Academic Catalog

Romance Languages (M.A.)

Admission to this program is contingent upon admission to the Graduate School. In addition, the Graduate  Record Examination  is strongly recommended, and three letters of recommendation are required of all applicants to the M.A. and Ph.D. programs.

Students envisaging a teaching career on the college level or intending to continue to the doctoral degree may elect either Plans A, B, or C — Literature. Plan C — Language and Culture, is available only in French and Spanish.

Academic Scholarship: All coursework must be completed in accordance with the regulations of the Graduate School and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

French (M.A. Concentration)

Under Plan A: Candidates are required to take:

FRE 6200Renaissance to Revolution3
FRE 6300Modernity, Postmodernity, and Extreme Contemporain3
FRE 6620Topics in Sociocultural Analysis3
FRE 8410Topics in French and Francophone Culture3
FRE 8415Topics in French and Francophone Literature3
FRE 8600Seminar in Early Modern Studies3
FRE 8610Seminar in Modernity, Postmodernity, and Extreme Contemporain3
FRE 8999Master's Thesis Research and Direction6
Electives (FRE 5100 cannot count for Plan A)3
Total Credits30

With the consent of the candidate's advisor, up to six credits may be elected in related fields. At least five weeks prior to the time the degree is to be granted, candidates must pass a comprehensive examination based on the French area reading lists for the Master of Arts degree. All students with a graduate teaching assistantship must take LGL 5850: Foreign Language Instruction.

Under Plan B:  Candidates are required to take:

FRE 6200Renaissance to Revolution3
FRE 6300Modernity, Postmodernity, and Extreme Contemporain3
FRE 6620Topics in Sociocultural Analysis3
FRE 8410Topics in French and Francophone Culture3
FRE 8415Topics in French and Francophone Literature3
FRE 8600Seminar in Early Modern Studies3
FRE 8610Seminar in Modernity, Postmodernity, and Extreme Contemporain3
FRE 7999Master's Essay Direction3
Electives (FRE 5100 cannot count for Plan B)6
Total Credits30

With the consent of the candidate's advisor, up to six credits may be elected in related fields. At least five weeks prior to the time the degree is to be granted, candidates must pass a comprehensive examination based on the French area reading lists for the Master of Arts degree. All students with a teaching assistantship must take LGL 5850: Foreign Language Instruction.

Under Plan C: Candidates are required to take:

FRE 6200Renaissance to Revolution3
FRE 6300Modernity, Postmodernity, and Extreme Contemporain3
FRE 6620Topics in Sociocultural Analysis3
FRE 8410Topics in French and Francophone Culture3
FRE 8415Topics in French and Francophone Literature3
FRE 8600Seminar in Early Modern Studies3
FRE 8610Seminar in Modernity, Postmodernity, and Extreme Contemporain3
Electives9
Total Credits30

With the consent of the advisor, up to six credits may be elected in related fields. No essay is required for Plan C. Candidates for the degree must, upon completion of their coursework, take a comprehensive written and oral examination based on the French area reading lists for the Master of Arts Degree. All students with a graduate teaching assistantship must take LGL 5850: Foreign Language Instruction.

Italian (M.A. Concentration)

Under Plan A: Candidates are required to complete 30 credits, including 24 credits in Italian courses and a 6-credit thesis. With the recommendation of the Italian faculty and consent of the graduate advisor, students may elect to take up to 6 credits in related areas.

Courses in Italian24
Italian Cinema
Italian Theater Workshop
Topics in Italian Studies
Languages of Italy
Dante's Comedy I: Inferno
Dante's Comedy II: Purgatory and Paradise
Love, Politics and the Art of Elegance
Italian Love Sickness
Performing Italy
Imagining Italy, Creating Italians
Modern Italy in Transition
Contemporary Italian Culture
Introduction to Literary Theory
Research Project
ITA 8999Master's Thesis Research and Direction6
Total Credits30

At least five weeks prior to the time the degree is to be granted, candidates must pass a comprehensive oral examination based on coursework and the Italian area reading list.

Under Plan B: Candidates are required to complete 30 credits, including 27 credits in Italian courses and a 3-credit essay. With the recommendation of the Italian faculty and consent of the graduate advisor, students may elect to take up to 6 credits in related areas.

Courses in Italian27
Italian Cinema
Italian Theater Workshop
Topics in Italian Studies
Languages of Italy
Dante's Comedy I: Inferno
Dante's Comedy II: Purgatory and Paradise
Love, Politics and the Art of Elegance
Italian Love Sickness
Performing Italy
Imagining Italy, Creating Italians
Modern Italy in Transition
Contemporary Italian Culture
Introduction to Literary Theory
Research Project
ITA 7999Master's Essay Direction3
Total Credits30

At least five weeks prior to the time the degree is to be granted, candidates must pass a comprehensive oral examination based on coursework and the Italian area reading list.

Spanish (M.A. Concentration)

The Spanish M.A. consists of 30 credit hours taken in the areas of a) Spanish Linguistics; b) Early Modern and Modern Spanish Literature; c) Contemporary Spanish Literature; d) Spanish American Literature to 1900; e) Spanish American Literature of the 20th and 21st centuries; f) Language, Translation and Culture. The credits are to be completed according to Plan A, B, or C, as follows:

Plan A — Coursework plus Thesis: Plan A requires the student to complete 24 credits in coursework plus a 6-credit thesis (written in Spanish) for a total of 30 credits.

Plan B — Coursework plus Essay: Plan B requires the student to complete 27 credits in coursework plus a 3-credit essay (written in Spanish) for a total of 30 credits.

Plan C — Coursework Only:  Plan C requires the student to complete a minimum of 30 credits of coursework (no thesis or essay).

Spanish Linguistics
SPA 5200Spanish Phonetics3
SPA 6400Introduction to Hispanic Linguistics3
SPA 7510History of the Spanish Language3
SPA 8420Seminar in Hispanic Linguistics3
Early Modern and Modern Spanish Literature
SPA 6410Spanish Medieval Literature: Origins to 15003
SPA 6420Early Modern Spanish Studies3
SPA 6440Spanish Literature of the Eighteenth Century3
SPA 6560Cervantes3
SPA 6570The Comedia3
SPA 6590Genres and Topics in Peninsular Spanish Literature3
SPA 8510Seminar in the Golden Age3
Contemporary Spanish Literature
SPA 6450Spanish Romanticism3
SPA 6470The Spanish Novel of the Twentieth Century3
SPA 6490Spanish Poetry of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries3
SPA 6700Spanish Literature of the Silver Age: 1900-19363
SPA 6710Unamuno's Existential Fiction3
SPA 8550Seminar in Spanish Literature of the Twentieth Century3
Spanish American Literature to 1900
SPA 6600Colonial Latin American Studies3
SPA 6610Latin American Novel to 19003
SPA 8530Seminar in Spanish Literature of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries3
Spanish American Literature of the 20th-21st Centuries
SPA 6620Latin American Novel in the 20th and 21st Centuries3
SPA 6630Spanish American Poetry3
SPA 6690Genres and Topics in Spanish American Literature3
SPA 8610Seminar in Spanish American Narrative3
Language, Translation, and Culture
SPA 5300Advanced Grammar and Stylistics3
SPA 5400Introduction to Professional and Literary Translation3
SPA 5550Spanish Culture and Its Tradition3
SPA 5560Spanish American Cultures and their Traditions3
SPA 5570Topics in Hispanic Culture or Language3

All courses at the 5000 level and above, except 5100, 5600, and 5999, can be taken as part of the coursework for the M.A. in Spanish. Students are expected to take at least 3 credits in each of the areas listed above. Topics courses (5570, 6590, and 6690) and seminars (8420, 8510, 8550, and 8610) can be taken more than once for a maximum of 9 credits each. A minimum of 6 credits must be taken at the 7000 level or above.

In addition, candidates are required to write comprehensive examinations as specified in the Graduate Handbook for Students and Faculty of the Department of Classical and Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, based on the Spanish area reading list for the Master of Arts degree. No oral examination is required.

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