Course prerequisites:

SPA 210 or SPA 310 or prior experience analyzing literary texts

Class requirements:

1. Attendance: 2 free absences (oral grade lowered after 3rd).
2. Oral participation: students must be prepared for each class and must participate actively to receive good oral grades. Answer in writing the questions in "Guía para leer teatro" for each play.
3. Two exams: mid-term and final. (Each exam will constitute material in previous lessons up to the exam.)
4. Three 4-5 page papers. Papers may be on plays read in class, but topics should be discussed with professor in advance. I will not accept summaries of class discussions. Please go to these pages for help and come to me for further questions: (Finding a thesis.) (Writing about literature.)
5. In class performance and discussion of a memorized scene.

Note: All titles of plays, novels, and collections of short stories, essays, and poems should be either underlined or in italics. Single poems, short stories, and essays should be in quotation marks.

Grade distribution:

Papers: I - 15% II - 15% III - 15%
Exams: I - 15% II - 15%
Class participation: 15%
Performances: 10%

+'s and -'s will be assigned.

Overview of the course's purpose:

Spanish 416 introduces students to Spanish-American dramas and provides the tools necessary to think and write critically about the plays. All of the dramas we study have been written to be performed and are not specifically tailored for use in language classes; therefore, students will confront difficult linguistic constructions, expressions indigenous to specific Spanish-American countries, and other cultural-specificities.

In the course we will read nine to ten Spanish-American plays representative of major theatrical movements, and we will set them within their socio-historical and literary context. Only the first two plays we read follow a traditional Aristotelian structure. Thus, to provide a better understanding of the plays and the movements to which they belong, I will lecture on the Theater of the Absurd, Theater of Cruelty, Epic Theater, Metatheater and Performance. The materials from which the lectures derive will be on UBLearns and in the library.

Goals and/or objectives:

One of the main objectives is to give students opportunities to use their oral and written abilities in Spanish and to further develop their analytical skills.

Upon completion of this course, students will have access to a specialized vocabulary that will allow them to think, write, and speak critically about dramatic texts in particular and about literature in general. They will also have a broad knowledge of the development of Spanish-American theatre, of the major playwrights, and of representative works from various countries. Students will also have the opportunity to show their histrionic abilities.

Conceptual structure:

Because one of the objectives is to experience the historical development of Spanish-American theatre, we will read them in chronological order; however, because we will read plays that exemplify the various theatrical movements mentioned above, the structure of the course also takes into account each of the lectures that elucidates the readings that follow.

Format of the course:

To contextualize the play, I will begin with a lecture that illustrates the main premises, theoretical issues, and historical period of the work in question. Class meetings will amount to one act per class and a final day of discussion. The meetings prior to the class discussion will be pay close attention to clarification of difficult linguistic points, verification of reading comprehension, and initial analysis. I will provide a series of questions that students will answer in preparation for class participation.

Textbook and readings:

The selected readings are either on the web, in UBLearns, in anthologies available at Talking Leaves, or on film. The specifics are described in the syllabus.

Estimate student work load:

It is expected that students spend three hours of outside preparation for every hour of class time; therefore, plan to invest a total of nine hours a week preparing for this class.

Exam format:

My exams are structured as follows:

Part I - Identifications and/or Definitions (required information):

Part II - Short answer questions (These are not essays, only short answers that address the question directly.)

Part III - Critical essay (Should have at least three paragraphs: Introduction, Development of ideas and examples, Conclusion.)

University policy on plagiarism:

"The University has a responsibility to promote academic honesty and integrity and to develop procedures to deal effectively with instances of academic dishonesty. Students are responsible for the honest completion and representation of their work, for the appropriate citation of sources, and for respect for others' academic endeavors. By placing their name on academic work, students certify the originality of all work not otherwise identified by appropriate acknowledgments."