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Granada

Spanish Language and Culture Semester - Fall 2A 2008
Spanish Civilization and Culture

40 - 45
Language Level: High Intermediate
Placement Exam Required
Spanish Civilization and Culture
Language of Instruction: Spanish
Course taken with: International Students
University of Granada (Granada, Spain)

Course Description

Hours & Credits

40 - 45

Hours of Instruction

2 - 3

Semester Credit Units

4 - 4

Quarter Credit Units

Notes regarding credits...

This course consists of 40 hours of instruction. However, students may earn 45 hours by attending supplemental sessions and completing additional coursework. Please check with your home university to find out whether you need 40 or 45 hours to earn course equivalents.

Prerequisites and Language Level

Note: A placement exam will be required when you arrive on site.

High Intermediate
This course is designed for students who have completed or tested out of a minimum of three semesters (or five quarters) of college-level Spanish. However, students must take a placement exam to determine the course level into which they will be able to enroll.

Overview

1. Introduction
This class aims to explain and deepen the basic points of Spanish culture. Emphasis will be placed on the topics as much as on the specific characteristics of the different aspects of a theme understood as complementary to the other materials of the Spanish Studies course. This course is also directed to cover cultural aspects of different fields. With this subject in question we will interrelate what is possible and at the same time do an exhaustive and detailed study of the phenomenons considered universally as Spanish.
2. Program
1. Spanish culture / Andalusian culture. Review of topics.
2. Spain: Who are we?, Where did we come from?, Where are we going?
3. The different Spains: geographic, linguistic, and cultural diversities.
4. Andalusia: topics and realities.
5. The bulls: symbol, ritual and metaphor.
6. Flamenco and magic.
7. The other types of music: The other languages: Castilian, Galician, Catalan,
Basque, etc.
8. Food: The Mediterranean diet. Oil and wine.
9. Religion and folklore : manifestations : Holy Week, pilgrimages
10. Spanish family structure.
11. Sexual topics. Archetypes: Don Juan, Carmen, machismo, the mother.
12. Reality and Quijotism.
13. Modern Spain: principle ideological, political, and cultural tendencies.
14. Spain as part of the U.K.
15. Spain in relation to other regions of the world: Latin America, Maghreb, and
the Middle East.

3. Activities
Besides the daily explanations in class, there will be complementary and recommended readings of articles, either from books or press, over themes given by the professors. There will also be the viewing and listening in the medioteca of the Center of Modern Languages of those materials that the professor considers to be fitting, to help clarify different themes discussed in class.
Essential to the evaluation will be the participation of the student in the planned group and class discussions. Between 7 and 10 hours of the 40 that this class consists of will be dedicated to this activity.
It is advised, although not obligatory, the participation on the cultural visits planned semestrally by the Center of Modern Languages that try to cover multiple aspects of the Spanish sociocultural reality in the actual space of Granada.

4. Evaluation
- Class assistance is obligatory and will be taken into account for the final grade.
- Attention and participation in class will be valued at 20%.
- The presentation of small works over written texts (books, press) and the participation in discussions will be valued at 40%.
- There will be two eliminatory examinations, one at mid-semester and the other at the end of the semester; both tests will be valued at 40% of the final grade.

5. Bibliography
Since this class is seen as a course with interactive material and with the multiplicity of basic documents ( books, press, radio programs, film, music, television documentaries, etc.), throughout the class and in coonjunction with what is studied, the professor will propose some material of study necessary to target the themes proposed in class.