A New Semester

Hello Everyone!

New semesters are always fun, and I am really excited for my classes. Here’s what I’ll be taking in my second (and last!) semester in Spain:

Analysis and Interpretation of Hispanic-American Literary Texts

This is one of two literature classes I am taking this semester. The first half of the semester deals with novels. We’ll start by studying Juan Rulfo and the fundamentals of the “New Narrative” of the 20th century. Then we’ll study Mario Vargas Llosa and novels of the Boom, and finally literature from the 1980s to the present. For the second half of the semester we will dive into poetry by studying Jorge Luis Borges, Pablo Neruda, and Octavio Paz.

Contemporary Hispanic-American Literature: Text and Context

My second literature class also deals with modern Hispanic-American texts. We’ll start by studying postmodern feminist poetry by authors Alfonsina Storni, Gabriela Mistral and Juana de Ibarbourou. Then the course focuses on narratives of the Mexican revolution.

Primitive Religious Manifestations

Admittedly I was on the fence when registering for this class. Though the class was highly recommended by past Holy Cross students, the topic seemed a little dry. But after the first class I realized this might end up being my favorite course of the semester. Our professor is energetic and extremely knowledgeable about pre-history. We are starting by studying the first burial traditions, we will continue with pre-historic art, and then continue with religions based on animism, naturalism and totemism. We’ll follow religion through the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, bronze, and iron ages while discussing what exactly constitutes religion.

Sociocultural Anthropology

This is an introductory course and a nice break from my other classes. We will study topics such as unilateral evolution and cultural diffusion. We’ll study family structures, religious systems, and art as well as economic and political organizations. Our big project for the semester is using the ethnographic method to write a 10-page paper. This will be a really great test of my Spanish, as I will have to conduct interviews and synthesize my findings for the paper.

Have a Happy Leap Day tomorrow!

Ali

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 28th, 2016 at 10:42 pm and is filed under Leon, Spain, Spanish, Spanish Major, Study Abroad. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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