ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGES, LITERATURES, AND CULTURES
GRADUATE COURSES
SPRING 2009
FRENCH
305.12
Histoire de la Civilisation Francaise
3:35-4:50 Tuesday & Thursday – 3 Semester Hours
Dr. James Reid, 438-7894, jhreid@ilstu.edu
This course provides an overview of the history of French civilization. We will study the
political, social (class), economic, and cultural aspects of recognized periods of French civilization since
the year 1000. We will develop narratives of how these contexts evolved over the last 1000 years.
There will be daily reading and question sheets, a term paper on one aspect of the evolution of
French civilization, a mid-term exam, and a final exam.
327.12
Selected Topics in 17th & 18th Century French Literature and Culture
5:30-8:20 Monday – 3 Semester Hours
Dr. Mary Trouille, 438-7983, mstroui@ilstu.edu
The Theater of Molière and the Woman Question in 17th-Century France
In this course, we will examine the "woman question" in seventeenth-century France by reading the
major plays written by the greatest comic playwright of the period: Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, better known
as Molière. His theater is often considered pro-feminist because it champions the cause of ingenues like
Agnès in L'Ecole des femmes and Marianne in Tartuffe against the tyrannical power of a father or guardian
who seeks to prevent them from exercising their "natural" right in the choice of a husband. On the other
hand, Les Précieuses ridicules and Les Femmes savantes have generally been considered anti-feminist
because they ridicule women who seek to break away from the role assigned to them within marriage and
the family and to invade what Patricia Cholakian calls "the male world of words and ideas (speaking and
knowing)." Paul Bénichou argues that Molière confines women to the feminine sphere of feeling and selfrealization through love. In his view, Molière favors women's desire to follow the dictates of their
emotions, so long as they do not challenge the intellectual and cultural superiority of men or their
authority within the family. This analysis does not seem to apply, however, to Molière's two most elusive
masterpieces: Le Misanthrope and Dom Juan. For these plays portray neither harassed ingenues nor
pretentious blue-stockings, but women who rebel against the established order to pursue a will of their
own. In Le Misanthrope, Célimène rebels against the established order by refusing to choose among her
suitors and commit herself to a marriage in which she would be subject to the absolute authority of her
husband. In Dom Juan, Elvire rebels first by breaking her religious vows as a nun to marry the seducer Dom
Juan and later against his abandonment of her and his irreverence toward God and the sanctity of
marriage.
In addition to the plays by Molière mentioned above, we will read Georges Dandin and L'Ecole des
Maris. To better understand Molière's views on views on women and his social commentary in these plays,
we will also read various key critical studies of his theater, as well as background material on pertinent
topics such as gender norms and family structures in seventeenth-century France, the education and
upbringing of women, marriage laws and customs, the importance of the literary salon and of preciosité in
the intellectual life of the period, and seventeenth-century notions of honor, virtue, and selfhood.
420.12
Selected Topics in French Literature and Culture
5:30-8:20 Tuesday – 3 Semester Hours
Dr. James Reid, 438-7894, jhreid@ilstu.edu
The Nineteenth-Century French Short Story
In this course we will read examples of the fascinating movements within the French short story
during the nineteenth-century. We will begin with funny realist stories, “L”Illustre Gaudissart” by Balzac
about an early nineteenth-century traveling sales who thinks he can sell anything to anyone, but finds
himself in a town where everyone doubts what he says, “L’Inutile beauté” about a woman who learns to
dominant her despotic husband and “le Signe” about an artistocratic woman who imitates the signs that a
prostitute makes to men outside her window, both by Maupassant. We will then pass to a romantic story
of love by Nerval, “Sylvie” and to Flaubert’s rewriting of a medieval legend, “La Légende de St. Julien.” We
will finish with a hybrid genre, the fantastic, which combines realistic and somewhat frightening
surrealistic elements: “La Fille aux Yeux d’or” by Balzac, “Le Rideau cramoisie” by d’Aurevilly, and “le
Horla” by Maupassant. *Open to seniors
GERMAN
310.13
Advanced Study of the German Language
3:00 – 5:50 Tuesday & Thursday (1st 9 weeks only) – 3 Semester Hours
Dr. James van der Laan, 438-7270, dlvan@ilstu.edu
Besides the study of linguistic concepts and their advanced application through the integration of
practical work to improve language skills with appropriate theoretical topics in linguistics, we will
examine and work extensively with German idioms (Redewendungen), jokes (Witze), and proverbs
(Sprichwörter). With the help of these forms, we will be able to discover and understand better how the
language works. This course will run for the first half of the semester only.
317.13
Contemporary Issues of the German Speaking Countries
12:35 – 1:50 Tuesday & Thursday – 3 Semester Hours
Dr. Andrew Weeks, 438-7120, caweeks@ilstu.edu
Focusing mainly but not exclusively on post-1945 history, this course will survey Germany,
Austria, and Switzerland, discussing current issues and events in German-speaking Europe. Literary
readings will familiarize students with some of the most important German voices today.
322.13
Survey of German Literature
3:00 – 5:50 Monday & Wednesday (1st 9 weeks only) – 3 Semester Hours
Dr. James van der Laan, 438-7270, dlvan@ilstu.edu
Reading and discussion of representative works by the most important authors of German
literary history. We will expand the scope of this course by sampling from the beginning of modern
German literature, namely with Martin Luther, continuing with authors from the 17th century, exploring a
few pieces by Goethe and Schiller, reading a few of Grimm's fairy tales, studying a short novella of the 19th
century, and concluding with a look at Thomas Mann and Günter Grass in the 20th century. This course
will run for the first half of the semester only.
SPANISH
305.15
Current Topics in Hispanic Civilization & Culture
12:35–1:50 Tuesday & Thursday – 3 Semester Hours
Dr. Maria Pao, 438-7374, mtpao@ilstu.edu
La Vanguardia Española
“Después de la labor pedagógica, cultural y universitaria,
el joven—y el viejo—necesitan lo que les inquiete, lo que
tenga un soplo original, lo que les haga delirar un poco
fuera de las retóricas aniquilosadas.”
--Ramón Gómez de la Serna
Spanish writer and humorist Ramón Gómez de la Serna’s call for a fresh breath of delirium to
combat stale rhetoric and received ideas neatly summarizes the vanguard attitude of the early 20 th century.
Movements such as futurism, cubism, dada, and surrealism struck out against aesthetic conventions that
had been in place for centuries—single-point perspective in painting, documentary-style realism in prose,
the lofty themes of lyric poetry. Spain joined the rest of Europe in seeking a means to express the
imperative of its age, one that included scientific discovery, cinema, technology, and urban life, but also
war and physical and psychic displacement.
We will begin with an overview of the international avant-garde, before going on to explore the
phenomenon in Spain. We will look at verbal and visual texts as they address four overarching themes:
expression of a new sensibility, cinema, city life, and modern identity. At the same time, we will discuss
what elements of the 21st century might be characterized as avant-garde today. Conducted in Spanish.
311.15
Spanish Phonetics and Phonology
11-11:50 Monday, Wednesday, & Friday – 3 Semester Hours
Dr. Benjamin Schmeiser, 438-7703, schmeiser@ilstu.edu
This course treats the core components that comprise the Spanish sound system. The objectives
for this course are two-fold. First, the student will learn the basic components of Spanish Phonetics and
Spanish Phonology for both ‘Standard Spanish’ and regional varieties. Second, the student will compare
these components to English and his/her own pronunciation of Spanish. By learning these basic
components and applying them to his/her own Spanish, the student will gain insight into the Spanish
language and s/he will also improve upon his/her own language skills. This course will be conducted in
Spanish. Though not expected, it is preferable to have basic knowledge of the main field of linguistics
and/or have taken a course on Introduction to Linguistics. This course will be conducted in Spanish.
360.15
Studies in Spanish Linguistics
4-5:15 Tuesday & Thursday – 3 Semester Hours
Prof. Jeannette Sanchez-Naranjo, 438-8178, jsanche@ilstu.edu
Introduction to Spanish Semantics
The field of semantics deals with meaning in language. This course is an introduction to the role
of meaning in the structure, function, and use of the language. In particular, we will focus on the core
aspects of the representation of meaning in Spanish. We will examine how Spanish speakers combine
basic linguistic units (e.g. words or lexical items) into larger linguistic expressions that allow them to
represent the complex aspects of reality and thought in this language. An emphasis will be made on
problematic meaning issues for learners of Spanish.
325.15
Spanish-American Literature
4-5:15 Monday & Wednesday – 3 Semester Hours
Dr. James J Alstrum , 438-7620, jjalstr@ilstu.edu
Masterpieces and Movements
We will examine the unique facets of Spanish American Literature in prose and poetry with
emphasis on the writers of the 19th and 20th centuries through the prism of a representative sampling of
works by major writers who participated in the major artistic movements of their respective times. We
will begin with the foundational writings from the colonial period of the mestizo Renaissance man known
as El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega and the baroque feminist vantage point of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
proceeding through Romanticism, Modernism, the Avant-garde, the Boom or Nueva narrativa and the
post-Boom while showing how the literary canon of Spanish American Letters has evolved and broadened
to include more female and heretofore marginalized voices. Writers studied will include the Cubans José
María Heredia José Martí, Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda and Nicolás Guillén, the Colombians José
Asunción Silva, Luis Carlos López and Gabriel García Márquez, the Chileans Pablo Neruda, Vicente
Huidobro and Isabel Allende, the Argentines Esteban Echeverría Alfonsina Storni, Jorge Luis Borges and
Julio Cortázar, the Mexicans Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera, Octavio Paz, Carlos Fuentes, Rosario Castellanos
and Elena Poniatowska, the Peruvians Ricardo Palma and César Vallejo, the Uruguayan Horacio Quiroga
and the Nicaraguan Rubén Darío. Both graduate and undergraduate students will be required to take a
midterm examination and write at least one ten page research paper in Spanish about the nouvelle or a full
length novel. Undergraduates will also be required to take a final examination but graduate students must
substitute a second ten page research paper in Spanish instead devoted to a poet or a poetic movement of
any historical period.
411.15
Spanish-American Novel
5:30-8:20 Monday – 3 Semester Hours
Dr. Juliet Lynd, 438-7347, jlynd@ilstu.edu
Novels were officially banned in Colonial Spanish America, and although novels—such as Don
Quixote—certainly circulated, the genre was not cultivated until the nineteenth century when European
forms—romanticism, realism—were imbued with the sociopolitical and cultural concerns of the writers of
the newly formed nations. By the mid-twentieth century, Latin American writers not only explore Latin
American realities in their fiction, their narrative experimentation and renovation of form reach new
heights and international acclaim while challenging the structures of power that have dominated
throughout the continent. In this course we will read a series of novels that will allow us to examine a
variety of issues that have defined Latin American culture over two hundred years, from the foundational
fictions of the new nations—politics revealed through melodrama and romance—to the devastating
critiques of failed political programs and persistent social injustice on the basis of class, gender, race and
ethnicity. We will thus work to connect our careful analysis of the formal and thematic elements of the
novels with broader sociohistorical concerns of the different periods in question and we will discuss the
possibilities inherent in the genre of the novel for sociohistorical critique. Authors may include José
Marmol, Rómulo Gallegos, Juan Rulfo, Cristina Peri Rossi, Roberto Bolaño.
415.15
Seminar in 17th- Century Spanish Literature
5:30-8:20 Tuesday – 3 Semester Hours
Dr. Bruce Burningham, 438-7975, burningham@ilstu.edu
Theatrical Culture in Early Modern Spain and Latin America
It has become commonplace to speak of a “close reading” when approaching literary texts. This
course will explore the thesis that no closer reading occurs than the multiple “readings” effecutated by
performers during the process of rehearsal and production. We will examine the historical development of
the comedia as a dramatic/theatrical form, and will discuss plays from both sides of the Atlantic as literary
artifacts and theatrical events. In the process we will explore the larger issues pertaining to the tension
between literary versus performative approaches to drama: What constitutes the “text” for performative
genres? If the “text” is located in the written script, how should we treat the vast amount of semiotic
material which the actors bring to the performance and which lies outside the boundaries of the Platonic
original? If it is located in each individual performance, how can we delimit this text? At what point, for
instance, do we say that a particular production of Los empeños de una casa is no longer Sor Juana’s play but
something else? As we will see, these questions spill beyond the confines of “drama” and into the current
debates of literary and performance theory. We will also see that these issues are nothing new, that early
modern playwrights themselves engaged these same questions in their own work.
GENERAL
320.11
Foreign Language Teaching in the K-12 Setting
3:00 – 5:25 Tuesday & Thursday – 2 Semester Hours
(1st 6 weeks only)
Dr. Lisa Huempfner, 438-7874, ljhuemp@ilstu.edu
This course will address practical considerations in K-12 second language teaching, including
daily and unit lesson planning, textbook and materials review, testing, and classroom management.
Emphasis will be placed on the identification and creation of materials to facilitate communicative and
content-based instruction as well as on practice teaching. All peer teaching activities will be carried out in
students’ target language. Twelve clinical hours in a K-12 setting are also required with this course.
321.11
Integrating Technology into the Foreign Language Classroom
3:00 – 5:25 Monday & Wednesday – 2 Semester Hours
(1st 6 weeks only)
Dr. Rachel Shively, 438-7185, rshivel@ilstu.edu
This course will develop skills in selecting, creating, and evaluating technological resources and
tools for foreign language teaching, with an emphasis on integrating technology into the foreign language
curriculum in a theoretically and pedagogically sound manner. Technologies to be explored include:
presentation software, interactive multimedia, audio, video, the World Wide Web, and real-time
communication. Participants will engage with the course content through readings, discussion, reflection,
demonstration, and hands-on experience.
355.11
Elementary School Foreign Language Methods
5:30 – 8:20 Thursday – 3 Semester Hours
Dr. Katherine Dourlet, 438-7755, kmdourl@ilstu.edu
This course will focus on the teaching of foreign languages in the elementary school setting.
Topics addressed will include foreign language programs widely used in the elementary school, whole
language, cooperative learning and multiculturalism. The course will also explore problems facing FLES
programs and suggest possible solutions. Students will have the opportunity to develop lesson plans and
materials for beginning language learners and to practice teaching them in class. The required text
(Curtain, H. and Dahlberg, C. Languages and Children: Making the Match) will be supplemented by professional
articles highlighting pertinent research in the field. This course will be taught in English—all students
interested in second language, bilingual and early childhood education are encouraged to enroll.
485.11
Selected Studies in Linguistics
5:30-8:20 Wednesday – 3 Semester Hours
Dr. Daniel L Everett, 438-3604, dlevere@ilstu.edu
Language and Culture
For the past fifty years, studies of human languages have taken what is often referred to
as the 'Chomskyan turn', looking at human grammars as formal systems, isolated from issues of dynamic
cognition and cultures. In this course, we consider an alternative view, the view of Boas, Sapir, and other
anthropological linguists in which language is best seen as a tool, rather than an 'instinct'. To better
understand the language-culture relationship, we consider how human language might have evolved and
how individual languages might still be evolving to fit specific cultural niches.
PROJECTED GRADUATE COURSES – FALL 2009
FRENCH
314
340
450
Studies in Contemporary French and Francophone Culture
Introduction to Applied French Linguistics
Seminar on French Prose
SPANISH
310
323
337
360
370
405
431
Spanish Syntax
Spanish Literature, Medieval and Renaissance
Selected Topics in Peninsular Spanish Literature
Studies in Spanish Linguistics
Topics in Spanish Pedagogy
Seminar on Spanish and/or Spanish-American Culture
Seminar in Early Spanish-American Literature
GENERAL & PEDAGOGY (taught in English)
319
405
475
Principles in Foreign Language Learning
Introduction to Cultural Studies
Foreign Language Teaching Methodologies at the College Level
*Some changes may become necessary due to staffing or other changes.