Spanish

Spoken by over 400 million people, Spanish is the fourth most common language in the world. In Canada, it is the mother-tongue of growing and vibrant Latino communities and the fifth most common home language in Toronto.

The Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies Spanish Program will introduce you to the language, literature and linguistics of Spain and Spanish America.

Discover the fascinating social and cultural context of the Spanish speaking world. Our challenging courses explore a range of topics, from the development of the Spanish language to an examination of the Renaissance and Baroque period, when Spain's prolific playwrights rivalled Shakespeare; from to the complex literature following the Spanish Civil War to the vast, innovative work of Latin America's writers.

Thursday Feb. 16, 2012 - 4pm Spanish Lectures Series

Title: Autobiography, Time, and Exile in María Zambrano

Second Talk of the 2011-12 Cycle

Date: Thursday, February 16, 2012
Time: 4:00-5:30pm
Location: 305 Founders College Senior Common Room,

Synopsis:

This lecture will explore María Zambrano's challenge to the modern conceptualization of time. Drawing on theoretical approaches to exile writing and subjectivity by Mari Paz Balibrea and others, it will focus on how exile's time both highlights and dims the role of the Spanish Republic in our understanding of Spanish modernity, with some implications to the contemporary memoria histórica. Examples from Zambrano's autobiography Delirio y destino will be examined.

Biography:

Goretti Ramírez is Associate Professor of Spanish at Concordia University (Montreal), where she teaches literary and cultural studies of modern Spain. Her research focuses on twentieth-century Spanish poetry and intellectual history, with particular emphasis on María Zambrano (1904-1991) and the Republican exile under Franco's dictatorship (1939-1975).

She is the author of the book María Zambrano, crítica literaria (2004) and approximately forty publications in collective volumes and journals. She is currently finishing two books: a monograph on the representation of space in the poetry of the Spanish Republican exile, and the edition of Zambrano's autobiographical writings, including her unpublished journals and Delirio y destino (forthcoming as a volume of her Complete Works in Galaxia Gutenberg-Círculo de Lectores). She is a member of the Advisory Board of Antígona. Revista de la Fundación María Zambrano.

Sponsored by Founders College, LA&PS Office of the Dean, and DLLL Contact Information: Shanna Lino, slino@yorku.ca, x88737

Welcome Professor Emiro Martínez-Osorio who joined the Spanish Program this July

We are happy to announce that Dr. Emiro Martínez-Osorio became the newest faculty member of the Spanish and Portuguese Studies Section at the Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics on July 1, 2011. We welcome such an amicable person and an outstanding scholar and educator in colonial/pre-modern Hispanic literature and Spanish language and culture.

Dr. Emiro Martínez-Osorio received his PhD in Colonial Spanish American Literature from the University of Texas at Austin (2009), for which he wrote a thesis was entitled "The Poetics of Demonization: The Writings of Juan de Castellanos in the light of Alonso de Ercilla's La Araucana." He earned an MA in Spanish Literature from the University of Georgia in 1993 and a BA in Philosophy and Religion from Piedmont College. His publications cover such literary topics as seventeenth-century colonial Spanish-American literature and its contacts with Portugal and contemporary Colombian literature.

Since 2009, Dr. Emiro Martínez-Osorio has been an Assistant Professor at Sewanee: the University of the South, in Tennessee, where he has taught literature and language courses, such as a survey course in Latin American culture and civilization; an Introduction to Latin American Literature; a course on the Latin American Novel; an Introduction to Hispanic Literature; beginning, intermediate and advanced Spanish; and Accelerated First year Spanish; and Medieval Spanish Literature. You can view his current profile at: http://spanish.sewanee.edu/facstaff/martinez-osorio/

Afraid of commitment? AP/SP 1001 may be the course for you!

"AP/SP 1001 - Elementary Spanish 1" is ideal for students with no previous formal education in Spanish who want a taste of Spanish without a longer commitment. It offers an introduction to the language and culture of the Spanish-speaking world.

By the end of the course, students should have enough knowledge to communicate in and comprehend Spanish at a basic level. Students learn basic elements of grammar and vocabulary relevant to everyday contexts.

Course content includes exposure to the socio-historical and cultural context of the Spanish-speaking world. Students who complete this course with a minimum grade of "C" can choose to continue their studies in Spanish by enrolling in AP/SP 1002 - Elementary Spanish 2.

Do you know basic Spanish but want to learn more? AP/SP 1002 may be the course for you!

"AP/SP 1002 - Elementary Spanish 2" is designed for students with some previous formal study or knowledge of Spanish (for example, from some high school study or from less formal training, including exposure from travel).

It focuses on the language and culture of the Spanish-speaking world at a mid-elementary level. Students learn elements of grammar and vocabulary relevant to everyday contexts. By the end of the course, they should have enough knowledge to communicate in and comprehend Spanish in many contexts.

Prof. Emiro Martínez-Osorio has published an article on Colonial Latin American literature:

"¿Imitación o Subversión? La representación de heroínas indígenas en las Elegías de varones ilustres de Indias." Cuadernos de Literatura. Vol. 14 – Núm. 28 / Julio - Diciembre de 2010.

For information about this article: www.javeriana.edu.co/revistas/Facultad/literatura/cuadernos/

Prof. María Figueredo has published an article on the Canto Popular Uruguayo

"Canto de madre": la revuelta femenina a flor de piel en el Canto Popular Uruguayo del dúo Washington Carrasco y Cristina Fernández". Cuadernos de Música, Artes Visuales y Artes Escénicas. Vol. 6 - Núm. 1 / Enero - Junio de 2011: 53 - 64.

The article may be downloaded.

Tutoring Now Available through Entre Voces

Entre Voces will be holding office hours on Mondays 10:30-1 and Thursdays from 9-11:30 in Founders 121D (entrance through Founders 121A).

Students interested in 1000-level tutoring may drop in during these times. Anyone requiring tutoring in upper-level Spanish or Portuguese courses (2000 and up) should email us 24 hours in advance to ensure that a qualified tutor is available. Tutoring Brochure

In order to schedule any additional or alternate tutoring sessions, please contact Sarah Lopes at entrevoces.tutoring@gmail.com.

Cancellation Policy:
If you have scheduled a session and need to cancel it, 24-hour notice must be given. Failure to do so the first time will result in a warning. If notice is not given a second time, we will not be able to schedule any future tutoring sessions.

Prof. Michol Hoffman published a new book on Salvadorian Spanish in Toronto

Salvadorian Spanish in Toronto (Munich: Lincom, 2010) offers an investigation of linguistic and social constraints on three variables (syllable- and word-final (s), syllable-initial (s) and word-final (n) in the Spanish of Salvadorian youth living in Toronto, Canada. Both final (s) and final (n) have been investigated extensively in many varieties of Spanish. However, most of these analyses have focused on Caribbean varieties. This study presents a multivariate analysis of (s) and (n) in Salvadorian Spanish, a lesser-studied variety. Furthermore, these speakers are members of Toronto's diverse Spanish-speaking population, represented by many regional and social varieties in an English-dominant context.

For more information on Lincom.

Recently, Prof. Hoffman's work on the relationship between linguistic variation and ethnic identity in Toronto English, a project that is co-research with Prof. James Walker, also of the Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics at York University has been covered in local media.

For an article published in the National Post on how distinctive speech forms identity, click here.

Prof. Hoffman's and Prof. Walker's interview with Mary Ito on CBC One's Fresh Air.

Reminder - Intermediate Spanish for Native Speakers

Intermediate Spanish for Native Speakers: This is a reminder that the Spanish Program at York has a specially designed language course (AP/SP 2010) created for native speakers of Spanish. If you are a native speaker, have lived in a Spanish-speaking country, or have other experience that has exposed you extensively to the Spanish language but have never studied it formally, take advantage of this course that concentrates on raising your written and oral Spanish to an academic level and that exposes you to a comprehensive treatment of intercultural concepts, values, and attitudes. AP/SP 2010 is regularly offered in the Fall/Winter session.

• Find out what program graduate Ivania Ledesma is up to after Spanish at York!
• Find out what program graduate Victoria Fanelli is up to after Spanish at York!
• Find out what program graduate Liana Jaikissoon is up to after Spanish at York!