SPANISH (SPAN)

Basic Language Courses

SM 110. Elementary Spanish I. (A) Prerequisite(s): A score below 380 on the SAT II or below 285 on the online placement examination. Spanish 110 is a first-semester elementary language course designed for students who have not previously studied Spanish. This course emphasizes the development of foundational reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills while exploring the rich cultural mosaic of the Spanish-speaking world. Students will participate in pair, small-group and whole-class activities that focus on meaningful and accurate communication skills in the target language. Students who have previously studied Spanish must take the online placement examination.

SM 112. Elementary Spanish I and II: Accelerated. (A) Prerequisite(s): Permit required from the course coordinator. Spanish 112 is an intensive course designed for students who have already satisfied the language requirement in another language and have not previously studied Spanish. By combining the curriculum of Spanish 110 and 120, Spanish 112 seeks to develop students' reading, writing, listening and speaking abilities while exploring the rich cultural mosaic of the Spanish-speaking world. Students will participate in pair, small-group and whole-class activities that focus on meaningful and accurate communication skills in the target language.

SM 115. Spanish for the Medical Professions, Elementary I. (A) Prerequisite(s): A score below 380 on the SAT II or below 285 on the online placement examination. Offered through the Penn Language Center. Spanish 115 is a first-semester elementary medical Spanish language course and the first in the Spanish for the Medical Professions sequence. It is designed for students with no prior coursework in Spanish. This course teaches beginning students the fundamentals of practical Spanish with an emphasis on medical situations and basic medical terminology. In this course, particular attention will be given to developing speaking and listening skills, as well as cultural awareness. It incorporates activities, vocabulary, and readings of particular interest to healthcare practitioners, while adhering to the goals and scope of Spanish 110, the first-semester Spanish language course. Students who have previously studied Spanish must take the online placement examination.

SM 120. Elementary Spanish II. (B) Prerequisite(s): Successful completion of Spanish 110 or permission of the course coordinator. The continuation of Spanish 110, Spanish 120 is a second-semester elementary language course. See the description of Spanish 110.

SM 121. Elementary Spanish I and II: Advanced Beginners. (C) Prerequisite(s): A score of 380-440 on the SAT II or 285-383 on the online placement examination. Spanish 121 is designed for students who have some prior experience in Spanish. This course provides a quick-paced review of material normally covered in a first-semester Spanish course and then proceeds to introduce new material so students will be prepared to take Spanish 130 during the subsequent semester. As in other Spanish courses, Spanish 121 emphasizes the development of foundational reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills while exploring the rich cultural mosaic of the Spanish-speaking world. Students will participate in pair, small-group and whole-class activities that focus on meaningful and accurate communication skills in the target language.

SM 125. Spanish for the Medical Professions, Elementary II. (B) Prerequisite(s): Successful completion of Spanish 110 or 115 or a score of 380-440 on the SAT II or 285-383 on the online placement examination. Offered through the Penn Language Center. The continuation of Spanish 115, Spanish 125 is a second-semester elementary medical Spanish language course. See the description of Spanish 115.

SM 130. Intermediate Spanish I. (C) Prerequisite(s): Successful completion of Spanish 112, 120, 121 or 125 or a score of 450-540 on the SAT II or 384-453 on the online placement examination. Spanish 130 is a first-semester intermediate-level language course that emphasizes the development of the four basic skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking skills) within a culturally based context. Class time will focus on communicative activities that combine grammatical concepts, relevant vocabulary, and cultural themes. Students will participate in pair, small-group and whole-class activities to practice linguistics skills in meaningful contexts. Major course goals include: the acquisition of intermediate-level vocabulary, the controlled use of the past tense, and the development of writing skills at a paragraph level with transitions.

SM 134. Intermediate Spanish I and II: Accelerated. (B) Prerequisite(s): Spring semester prerequisites: Permit required from the course coordinator Summer prerequisites: Successful completion of Spanish 112, 120, 121 or 125 or a score of 450-540 on the SAT II or 384-453 on the online placement examination. Spanish 134 is an intensive intermediate-level language course that covers the material presented in Spanish 130 and Spanish 140. The course emphasizes the development of the four canonical skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) within a culturally based context. Class time will focus on communicative activities that combine grammatical concepts, relevant vocabulary, and cultural themes. Students will participate in pair, small-group and whole-class activities to practice linguistics skills in a meaningful context. Major course goals include: the acquisition of intermediate-level vocabulary, the controlled use of the past tense and major uses of the subjunctive, and the development of writing skills. During the spring semester, Spanish 134 is limited to those students who have satisfied the language requirement in another language. During the summer, the course is open to all students who meet placement requirements.

SM 135. Spanish for the Medical Professions, Intermediate I. (A) Prerequisite(s): Successful completion of Spanish 112, 120, 121 or 125 or a score of 450-540 on the SAT II or 384-453 on the online placement examination. Offered through the Penn Language Center. Spanish 135 is a first-semester intermediate-level medical Spanish language course that emphasizes the development of the four basic skills, reading, writing, listening, and speaking, and the acquisition of medical terminology. Students will be expected to participate in classroom activities such as role-plays based on typical office and emergency procedures in order to develop meaningful and accurate communication skills in the target language. Students will also review and acquire forms and structures useful both inside and outside the medical field.

SM 140. Intermediate Spanish II. (C) Prerequisite(s): Successful completion of Spanish 130 or 135 or a score of 550-640 on the SAT II or 454-546 on the online placement examination. Spanish 140, the continuation of Spanish 130, is a fourth-semester language course that offers students the opportunity to acquire communicative skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) while developing their awareness and appreciation of the Spanish-speaking world. Topics studied may include the environment, the arts, social relations, and conflict and violence.

SM 145. Spanish for the Medical Professions, Intermediate II. (C) Prerequisite(s): Successful completion of Spanish 130 or 135 or a score of 550-640 on the SAT II or 454-546 on the online placement examination. Offered through the Penn Language Center. The continuation of Spanish 135, Spanish 145 is a second-semester intermediate-level medical Spanish language course. See the description of Spanish 135. This course satisfies the language requirement in Spanish.

Undergraduate-Level Courses

SM 180. Spanish Conversation. (E) Prerequisite(s): Residence in Modern Language House. Must be a resident of the Modern Language College House.

SM 202. Advanced Spanish. (C) Prerequisite(s): Successful completion of Spanish 140 or equivalent. The purpose of this course is twofold: (a) to develop students' communicative abilities in Spanish, that is, speaking, listening, reading and writing, and (b) to increase their awareness and understanding of Hispanic cultures and societies. Homework and classroom activities are designed to help students build their oral proficiency, expand and perfect their knowledge of vocabulary and grammatical structures, improve their reading and writing skills, and develop their critical thinking abilities. The material for this class includes short stories, newspaper articles, poems, songs, cartoons, video clips and a novel, such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Cronica de una muerte anunciada. At the completion of this course students will feel confident discussing and debating a variety of contemporary issues (cultural and religious practices, family relationships, gender stereotypes, political events, immigration to the USA, etc.).

SM 208. Business Spanish I. (C) Prerequisite(s): Successful completion of Spanish 140 or equivalent. Spanish for Business I provides advanced-level language students with technical vocabulary and communicative skills covering business concepts as they apply to the corporate dynamics of the Spanish-speaking world, with a special special emphasis on Latin America. Through readings, presentations, discussions, and video materials, we shall analyze those cultural aspects that characterize the business environment in the region as well as focus on economies and markets in light of their history, politics, resources and pressing international concerns.

SM 209. Business Spanish II. (C) Prerequisite(s): Permission from the instructor. Business Spanish II, Advanced Spanish for Business, is specifically designed for advanced speakers of Spanish (e.g., native speakers, heritage speakers, students who have studied in a Spanish-speaking country for at least one semester, and those who have attained an equivalent level of linguistic competency). Students will take an in-depth look at the corporate dynamics of a number of countries in Latin America, focusing on their economies and markets, as well as on the cultural and business protocols of each region. Through the creation of an entrepreneurial project and the writing of a business plan, students will enhance their business and language skills.

SM 212. Advanced Spanish Grammar. (C) Prerequisite(s): Spanish 202 or equivalent. Spanish 212 is an advanced grammar course that emphasizes the acquisition of a solid knowledge of those major points of Spanish grammar. Through discussion and correction of assigned exercises, analysis of authentic readings, and contrastive study of Spanish and English syntax and lexicon, students will develop an awareness of the norms of standard Spanish with the aim of incorporating these features into their own oral and written linguistic production.

SM 215. Spanish for the Professions I. (C) Prerequisite(s): Spanish 202 or equivalent. Spanish for the Professions is designed to provide advanced-level language students with a wide-ranging technical vocabulary and the enhancement of solid communicative skills within the cultural context of several developing Latin American countries. Focusing on topics such as politics, economy, society, health, environment, education, science and technology, the class will explore the realities and underlying challenges facing Latin America. Through essays, papers, articles, research, discussions, case studies, and videotapes, we shall take an in-depth look at the dynamics of Latin American societies. The course will focus on--but not be restricted to--Mexico, Cuba and Argentina.

SM 219. Hispanic Texts and Contexts. (C) Distribution Course in Hist & Tradition. Class of 2009 & prior only. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 212. The primary aim of this course is to develop students' knowledge of the geographical, historical and cultural contexts of the Spanish-speaking world. At the same time that they are introduced to research techniques and materials available in Spanish, students strengthen their language skills through reading, oral presentations, video viewing, and regular writing assignments. The course is designed to give students a broad understanding of Hispanic culture that will prepare them for upper-level course work.

SM 223. (CINE232, COLL223, COML226, LALS240, PRTG240) Perspectives in Spanish American Literature I. (C) Arts & Letters Sector. All Classes. Topics vary. See the Romance Languages Department's website at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/roml for a description of the current offerings.

SM 225. El espanol en el mundo. (M) Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219. This course will explore the social aspects of the Spanish language in the world. It will principally deal with the position of Spanish in Spain, in Spanish-speaking America, and in the United States. We will deal with the unity and diversity of Spanish and its speakers in topics such as dialect varieties, regional languages, linguistic identity, languages in contact etc. The class will be conducted in Spanish, with readings in both Spanish and English.

SM 250. (COML252, LALS252) Major Works of Spanish and Latin American Literature. (C) Arts & Letters Sector. All Classes. Topics vary. See the Romance Languages Department's website at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/roml for a description of current offerings.

SM 317. Spanish Phonetics and Morphology. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219. An introduction to articulatory phonetics designed to give the student a practical knowledge of the Spanish sound system as compared with English. Also some work in acoustic phonetics. Students learn to use the phonetic alphabet. Basic work is followed by an introduction to the linguistic analysis of sound systems, with concentration on Spanish and English phonology. Some introductory work on regional and social variations of pronunciation in the Spanish- speaking world. Lastly, an introduction to morphological analysis of language, with particular attention to the structure of the Spanish verb and word formation. Lectures and discussion of readings.

SM 319. History of the Spanish Language. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219. A survey treatment of the development of Latin to modern Spanish, with emphasis on relations between external history and the development of grammatical structure and vocabulary, and major sound shifts. Lectures and discussions of reading.

SM 330. Medieval Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219. Topics vary. See the Romance Languages Department's website at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/roml for a description of the current offerings.

SM 337. The Medieval Iberian Text. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219. Topics vary. See the Romance Languages Department's website at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/roml for a description of the current offerings.

SM 348. Don Quijote. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219. Topics vary. See the Romance Languages Department's website at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/roml for a description of the current offerings.

SM 350. (LALS350) Spanish Literature of the Golden Age. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219. Topics vary. See the Romance Languages Department's website at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/roml for a description of the current offerings.

SM 355. (LALS355) Topics in Spanish Drama. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219. Topics vary. See the Romance Languages Department's website at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/roml for a description of the current offerings.

SM 373. Spanish Romanticism, 1770-1870. (M) Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219. Topics vary. See the Romance Languages Department's website at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/roml for a description of the current offerings.

SM 380. (LALS380) Contemporary Spanish Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219. Topics vary. See the Romance Languages Department's website at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/roml for a description of the current offerings.

SM 381. Contemporary Spanish Poetry. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219. Topics vary. See the Romance Languages Department's website at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/roml for a description of the current offerings.

SM 382. Literature of the Generation of 98. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219. Topics vary. See the Romance Languages Department's website at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/roml for a description of the current offerings.

SM 384. Spanish Novel Since 1939. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219. Topics vary. See the Romance Languages Department's website at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/roml for a description of the current offerings.

SM 386. (CINE385, GSOC386, LALS386) Studies in Spanish Culture. (C) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Staff. Prerequisite(s): SPAN 219. This course covers topics in contemporary Spanish Culture, its specific emphasis varying with the instructor.

SM 390. (CINE390, COLL223, COML390, LALS396) Introduction to Spanish American Literature. (M)Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219. Topics vary. See the Romance Languages Department's website at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/roml for a description of the current offerings.

SM 391. (LALS391) Spanish American Poetry. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219. Topics vary. See the Romance Languages Department's website at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/roml for a description of the current offerings.

SM 392. (LALS392) Colonial Latin American Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219. Topics vary. See the Romance Languages Department's website at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/roml for a description of the current offerings.

SM 393. Spanish American Essay. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219. Topics vary. See the Romance Languages Department's website at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/roml for a description of the current offerings.

SM 394. (LALS394) Spanish American Fiction. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219. Topics vary. See the Romance Languages Department's website at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/roml for a description of the current offerings.

SM 395. (LALS395) Hispanic Theater. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219. Topics vary. See the Romance Languages Department's website at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/roml for a description of the current offerings.

SM 396. (CINE396, GSOC396, LALS397) Studies in Spanish American Culture. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219. Topics vary. See the Romance Languages Department's website at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/roml for a description of the current offerings.

SM 397. (LALS398) History of Spanish American Culture. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219. Topics vary. See the Romance Languages Department's website at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/roml for a description of the current offerings.

SM 400. Conference Course for Majors. (A)

Permission required.

Graduate-Level Courses

SM 512. (COML501) History of Literary Theory. (M)

SM 548. Cervantes. (M) This course examines fundamental issues staged by Cervantes's prose writing--from the function of literature in a newly-constituted print-culture, to the representation of the Early Modern subject and its consequences for the emergence of the novel.

SM 573. 19th-Century Romanticism. (M) A one-semester panorama of verse, theater, and prose representing the world view, major themes, and original techniques of Spanish Romanticism during the 19th century.

SM 574. Realismo. (M) A study of Spanish Realism of the 19th century (Alarcon, Pereda, Valera, Galdos, Clarin, Pardo Bazan, Palacio Valdes, Picon, and Ortega Munilla).

SM 576. The Novels of Galdos, 1872-1887. (M)

SM 580. Contemporary Spanish Literature. (M)

SM 583. 20th-Century Novel Through 1940. (M) A study of the major developments in the modern (1900-1940) Spanish novel.

SM 596. Spanish American Modernism. (M) A study of the cultural and aesthetic motives of Modernist poetry and prose in Spanish America from 1880 to 1920.

SM 600. History of the Spanish Language. (M) The development of the Ibero-Romance dialects from late Latin to medieval times.

SM 624. The Spanish Picaresque Novel. (M) Origin and development of the picaresque novel in Spain.

SM 630. Studies in the Spanish Middle Ages. (M) By focusing on canonical and non-canonical texts chosen from the 13th to the 15th centuries, this course considers such seminal topics as: cultural representation in terms of history, politics and gender, the nature and function of the literary text, and the writer's place in society.

SM 631. Medieval Spanish Epic to Romance. (M) Analysis of the Spanish epic from its origins to its prosification in chronicles, later manifestations, and relationship to the prose romance.

SM 640. (COML640) Studies in the Spanish Renaissance. (M) Topics of discussion will vary from semester to semester. Selections from the works of Santillana, Mena, Rojas, Garcilaso, Juan and Alfonso del Valdes, Leon Hebreo, Juan de la Cruz, Luis de Leon, and the "preceptistas."

SM 648. The Novelist Cervantes. (M) The narrative works of Cervantes with special attention to DON QUIJOTE. Readingof LA GALATEA, NOVELAS EJEMPLARES, parts of PERSILES Y SEGISMUNDO, and DON QUIJOTE.

SM 682. (COML682, ENGL571) Seminar on Literary Theory. (M) This course begins with an overview of major statements on poetics and literary theory from Plato to the 20th century. We will then study in detail more contemporary theoretical statements with a view to acquiring a broad knowledge of modern literary criticism. Throughout the semester we will attempt to identify topics and issues that are of particular relevance to students working within the Hispanic literary and critical tradition. Among the authors studied will be Plato, Aristotle, Longinus, Dante, Castelvetro, Lessing, Arnold, Taine, Saussure, Barthes, Derrida, de Man, Althusser, Butler and Latour.

SM 684. La Novela Realista. (M)

SM 687. (COML687, ENGL539) The Spanish Avant-Garde. (M)

SM 690. (COML691, LALS690) Studies in 19th- and 20th-Century Spanish American Literature. (M) Topics vary. Previous topics have included Latin American Narrative and Art in Times of Globalization, Modernismo / fin de siglo, Art, Literature, and Society in Latin America at the End of the 20th Century.

SM 692. (COML692, LALS692) Colonial Literature of Spanish America. (M) Study of the historical context of the colonial period in Spanish America and of major works in prose and poetry. Topics vary.

SM 693. Vanguardias culturales hispanoamericanas. (M)

SM 694. (CINE694) Modern Spanish American Narrative. (M) This seminar will address the specificity and uniqueness of Spanish America's cultural production, that is, those elements that make the Spanish American case differ from the paradigmatic postcolonial situation, and which make recent developments in postcolonial studies not fully applicable to it. We will explore these issues in the context of the literary production of the twentieth century in Spanish America from roughly the twenties to the present, that is, the epoch encompassing the larger metropolitan cultural phenomena of Modernism and Postmodernism.

SM 697. (COML697) Studies in Latin American Culture. (M) The course will be an investigation of the most influential syles of conceptualizing the relationship between artistic or literary productions and political practices in Latin America between the 1950s and the present. We will pay special attention to the genesis and structure of the notion of "liberation," and to its subsequent crisis. We will also try to determine the predicament of political art and literature in times of globalization. We will read texts by, among others, Pablo Neruda, Julio Cortazar, Glauber Rocha, Reinaldo Arenas, Osvaldo Lamborghini, and Diamela Eltit, and analyze images of several artists, from Antonio Berni and Helio Oiticica, to Doris Salcedo and Cildo Meireles.

SM 698. Workshop on Scholarly Writing. (M) This course aims to develop awareness about what constitutes effective scholarly prose in Spanish. It proposes to hone the student's handling of writing as a vehicle for the expression of intellectual thought, but also to develop a consciousness of the rhetorical strategies that can be used to advance a critical argument effectively. Extensive writing exercises will be assigned; these will be followed by intense and multiple redactions of the work originally produced. The ulitmate goal is to make students develop precision, correctness, and elegance in written Spanish. Students will also work on a class paper written previously, with a view to learning the process of transforming a short, limited expression of an argument into a publishable article.

999. Independent Study. (C)