MA / MPhil Courses in Spanish

Not All Courses Are Offered in Any Given Academic Year.

For descriptions of courses within particular series, please click on the links below:

SPAN60 (S60) Series: Language and Culture

• SPAN6001 (S60A) Advanced translation
• SPAN6002 (S60B) Spanish Language
• SPAN6003 (S60C) Spanish Language I
• SPAN6004 (S60D) Spanish Language History II
• SPAN6005 (S60E)Second and Foreign Language Teaching (same as LING6104)
• SPAN6006 (S60F) Latin American Culture

SPAN61 (S61) Series: Literatures

• SPAN6101 (S61A) The Generation of 1898
• SPAN6102 (S61B) The Latin American Essay
• SPAN6103 (S61C) The Novel of the Boom
• SPAN6104 (S61D) Latin American Women Writers
• SPAN6105 (S61G) Benoto Perez Galdos
• SPAN6107 (S61G) Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• SPAN6108 (S61H) Puerto-Rican Narrative

SPAN68 (S68) Series: Reading Courses

• SPAN6801 (S68A) Individual Reading Course
• SPAN6802 (S68B) Individual Reading Course

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

SPAN6001 (S60A) Advanced Translation

This course is intended to give students systematic practical training in translation from Spanish into English, thereby equipping them to become professional freelance or in-house translators in a variety of fields.

Throughout the course outlined below, students would be required to compile word-and-phrase glossaries and lists of contextual sources for each area of discourse covered. This database would be submitted as part of the translation portfolio at the end of the course. By the end of the course, students would thereby have acquired a systematic database which could be used as the starting point for making a commissioned professional translation in any of the areas covered. Topics include:

1.Introductory

i) Building a database of resources
ii) Translation in Barbados and the Region

2.Advanced translation strategies Spanish-English

3.Commercial Translation

i) Contrastive study of norms in Spanish and English commercial correspondence.
ii) Translation for international organisations.

4.Translation for Tourism/Mid-term test I

i) Hotel and travel agency literature.
ii) Mid-term test I

5.Legal Translation

i) Birth certificates; immigration documents; legal correspondence.
ii) Contracts; laws.

6.Translation for diplomacy/Mid-term test II

i) Diplomatic correspondence and speeches.
ii) Mid-term test II

7.Technical Translation

i) Translation for agriculture.
ii) Instruction leaflets and manuals.

Instruction: This course will be taught in two 1.5 hour seminar sessions per week. Students will normally be asked to prepare presentations relating to a specific aspect of translation practice, and will be expected to hand in translation assignments for correction and discussion at the following session. The class will also work on sight translation of new material.

Assessment: The course will be examined by two 12 in-course tests on unseen materials (with dictionaries), each counting for 15% of the total mark, and the submission of a translation portfolio, 20%. In addition, there will be one three-hour final examination, counting for 50% of the total mark, including a question on translation theory, and two passages for translation using dictionaries.

Required Readings:

• Hervey, Sandor, et al. Thinking Spanish Translation. London: Routledge, 1995.

• López Guix, Juan Gabriel, and Jacqueline Minett Wilkinson. Manual de Traducción (Inglés-Castellano). Barcelona: Gedisa, 1997.

SPAN6002 (S60B) Spanish Language

This course is intended to provide students with an overview of the diversity of language usage manifested in the Hispanic world. It will review the principal phonological, morpho-syntactic and lexical varieties of modern Spanish, using illustrative mateial from both written and spoken sources. It will examine regional and social variations in Spain, and more particularly Spanish America in the present day, and will explore the historical factors which account for such variation. Topics include:

1.Principles - the nature of language variation.

2.The languages and dialects of Spain.

3.The origins of American Spanish

4.Contacts (1) the impact of the Conquest.

5.The linguistic geography of Spanish America: unity and diversity.

6.Phonology 1

7.Phonology 2

8.Morphology

9.Syntax

10.Lexicon

11.Contacts (2) 

(a) latter-day contacts with indigenous languages

(b) creoles

(c) contact with English

12.Language planning and attitudes towards language use.

13.Review.

Instruction: This course will be taught in two 1.5 hour seminar sessions per week. Students will normally be asked to prepare presentations relating to an aspect of the topic under discussion. At some points the Language Laboratory will be used to illustrate dialectal variation, particularly in relation to the phonology of spoken Spanish.

Assessment: The course will be examined through the submission of one in-course essay written in Spanish of 3,000-4,000 words, to carry 50% of the total mark, and one three-hour final eamination, 50% of the total.

Required Readings:

• Lipski, J. Latin American Spanish. London: Longman, 1994

• Mar-Molinero, C. The Spanish-Speaking World. London: Routledge, 1997.

SPAN6003 (S60C) Spanish Language I

This course aims to familarize students with the various aspects of contemporary Latin American culture and with different approaches to its study. Students will explore specific areas of traditional culture as it has survived into the twentieth century, and examine the manner in which certain manifestations of >high culture= relate to the different strands of the tradition. They will also be invited to learn about areas of contemporary popular culture in its now largely urban setting. Topics include:

1. Introduction: the Three Americas: the Indigenous, the Hispanic and the African components of Latin American culture.

2. Traditional culture: beliefs, rituals and customs.

3. Legends, folklore and orature.

4. Traditional music and dance.

5. Folk art and artisanry.

6. High culture: Painting and sculpture.

7. Latin American Cinema.

8. The media in Latin America; Sports and Leisure.

9. Popular Music and Dance at mid-century.

10. Music and dance from the 1960s.

11. Rituals and festivals of the present.

12. Expressions of popular religion.

13. Review.

Instruction: This course will be taught in two 1.5 hour seminar sessions per week. Students will normally be asked to prepare presentations relating to an aspect of the topic under discussion. The film library of the Language Laboratory, and the coordinators own collection will be used from time to time to illustrate aspects of the course.

Assessment: The course will be examined through the submission of one in-course essay written in Spanish of 3,000-4,000 words, to carry 50% of the total mark, and one three-hour final examination, 50%.

Required Readings:

• Rowe, William & V. Schelling, eds. Memory and modernity. Popular culture in Latin America. London: Verso, 1991.

SPAN6104 (S61D) Latin American Women Writers

This course will allow students to make an in-depth study of some of the outstanding Spanish American novels of the twentieth century, with a concentration on the contemporary period. Attention will also be directed to the rise of feminist criticism in relation to the worics studied.

Instruction: This course will be taught in two 1.5 hour seminar sessions per week. Students will normally be asked to prepare presentations relating to an aspect of the topic under discussion. The film library of the Language Laboratory will be used in some instances for supporting material.

Assessment: The course will be examined through the submission of one in-course essay written in Spanish of 3,000-4,000 words, to carry 50% of the total mark, and one three-hour final examination, 50 %.

Required Readings: Six texts will be selected from among the works of Bombal, De la Parra, Castellanos, Naranjo, Poniatowska, Allende, Esquivel, Ferré, Valenzuela, Puga & Britton

SPAN6108 (S61H) Gabriel Garcia Marquez

This course will allow students to make an in-depth study of the leading contemporary Spanish-American novelist. Emphasis will be placed on an examination of Garcia Marquez as a novelist of the Caribbean, and of the importance of the region in the development of the phenomenon of magical realism in the novels of the boom period.

Instruction: This course will be taught in two 1.5-hour seminar sessions per week. Students will normally be asked to prepare presentations relating to an aspect of the topic under discussion. The film library of the Language Laboratory will be used in some instances for supporting material.

Assessment: The course will be examined through the submission of one in-course essay written in Spanish of 3,000-4,000 words, to carry 50% of the total mark, and one three-hour final examination, 50%.

Required Readings: Six novels will be studied from the author's major works.

SPAN6108 (S61H) PUERTO RICAN NARRATIVE

This course will provide students with an overview of the development of modern Puerto Rican narrative from the Generation of the 1930s to that of the 1980s, tracing the evolution from traditionalism and aesthetic conservativsm to the radical experimentation and challenging heterogeneity of the present.

Instruction: This course will be taught in two 12 hour seminar sessions per week. Students will normally be asked to prepare presentations relating to an aspect of the topic under discussion. The film library of the Language Laboratory will be used in some instances for supporting material.

Assessment: The course will be examined through the submission of one in-course essay written in Spanish of 3,000-4,000 words, to carry 50% of the total mark, and one three-hour final examination, 50%.

Required Readings: Six texts will be selected from among the works of Laguerre, Marqués, González, Soto, Díaz Valcárcel, Sánchez, Ferré, Rodríguez Juliá and Ana Lydia Vega.