected by the professor; during the second half, students choose their own longer texts to translate. translate. 

Haunted by the Ghost of Cervantes
Spanish 359
CROSS-LISTED: EXPERIMENTAL HUMANITIES, LAIS
Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote is intratextually attributed to a fictional Moorish author, at a time when the Moors were being expelled from Spain. Authors trapped in fiction are sometimes persecuted and then killed by their characters; others become invisible as they hide behind the lines they write. This course reflects on the notion of authorship from the birth of the modern novel in Golden Age Spain to contemporary times. Texts by Larra, Azorín, Pessoa, Martín Gaite, Buñuel, Borges, Bolaño, and others.