Document R: Syllabus

DOCUMENT R: SYLLABUS

1. Date Prepared: February 2012

2. Prepared by: Solange García-Moll

3. Department: Languages and Cultures

4. Course Number: SPANISH 211

5. Course Title: Spanish Culture and Civilization

6. Credit Hours: 3

Goal 4 – Cultures and Diversity / 2 GEPs
Goal 7 – Arts and Humanities / 1 GEP

7. Prerequisites: No prerequisites.

8. Catalog Description:

Presents the history of Spanish culture and civilization from its beginnings to the present, with emphasis on art, literature, ideas, historical events, and cultural exchanges. Intended for students seeking an introductory course on Spanish culture. Students gain insights in the cultural history of Spain, including geography, society, politics, philosophy, art, literature, and the sciences. Course is taught in English through lectures, projects, discussions, readings, and audio-visual media. SPANISH 211 partially fulfills the requirements for the Spanish Minor. Course is offered in alternating semesters.

9. Content Outline:

Selections of readings and media illustrate the history of Spain and its culture, with emphasis on minority and gender issues. Required course content addresses cultural topics as they develop over time, especially the Spanish language, the arts, humanities, science and technology, geography, major historical events, and social and political structures and traditions. A course plan may include, but is not limited to the following:

Period / Works / Topics
Prehistory and
Colonization / Seneca, Marcial, Quintiliano
(excerpts)
Visigothic art / Human Groups
Celtiberan Culture
Romanization
Germanic Invasions
Feudalism
Economy
Roman Law/fueros
Latin and Peninsular
Languages
Al-Andalus / “Jarchas” (excerpts) (translation
Alfonso X: Science and History
Music: Arab/Jewish/Christian
Art: Arabs
Architecture: Romanic, Gothic,
Islamic (La Alhambra)
Film: “The Rise and Fall of
Islamic Spain”,“Road to Santiago” / Plurality of Human
Experience
Religions and Tolerance
Mozarabs
Jewish Culture and Toledo
Castilian: Official Language
Spain as a nation / Fernando de Rojas: “Comedia de
Calisto y Melibea” (excerpts)
(translation) / Universities
Language and Grammar
(Nebrija)
Women and Power
Discovery/Slavery
Arabs/Jews - Expulsion
Inquisition
Spanish Empire and its
downfall: Hapsburgs
and Bourbons / Art: Spanish Baroque (El Greco,
Velázquez)
Literature: Cervantes: “El Quijote”
(excerpts) (translation)
Architecture: Herrera
Feijóo: “Teatro crítico universal”
(excerpts) (translation)
Jovellanos: “Medios para lograr la
reforma” (translation)
Luzán: (Poétics) (excerpts)
(translation) / Religious Conflicts
Economic Crisis (Isolation)
Enlightenment
Royal Academy of the
Language
Science
Napoleonic Wars / Art: Goya, Madrazo
Quintana: “A España después de
la revolución de marzo”
(translation) / The Cortes The Spanish Constitution
Revolution in Spanish-Am.
Emancipation
Spanish Republic I
Disaster of ‘98
Spanish Republic II / Rosalía de Castro: “Era apacible
el día” (translation)
Emilia Pardo Bazán: “La cuestión palpitante” (excerpt) (translation)
Generation of ’98
Film: “Belle époque”, “Crucible
of Empire”
Art: Gris, J. González
Architecture: Gaudí
Generación del ’27: Aleixandre,
Guillén
Music: Sarasate / Women and the Vote
Krausism
Education
Autonomy: Basque
Country and Catalonia
Liberalism/Fascism
Spanish Civil War and Dictatorship / García-Lorca: “Yerma” (excerpt) (translation)
Music: Falla, Rodrigo
Art: Sorolla, Zuloaga, Picasso
(“Guernica”); Dalí, Miró, Domínguez, Tápies
Film: Buñuel, Berlanga / Isolation and Exile
Centralism
Spain as a Constitutional
Monarchy / Film: Saura, Almodóvar
Matute: “La rama seca”
(translation)
Art: Chillida
Pop art: Eduardo Arroyo
Architecture: Calatrava / Autonomous
Communities:
(Regionalism)
ETA (Basque Region)
The European Union and
the Euro (Politics/Economy)
Labor Unions
Gay Rights
Women Rights
The Judicial System
Social Network
Historical Memory

10. Methods:

Course is taught in English and includes a combination of lecture and discussion. Class size is limited to 40 students in order to facilitate discussion and manage complex material. Students work on projects, take tests and quizzes, and participate in class discussions. Written assignments and oral presentations investigate specific topics. Activities outside class, such as participation in informal conversation groups or film viewings, may be assigned. Alternate assignments may be provided in lieu of out-of-class or co-curricular activities. Access to electronic resources such as the Internet is required. SPANISH 211 is offered in alternating semesters.

11. Student Learning Objectives:

Student Learning Objective / Gen. Ed. Goal associated with GEPS / Related VALUE Rubric Elements
11a. Compare and contrast historical, social, political, geographical, intellectual and aesthetic features that shape the traditional Spanish society with one’s own society. / Cultures and Diversity / RUBRIC: Intercultural knowledge and Competence
ELEMENT:
Knowledge—Cultural self- awareness
11b. Communicate basic information pertaining to the cultures of traditional Spain and compare those cultures with one’s own during the historical times. / Cultures and Diversity / RUBRIC: Intercultural knowledge and Competence
ELEMENT: Knowledge—Knowledge of cultural worldview frameworks
11c. Identify biases held personally and by one’s own culture and apply critical reflection on those biases. / Cultures and Diversity / RUBRIC: Intercultural knowledge and Competence
ELEMENT: Attitudes—openness
Attitudes—Curiosity
11d. Apply approaches and methods of cultural inquiry, particularly, from historical and philosophical perspectives toward a grasp of another world view. / Arts and Humanities / RUBRIC: Critical Thinking
ELEMENT: Explanation of Issues
11e. Analyze critically the historical, ethical, political, cultural, environmental, circumstantial settings and conditions that influence ideas in Spanish literature and culture. / Arts and Humanities / RUBRIC: Critical Thinking
ELEMENT: Evidence—Selecting and using information to investigate a point of view or conclusion

SPANISH 211 is designed both to support the department’s established program goals, and to enhance the university’s General Education program. Cultural traditions and cultural interpretations of historical experience play a central role in general education. Cultural history examines the records and narrative descriptions of past knowledge, customs, and arts of a group of people, constituting a continuum of events leading from the past to the present and into the future. Because studies in culture and civilization records and interprets past events involving human beings through the social, cultural, and political settings, SPANISH 211 fulfills 2 GEPs for Goal 4 - Cultures and Diversity. Culture and civilization is inextricably integrated with Arts and Humanities and therefore a significant portion of historical study includes creative, philosophical, literary, and performative works. Hence SPANISH 211 fulfills 1 GEP for Goal 7 – Arts and Humanities.

12. Student Assessment:

Assessment instruments may include the following:

1. 11a: Tests and the final exam include sections that specifically address Spanish cultural history. Possible individualized and collaborative projects may focus on one or more specific selected cultural topics. On-line and in-class discussions also indicate the specific knowledge acquired regarding Spanish cultural history.

2. 11b: Tests and the final exam include sections that specifically address the relevance of Spanish cultural history to basic general issues of race, gender and class, including to those problems that arise in the students’ own world. Possible individualized and collaborative projects may focus on one or more specific selected issue of general relevance, as will on-line and in-class discussions.

3. 11c: Guided written and oral presentations are structured according to approaches and methods of cultural inquiry.

4. 11d: Guided written and oral presentations are structured to reflect the level critical understanding of intercultural awareness.

5. 11e: Independent projects and prepared discussions based on readings from Spanish literature and culture, including cultural artifacts from various media (film, etc.) are devoted to the critical confrontation with the products of Spanish culture in their historical and social contexts.

13. Evaluation of Individual Student Performance:

Evaluation of student performance may include but is not limited to projects, tests and quizzes, discussions during class, written assignments and oral presentations which investigate specific topics, activities outside class, such as participation in informal conversation groups or film viewings, and alternate assignments completed through co-curricular activities. Other measures of evaluation may be integrated as appropriate or necessary.

14. Course Assessment:

Specific course assessment will take place as imbedded test questions on final exams or embedded material on final exam projects. Additional assessment data may be gathered using independent projects and writing assignments. The assessment data gathered, as well as the tools used to gather the data, will be reviewed at appropriate intervals both by the department Assessment Committee and by the department General Education Committee to verify the extent to which student learning outcomes are being achieved. Modifications to the course will be made accordingly. Assessment data will be reported to the Office of Planning and Assessment.

The study of cultures and civilizations necessarily entail VALUE rubrics regarding cultural self- awareness and cultural worldview frameworks, and thus foster curiosity, empathy and openness to other peoples and nations. To this end, students need to explain issues, select and use information to investigate cultural points of view in comparison. Because cultural history necessarily involves the arts and humanistic achievements of a culture, student should select and use information to investigate critically points of view and conclusions.

15. Supporting Material and References:

(Items marked with an asterisk * are available in the Andruss Library.)

*Brown, J. Images and Ideas in Seventeenth-Century Spanish Painting. Princeton, 1978. Print.

Dodds, Jerrilynn, Menocal, Balbale. The Arts of Intimacy: Christians, Jews and Muslims in the Making of Castilian Culture. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008. Print.

Holt, E. G. A Documentary History of Art. Princeton, 1947. Print.

López-Rey, J. Velázquez’s Work and World. London, 1968. Print.

Payne, Stanly G. Spain: A Unique History. University of Wisconsin Press, 2011. Print.

Shubert, Adrian. A Social History of Modern Spain, Routledge, 1990. Print.

*Rosenberg, J. On Quality in Art. Criteria of Excellence Past and Present. Princeton, 1967. Print.

*Trevor-Roper, H. Princes and Artists. Patronage and Ideaology at Four Habsbourg Courts 1517-1633. London, 1976. Print.

*Tusell, Javier. Spain: From Dictatorship to Democracy, John Wyley and Sons, 2007.