Modern Languages (MLAL)

MLAL 1400. Introduction to Sociolinguistics. (3 Credits)

This course introduces students to the field of sociolinguistics, which studies how language and language use are shaped by social and cultural contexts. The course will provide a survey of important topics in sociolinguistics, including language variation and change; language contact and multilingualism; language standardization; and language ideologies. We will also explore the development of sociolinguistics as a discipline from first wave single-variation studies to third-wave studies on social meaning expressed through language style.

Attribute: LING.

MLAL 2025. "You talk like a ____": Language, Identity and Stereotype. (4 Credits)

What does it mean to “talk like a ____?” Can you tell where someone is from by listening to them? Can you guess their race, ethnicity, gender, or social class? This course will explore how language is used in the creation of identity and social difference. Through a variety of linguistic anthropological and sociolinguistic texts, we will look at how ways of thinking about language (language ideologies) affect ways of thinking about people who speak language. We will analyze how language and linguistic difference intersects with authority, power, identity, and performance. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: ANTH.

MLAL 3005. Themes in Latina/o and Latin American Studies. (4 Credits)

This course allows students to explore ways to synthesize key topics in Latin American and Latina/o Studies (LALS) as an interdisciplinary field of study. It will compare the distinct approaches to these topics of the different disciplines represented by the LALS faculty (including History, Literature, Film Studies, Theology, Art History, Sociology, and Anthropology). Conducted in English. Coursework in Spanish for credit toward the Spanish major and minor. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: ACUP, ADVD, ALC, AMST, CCUS, COMC, COMM, IPE, LAHA, LAIN, LALS, SPAN.

Prerequisite: SPAN 2500.

MLAL 3031. Chinese Cultural Concepts. (4 Credits)

This course introduces students to the complexity and diversity of China and Chinese culture through a range of topics, such as family and kinship, popular religion, women and gender, gift exchange and guanxi networks, economic and social reforms, Maoism, post-Maoism, and globalization. We will approach these issues through anthropological, sociological, and historical texts. This course aims to deepen students’ knowledge of contemporary Chinese society and provide them with a nuanced understanding of cultural differences. Conducted in English with English and Mandarin texts in translation. Coursework and readings in Mandarin for credit toward the Mandarin minor. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: ALC, ANTH, CNST, COLI, GLBL, INST, ISAS.

MLAL 3057. Medieval German Literature: Potions, Passions, Players, and Prayers. (4 Credits)

This course will introduce students to the rich literary and cultural heritage of Medieval Germany. The texts will all be read in English translation, but we will go over some passages in their original languages in class to catch some of the flavor of the Medieval German. Topics covered will include pre-Christian charms, the epic of the Nibelungs, love poetry, and urban carneval plays. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: ALC, GERM, MVLI, MVST.

Prerequisite: GERM 2001.

MLAL 3202. Ariosto to Galileo: The Invention of Modernity in Renaissance Italy. (4 Credits)

Ariosto and Galileo represent two chronological ends of a revolutionary intellectual period in the Italian Renaissance culture. Between the years 1516 (date of the first edition of Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso) and 1610 (date of edition of Galileo’s Sidereus Nuncius), Italian civilization contributed significantly to the shaping of a new idea of reality. The course is dedicated to the study of this particular period in which masterpieces such as the Furioso, Torquato Tasso’s pastoral poem Aminta, and his epic poem Jerusalem Delivered, as well as Galileo’s works (Sidereus Nuncius, Copernican Letters, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems) become the founding texts of a new realism that questioned and distrusted appearances and, by doing so, prepared the intellectual background where Galileo could develop his new scientific method and discover intellectual models useful for his innovative comprehension of the natural world (with strong implications about the separation of theology and science). Recent scholarship insists on the deep influence that literary humanism had on Galileo’s mind who, no surprise, was a reader, a writer of literature and also a literary critic (for example he wrote about Ariosto and also an incomplete commentary on Tasso’s Jerusalem). The course is therefore dedicated to the study of the relationship of literature to the History of Science with close reading of the above mentioned works and also following an interdisciplinary approach devoted to the exploration of the artistic civilization around Ariosto, Tasso, and Galileo. Taught in English with coursework in Italian for credit in Italian. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attribute: ALC.

MLAL 3220. The Stage and Society. (4 Credits)

This course focuses on the social issues, class relationships, ideals and ideologies, gender issues, justice and diversity issues, and the human emotional and cultural universe as they are represented in the dramatic works of authors/playwrights from Machiavelli (Renaissance) to Dario Fo (21st century). Features of dramatic language, such as stage setting, organization of scenes, and character development, among others, will be discussed. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: ALC, COLI, ITAL, THEA.

MLAL 3535. Building the Ideal City: Ethics and Economics Foundations of Realizable Utopias. (4 Credits)

This course introduces students to the investigation of the role that economic concepts such as profit, work, utility, and exchange play in defining the ideal city as a realizable political project. Students will explore ethical and economic concepts and their interrelation in the debate on the best form of State and government that developed from antiquity to modern American utopian communities. This course includes texts from various sources - philosophical, theological, juridical, and literary. Through these readings, students will learn how theoretical and practical ideas on the best form of society developed in time and still influence modern political thought. The course also focuses on the impact of the socioeconomic doctrines of the Catholic Church in shaping the idea of a possible, realizable, ideal city. Among the texts and authors included are Plato, St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Dante, Boccaccio, Thomas More, Leon Battista Alberti, Tommaso Campanella, Francis Bacon. Taught in English with coursework in Italian for credit in Italian. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: ACUP, ALC, AMST, APPI, ASHS, ASRP, INST, ISIN, ITAL, ITMA, ITRE, MVPH, MVST, URST.

MLAL 4005. Queer Theory and the Americas. (4 Credits)

Drawing from the often divergent traditions of Anglo and Hispanic America, this course will take an interdisciplinary approach to queer methodologies for cultural and literary studies. Students will encounter foundational queer theoretical texts (both historical and contemporary) as well as novels, plays, and films, and will explore, for themselves, what queerness means and does. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: ACUP, ADVD, AMST, ASHS, COLI, ICC, WGSS.

MLAL 4100. Speaking For/As the Other. (4 Credits)

What are the implications of giving voice to those who are "voiceless"? This course explores the role of writing and speaking during the encounter of black, Indian, mestizo and Hispanic cultures in Latin America and Latina/o United States. By examining these cultural encounters, the course examines the political and ethical implications of speaking for and as the other. Conducted in English with texts in Spanish and English translation. Coursework in Spanish for credit toward the Spanish major and minor. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.

Attributes: COLI, EP4, IPE, LAHA, LALS, SPAN, VAL, WGSS.