This course provides an introduction to the diverse literatures of the Spanish-speaking world over the course of six centuries, from the Middle Ages to the turn of the twentieth century. Students will learn the tools, language, and critical vocabulary for advanced work reading the canon of Hispanic literatures from Spain, Latin America, and the Caribbean Basin, identifying aesthetic trends and historical periods such as the Renaissance, the Golden Age, the Romantic era, realism and modernism.

The Camino de Santiago, or the Way of St. James, is a pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain. This interdisciplinary course will explore the origins of the Camino de Santiago through the Middle Ages, and its recent transformation into a cultural phenomenon. It will be divided into several units that focus on art and architecture, religion, gastronomy, music, history, literature, philosophy, pop culture, and tourism. Major cities along the camino francés will act as cultural “stops” to complement these topics.

In this course students will learn how to approach writing as a process. The emphasis is on writing as a communicative act rather than as a mere language exercise. As such, emphasis is given to the interaction between the author and the text, the target audience, and the purpose and message of the final product. In order to develop the necessary skills that good writers should have, the course will focus on expanding vocabulary, exploring rhetorical techniques for organizing information, developing strategies for writing, and characterizing the target audience(s).

While expanding on the grammar essentials covered in SPAN 125, this course helps the student further develop listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in Spanish.  It is directed toward students who already have a good linguistic-communicative competency, broadening their contact with different kinds of texts, deepening their grammatical understanding, and enabling them to communicate through a variety of forms and registers.

SPAN 125 is a continuation of SPAN 120. 120 and 125 are a two-semester sequence. Students who take SPAN 120 will need to complete SPAN 125 before moving on to SPAN 130.  This course will expand Spanish language skills with exercises in conversation, oral comprehension and composition, based on cultural readings.