ARSC 300 Issues in Global Studies: Monsters in World Cultures
Ancient werewolves and sea monsters, Frankenstein in Baghdad, the Golem of Prague, Godzilla and Pokémon, Russian zombie soldiers, Mexican Mummy Mashup (Day of the Dead); the Hindu Rashtra, Spanish serranas (wild women); Delaware's own monstrous slave trader Patty Cannon, and more! Vampires, too
CHIN 355: A Multimedia Course in Chinese Culture and Society
This course is designed to improve students' integrated language skills through dialogues from TV programs and films. Students will develop abilities to comprehend authentic language materials, understand features of spoken and written Chinese, and produce paragraph-level Chinese on familiar topics.
FREN 411/611: Great Authors I: The Princess Diaries
This course places early modern fiction and memoir in their historical context as it explores the experience and the influence of French queens and princesses from the Renaissance to the Revolution. Along with fictional and autobiographical writing by the princesses themselves—including Marguerite de Navarre, Catherine de' Medici, Anne of Austria, Mme de Maintenon (Louis XIV's “secret" wife), Marie Antoinette and a woman who was crowned king, the controversial international figure Christine of Sweden—we will study literary portraits by Mme de Sévigné and fiction by Mme de Lafayette (La Princesse de Clèves); excerpts from contemporary theater; official portraiture, including Rubens's Marie de Medici cycle; fairy tales; and films.
GRMN 355: Divided Germany: Literature & Culture
Thirty-three years ago, the world witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall, a monumental symbolthat divided not just the city of Berlin but also the entire Germany and Europe. The fall of theWall in 1989 and the consequent reunification of East and West Germany served as a turningpoint not just on a large scale of the world history but also in the lives of individuals whoseattitudes and experiences varied greatly. While some Germans supported the unification, othersbelieved that it was not the right decision. What were their motivations, perceptions, ideas? Have the attitudes towards the Wall changed in the decades following its demise and if yes, how? Does the existence and experience of the Wall still influence lives today? We will ponder such questions as we explore different written texts, film and imagery produced over the span of about 40 years, pre- and post the fall of the Wall. Participation in this course will enable you to improve your critical reading and writing skills and foster a better speaking, listening, reading and writing ability in German. Students will be expected to submit several written assignments, including a research paper, and write a midterm exam. They will present their research to class at the end of the semester.Honors students will explore the works in greater depth by completing extra assignments, someof which will involve secondary sources, and delving into a deeper analysis in their researchpapers.
GRMN 455: Love Money, & Power
What motivates the action in German literature and film? How has that changed over time? In this course we will consider why the era of “modern" German literature is said to have begun 250 years ago, and how many of the topics and concerns of the authors and their characters in German drama, prose and poetry between the late 18th and early 20th centuries have remained relevant since then, and how some of those themes appear in films of the 20th & 21st centuries. Students will receive an overview of German literature and culture from the 18th to the 20th century, improve their German language skills and learn how to do close reading. Students will write multiple short papers, quizzes, and a midterm and final exam.
ITAL455/655: Contemporary Italy
Is Italy nowadays mainly a country of art preservation or a living culture between the past and future? Can Italian be considered a “Language of Culture" par excellance? This course will answer these questions, while guiding students through an examination of contemporary Italian culture and society as expressed in politics, art, theater, music, fashion, and cinema. The course will provide students with opportunities to enhance their communication skills. Honors students must complete an additional presentation along with an additional research paper.
SPAN 420/620: Medieval Fact Or Fiction
Tales of knights in shining armor, magical encounters, princesses, and damsels in distress fill up the pages of many works of fiction. These stories, set in some imaginary Middle Ages conflict with other stories that equate this time with societies and cultures described as backward, dirty and immoral (Think: A Knight's Tale or Game of Thrones!)
How to separate myths from reality?
This course offers a view of the Middle Ages that attempts to reevaluate some of these romantic and (post)modern ideas about the Middle Ages. We'll use Heath Ledger's peasant knight as a point of departure for examining the legendary Castilian knight, Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, and how he is seen in artistic representations from the 12th to the 21st centuries.
While the knight is emblematic of the feudal order, another of the big institutions of the Middle Ages is the Church. Not the Catholic Church (this didn't exist at the time), but still a powerful group that educated and exercised power over the masses. We will examine the power exercised by this institution in the development and control of gender norms and social relations. Our study of the development of social and sexual norms (some of which are still ingrained in us today) lets us segue into our final section for this course: women in power. We will end the course with a particular case: that of the medieval princess who should NEVER have been queen: the Catholic Queen, Isabel I of Castile. The last weeks of study we will read how Isabel's identity was shaped both by the conduct books and the chivalric tales, which glosses the brutal acts with which they achieved power.
SPAN 440/640 Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Hispanic Literature: Mystery Short Stories
In this course, students will explore the relationship between love and power, mystery and fantasy in a collection of outstanding short stories written in Spanish during the 19th century. Students will improve their listening and speaking skills while developing the ability to read and write more proficiently through critical reading and storytelling. Students will read one short story per week. The instructor will provide a relevant vocabulary and a set of questions before reading each story. After reading and understanding the story, students will discuss the story in class and answer questions focusing on the plot and the characters. There is a creative writing component, as students will have the opportunity to work on writing techniques and offer alternative endings to the stories read. Instead of a final paper, students will write a short story under instructors' guidance.
SPAN 455/655: Hispanic Crime Fiction
In this course, we will examine how detective fiction in the Hispanic world evolved from the classic British mystery or “enigma" and the North American hard-boiled genre toward the crime novel or novela negra. In Latin America, the novela negra has become a favored genre to address political reality, particularly in situations where the state is involved in criminality and wrongdoers escape with impunity. It has the capacity to describe the world of political and economic power and, when it incorporates the psychological thriller, to explore the inner recesses of the human psyche. The addition of intrigue and suspense to this already compelling mix explains the popularity of this genre. We will study the traditional “grammar" of the genre—for instance the character trio of criminal-victim-detective and the plot which develops to resolve an enigma—and how these elements are employed or altered to paint a gripping portrait of contemporary society. Course readings will consist of a selection of critical essays, short stories, two novelettes—¿Quién mató a Palomino Molero? by Mario Vargas Llosa and Tuya by Claudia Piñeiro—and the novel Betibú, also by Claudia Piñeiro.
