Catalan 20. Catalan Language and Culture: a Multimedia Approach
Catalog Number: 2559
Bradley S. Epps and members of the Department
Half course (spring term). M., W., F., at 3. EXAM GROUP: 8
Intermediate course introducing students to Catalan culture and boosting their oral and written skills through a wide range of resources, such as Internet, television, radio, and press. Students will get a taste of various aspects of Catalan culture: art, cinema, music, literature, traditions, cuisine, history, and more.
Note: Conducted in Catalan. May be taken Pass/Fail by undergraduates or Sat/Unsat by GSAS students.
Prerequisite: Catalan Ba, basic knowledge of Catalan, or permission of course head.
*Catalan 91r. Supervised Reading and Research
Catalog Number: 2578
Bradley S. Epps and members of the Department
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Spring: M., 2–3:30, Th., 4:30–6.
Tutorial supervision of research on subjects not treated in regular courses. May be used for further language study after Catalan Ax or Ba.
French Ax. Reading Modern French
Catalog Number: 2763
Lison Baselis-Bitoun (fall term), Marlies Mueller (spring term) and members of the Department
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Fall: Tu., Th., 10-11:30; Spring: Tu., Th., 10-11:30. EXAM GROUP: 12, 13
An introduction to reading and translating modern French texts for students who require only a basic knowledge of French for research purposes. French Ax presents the principle structures of French grammar in a systematic and coherent manner and, at the same time, makes reading and translation assignments as discipline-specific as possible for each student’s needs.
Note: Conducted in English. Not open to students with a score of 500 or above on the Harvard Placement Test or the SAT II French test, to those with more than one year of undergraduate French, or to auditors. May not be used to fulfill the language requirement and may not be taken Pass/Fail, but may be taken Sat/Unsat by GSAS students. See details and section on-line on the French Ax website.
Prerequisite: Some previous study of a Romance language helpful but not necessary. Fluency in English required.
*French Bab. Intensive Beginning French: Special Course
Catalog Number: 8780
Marlies Mueller and members of the Department
Full course (spring term). Section I, M. through F., at 10 and Tu., Th., at 11. Section II, M. through F., at 12 and Tu., Th., at 1. EXAM GROUP: 3, 5, 12
A complete first-year course for non-requirement students. Provides a solid foundation in French for those with absolutely no prior knowledge of the language. Speaking, listening, reading, and writing are all emphasized, with class time devoted to oral expression. After French Bab, students should be able to engage in everyday conversation with native speakers, and read straightforward texts, both fiction and non-fiction, with relative ease.
Note: May not be used to fulfill the language requirement and may not be taken Pass/Fail or Sat/Unsat. Limited enrollment. Interested students should fill out the on-line request form on the French Bab website by the beginning of the fall term examination period. Individual interviews will be scheduled during the examination period.
Prerequisite: An advanced knowledge of at least one foreign language but no previous study of French.
French Ca. Intermediate French I
Catalog Number: 1810
Carole Bergin and members of the Department
Half course (fall term). M. through Th., sections at 9, 10, 11, 12, or 1. EXAM GROUP: 10
A beginning intermediate course emphasizing listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and including a study of grammar. Students become familiar with contemporary France through videotapes, feature length films, and multimedia and are introduced to French literature through a variety of texts.
Note: Conducted in French. May not be taken Pass/Fail, but may be taken Sat/Unsat by GSAS students. Section on-line on the French Ca website.
Prerequisite: 500-599 on the SAT II test or the Harvard Placement Test; 3 years of French in high school; French A; or permission of course head. Students who have studied French for three years or more in secondary school must begin at French Ca or higher.
French Cb. Intermediate French II: Voyage linguistique à travers la Francophonie
Catalog Number: 6343
Carole Bergin and members of the Department
Half course (spring term). Sections M., W., F., at 10, 11, 12, or 1. EXAM GROUP: 10
In French Cb, students continue the study of grammar begun in French Ca. and further develop their communicative skills. Students are introduced to the concept of “la francophonie” as represented in literary texts and films from Quebec, the Caribbean, and Africa.
Note: Conducted in French. May not be audited or taken Pass/Fail, but may be taken Sat/Unsat by GSAS students. Section on-line on the French Cb website.
Prerequisite: 550-599 on the SAT II test or the Harvard Placement test; French Ca; or permission of course head.
French 25. Comprehensive Intermediate French III, Language and Culture: L’Etre humain et son univers
Catalog Number: 8781
Lison Baselis-Bitoun (fall term), Marlies Mueller (spring term) and members of the Department
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Fall: M., W., F., at 10, 12, or 1. Spring: M., W., F., at 10 or 12. EXAM GROUP: 3
Comprehensive review of French grammar and intensive vocabulary building combined with French literary and cinematographic masterpieces. Authors and filmmakers, whose reflections on enduring questions of human experience and the meaning of life are compared and contrasted, include Baudelaire, Camus, Kieslowski, Pagnol, Rimbaud, and Sartre. By the end of the term, students should be able to understand lectures in French and express their thoughts orally and in writing with confidence using correct French.
Note: Conducted in French. A grade of A- in French A or French Bab, a B in French Ca with language requirement completed, a B in French Cb; or 600 on the SAT II test or the Harvard Placement test; or permission of course head. May not be taken Pass/Fail but may be taken Sat/Unsat by GSAS students. See details and section on-line on the French 25 website.
French 31. Oral Expression II: La France à travers les médias
Catalog Number: 0490
Carole Bergin and members of the Department
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Section I, Tu., Th., 10-11:30; Section II, Tu., Th., 11:30-1. EXAM GROUP: 12, 13
Intended for those who have learned how to handle everyday situations in a French-speaking environment, French 31 prepares students for interacting on a more sophisticated level. Students will fine-tune their oral language skills through a more advanced study of pronunciation, grammar and discourse strategies, while discussing and debating topics of current interest as they are presented in the media, including the press, radio, television, cinema, and the Internet.
Note: Conducted in French. May not be audited or taken Pass/Fail, but may be taken Sat/Unsat by GSAS students. Students may take no more than two courses numbered in the 30s. See details and section on-line on the French 31 website.
Prerequisite: French 25; 660-689 on the SAT II test or the Harvard Placement test; or permission of course head.
French 35. Upper-Level French I, Language and Culture: "La quête de soi et le rapport avec autrui”
Catalog Number: 1935
Lison Baselis-Bitoun (fall term), Marlies Mueller (spring term) and members of the Department
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Sections M., W., F., at 10 or 12. EXAM GROUP: 3
Course in French language and culture designed to enhance facility in all language skills. Complete grammar review, vocabulary building, emphasizing idiomatic subtleties and social etiquette in oral and written communication. Considers representations of self and the quest for identity in literature and cinema. How does one arrive at knowledge of self, and what are the consequences of this knowledge for relationships with others? This question examined through authors and filmmakers such as Baudelaire, Camus, Hugo, Melville, Renais, Duras, Rouan, Vercors, Wargnier.
Note: Conducted in French. May not be taken Pass/Fail but may be taken Sat/Unsat by GSAS students. Students may take no more than two courses numbered in the 30s. Section on-line on the French 35 website.
Prerequisite: French 25; 660 on the SAT II test or the Harvard Placement test; or permission of course head.
French 36. Upper-Level French II, Language and Culture: Liberté et Conscience
Catalog Number: 6963
Marlies Mueller and members of the Department
Half course (spring term). M., W., F., at 12. EXAM GROUP: 5
Advanced course in French language and literature designed to develop near-native fluency in written and oral expression. Consolidating grammatical structures, vocabulary building, and stylistic exercises. Examines the nature and consequences of freedom. How do power, knowledge, and freedom interrelate? Politics, philosophy, art, and literary imagination are considered in their relation to the creation and expansion of individual autonomy. Authors and film directors include Balzac, Beauvoir, Camus, Granier-Deferre, Maupassant, Nuytten, Ophuls, Renoir, Ribowska, and Yourcenar.
Note: Conducted in French. May not be taken Pass/Fail but may be taken Sat/Unsat by GSAS students. Students may take no more than two courses numbered in the 30s. Section on-line on the French 36 website.
Prerequisite: French 25, 31 or 35; 690 on the SAT II test or the Harvard Placement test; or permission of course head.
French 42. Introduction au monde francophone
Catalog Number: 2581
Lison Baselis-Bitoun and members of the Department
Half course (spring term). Section I: T., Th., 10-11:30; Section II: T., Th., 11:30-1. EXAM GROUP: 12, 13
Designed to introduce students to cultural issues expressed in the works of some leading Francophone writers and through art and films while helping them acquire greater skills and confidence in both oral and written expression. Discussions will focus on issues of identity, exile, tradition and modernity, rural/urban culture.
Note: Conducted in French. May not be taken Pass/Fail. Students may take no more than two courses numbered in the 40s.
Prerequisite: French 31, 35, 36, or 37; 720 on the SAT II test or the Harvard Placement test; or permission of course head.
French 48b. Theater and Culture in Contemporary French Society
Catalog Number: 8290
Sylvaine Guyot and members of the Department
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., 1–2:30; Tu., Th., 1–2:30; Tu., Th., 1–2:30. EXAM GROUP: 15, 16
Designed to improve spoken expression and build vocabulary as well as to develop critical thinking and writing skills. Discussions are based on readings of modern and contemporary playwrights (Ionesco, Sartre, Koltes, Bariou, Largarce, N’Diaye) and question how these plays explore the major cultural and political trends in France during the 20th and 21st centuries. Special emphasis is paid to both pronunciation and the ideological power of images through theatrical workshops.
Note: Conducted entirely in French. May not be taken Pass/Fail, but may be taken Sat/Unsat by GSAS students. Students may take no more than two courses numbered in the 40s.
Prerequisite: French 35, 36, 37, 42, or 47b; 750 on the SAT II or the Harvard placement test; or permission of course head.
French 51. Modern Stories about Paris
Catalog Number: 0575
Stacey Katz and members of the Department
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., 1–2:30. EXAM GROUP: 15, 16
This course examines contemporary narratives set in Paris. Students explore writers’ and filmmakers’ perceptions of Paris and analyze the different ways in which the Parisian experience is presented. By reading and viewing stories about Paris, students gain insights into methods of narration and become aware of various perspectives. They also develop their own ability to summarize, narrate, interpret, critique, and substantiate arguments at an advanced level.
Note: Conducted in French. May not be taken Pass/Fail. Students may take no more than two courses numbered in the 50s.
Prerequisite: French 36, 37, 42, 47b, or 48b; 750 on the SAT II or the Harvard placement test; or permission of course head. Strongly recommended for concentrators and joint concentrators.
French 53. Advanced Grammar and Stylistics - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 18017
Stacey Katz and members of the Department
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., 1–2:30. EXAM GROUP: 15, 16
This genre-based writing course focuses on reading and writing as complementary communicative acts. Students analyze stylistic and grammatical features of contemporary texts written in different genres. Using these features, they then create their own French written work. The course also contains a strong grammar component, focusing on both theory and practice. Students study stylistic differences between French and English, prescriptive rules of French grammar, and the grammar of spoken French.
Note: Conducted in French. May not be taken Pass/Fail. Students may take no more than two courses numbered in the 50s.
Prerequisite: French 36, 37, 42, 47b, or 48b; 750 on the SAT II or the Harvard placement test; or permission of course head. Strongly recommended for concentrators and joint concentrators.
French 55 (formerly French 45). Le Français économique et commercial
Catalog Number: 7122
Carole Bergin and members of the Department
Half course (spring term). Section I, Tu., Th., 10-11:30; Section II, Tu., Th., 11:30-1. EXAM GROUP: 12, 13
Designed for students working or traveling for business in French-speaking countries. Through audiovisual materials, the Internet, and the French press, students become familiar with the current business and economic climate in France and find out about practices, customs, and “intangibles” that make French businesses different from their American counterparts. Those enrolled may take the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry exams and obtain an official diploma attesting to their proficiency in French.
Note: Conducted in French. May not be audited or taken Pass/Fail, but may be taken Sat/Unsat by GSAS students. Students may take no more than two courses numbered in the 50s. See details and section on-line on the French 55 website.
Prerequisite: A placement score of 720 on the SAT II test or the Harvard Placement test; or permission of course head.
French 60. French and the Community - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 13398
Carole Bergin
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Fall: Tu., Th., 10–11:30; Spring: Tu., Th., 11:30–1. EXAM GROUP: Spring: 13, 14
An advanced French language course, where students will explore Haitian culture in the classroom and in the community: in class through a variety of texts and media, in their community engagement as a vehicle for greater linguistic fluency and better cultural understanding. Students will be placed with community organizations within the Greater Boston area to teach French to Haitian-American children. Introduces students to some methodology for teaching a foreign language.
Note: Interested students must apply in writing before registration (fall term) and before Winter Recess (spring term) to Carole Bergin.
Prerequisite: A French course at the 40 or 50-level, a placement score of 720 on the SAT II test or the Harvard Placement test; or permission of course head.
French 65. Arguing with the Best: Successful Discourse Strategies in Classical French Texts - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 80027
Marlies Mueller and members of the Department
Half course (spring term). M., W., F., at 2. EXAM GROUP: 7
The course will focus on improving communication skills - written and oral - enhance the ability to shape students’ convictions, state and defend opinions, form arguments, hypothesize, negotiate and persuade others. Outstanding examples taken from classical texts from literature and essays (17th through the 20th centuries) that attempt to persuade, exhort, and argue opposing points of view on major social, political, economic, ethical and religious issues will serve as models.
Note: Conducted in French.
Prerequisite: A French course at the 40 or 50-level; a placement score of 720 on the SAT II test or the Harvard Placement test; or permission of the course head.
French 70a. Introduction to French Literature I: From the Middle Ages to Modernity
Catalog Number: 2865
Tom Conley
Half course (spring term). M., W., at 11, plus one additional hour to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 4
Readings and discussion of texts of various genres representative of central trends in French literature from the Middle Ages through the 18th century. Emphasis on developing analytical skills by tracing the transformations of ethical, literary, philosophical and social currents.
Note: Conducted in French. This course, when taken for a letter grade, meets the Core area requirement for Literature and Arts A.
Prerequisite: 720 on the SAT II test; the Harvard Placement test; equivalent preparation; or permission of course head.
French 70b. Introduction to French Literature II: Politics of Aesthetics from 1800 to the present.
Catalog Number: 6720
Verena A. Conley
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., at 11, plus one additional hour to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 13
This course examines the politics of aesthetics in representative works from the French Revolution to our days. Readings include Hugo, Musset, Baudelaire, Flaubert, Rimbaud, Maupassant, Jarry, Apollinaire, Proust, Artaud, Michaux, Sartre, Camus, de Beauvoir, Beckett, Duras and Cixous.
Note: Conducted in French; third hour devoted to discussion of texts studied. This course, when taken for a letter grade, meets the Core area requirement for Literature and Arts A.
Prerequisite: 720 on the SAT II test or the Harvard Placement test, equivalent preparation, or permission of course head.
French 70c. Introduction to French Literature III: The Francophone World
Catalog Number: 6432
Mylène Priam
Half course (fall term). W., 1-3, plus one additional hour to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 6, 7
Studies literature, and film from Sub-Saharan Africa, the Maghreb and the French West Indies. Discussions centered on questions of cultural identities, diglossia, colonization, diaspora, trauma and memory.
Note: Conducted in French. This course, when taken for a letter grade, meets the Core area requirement for Literature and Arts A.
Prerequisite: 720 on the SAT II test or the Harvard Placement test, equivalent preparation, or permission of course head.
*French 91r. Supervised Reading and Research
Catalog Number: 3954
Mylène Priam and members of the Department
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Tutorial supervision of research on subjects not treated in regular courses.
*French 97. Tutorial—Sophomore Year: The Politics of Poetics: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Analysis
Catalog Number: 0173
Alice Jardine
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., at 10. EXAM GROUP: 12
An introduction to literary and cultural interpretation as it has evolved in French Studies since WWII. Our conversations will be structured around rigorous analysis of key literary works in relation to literary theory, semiotics, psychoanalysis, and politics.
Note: Required of concentrators in their sophomore year. Open to non-concentrators with permission of course head.
*French 98. Tutorial—Junior Year
Catalog Number: 0879
Mylène Priam and members of the Department
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Note: Successful completion of one term of French 98 or equivalent is required of all honors concentrators.
*French 99. Tutorial—Senior Year
Catalog Number: 2836
Mylène Priam and members of the Department
Full course. Hours to be arranged.
Note: For honors seniors writing a thesis. Successful completion of two terms of French 99 is required of all honors concentrators. Students who do not complete a thesis are required to submit a substantial paper in order to receive either half course or full course credit.
[French 102. Introduction to Medieval Literature and Old French]
Catalog Number: 9929
Virginie Greene
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Provides students with linguistic, literary and cultural means of exploring French medieval literature. We will study verse and prose works from the 12th to the 15th century, using both editions in Old French and translations in modern French.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in French. This course, when taken for a letter grade, meets the Core area requirement for Literature and Arts A.
French 108. “Amours et armes”: A Study of Medieval Romances
Catalog Number: 3495
Virginie Greene
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., 11:30–1. EXAM GROUP: 13, 14
Explores how war and love define romance. Readings will be organized around famous love stories (such as those of Dido and Aeneas, Lancelot and Guenièvre, Tristan and Yseut), and less famous ones, in works from the 12th to the 15th century.
Note: Conducted in French.
French 121. The Text of the Renaissance
Catalog Number: 4006
Tom Conley
Half course (fall term). Th., 3–5. EXAM GROUP: 17, 18
Studies writing of the Renaissance in cultural and political context; includes readings of Rhétoriqueurs, Marot, Rabelais, arts poétiques, Ronsard, Pléiade and Baroque poetry, d‘Aubigné, and essays by Montaigne.
Note: Conducted in French. This course, when taken for a letter grade, meets the Core area requirement for Literature and Arts C.
French 124. Violences, passions et performance. Ordres et désordres de la scène classique - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 47772
Sylvaine Guyot
Half course (fall term). W., 3–5. EXAM GROUP: 8, 9
Challenges the conventional notion of classicism defined as fundamentally incorporeal and rational by analyzing the staging of passions and violence on the 17th century French stage. We study both minor and major playwrights, including Rotrou, Hardy, Corneille, Racine, Molière and Boyer. This is an interdisciplinary course that includes texts by Descartes and La Rochefoucauld, paintings by Le Brun and Rubens, engravings by Chauveau and Marot, and dramaturgical workshops.
Note: Conducted in French.
French 129. Les masques de l’homme de cour : civilité et société au XVIIe siècle - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 11357
Sylvaine Guyot
Half course (spring term). Tu., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 15, 16
The court of Louis XIV denotes a delicate way of life as well as submission to the king’s absolute power. Explores the way in which literary discourses question the values of 17th century society through the polemical figure of the courtier. Authors include La Bruyère, La Fontaine, Molière, Racine, Bussy-Rabutin, Mme de La Fayette, Mme de Villedieu. Texts by theorists of manners help situate these writers in the context of cultural and political history.
Note: Conducted in French.
[French 132b. 20th-Century French Fiction II: The Experimental Mode]
Catalog Number: 1890
Susan R. Suleiman
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
What are some alternatives to (or subversions of) realism in fiction? We will examine four major experimental currents or movements in 20th-century imaginative writing: Surrealism, the nouveau roman, the Oulipo, and écriture féminine. Discussion of works by Breton, Bataille, Robbe-Grillet, Sarraute, Queneau, Perec, Duras, Wittig, Cixous, as well as selected critical essays.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in French. This course, when taken for a letter grade, meets the General Education requirement for Aesthetic and Interpretive Understanding or the Core area requirement for Literature and Arts A. This course fulfills the requirement that one of the eight General Education courses also engages substantially with Study of the Past.
[French 136. Feminist Literary Criticisms]
Catalog Number: 3845
Alice Jardine
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Close readings of postwar French fiction and theory with emphasis on what is called “the feminine” in key psychoanalytic, philosophical, and literary writings of the French poststructuralist tradition. What has been the legacy of fifty years of dialogue between French postwar theory and feminist practice in the US? Writers considered include Cixous, Duras, Hyvrard, Irigaray, Kristeva, and Wittig as well as Deleuze, Derrida, and Lacan.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in English.
Prerequisite: Excellent reading knowledge of French.
[French 139a. The 18th Century: Self and Society]
Catalog Number: 3637
Christie McDonald
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
An exploration of how the relationship between self and other, society and utopia, inaugurates a discourse on change from the second half of the 18th century through the French Revolution: Marivaux, Rousseau, Diderot, d’Alembert, Voltaire, Sade, Gouges, Beaumarchais, Condorcet, Charrière, Graffigny, etc.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in French.
French 139b. The 18th Century: Ethical Dilemmas
Catalog Number: 2223
Christie McDonald
Half course (fall term). Th., 1–3; M., at 1. EXAM GROUP: 15, 16
Questions how notions of personhood and otherness inhabit the emergent novel, exploring the way in which events and values are resisted or subsumed in literary discourse and the kind of social and political responsibility that accompanies it. Readings will be taken from the works of Charrière, Gouges, Laclos, Marivaux, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Sade, Voltaire, etc.
Note: Conducted in French.
French 152. La Poésie française au XIXe siècle - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 21386
Dana Kristofor Lindaman
Half course (spring term). Tu., 3–5. EXAM GROUP: 17, 18
A survey course on nineteenth-century French poetry from the Romantics to the Symbolists. We’ll be reading and discussing the poetry of Lamartine, Musset, Vigny, Desbordes-Valmore, Hugo, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Verlaine and Mallarmé, among others.
Note: Conducted in French.
French 157. The Hermaphroditic Imagination
Catalog Number: 1338
Janet Beizer
Half course (spring term). M., W., at 10. EXAM GROUP: 3
While official scientific and social positions in the nineteenth century uphold rigid distinctions between women and men, the imaginary life of the period is haunted by the hermaphrodite and other figures that play on the margins of sexual division, challenging the separation of the spheres. We’ll read and discuss hermaphroditic fictions chosen from Balzac, George Sand, Gautier, Flaubert, Zola, and Rachilde.
Note: Conducted in French.
[French 161. Walk, Look, Write: 19th-Century Flâneurs and Flâneuses]
Catalog Number: 1729
Janet Beizer
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
We will discuss the importance of the eye and the wandering body that transports it in space, in a selection of realist and naturalist texts, looking too at alternatives to the commanding gaze of the observer that dominates realist doctrine. Readings may include Balzac, Huysmans, Tristan, Zola, Sand, Rachilde.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in French. This course, when taken for a letter grade, meets the Core area requirement for Literature and Arts A.
French 162. Voyages of Self-Discovery - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 57801
Dana Kristofor Lindaman
Half course (fall term). Tu., 3–5. EXAM GROUP: 17, 18
This course explores the various iterations of the French initiatory novel providing a framework for analyzing ideas of self and society within nineteenth-century French society. Our readings for the semester will be selected from the following: de Duras, Balzac, Stendhal, Baudelaire, Hugo, Rimbaud, Verne, Zola, Bruno, Sand and Maupassant, as well as Eliade, Lévi-Strauss and Barthes.
Note: Conducted in French.
[French 165. Marcel Proust]
Catalog Number: 4620
Christie McDonald
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
In Proust’s novel, A la recherche du temps perdu, questions of time and memory, truth and signification, literature and philosophy converge to ask: who am I? What does it mean to become a writer? Discussion of Proust’s novels and essays, as well as a number of critical texts.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in French. This course, when taken for a letter grade, meets the Core area requirement for Literature and Arts A.
French 167. Parisian Cityscapes
Catalog Number: 7641
Verena A. Conley
Half course (spring term). M., 3–5. EXAM GROUP: 8, 9
Examines the rapid urbanization of Paris from World War II to the present by means of fiction, films and critical essays. Investigates how the Americanization of France, decolonization, immigration, globalization and the European Union continue to restructure the city with repercussions on its social, political, and artistic life. Readings and viewings include: Assayas, Allouache, Barthes, Baudrillard, de Beauvoir, Cantet, Godard, Kassovitz, Kechiche, Maspero, Perec, Rochefort, Ross, Truffaut, Varda, Rabah Ameur-Zaimeche.
Note: Conducted in French.
[French 170. The City]
Catalog Number: 3007
Verena A. Conley
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Focuses on representations of the city in literature (Mercier, Balzac, Baudelaire, Zola, Breton, Aragon) and theory (Benjamin, Lefebvre). Analyzes the evolution of the concept under the impact of industrialization and technological inventions.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in French.
French 172. Twentieth-Century Republican Geographies - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 72908
Dana Kristofor Lindaman
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., at 12. EXAM GROUP: 14
In this course we will explore twentieth-century counter narratives (linguistic, political and gender-based) that resist or rework the traditional republican myths that have given meaning to modern French society. Texts include both books and film: Helias, Ernaux, Pagnol, Condé, Modiano, Oyono, Brasillach, Diallo, Bey, Kechiche, Vigo, Laye and Cantent, among others.
Note: Conducted in French.
French 180. "The Words to Say It": Women Writing in French from Colette to Satrapi
Catalog Number: 4566
Alice Jardine
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., at 10. EXAM GROUP: 12
Motherhood, romantic love, independence, sexuality, citizenship, fantasy, death: these are just some of the themes explored in women’s novels, written in French, in the postwar period. We will read 8 novels together, exploring how they have finally become classics, even given what they say about life and what it means for women to write about it.
French 184. Cinema and the auteur - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 93093
Tom Conley
Half course (spring term). M., 1-3 and required film screenings on Mondays 3:15-5:15. EXAM GROUP: 6, 7
Studies development of auteur theory in French film and criticism. Readings include Cahiers du cinéma, Bazin, Deleuze, Godard, and Foucault. Viewings include Renoir, American and Italian auteurs, and post-new wave cinemas.
French 185. National Identity and Narrative Representation in 20th-Century Francophone Literature
Catalog Number: 5070
Mylène Priam
Half course (spring term). Th., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 15, 16
Through works of prominent Francophone authors from various origins who discuss their own comprehension - fictionalized, poetic or autobiographic - of being French and/or African, Cuban, Eastern European, etc., we explore the plural foundations of contemporary France and the question of French cultural, national or social identity to examine, question, deconstruct issues namely of territoriality, boundaries, nomadism, exile, ethnicity, citizenship, notions of Republic, national or continental sentiment.
Note: Conducted in French.
French 190. Albert Camus
Catalog Number: 7510
Stanley Hoffmann
Half course (spring term). Th., 4–6. EXAM GROUP: 18
A study of Camus’s writings as a journalist, playwright, novelist and political thinker, and of the controversies in which he was involved (the fate of Algeria, the occupation and liberation of France, relations with Catholics, Camus’s anticommunism, the Camus-Sartre clash). The tension between his art and his commitments, as well as his influence during and after his life will be examined.
Note: Conducted in French.
French 225. Le corps des héros : Racine / Corneille, un parallèle revisité - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 77986
Sylvaine Guyot
Half course (spring term). W., 4–6. EXAM GROUP: 9
We consider the physical representation of heroism and the emerging ideal of a gallant body in the tragic drama of Corneille and Racine. Theoretical readings include Certeau, Marin, Agamben, Rancière.
Note: Conducted in French.
[French 255. Metamorphoses of the Vampire]
Catalog Number: 3630
Janet Beizer
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
The vampire myth came of age with literary modernism and shares with it an identity in displacement, fragmentation, and fluidity. Texts may include Baudelaire, Nodier, Balzac, Gautier, Maupassant, Rachilde, Stoker, Coppola, and theory.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in French or English.
French 259. The Culture of Hysteria in Nineteenth-Century France
Catalog Number: 3349
Janet Beizer
Half course (spring term). W., 2–4.
As we read nineteenth-century medical, literary, and cultural texts, we ask why hysteria flourished in this time and place, and trace the diagnosis as symptom of a broader cultural malaise.
Note: Conducted in French or English, to be determined by class composition. Readings in French.
[French 268. "Foreigners" in French, from Beckett to Rahimi] - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 65916
Susan R. Suleiman
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
We examine novels and essays by writers who have chosen French as their literary language in the 20th and 21st century. Works by Némirovsky, Makine, Kundera, Kristeva, Cheng, others.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11.
French 274. Hybridization, Intertextuality and Métissage in Literatures from Mauritius, La Réunion & the Caribbean
Catalog Number: 6398
Mylène Priam
Half course (fall term). Tu., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 15, 16
Explores novels, concepts, theories (Créolization, Divers, etc) that challenge any stable notion of identity and help to problematize the definition of postcolonial literatures in French. Works by Glissant, Chamoiseau, Maximin, Condé, Rakotoson, Segalen, Foucault, etc.
Note: Conducted in French. This course, when taken for a letter grade, meets the Core area requirement for Literature and Arts C.
[French 285r. French Literature: Seminar]
Catalog Number: 7479
Tom Conley
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Topic for 2009-10: Montaigne.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in French. Open to qualified undergraduate students.
*French 330. Direction of Doctoral Dissertations
Catalog Number: 7843
Janet Beizer 3957 (on leave fall term), Tom Conley 1908, Verena A. Conley 2250, Virginie Greene 1007, Alice Jardine 7457, Christie McDonald 1160, Mylène Priam 5302, and Susan R. Suleiman 7234 (on leave 2009-10)
Italian Ab. Beginning Italian II
Catalog Number: 7029
Elvira G. DiFabio
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Fall: M., W., F., section at 10am and an extra hour M. 4-5 or F. 11-12. Spring: M., W., F., sections at 10, 12, or 1 and an extra hour M. 4-5 or F. 2-3. .
Continuation of Ital Aa, second semester beginning level. Increasing emphasis on reading and writing. Introduction to Italian literature through excerpts from major writers; overview of the history of Italy. Course materials include online workbook and lab.
Note: May not be taken Pass/Fail but may be taken Sat/Unsat by GSAS students. Section on-line on the Italian Ab website. N.B. There are four contact hours per week. Conversation hour may be rearranged to accommodate scheduling conflicts.
Prerequisite: Italian Aa, or a score of 450 or less on the SAT II test or the Harvard Placement test, or a score of 3 or less on the AP Italian exam, or two years of high school Italian, or permission of course head.
Italian Ax. Reading Italian
Catalog Number: 4015
Elvira G. DiFabio and members of the Department
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 15, 16
For students (both undergraduate and graduate) with little or no knowledge of Italian. Aims at the rapid development of reading skills as a tool for research. Selections of materials in accordance with the needs of the participants.
Note: Not open to auditors. May not be used to fulfill the language requirement. May not be taken Pass/Fail but may be taken Sat/Unsat by GSAS students. Section on-line on the Italian Ax website.
*Italian Bab. Intensive Beginning Italian: Special Course
Catalog Number: 3065 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Elvira G. DiFabio and members of the Department
Full course (fall term; repeated spring term). Fall: M. through F. at 10, and Tu.,Th., at 9; Spring: M. through F. at 10, and Tu., Th. at 9. EXAM GROUP: 3, 12
A complete first-year course in one term for students with no knowledge of Italian, focused on developing all four communicative skills. Students are introduced to contemporary Italian culture through a variety of websites, films and cultural readings that include G. Boccaccio’s Andreuccio da Perugia.
Note: May not be taken Pass/Fail but may be taken Sat/Unsat by GSAS students. Students who have not placed out of the language requirement must take one full year of a language. Italian Bab or Dab taken alone may not be used to fulfill the language requirement. However, there are ways to combine Bab or Dab with another course in order to fulfill the language requirement. Consult Dr. Elvira Di Fabio or the Undergraduate Adviser in Italian for details. Conducted in Italian. Section on-line on the Italian Bab website.
Prerequisite: An advanced knowledge of at least one foreign language, preferably a modern Romance language, but no previous study of Italian.
Italian Ca. Intermediate Italian I: L’italiano con i fumetti
Catalog Number: 3217
Chiara Frenquellucci and members of the Department
Half course (fall term). Fall: M., W., F., at 12 and W. at 2. EXAM GROUP: 5, 7
Refines and expands the communication skills acquired in Elementary Italian. Students are introduced to contemporary Italian culture through comic books, films, short stories and Nicolò Ammaniti’s Io non ho paura. Assignments include practice of complex grammatical structures, weekly blog entries, and a collaborative comic book or fotoromanzo project.
Note: Conducted in Italian. May not be taken Pass/Fail. Section on-line on the Italian Ca website.
Prerequisite: Italian Ab or Bab, or 450-599 on the SAT II test or the Harvard Placement test, or permission of course head.
Italian Cb. Intermediate Italian II: L’italiano con le favole
Catalog Number: 6805
Chiara Frenquellucci and members of the Department
Half course (spring term). Spring: M., W., F., at 12 and W., at 3; M., W., F., at 1 and W., at 3 . EXAM GROUP: 6
A continuation of Italian Ca. Students experience Italian culture through a variety of readings and films that include traditional and modern folktales. Assignments include practice of complex grammatical structures, weekly blog entries on each group’s work in progress, and a student-scripted adaptation and performance of Collodi’s Pinocchio.
Note: Conducted in Italian. May not be taken Pass/Fail. Section on-line on the Italian Cb website.
Prerequisite: Italian Ca or permission of course head.
*Italian Dab. L’italiano con i documentari
Catalog Number: 7258 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Chiara Frenquellucci and members of the Department
Full course (spring term). M., W., F., at 12, Tu., Th., 1-3. EXAM GROUP: 5
A complete second-year course in one term, or the equivalent of Italian Ca and Cb. Students are introduced to contemporary Italian through shorts, documentaries, articles and other readings and Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio. Assignments include practice of complex grammatical structures, weekly blog entries, and a series of collaborative video projects about Italians and Italian Americans in the Boston area.
Note: May not be taken Pass/Fail. Conducted in Italian. Section online on the Italian Dab website.
Prerequisite: Italian Ab or Bab, 450-599 on the SAT II test or the Harvard Placement test, or permission of course head.
[Italian 33. Oral Expression: La musica dell’italiano]
Catalog Number: 6463
Elvira G. DiFabio and members of the Department
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
An oral expression course based on Italian Opera, Italian 33 is intended for students with an advanced-intermediate knowledge of Italian but does not require prior knowledge of either music or opera. Content focuses on both the cultural and the linguistic elements of the "musical voice" of Italians as expressed by Rossini, Verdi, Donizetti, Puccini, Leoncavallo, and others.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in Italian. Monthly screenings to be arranged. May not be taken for credit by students who have passed Italian 35. Section on-line on the Italian 33 website.
Prerequisite: Italian Cb, 600 or above on the SAT II or Harvard Placement test, or permission of course head.
Italian 35. Upper-Level Italian I: Parliamo dell’Italia
Catalog Number: 2659
Elvira G. DiFabio and members of the Department
Half course (fall term). Section I: M., W., F., at 10 with writing workshop on F. at 2; Section II: M., W., F., at 12 with writing workshop on F. at 2. EXAM GROUP: 3
Insights into Italian society and culture, especially through Italian newspaper and magazine articles, feature films, and videotapes. For students with a solid grasp of the fundamentals of Italian grammar. Aims at improving command of the language both in speaking and writing, combined with reading strategies. Practice consists of discussions, exercises in diction, and written reports.
Note: Conducted in Italian. May not be taken for credit by students who have passed Italian 33. Section on-line on the Italian 35 website.
Prerequisite: Italian Cb, Italian S-52, 630 or above on the SAT II test or the Harvard Placement test, or permission of course head.
Italian 36. Upper-Level Italian II: La cultura della lingua
Catalog Number: 5223
Elvira G. DiFabio and members of the Department
Half course (spring term). M., W., F., at 12 and F. at 2. EXAM GROUP: 5
Aims at advancing students’ proficiency in speaking, reading and writing through vocabulary development and extension of control of higher-level syntactical patterns. Reading dossier and films all related to twentieth-century Italian society. Practice through class presentations, compositions, and discussions.
Note: Conducted in Italian. Section on-line on the Italian 36 website.
Prerequisite: Italian 35 or permission of course head.
Italian 40. Advanced Oral Expression: Teatro dal vivo
Catalog Number: 0804 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Chiara Frenquellucci and members of the Department
Half course (spring term). M., Th., 3–5. EXAM GROUP: 8, 9, 17, 18
Students perfect oral expression and communication skills through the close reading and performance of plays from the Commedia dell’arte to Carlo Goldoni, Giovanni Verga, Eduardo De Filippo and Nobel Prize-winners Luigi Pirandello and Dario Fo. Preparation in diction and presentation techniques culminates in the adaptation and production of a 20th century play performed during the Arts First Festival.
Note: Conducted in Italian. May not be taken Pass/Fail. Section on-line on the Italian 40 website.
Prerequisite: Italian 35 or 36; equivalent preparation; or permission of course head. Appropriate for concentrators electing the Italian Studies track.
[Italian 41. Italian Cities: Rome] - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 64793 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Chiara Frenquellucci and members of the Department
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Focusing on the city of Rome this course explores regional culture(s) and the concept of city-states in the development of Italian identities. The city’s quartieri, architecture, writers, gastronomy, history and legend are introduced through readings, the web, films, workshops and guests. Through guided practice of journalistic and narrative styles, students narrate their own multimedia virtual tour of the capital or another Italian city.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in Italian. May not be taken Pass/Fail. Section on-line on the Italian 41 website.
Prerequisite: Italian 35 or 36; equivalent preparation; or permission of course head. Appropriate for concentrators electing the Italian Studies track.
Italian 44. Advanced Italian: Effetto Commedia: What Makes Italians Laugh?
Catalog Number: 5776
Elvira G. DiFabio and members of the Department
Half course (fall term). M., W., 1-3.
Comedy Italian-style in cinema (from Totò to Benigni) and its origins. Presents students with another dimension of Italian culture, while perfecting their language skills. Problems in composition addressed through short weekly assignments; grammar review in context. Weekly video screenings.
Note: Conducted in Italian. Section on-line on the Italian 44 website.
Prerequisite: Italian 35 or higher, or permission of course head. Appropriate for concentrators electing the Italian Studies track.
[Italian 48. Advanced Italian: Voices from Italy: Issues of Identity]
Catalog Number: 0178
Elvira G. DiFabio
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
An exploration of various identities of Italy, including that of non–Italians in contemporary Italy and Italians living abroad. Students will investigate these issues from a wide variety of sources, including literary, historical and sociological texts, news reports and feature films. Frequent oral and written assignments. Grammar reviewed in context, with particular emphasis on the functions of describing, summarizing and expressing an opinion.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in Italian. Open to graduate students with permission of course head. Section on-line on the Italian 48 website.
Prerequisite: Italian 35 or higher, or permission of course head. Appropriate for concentrators selecting the Italian Studies track.
[Italian 50. Literary Translation]
Catalog Number: 5676
Elvira G. DiFabio and members of the Department
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Translation from English to Italian, and occasionally from Italian to English, using sample texts from literature, history, and philosophy, as well as texts being considered for publication. Discussion of a variety of styles, literary devices, semantic and cultural distinctions, and structural differences, along with testimony from a number of authors, including Pavese, Eco and Venuti.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in Italian. Open to graduate students with permission of course head. Section on-line on the Italian 50 website.
Prerequisite: Italian 44 or higher or permission of course head.
[*Italian 60. Italian and the Community]
Catalog Number: 4014 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Elvira G. DiFabio and members of the Department
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
An advanced language course promoting community engagement as a vehicle for greater linguistic fluency and cultural understanding. Students will be placed with Boston-area public schools as teaching assistants or aides. Class work focuses on community service through language; texts and articles on language pedagogy, including national/European standards and advanced placement; development of activities using archives the Italian public broadcast network, for application in the classroom.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. See Italian 96r for an alternate course.
Prerequisite: Italian 36, 40 or above, a score of 750 on the Harvard Placement Test, or permission of course head.
Italian 82. Italian Travels - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 55887 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Chiara Frenquellucci
Half course (spring term). M., W., 1–2:30. EXAM GROUP: 6, 7
Italian travelers and travelers to Italy, both real and imagined, including voyages from Marco Polo to Italo Calvino, exotic adventures by Emilio Salgari and the immigrant experience described by Pap Khouma, Carmine Abate and other "new Italians".
Note: Conducted in Italian.
Prerequisite: Italian 40, 41 or 44; equivalent preparation; or permission of course head. Appropriate for concentrators electing the Italian Studies track.
Italian 88 (formerly Italian 83). Italian Popular Culture in the Age of Television
Catalog Number: 4259
Giuliana Minghelli
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., 10–11:30. EXAM GROUP: 12, 13
Introduction to Italian popular culture through songs, TV shows, comics, popular films and fiction. Texts will be read against the socio-historical context of the early sixties "miracolo economico," the political upheaval of the late sixties and seventies, the "riflusso" of the eighties, the political "glasnost" of the nineties and up to contemporary times. We will discover and analyze competing inscriptions of "Italianness" and the ongoing creation of their meaning over the past half-century.
Note: Conducted in Italian.
Prerequisite: Italian 40, 41 or 44; equivalent preparation; or permission of course head. Appropriate for concentrators electing the Italian Studies track.
*Italian 91r. Supervised Reading and Research
Catalog Number: 2287
Giuliana Minghelli and members of the Department
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Tutorial supervision of research on subjects not treated in regular courses.
*Italian 96r. Italian and the Community: Italy. Academic Internships in Italian Language and Culture
Catalog Number: 3749
Elvira G. DiFabio and members of the Department
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). W. 3-5pm or to be arranged.
An opportunity to engage in the practical applications of Italian language and culture in an immersion environment. Internships may include placement in a variety of sectors, including public education, the media and the arts.
Note: Though academic internships may be arranged in the Greater Boston area, this course can be proposed as integral to a study abroad program in Italy, the details of which are to be coordinated in consultation with the Course Head and the Office of International Programs. Students are expected to produce substantial research papers based on relevant class work and field placements. The student, under the guidance of faculty and study abroad advisers, is responsible for arranging the terms of the internship.
Prerequisite: Consent of Course Head.
*Italian 97. Tutorial—Sophomore Year
Catalog Number: 1795
Giuliana Minghelli and members of the Department
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Note: Conducted in Italian. Successful completion of one term of Italian 97 is required of concentrators.
*Italian 98. Tutorial—Junior Year
Catalog Number: 1167
Giuliana Minghelli and members of the Department
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Note: Successful completion of one term of Italian 98 (or equivalent) is required of all honors concentrators.
*Italian 99. Tutorial — Senior Year
Catalog Number: 7840
Giuliana Minghelli and members of the Department
Full course. Hours to be arranged.
Note: Successful completion of one term of Italian 99 is required of all honors concentrators.
Italian 130c. Dante’s Paradiso - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 86892
Lino Pertile
Half course (fall term). W., 1:30–4. EXAM GROUP: 6, 7, 8
Close readings of Dante’s Paradiso in the context of medieval culture. Will consider Dante’s poetry and the complex literary, philosophical and theological issues it raises. As no part of the Divine Comedy can be fully appreciated without knowing the whole, students are advised to familiarize themselves with the whole poem.
Note: Conducted in Italian. Students will be expected to attend Literature and Arts A-26 lectures.
[Italian 140. The Human Comedy: the novella from its origins to the Renaissance]
Catalog Number: 4689
Lino Pertile
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
The tradition of the Italian novella, or short story in prose, from its inception in the anonymous Novellino to its maturity in Boccaccio’s Decameron and the works of other major storytellers from Sacchetti to Bandello. Selected tales will be studied for their artistic quality, and as a mirror of the varied life of Italian society between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in English or Italian.
Italian 141. Renaissance Epic
Catalog Number: 5328
Francesco Erspamer
Half course (fall term). M., 2–5. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8, 9
Arguably the masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, Torquato Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered addressed the fears and opportunities triggered by global explorations, new technologies, and the making of the modern self. A close reading of the poem will be preceded by a survey of the epic tradition, from Homer and Virgil to the Chanson de Roland and Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso.
Note: Conducted in Italian.
Italian 147. The Culture of the Baroque - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 39989
Virginie Greene
Half course (spring term). Tu., 3–5. EXAM GROUP: 17, 18
After an introduction to the Italian Art and Literature in the Baroque Age, we will focus on poetry and artworks that figure artistic myths, e.g. Pygmalion, who created a life-like statue and became victim of his own illusion. By this way, we will explore the key concepts of Baroque Aesthetics and Culture.
Note: Conducted in Italian.
Prerequisite: Reading knowledge of Italian.
[Italian 148. Between Africa and Italy: Literature, Film and Cartoons]
Catalog Number: 4618
Giuliana Minghelli
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
From Emilio Salgari’s 19th-century adventure novels, to the postmodern comics of Hugo Pratt, this course investigates the representation of Africa in Italian culture. How does Africa shape the work of Modernist writers who lived in Alexandria like Marinetti, Ungaretti, and Cialente, and filmakers like Pasolini and Antonioni, shooting their postmodern wanderings "on location" in Africa? And reversing the gaze, what is the image of Italy in the texts of recent African immigrant writers?
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in Italian.
Italian 162 (formerly Italian 182). Intimate Architectures: Dwelling and Subjectivity in the Works of Italian Women Writers
Catalog Number: 8471
Giuliana Minghelli
Half course (spring term). Tu., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 15, 16
How is the architecture of the house both an expression of habit and a figure of desire? From Sibilla Aleramo to Alba de Céspedes and Elsa Morante, and through to Elena Ferrante, this course will explore the house as a site of belonging, confinement and transgression. Discussions will address the tension between domestic and public space, and the poetics and politics of inhabiting as a construction of subjectivity and difference.
Note: Conducted in Italian or English, to be determined by class composition.
[Italian 171. Cultural History and Nation-Making: 1870-1920]
Catalog Number: 4705
Maria Grazia Lolla
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Introduction to the contested cultural history of the newly-made Italy: war, work, education, popular culture, fashion, festivals and cooking. Students will explore the interaction between literary texts and other cultural forms.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in English.
[Italian 174. On Beauty: History and Representation]
Catalog Number: 4364
Francesco Erspamer
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Studies the development of the idea of beauty (and ugliness) in Western culture and theory, with examples mostly taken from Italian literature and film, including Petrarch, Veronica Franco, Tasso, d’Annunzio, the Futurists, Fellini, Muccino.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in English.
Italian 175. Picturing Place: Landscape, Literature, and Cinema from the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Century - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 76404
Giuliana Minghelli and Maria Grazia Lolla
Half course (fall term). Th., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 15, 16
Changing approaches to the experience, the representation and the interpretation of the Italian landscape from the eighteenth to the twentieth century through literary texts, visual arts, and film.
Note: Conducted in Italian or English, depending on class composition.
Prerequisite: Reading knowledge of Italian.
[Italian 202r. Seminar in Italian Studies -- Free Church, Free State: Liberal Thinking in Italy from the Renaissance to Today] - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 55096
Instructor to be determined
Half course (fall term). Tu., 4–6:30.
Through the works of Machiavelli, Bruno, Galileo, Beccaria, and Gramsci, we analyze the development in Italy of ideas of liberty and democracy, and the beginning of the independence of civil society and Church.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in Italian.
[Italian 230. Petrarca and the Divided Self]
Catalog Number: 5548
Lino Pertile
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Petrarch’s vernacular poetry in cultural context of Trecento Italy. Particular reference to Dante and the dolce stil nuovo. Stylistic and linguistic features of Petrarch’s Rime analyzed in depth while philosophical aspects are related to Petrarch’s Latin works, especially the Secretum.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in Italian.
Italian 260r. Poesia del Novecento - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 50477
Lino Pertile
Half course (spring term). W., 1:30–4. EXAM GROUP: 6, 7, 8
Will focus on the theme of commitment vs. withdrawal in the poetry of the 1950s and 1960s. Major poets considered include Montale, Pasolini, and Zanzotto.
Note: Conducted in Italian.
[Italian 263. Cities Visible and Invisible: Italian Urban Life and Cultural Change (1904-2004)]
Catalog Number: 8114
Giuliana Minghelli
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Resistant to rationality, Italian cities are both archeological sites and blueprints of utopia. From unification to globalization, explores changing ideas of identity, community and citizenship through fiction, film and critical essays on the urban scene.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in Italian.
[Italian 288r. Italian Literature Seminar]
Catalog Number: 0613
Lino Pertile
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in Italian.
*Italian 330. Direction of Doctoral Dissertations
Catalog Number: 3679
Francesco Erspamer 5074 (on leave spring term), Franco Fido 2446, Giuliana Minghelli 4442, and Lino Pertile 3416
*Latin American Studies 98. Tutorial—Junior Year
Catalog Number: 1224
José Rabasa (University of California, Berkeley) and members of the Department
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Note: Successful completion of one term of Latin American Studies 98 (or equivalent) is required of all honors concentrators in their junior year.
*Latin American Studies 99. Tutorial—Senior Year
Catalog Number: 7959
José Rabasa (University of California, Berkeley) and members of the Department
Full course. Hours to be arranged.
Weekly individual instruction for honors seniors writing a thesis.
Note: Successful completion of two terms of Latin American Studies 99 is required of all honors concentrators. To enroll, see the Undergraduate Adviser in Latin American Studies.
Portuguese Ac. Beginning Portuguese for Spanish Speakers
Catalog Number: 0430
Clémence Joüet-Pastré and members of the Department
Half course (fall term). M., W., F., at 12 or 1. EXAM GROUP: 5
An introductory language course designed for Spanish-English bilinguals. Along with the fundamental communication skills—understanding, speaking, reading and writing—the course will focus on those features of Portuguese which are most difficult for Spanish speakers: pronunciation, idioms and grammatical structures particular to Portuguese. Students will be introduced to the cultures of the Portuguese-speaking world through readings and authentic materials, including films, music, and videotapes.
Note: Conducted in Portuguese. May not be taken Pass/Fail but may be taken Sat/Unsat by GSAS students. Open to Spanish-English bilinguals. Not open to auditors. Section on-line on the Portuguese Ac website.
Prerequisite: 750 on the Spanish SAT II or the Harvard Placement test; 5 on the Spanish AP test; or a 40s level Spanish course.
Portuguese Ad. Beginning Portuguese for Spanish Speakers
Catalog Number: 1315
Clémence Jouët-Pastré and members of the Department
Half course (spring term). M., W., F., at 12 or 1. EXAM GROUP: 5
A continuation of Portuguese Ac. By the end of the second term, students should be able to communicate easily with native speakers and be acquainted with basic elements of Luso-Brazilian culture.
Note: Conducted in Portuguese. May not be taken Pass/Fail but may be taken Sat/Unsat by GSAS students. Not open to auditors. Section on-line on the Portuguese Ad website.
Prerequisite: Portuguese Ac.
Portuguese Ba. Introduction to Portuguese
Catalog Number: 0514
Clémence Jouët-Pastré and members of the Department
Half course (spring term). Section I, M., W., 3-5; Section II, Tu., Th., 3-5. EXAM GROUP: 8, 9
A basic introductory course for students who can devote only one term to the study of Portuguese. Teaches fundamental communication skills—understanding, speaking, reading and writing—but does not offer a complete study of grammar.
Note: Conducted in Portuguese. May not be taken Pass/Fail, but may be taken Sat/Unsat by GSAS students. Not open to auditors. Section on-line on the Portuguese Ba website.
Portuguese Ca. Intermediate Portuguese I
Catalog Number: 7692
Clémence Jouët-Pastré and members of the Department
Half course (fall term). Section I, M., W., 2-3:30; Section II, Tu., Th., 11:30-1. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
A beginning intermediate course for students interested in expanding and strengthening their basic Portuguese linguistic skills. Reading, writing, and conversational competency is emphasized through the study of the Luso-African-Brazilian cultures. The course aims to promote cross-cultural understanding through the use of authentic materials such as literary texts, multimedia, film, music, and videotapes.
Note: Conducted in Portuguese. Recommended for students who wish to improve their ability to speak and write Portuguese. May not be taken Pass/Fail. Section on-line on the Portuguese Ca website.
Prerequisite: Portuguese A or permission of course head.
Portuguese Cb. Intermediate Portuguese II
Catalog Number: 2799
Clémence Jouët-Pastré and members of the Department
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., 11:30–1. EXAM GROUP: 13, 14
Aims to further develop the four communicative skills while expanding students’ background knowledge of the history and cultures of the Portuguese-speaking world. Portuguese Cb covers the important grammar points not studied in Portuguese Ca.
Note: Conducted in Portuguese. May not be taken Pass/Fail. Section on-line on the Portuguese Cb website.
Prerequisite: Portuguese Ca or permission of course head.
Portuguese 37. Brasil hoje: Contemporary Brazilian Culture through Media
Catalog Number: 5024
Clémence Jouët-Pastré
Half course (fall term). Section I, M., W., 2:30-4; Section II, Tu., Th., 11:30-1. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
Students engage in systematic grammar review, along with practice in writing and vocabulary enrichment, while examining contemporary Brazil as presented in the Portuguese-language press, television, literature, and film. They analyze the ways Brazilians and non-Brazilians construct different and conflicting images of Brazil and “Brazilness.” Issues of race relations, national identity, ethnicity, and gender addressed. Discussions based on historical and literary tests, advertisements, films, videotapes of Brazilian television, and current issues of newspapers and magazines.
Note: Conducted in Portuguese. May not be taken Pass/Fail, but may be taken Sat/Unsat by GSAS students.
Prerequisite: Portuguese Ca/Cb or permission of course head.
Portuguese 44 (formerly Portuguese 38). Images of Brazil: Contemporary Brazilian Cinema
Catalog Number: 8893
Clémence Jouët-Pastré
Half course (spring term). M., W., 2:30–4. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
Examines major Brazilian films in their historical, political, and social context. Class discussion also focuses on documentaries, reviews, and critical articles. In-depth textual and grammatical analysis, vocabulary building, reflections on the similarities and differences of the oral and written Portuguese will lead students to achieve a high level of competency.
Note: Conducted in Portuguese. May not be taken Pass/Fail, but may be taken Sat/Unsat by GSAS students. Section on-line on the Portuguese 44 website.
Prerequisite: Portuguese Ca/Cb or permission of course head.
Portuguese 60. Portuguese and the Community
Catalog Number: 3322
Clémence Jouët-Pastré and members of the Department
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., 11:30-1, and four hours of activity-based learning per week. EXAM GROUP: 13, 14
An advanced language course examining the Luso-African-Brazilian experience in the US. Promotes community engagement as a vehicle for greater linguistic fluency and cultural understanding. Students will be placed with Boston-area community organizations and agencies. Class work focuses on readings and films by and about Luso-African-Brazilians and specific uses of Portuguese language from these communities. Authors include D. Macedo, Braga Martes, Margolis, Sales, Albues, and Villas Boas.
Note: Section on-line on the Portuguese 60 website.
Prerequisite: Portuguese 37, 38 or a score of 100 on the Harvard Placement Test.
*Portuguese 91r. Supervised Reading and Research
Catalog Number: 5589
Clémence Jouët-Pastré and members of the Department and Tutorial Board
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Advanced reading in topics not covered in regular courses.
Note: Limited to juniors and seniors.
*Portuguese 97. Tutorial — Sophomore Year
Catalog Number: 5769
Clémence Jouët-Pastré and members of the Department
Half course (spring term). M., W., 2–3:30. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
Successful completion of one term of Portuguese 97 is required of all concentrators in their sophomore year.
*Portuguese 98. Tutorial — Junior Year
Catalog Number: 8667
Clémence Jouët-Pastré and members of the Department
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Successful completion of one term of Portuguese 98r is required of all honors concentrators. To enroll see course head.
*Portuguese 99. Tutorial — Senior Year
Catalog Number: 8753
Clémence Jouët-Pastré and members of the Department
Full course. Hours to be arranged.
For honors seniors writing a thesis. Successful completion of one term of Portuguese 99 is required of all honors concentrators. To enroll, see course head.
[Portuguese 119 (formerly Portuguese 219br). Major Poems of the Portuguese Language II]
Catalog Number: 3242
Joaquim-Francisco Coelho
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
A continuation of Portuguese 118.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in Portuguese.
Portuguese 122a. Introduction to the Literature of Portugal I
Catalog Number: 2943
Joaquim-Francisco Coelho
Half course (fall term). M., 3–5. EXAM GROUP: 8, 9
The main currents of Portuguese literature. Emphasis on major authors, literary schools, and socio-aesthetic ideas from Gil Vicente and Camões to Eça de Queiroz, Fernando Pessoa, Jorge de Sena and José Saramago. Aims to teach students to read Portuguese texts and to think and write about them in a broad Western European context.
Note: Conducted in Portuguese and English, according to class composition.
Prerequisite: Excellent reading knowledge of Portuguese required.
Portuguese 122b. Introduction to the Literature of Portugal II
Catalog Number: 9754
Joaquim-Francisco Coelho
Half course (spring term). M. 3-5. EXAM GROUP: 8, 9
A continuation of Portuguese 122a.
Note: Conducted in Portuguese and English, according to class composition.
Prerequisite: Excellent reading knowledge of Portuguese.
[Portuguese 133a. The History of the Short Story in Portugal and Brazil]
Catalog Number: 4881
Joaquim-Francisco Coelho
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
A history of the shapes and intentions of the short story in the literatures of Portugal and Brazil, from early medieval tales to the present. Emphasis given to modern narratives. Among authors include: Eça de Queirós, Machado de Assis, Mário de Andrade, Clarice Lispector, Almada Negreiros, and Jorge de Sena.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11.
[Portuguese 133b. The History of the Short Story in Portugal and Brazil, II]
Catalog Number: 5672
Joaquim-Francisco Coelho
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
A continuation of Portuguese 133a.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11.
[Portuguese 139. Sonnets and Sonneteers of the Portuguese Language]
Catalog Number: 7381
Joaquim-Francisco Coelho
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
A historical survey of the theory and practice of the sonnet in the literature of the Portuguese language, from the Renaissance to the end of the 20th century. Portuguese and Brazilian authors include, among others, Camões, Sá de Miranda, Bocage, Antero de Quental, Fernando Pessoa, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Mário Quintana, Ledo Ivo, David, Mourão-Ferreira, Sophia de Melo Breyner Andresen, Alexandre O’Neill, and Jorge de Sena.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11.
[Portuguese 141. The Short Stories of Machado de Assis ]
Catalog Number: 8700
Joaquim-Francisco Coelho
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Analyzes Machado’s short stories in chronological order of composition, emphasizing their social content, the idiosyncratic behavior of their characters, and the author’s use of language to convey the ambiguities of human nature.
Note: Expected to be given in 2011–12. Conducted in Portuguese and English.
[Portuguese 151 (formerly Portuguese 251). Culture in Turmoil: Brazil in the 50s, 60s and 70s]
Catalog Number: 7461
Nicolau Sevcenko
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Discusses some creative and exciting trends in modern Brazilian culture that arose in resistance to military dictatorship: Tropicalismo, Concretismo and Neo-Concretismo, MPB, Cinema Novo, Teatro de Arena and Literatura Marginal.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in Portuguese. This course, when taken for a letter grade, meets the Core area requirement for Literature and Arts C.
[Portuguese 165. The Rise and Fall of Nationalism in Brazil]
Catalog Number: 4830
Nicolau Sevcenko
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Since the times of Independence in 1822, nationalism was a rising trend in Brazilian culture. Its climax came with Modernism in the 1920s, the Vargas dictatorship in the 1930s and the building up of Brasilia in the 1950/60s. After that, new trends in globalization started casting Brazilian culture in new, more challenging and problematic directions.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in Portuguese.
Portuguese 166. Literature, History and Subjectivity: from Machado de Assis to Clarice Lispector - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 42362
Nicolau Sevcenko
Half course (fall term). Th., 3–5. EXAM GROUP: 17, 18
A comprehensive analysis of 20th century Brazilian literary and poetic development, studied within the context of the country’s historical dilemmas, social contrasts, economic growth and cultural ebullience.
Note: Especially for undergraduates. Conducted in Portuguese.
[Portuguese 171. A Poetic of the Senses: The Brazilian Experience]
Catalog Number: 9449
Nicolau Sevcenko
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
The prevalence of popular baroque as one of the main sources of Brazilian culture in general puts a stress on the sensorial, the performative, the rhythmic and the sensual as preponderant elements of artistic creativity. Aims to explore this poetic of the senses in different dimensions: literature, poetry, music, dance, theatre, visual arts, film, architecture and urban design.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in Portuguese.
Portuguese 172. Culture and Popular Culture: clashes of times, territories, languages and imaginations - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 72576
Nicolau Sevcenko
Half course (spring term). W., 5–7 p.m. EXAM GROUP: 9
Studies the richness and peculiarities of Brazilian popular culture, resonant of mythical and symbolical contents brought from ancient and medieval times, as well as its convergences, frictions, clashes and subversions of mainstream Brazilian culture.
Note: Especially for undergraduates. Conducted in Portuguese.
[Portuguese 245. Fixed Minds and Fluid Moods: Aesthetic Configurations in the Tropics]
Catalog Number: 4999
Nicolau Sevcenko
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in Portuguese.
Portuguese 250. Marginal, Underground and Eccentric: an aesthetics of subversion - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 57469
Nicolau Sevcenko
Half course (fall term). W., 5–7 p.m. EXAM GROUP: 9
Studies some lesser-known but quintessentially important writers, artists, dramatists and filmmakers who dissented, deviated from or confronted the cultural mainstream, thus helping to define the singularity of cutting-edge contemporary Brazilian culture.
Note: Especially for graduates, conducted in Portuguese.
*Portuguese 321. Literature of Brazil: Supervised Reading and Research
Catalog Number: 5933
Joaquim-Francisco Coelho 7715 and Nicolau Sevcenko (Universidade de São Paulo) 5229 (spring term only)
*Portuguese 330. Direction of Doctoral Dissertations
Catalog Number: 4072
Joaquim-Francisco Coelho 7715, Bradley S. Epps 2880, Luis Fernández-Cifuentes 2091 (on leave 2009-10), Mary M. Gaylord 2632, Nicolau Sevcenko 5229, and Doris Sommer 2744 (on leave 2009-10)
*Romance Studies 91r. Supervised Reading and Research
Catalog Number: 8210
Mary M. Gaylord and members of the Department and Tutorial Board
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Tutorial supervision of research on subjects not treated in regular courses.
*Romance Studies 97. Tutorial—Sophomore Year
Catalog Number: 1994
Mary M. Gaylord and members of the Department
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Note: Successful completion of one term of Romance Studies 97 (or equivalent) is required of all concentrators in their sophomore year.
*Romance Studies 98. Tutorial—Junior Year
Catalog Number: 5203
Mary M. Gaylord and members of the Department
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Note: Successful completion of one term of Romance Studies 98 (or equivalent) is required of all honors concentrators in their junior year.
*Romance Studies 99. Tutorial–Senior Year
Catalog Number: 1067
Mary M. Gaylord and members of the Department
Full course. Hours to be arranged.
Note: Weekly individual instruction. Successful completion of two terms of Romance Studies 99 is required of all honors concentrators. To enroll, see the Undergraduate Adviser in Romance Studies.
Romance Studies 150. Reading the Reader in Italy and France: History, Theory, and Literary Practice 1800 to the Present - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 88806
Maria Grazia Lolla
Half course (fall term). W., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 6, 7
Implied or represented, cajoled or abused, cooperating or antagonizing the writer (when not replacing the writer altogether), the reader looms large in the writing of novelists, publishers and statesmen alike. We examine the representation of reading and readers in fiction and poetry, from the fin-de-siècle to the end of the millenium, and bring together the insights of historians of the book, literary critics and semiologists. Authors include Baudelaire, Flaubert, Tarchetti, Zola, Sue, Poe, De Marchi, Marinetti, Tozzi, and Calvino.
Note: Conducted in English. Some reading knowledge of French and Italian helpful but not essential.
[Romance Studies 170. Fictions of Marginality: Italian and Latin American Novel and Film in the Age of Globalization]
Catalog Number: 7076
Francesco Erspamer and Mariano Siskind
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Contemporary Latin American and Italian writers share commonalities: they acknowledge their cultures as marginal, and as unable to compete on the global scene and in their own countries with the imaginaries mass-marketed by the English-speaking world. This narrative of loss and exclusion has inspired great novels and films, in which the desire for recognition is expressed through translation and re-writing, the invention of the past, the critique of traditional identities, the hope of social change.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in English.
[Romance Studies 189. The Culture of Antifascism]
Catalog Number: 3680
Francesco Erspamer
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
The purpose of this course is to show that antifascism has not just been a form of tactical resistance to historical fascisms but rather a vital intellectual and social movement in its own right, committed to fight against bigotry, racism, authoritarianism, and inequality. Readings will include Italian writers and thinkers of the first and second half of the 20th century, such as Gramsci, Silone, Emilio Lussu, Piero Gobetti, Carlo Rosselli, Moravia, Vittorini, Pasolini.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in English.
[Romance Studies 202. Ethics and Aesthetics (Graduate Seminar in General Education)]
Catalog Number: 2167
Francesco Erspamer and Doris Sommer
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Readings alternate between theory and literature/other arts to explore mutual relationships between the social conditions for art-making and art’s effects. How do creative practices play into ethics? Does philosophy depend on counter-factual [fictional] imaginings? The seminar will design and develop a General Education course on these themes for undergraduates.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in English.
Spanish Ab. Beginning Spanish II
Catalog Number: 3328
Johanna Damgaard Liander and members of the Department
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). M., through Th., 9, 10, 11, 1 or 2. EXAM GROUP: 10
For students with the equivalent of one semester previous study of Spanish. Emphasis on speaking, reading and writing while including Hispanic culture through contemporary texts and using computer, video and film materials. After Spanish Aa and Ab, students should be able to engage in everyday conversation with native speakers, and read straightforward texts, both fiction and non-fiction, with relative ease.
Note: Conducted in Spanish. May not be taken Pass/Fail but may be taken Sat/Unsat by GSAS students. Section on-line on the Spanish Ab website. Students who have studied Spanish for two years or more in secondary school must begin at Spanish Ab or higher. Upon the recommendation of the course head, students who have performed at a superior level in this course may enroll in any course for which they are linguistically prepared.Prerequisite: 450 on the SAT II test or on the Harvard Placement Test, Spanish Aa, or permission of course head.
*Spanish Acd (Formerly Spanish Bab). Intensive Beginning Spanish: Special Course
Catalog Number: 5577 Enrollment: Limited to 15 students per section.
Nina C. de W. Ingrao and members of the Department
Full course (fall term; repeated spring term). M., W., F., at 11, and required speaking practice M., W., F. at 12 and W. at 2. EXAM GROUP: Fall: 4
For students with no previous formal training in Spanish but with competence in at least one foreign language. Emphasis on communication skills. Language instruction supplemented by cultural and literary readings and film.
Note: Not open to auditors. May not be used to fulfill the language requirement. May not be taken Pass/Fail but may be taken Sat/Unsat by GSAS students. Interested students should contact Sra. Ingrao by e-mail at least one week prior to the first day of Fall semester classes for Fall term enrollment, and one week prior to the first day of Spring semester classes for Spring term enrollment. Upon the recommendation of the course head, students who have performed at a superior level in this course may enroll in any course for which they are linguistically prepared.
Spanish Ax. Reading Spanish
Catalog Number: 5318
Nina C. de W. Ingrao and members of the Department
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., 11:30–1. EXAM GROUP: 13, 14
For students (both undergraduate and graduate) with little or no knowledge of Spanish. Aims at the rapid development of reading skills as a tool for research.
Note: Not open to auditors. May not be used to fulfill the language requirement. May not be taken Pass/Fail, but may be taken Sat/Unsat by GSAS students. Conducted in English. No on-line sectioning for this course. Students interested in enrolling in the course should attend the first day of class.
Spanish C. Intermediate Spanish
Catalog Number: 5819
Adriana Gutiérrez and members of the Department
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Sections M., T., W., Th. at 9, 10, 11, or 1. EXAM GROUP: Fall: 2, 11; Spring: 10
An intermediate language and culture class that aims to consolidate and expand the skills of listening comprehension, speaking, reading and writing in Spanish. Includes a comprehensive review of the grammar and reinforces linguistic acquisition through texts, movies, art and multi-media projects to acquaint students with cultural issues relevant to the Spanish-speaking world.
Note: Conducted in Spanish. May not be taken Pass/Fail but may be taken Sat/Unsat by GSAS students. Section on-line on the Spanish C website. Upon the recommendation of the course head, students who have performed at a superior level in this course may enroll in any course for which they are linguistically prepared.
Prerequisite: Spanish A, Bab, 600 on the SAT II test or on the Harvard Placement Test, or permission of course head.
Spanish 30. Advanced Language Review through Literature and Culture, I
Catalog Number: 0479
Adriana Gutiérrez and members of the Department
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). M., W., F. at 10, 11, or 1. EXAM GROUP: Fall: 3
Continues to reinforce the practice of oral and written communication in Spanish through topics in contemporary cultural materials from Spain and Latin America. Students will focus on improving accuracy, refining pronunciation and developing vocabulary. In addition to in-class discussions, course work involves grammar review and practice in writing. Consult course website for current semester topics.
Note: Conducted in Spanish. May not be taken Pass/Fail but may be taken Sat/Unsat by GSAS students. Students may take no more than two courses numbered in the 30s. Section on-line on the Spanish 30 website. Upon the recommendation of the course head, students who have performed at a superior level in this course may enroll in any course for which they are linguistically prepared.
Prerequisite: 680 on the SAT II test or on the Harvard Placement Test, Spanish C, or permission of course head.
Spanish 40. Advanced Language Review through Literature and Culture, II
Catalog Number: 9393
Johanna Damgaard Liander and members of the Department
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Fall: M., W., F., at 10; 11; 1. Spring: M., W., F., at 10; 11; 1. EXAM GROUP: 3, 4
An advanced language and culture class that further develops linguistic competence using a region or regions of the Hispanic world as a focus for class discussion, grammar review, and an introduction to Hispanic social contexts and texts. Course materials may also include films, interviews, painting, photography, music, selections from the press, as well as literary or historical readings. Frequent written and oral assignments, and a thorough review of grammar.
Note: Consult course website for current semester topics. Conducted in Spanish. May not be taken Pass/Fail, but may be taken Sat/Unsat by GSAS students. Section on-line on the Spanish 40 website.
Prerequisite: 720 on the SAT II test or on the Harvard Placement Test, AP 5, a Spanish 30-level course, or permission of course head.
Spanish 50. Writing and Performance
Catalog Number: 6794
Adriana Gutiérrez and members of the Department
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Fall and Spring: Section I, Tu., Th. 11:30-1; Section II, Tu., Th. 1-2:30. EXAM GROUP: 13, 14
An advanced language course designed to strengthen and develop competence in written expression. Close reading of texts in literary and non-literary genres will help students refine personal style. The performance of short excerpts of plays, combined with advanced work on oral expression and phonetics, will help students increase their fluency and ease of expression.
Note: Conducted in Spanish. Recommended for concentrators and joint concentrators. May not be taken Pass/Fail, but may be taken Sat/Unsat by GSAS students. Section on-line on the Spanish 50 website.
Prerequisite: 750 on the SAT II test or on the Harvard Placement Test, a Spanish 40-level course, or permission of course head.
Spanish 60. Spanish and the Community
Catalog Number: 8789 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Johanna Damgaard Liander and members of the Department
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Tu., Th., 10-11:30, and four hours of activities-based learning a week. EXAM GROUP: 12, 13
An advanced language course which examines the Latin American and Latino experience in the US, promoting community engagement as a vehicle for greater linguistic fluency and cultural understanding. Students will be placed with community organizations within the Boston area. Classwork focuses on readings and films by and about Latin Americans in the US and specific uses of Spanish in these communities. Authors include Ilán Stavans and Junot Díaz.
Note: Interested students must apply in writing before registration (fall term) and before Winter Recess (spring term) to Johanna Damgaard Liander.
Prerequisite: 750 on the SAT II test or on the Harvard Placement Test, Spanish 40 or permission of course head.
[Spanish 65. Bilingual Arts]
Catalog Number: 9315
Doris Sommer
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
For heritage speakers and advanced language students, Latino literature, in the forms of poetry, narrative, theater, and film, will be the focus of an in-depth review of grammar and style in Spanish, as well as the uses of Spanish alongside English language arts. A range of artists from Latin American origins will be featured, including those with ties to the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in Spanish. This course, when taken for a letter grade, meets the Core area requirement for Literature and Arts A.
Prerequisite: 700 on the SAT II test or on the Harvard Placement Test, Spanish 40 or permission of course head.
[Spanish 70a. Heroes, Rogues, Saints, Sinners: Archetypes of Spanish Literature]
Catalog Number: 1587
Mary M. Gaylord
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Ruy Díaz de Vivar, "el Cid," and other Rodrigos; Santiago "Matamoros"; the bawd Celestina; picaro Lazarillo de Tormes; conquistador Hernán Cortés; Don Quijote and Don Juan in the medieval and Early Modern texts and contexts which produced these enduring cultural icons. Emphasis on critical reading and writing.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11.
Prerequisite: 750 on the Harvard Placement test; a 40- or 50- level course in Spanish; or permission of course head.
Spanish 70c. Documenting Spanish Modernity: A Survey of Spanish Literature and Culture from the 19th to the 21st Centuries
Catalog Number: 7713
Bradley S. Epps
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., 10–11:30. EXAM GROUP: 12, 13
Drawing on literature, art, and film, this course offers an intensive introduction to the interplays of nationality and modernity in Spanish culture from the XIXth to the XXIst centuries, with special attention to debates on unity and diversity, regionalism and nationalism (Catalonia, Euskadi, Galicia, etc.), (post)-colonialism and immigration. Figures include Cadalso, Larra, Goya, Blanco White, Valera, Pardo Bazán, Gaudí, Unamuno, Carmen de Burgos, Rusiñol, Arana, García Lorca, Buñuel, Dalí, Berlanga, Erice, Almodóvar, Goytisolo, Tàpies.
Note: Conducted in Spanish. This course, when taken for a letter grade, meets the Core area requirement for Literature and Arts C.
Prerequisite: 750 on the Harvard Placement test; a 40- or 50-level course in Spanish; or permission of course head.
Spanish 71a. Continuity and Discontinuity in Colonial Latin America
Catalog Number: 4319
José Rabasa (University of California, Berkeley)
Half course (fall term). M., W., (F.) at 11. EXAM GROUP: 4
An overview of literary and cultural production in the Americas before and after the Spanish invasion. Topics include pre-Columbian visual and verbal expressions; discovery, invention, conquest, and resistance; the historiography of the New World; native depictions of the colonial world.
Note: Conducted in Spanish. Required for concentrators in the Hispanic Studies track (as an alternative to Spanish 71b), and mandatory for concentrators in Latin American Studies.
Prerequisite: 750 on the Harvard Placement test; a 40- or 50- level course in Spanish; or permission of course head.
[Spanish 84. Poetry and Grammar; Language and the Making of Poems in Spanish]
Catalog Number: 8738
Mary M. Gaylord
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
What are poems made of? Although meter, versification, and diction are the raw materials considered most proper to poetry, poets have long known that grammatical forms and syntax provide indispensable buildings blocks for verse composition. Reading major poets-classical and modern, Spanish and Latin American--we will explore what a focus on grammar suggests about poetic craft and what focus on poems as grammatical structures reveals about the making of meaning in Spanish.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Expected to be given in 2009-10. Conducted in Spanish.
Prerequisite: Prerequisite: 750 on the Harvard Placement test; a 40- or 50- level course in Spanish; or permission of course head.
Spanish 90h. Allegories of Identity in Latin American Literature - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 27587
Norman A. Valencia
Half course (fall term). M., W., (F.) at 12. EXAM GROUP: 5
In many Latin American texts, the topic of identity appears with a strong sense of urgency. We consider the main trends of Latin America’s search for its own distinctive character, and the role of literature in this specific quest. Emphasis on the literary construction and performance of national, cultural, gender and racial identities. Readings by Martí, Darío, Agustini, Rodó, Borges, Castellanos, Carpentier, García Márquez, Fuguet and Aira.
Note: Conducted in Spanish.
Spanish 90j. La juventud latinoamericana en el cine y la literatura - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 43485
Maria Ospina
Half course (spring term). Tu., 1–3 and an additional hour to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 15, 16
An exploration of Latin American literature and film about childhood and youth in the 20th and 21st century. Youth, a fundamental concept for political projects also serves as the focus of a wide array of social issues: crime, poverty, political repression, sexism, racism, and marginalization. How do texts about growing up in Latin America reflect on the social and on the place of the subject in the region?
*Spanish 91r. Supervised Reading and Research
Catalog Number: 1586
Johanna Damgaard Liander and members of the Department and Tutorial Board
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Tutorial supervision of research on subjects not treated in regular courses.
*Spanish 97. Tutorial—Sophomore Year
Catalog Number: 2315
José Rabasa (University of California, Berkeley)
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., 10–11:30. EXAM GROUP: 12, 13
Literary/Cultural Studies: What are the intersections between literary and cultural studies? Are these two fields defined by different objects of study or do they differ in their distinct approaches and methods? What are their differences and points of contact? Do literary tropes provide a key for examining cultural objects? Requirements include short weekly papers and regular participation in class discussions.
Note: Conducted in Spanish. Required for all concentrators in their sophomore year, but open to others.
Prerequisite: 750 on the Harvard Placement test; a 40- or 50- level course in Spanish; or permission of course head.
*Spanish 98. Tutorial—Junior Year
Catalog Number: 5511
Johanna Damgaard Liander and members of the Department
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Note: Successful completion of one term of Spanish 98 (or equivalent) is required of all honors concentrators in their junior year.
*Spanish 99. Tutorial—Senior Year
Catalog Number: 5867
Johanna Damgaard Liander and members of the Department
Full course. Hours to be arranged.
Weekly individual instruction for honors seniors writing a thesis.
Note: Successful completion of two terms of Spanish 99 is required of all honors concentrators. To enroll, see the Undergraduate Adviser in Spanish.
Spanish 124. Cervantes: Don Quixote
Catalog Number: 1378
Mary M. Gaylord
Half course (fall term). Th., at 1, Tu., 1–3; Th., at 1. EXAM GROUP: 15, 16
Cervantes’ masterpiece as imaginative response to developments in European literature and aesthetic theory, the conflicted politics of race and religion, 16th-century historiography (serious and burlesque) and the discursive practices of imperial Spain. Close reading of Don Quijote in relation to its models, reception history and contemporary criticism and theory.
Note: Conducted in Spanish. This course, when taken for a letter grade, meets the Core area requirement for Literature and Arts A.
Spanish 129. Playing the Spaniard: The Politics and Poetics of Identity in Early Modern Spanish Theatre - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 90261
Mary M. Gaylord
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., 11:30–1. EXAM GROUP: 13, 14
What does it mean to be a Spaniard in 1600? How does one act the part? Is acting the same as being? Using history, myth, legend, and Spain’s poetic traditions, playwrights mirror familiar roles, but reshape them and fashion new ones for a changing society in an expanding world. Signature Comedia themes - honor, decorum, virginity, masculinity — examined in plays by Cervantes, Lope, Alarcón, Tirso, Calderón, through modern theories of language, performance, identity, community.
Note: Conducted in Spanish.
Spanish 134. Tracing Voice in Nahuatl Poetry and Painting
Catalog Number: 7452
José Rabasa (University of California, Berkeley)
Half course (fall term). W., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
Nahuatl textuality in poetry and painting. Examines interrelation between alphabetical writing, pictography, and orality; the (ethno)poetics of Nahuatl verbal and pictorial texts. Offers an introduction to Nahuatl language through James Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written.
Note: Conducted in Spanish.
Spanish 139. Trazar y tramar: La selva en la narrativa latinoamericana - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 58592
Maria Ospina
Half course (fall term). M., 3-5 and an additional hour to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 8, 9
An exploration of the place of the jungle in Latin American culture focusing on the ways it has been plotted by fiction, films and testimonies from the early 20th century to today, as a topos where diverse anxieties about sovereignty, nationhood, race, development, gender, subversion and alterity collide. How is the jungle mapped to produce an aesthetics from the margins? How is it represented in times of global angst over the environment and its destruction?
Note: Conducted in Spanish.
[Spanish 152. Magical Realism and Its Discontent: Latin American Novels That Didn’t Boom]
Catalog Number: 0215
Mariano Siskind
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Before and after the "boom," Carpentier and García Márquez found a narrative form to express Latin America’s aesthetic particularity in magic and marvel. Since the publication of Cien años de soledad, its remarkable impact generated all sorts of experimental responses attempting to work through Latin American social reality in very different ways. We read novels by Carpentier, García Márquez, Rulfo, Asturias, Uslar Pietri, Onetti, Saer, Cabrera Infante, Glantz, Bolaño, Fuguet, Bellatín, Buarque, and Aira.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in Spanish.
[Spanish 154. Travel Literature and Modernity in the 19th Century]
Catalog Number: 9121
Mariano Siskind
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
During the second half of the 19th century Latin American intellectuals had to think of ways in which the culture of the region could participate of the processes of globalization of modernity, and the experience of travel lend itself as one of the most appealing sources for these imaginations. We will read narratives of travel in the Americas, and to Europe, the countryside and the Far East by Sarmiento, Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, Flora Tristán, Juana M. Gorriti, Estanislao del Campo, Martí, Darío, Nervo, Groussac, Ugarte, Tablada and Gómez Carrillo.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in Spanish.
Spanish 157. "Civilization and Barbarism" and its Discontents - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 94216
Norman A. Valencia
Half course (spring term). M., 1–3 and an additional discussion hour to be arranged.
"Civilization and Barbarism" is a defining binary dualism in Latin America, one that we will both study and challenge. We examine the theoretical foundations of these concepts, and their relationship to the continent’s problematic modernization. Finally, we consider the contemporary emergence of "new barbarians" in cities like Buenos Aires, México D.F. and Rio de Janeiro. Readings include Montaigne, Freud, Sarmiento, da Cunha, Gallegos, Fonseca, and Aira. Films by Meirelles and González Iñárritu.
Note: Conducted in Spanish.
Spanish 159. Escrituras de la crisis: Violencia y narrativa en la Latinoamérica contemporánea - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 73699
Maria Ospina
Half course (spring term). M., 3-5 with an extra hour to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 8, 9
How have Latin American literature and film of the past three decades articulated the many forms of violence in a region facing complex social conflicts, wars deployed around the drug trade, and diverse forms of political unrest? We will investigate how contemporary texts reflect on linguistic, ethical and social dimensions of subjectivity in times of crisis and provide productive analytical frameworks to examine violence, history and memory in the region.
Note: Conducted in Spanish.
Spanish 168. Madness, Transgression, and Anomaly in Latin American Literature / Locura, transgresión y anomalía en la literatura latinoamericana - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 24882
Gonzalo M. Aguilar
Half course (fall term). Tu., 3–5. EXAM GROUP: 17, 18
Este curso tiene como objetivo explorar el modo en que la escritura literaria se ha vinculado con aquello que se desvía de la norma y que puede ser pensado como "locura", "trangresión" o "anomalía". A partir de estos conceptos se estudiarán textos narrativos de escritores del Cono Sur como Ricardo Piglia, Diamela Eltit, Clarice Lispector, Guimarães Rosa y Roberto Bolaño, entre otros.
Note: Conducted in Spanish.
[Spanish 172. Barcelona and Modernity]
Catalog Number: 4211
Bradley S. Epps
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Examines the construction, expansion, and transformation of Barcelona as cultural capital of Catalonia and as site of political and aesthetic experimentation from the mid-19th century to the present. Drawing on literature, criticism, visual arts, architecture, urban planning, film, and music, we explore national identity, nationalism, and language; bilingualism and multiculturalism; and the relations between art and economics, political conformity and resistance.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in Spanish; papers in Spanish, English, or Catalan. This course, when taken for a letter grade, meets the Core area requirement for Foreign Cultures.
Spanish 183. Names of the Father in Latin American Literature: Paternalism, Politics and Literary Form - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 42694
Norman A. Valencia
Half course (spring term). Tu., 3-5 and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 17, 18
The story of the search for a father has often represented the quest for a personal or cultural identity. This course considers the fate of this narrative in Latin America. We focus on the father as a symbol of the continent’s main political anxieties, including the constant return of authoritarian leaders, and the turmoil they leave behind in their absence. Readings include Machiavelli, Hobbes, Freud, las Casas, Bolívar, Rulfo, Guimarães Rosa, and García Márquez.
[Spanish 191. Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortázar]
Catalog Number: 5420
Diana Sorensen
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
A course devoted to their major writings and to the ways in which they have established productive dialogues with critical theory and with other literary traditions.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in Spanish. This course, when taken for a letter grade, meets the Core requirement for Literature and Arts A.
Spanish 218. Colonial/Postcolonial Studies
Catalog Number: 8907
José Rabasa (University of California, Berkeley)
Half course (spring term). Tu., 1–3. EXAM GROUP: 15, 16
Is there a history of voice? What is the nature of the materiality of voice recorded by mimetic apparatuses (gramaphones, alphabet, iconic scripts, film)? Particular attention will be placed on objects from the indigenous Americas.
Note: Conducted in Spanish.
[Spanish 220. Jews and Judaism in Medieval Spanish]
Catalog Number: 8455
Luis M. Girón Negrón
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Explores the formative role of Judaism in the literary history of Old Spanish in three areas: Jews as literary characters; Spanish works by medieval Jewish authors; Jewish themes and influences on Hispano-Christian writers.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in Spanish.
[Spanish 243. Foundational Fiction and Film]
Catalog Number: 3129
Doris Sommer
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Through novels that helped to consolidate nation-states in Latin America, explores modernity as personal and public lessons in laissez-faire. Sequels in film, telenovelas, performances show tenacity of genre. Links between creativity and citizenship. Theorists include Anderson, Foucault, Arendt, Lukacs, Flaubert.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in Spanish.
[Spanish 261. The Return of World Literature: Placing Latin America, Debating Universalism]
Catalog Number: 8328
Mariano Siskind
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
With Moretti and Casanova, world literature has made a comeback, but is there room for Latin America in its renewed theory? We read Goethe, Hegel, Marx, Bourdieu, Jameson, Schwarz and Latin American fiction and essays.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in Spanish.
Spanish 262. História pública y privada en la novela latinoamericana - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 49686
Sergio M. Ramirez
Half course (fall term). Th., 3–5.
Historia pública y privada en La muerte de Artemio Cruz, Carlos Fuentes; Santa Evita, Tomás Eloy Martínez; Palacio Quemado, Edmundo Paz Soldán; Abril Rojo, Santiago Roncagliolo; Historia Secreta de Costaguana, Juan Gabriel Vásquez.
Spanish 268. Latin American Cinema and the Question of Poverty / El Cine Latinoamericano y la cuestión de la pobreza - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 91511
Gonzalo M. Aguilar
Half course (fall term). M., 1–3.
El seminario se propone recorrer en diferentes films el modo en que la pobreza ha sido tratada ya sea desde el plano teórico, desde la producción o desde la representación de los sectores populares.
Note: Conducted in Spanish.
Spanish 275r. Spanish Literature: Seminar
Catalog Number: 8942
Mary M. Gaylord
Half course (spring term). W., 3–5.
Topic for 2009-2010: The Human Comedy According to The Other Cervantes. Studying less commonly-read works, we explore the range of Cervantes’ comic vision in verse, drama, and narrative fiction, emphasizing technical, metaliterary, and political aspects of his reinvention of inherited genres.
Note: Conducted in Spanish.
[Spanish 277. Africa in the Modern Spanish Imaginary]
Catalog Number: 4373
Bradley S. Epps
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Examines the variegated relations between Spain and its "forgotten" colonial endeavors in Morocco, Western Sahara, and Equatorial Guinea as represented in novels, political essays, film.
Authors/artists: Cadalso, Alarcón, Fortuny, Pérez Galdós, Unamuno, Azorín, Carmen de Burgos, Sender, Franco, Juan Goytisolo, Donato Ndongo, others.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11.
[Spanish 281r. Seminar: Major Critical Issues of 16th- and 17th-Century Spanish Literature]
Catalog Number: 9785
Mary M. Gaylord
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in Spanish.
[Spanish 285cr. Spanish Literature: Seminar]
Catalog Number: 1104
Luis Fernández-Cifuentes
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Topic for 2010-2011: To be announced.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Conducted in Spanish.
Spanish 287r. Spanish Literature: Seminar
Catalog Number: 4779
Bradley S. Epps
Half course (spring term). Th., 2–5.
Topic for 2009-2010: The Ethics of Representation: Modern Spanish Narrative. Examines the relations between aesthetic autonomy and social responsibility, national identity and colonial power, in Baroja, Valle-Inclán, Català, García Lorca, Cela, Sánchez Ferlosio, Martín Santos, Rodoreda, Martín Gaite, Goytisolo, Benet, Millás, and Ndongo.
Note: Conducted entirely in Spanish.
*Spanish 330. Direction of Doctoral Dissertations
Catalog Number: 2143
Joaquim-Francisco Coelho 7715, Bradley S. Epps 2880, Luis Fernández-Cifuentes 2091 (on leave 2009-10), Mary M. Gaylord 2632, Luis M. Girón Negrón 3060, Francisco Márquez Villanueva 5064, José Rabasa (University of California, Berkeley) 5844, Mariano Siskind 5530 (on leave 2009-10), Doris Sommer 2744 (on leave 2009-10), and Diana Sorensen 4214