Spanish Majors Courses Offered - Interim 2009
Spanish 274 - Contemporary issues in the Spanish-Speaking World (GE:ORC)
“Immigration and Reverse Immigration: Bridging Linguistic and Social Gaps”
Maggie A. Broner, Monday through Friday 10:40-3:00
Note: This course attempts to give students an immersion experience. We will be having lunch together in the cafeteria Monday through Thursday.
A little known fact for many students is that the United States and Argentina share a history of immigration. At the time thousands of immigrants from European countries were coming to the U.S. to access a better life, thousands were also arriving at the port of Buenos Aires. Their stories, their languages, their dreams, and sorrows, helped develop the identity of both countries. In Argentina, political developments in Spain (the beginning of the civil war, and in the world (the prelude to the Nazi occupation), generated a second wave of immigrants. This course explores their stories, and how many of their children were forced to leave Argentina after the 2000 economic debacle. Through their voices and experiences we will try to narrow the gap between our need or desire to communicate from an English-speaking worldview and a Spanish-speaking worldview with its norms, expectations, and conventions. Students will explore the ways Spanish speakers from different Spanish-speaking regions perceive different discursive and linguistic norms. In order to do this, we will discuss and analyze readings and cultural texts from literary as well as non-literary sources. Activities include: study and oral practice of advanced speech acts, reading of the novel La tesis de Nancy, a formal debate, and an analysis of the series Vientos de agua. Course is taught in Spanish.
Prerequisite: Spanish 250
Counts for Linguistic Studies concentration
