Spanish Language & Literature
The Spanish Language & Literature program at New College offers courses at all levels of Spanish language, and courses and tutorials on the literature and culture of Latin America and Spain. Literature courses are offered both in Spanish and in English translation. Offerings change each year and include the study of particular authors, a genre, a period, or a theme. Recent offerings include: “The Need for Fictions: Rulfo and García Márquez”; “Literatura caribeña”; “El cuento latinoamericano”; “El español como materia del verso”; “Blacks and National Discourse in Spanish America”.
Spanish language is taught in a five-semester sequence after which students can enroll in courses and tutorials on literary and cultural topics conducted in Spanish. Elementary Spanish I & II, and Intermediate Spanish introduce students to Spanish grammar and emphasize the development of communicative skills. Composition and Conversation and Lecturas Hispánicas offer a review of Spanish grammar and an introduction to the study of the culture and the literature of the Hispanic world. After completing Lecturas Hispánicas, students are prepared to enroll in courses and tutorials that will allow them to do advanced work in the language. Each spring and fall one advanced course is offered, which is conducted entirely in Spanish. These courses may be focused on a literary genre (“Spanish as the Fabric of Verse”, “Latin American Short Stories”), or on a particular theme or period (“Caribbean Literature”). Tutorials and Independent Research Projects in Spanish must be decided and defined in advanced with a faculty member. In addition, the courses offered in translation may allow advanced students to do part of the work in Spanish.
Students who concentrate their work in the area of Hispanic Language and Literature are expected to do supporting course work in other relevant disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. Cross-disciplinary work is a vital part of the New College program as we understand it, and it is strongly supported and encouraged by the faculty in the Hispanic Language Program. In addition to specific courses in our regular offerings, Tutorials, Independent Research Projects, and Independent Study Projects are frequently designed to meet the particular needs of students who wish to combine their interest in Hispanic language, culture, and literature with other fields of study.
While each student's course of study will reflect her or his own interests, an Area of Concentration in Hispanic Language and Literature, taken as a single or a double Area of Concentration (AOC), will generally comprise the following: ten semester-long academic activities (Courses, Tutorials, Independent Research Projects) approved by the faculty of the program; at least one Independent Study Project (January or summer) supervised or approved by the faculty of the program; and a thesis with a focus on relevant aspects of the Hispanic world. No less than eight of the academic activities must be taken in Spanish and at least one of them must be a thesis tutorial (courses taken in Spanish count starting with Composition & Conversation, the fourth semester of language study).
