2003-2004 Undergraduate Calendar-Modern Languages and Literature

Last updated: December 12, 2003 @ 09:40AM

Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures

Chair
E. Virgulti

Professor Emeritus
Herbert Schutz

Professors
Alexandre L. A. Amprimoz (French), Sandra L. Beckett (French), Leslie A. Boldt-Irons (French), Dennis F. Essar (French), Corrado J. A. Federici (Italian), Jane M. Koustas (French), Leonard A. Rosmarin (French)

Associate Professors
Irene M. F. Blayer (Spanish), Barry W. K. Joe (German), Martha J. Nandorfy (Spanish)

Assistant Professors
Ernesto J. Virgulti (Italian)

General Information

Administrative Assistant
Dawn (Hajnalka) Bela-Zavodni

(905) 688-5550, extension 3312
Mackenzie Chown A240
http://www.brocku.ca/modernlanguages

The Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures offers courses in French, German, Italian and Spanish as well as interdisciplinary courses in Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures. The Department also offers courses in Japanese, Mandarin, Portuguese and Russian.

The Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures offers four-year programs of study leading to a BA Honours in French, Spanish, a three-year BA Pass in French, German, Italian and Spanish degree programs and a concurrent five-year BA French Teaching Specialization Honours/BEd (Intermediate/Senior) degree. In addition the Department offers Minor programs in French, German, Italian and Spanish.

Please consult the relevant entries for a listing of courses and program requirements.

The Department aims to provide students with a thorough and comprehensive coverage of language (spoken and written), literature and culture. In addition to the courses taught in the language of each program, the Department provides a number of interdisciplinary courses combining subject matter selected from each of the language programs taught in English that may be acceptable for credit toward a degree in any of the languages.

Students are encouraged to participate in one or more of the study programs in Québec, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Latin America.

Course Descriptions

Note that not all courses are offered in every session. Refer to the applicable term timetable for details.

Prerequisites and Restrictions

Students must check to ensure that prerequisites are met. Students may be deregistered, at the request of the instructor, from any course for which prerequisites and/or restrictions have not been met.

Japanese
JAPA 1P00
Japanese I
Elementary conversational Japanese focusing on developing listening skills, basic grammatical structure, and understanding customs. Introduction to essential grammar and hiragana and katakana syllabaries.
Lectures, lab, 4 hours per week.
Note: open to students with limited or no background in the language.

JAPA 1P01
Japanese II
Conversational Japanese with emphasis on cultural knowledge and customs. Introduction of approximately 200 kanji (Chinese characters).
Lectures, lab, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisite: JAPA 1P00 or permission of the instructor.

JAPA 1P80
Japanese III
Everyday communication skills focusing on vocabulary building, grammatical structure and reading skills.
Lectures, lab, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisite: JAPA 1P01 or permission of the instructor.

JAPA 1P81
Japanese IV
Oral and written communication skills focusing on writing skills and further development of grammatical structure.
Lectures, lab, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisite: JAPA 1P80 or permission of the instructor.

Mandarin Chinese
MAND 1P00
Mandarin Chinese I
Elementary Mandarin focusing on conversational listening, basic grammatical structure and understanding of relevant customs. Introduction to Pinyin.
Lectures, lab, 4 hours per week.
Note: open to students with limited or no background in the language.

MAND 1P01
Mandarin Chinese II
Conversational Mandarin emphasizing vocabulary building, grammatical structure, customs and cultural knowledge. Introduction of Chinese characters.
Lectures, lab, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisite: MAND 1P00 or permission of the instructor.

MAND 1P80
Mandarin Chinese III
Basic written and oral skills for everyday needs emphasizing practical communication and reading of Chinese characters.
Lectures, lab, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisite: MAND 1P01 or permission of the instructor.

MAND 1P81
Mandarin Chinese IV
Written and oral skills, further development of vocabulary and grammatical structure focusing on writing Chinese characters for practical text development.
Lectures, lab, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisite: MAND 1P80 or permission of the instructor.

Modern Languages, Literatures and Culture
MLLC 2P94
Comparative Romance Linguistics
(also offered as LING 2P94)
Romance languages; their structures, related concepts, differences and mutual influences.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: one of FREN 1F90, GERM 1F90, ITAL 1F90, SPAN 1F90, LING 1F94 or permission of the instructor.
Note: given in English. May be counted as part of a major program in French, Italian or Spanish.

MLLC 3F96
Landscape and Cultural Memory
(also offered as CANA 3F96 and GEOG 3F96)
Field course in Quebec. Readings in literature and geography, exploring the links and reciprocal influences between disciplines. Authors studied may include Louis Hémon, Philippe Aubert de Gaspé, Roger Lemelin.
Restriction: consult the Chair regarding permission to register.
Prerequisite: one of FREN 2F03, CANA 2P91, 2P92 (2F91) or permission of the instructor.
Note: course given in English. French majors complete written assignments and exams in French. CANA students may count this as either Cultural Studies I or II and as a credit related to French Canada.

MLLC 3P94
Translation Studies
Historical and contemporary perspectives on translation theory and practice. Topics may include the role of the translator, comparative/contrastive analysis, intercultural equivalence and interference, problems in literary and technical translations.
Lectures, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: one of FREN 2F03, GERM 2F90 (2F20), ITAL 2F00, SPAN 2P20 and 2P21 (2F00 or 2F10) or permission of the instructor.
Note: given in English. May be counted as part of a major program in French, Italian or Spanish.

MLLC 3P95
The Contemporary Picture Book
Selection of contemporary children's picture books from around the world. Dialogue between text and image. Theory of the picture book.
Lectures, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: one of FREN 2F03, GERM 2F90 (2F20), ITAL 2F00, SPAN 2P20 and 2P21 (2F00 or 2F10) or permission of the instructor.
Note: given in English. May be counted as part of a major program in French, Italian or Spanish.

MLLC 3P97
Medieval Literature and Culture
(also offered as GBLS 3P97)
Literature and culture of the Middle Ages in Europe. Works selected from among poetry, the epic and the romance.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: one of FREN 2F03, GERM 2F90 (2F20), ITAL 2F00, SPAN 2P20 and 2P21 (2F00 or 2F10) or permission of the instructor.
Note: given in English. May be counted as part of a major program in French, Italian or Spanish.
Completion of this course will replace previous assigned grade in MLLC 3P91.

MLLC 3P98
Renaissance Literature and Culture
(also offered as GBLS 3P98)
The Renaissance as transcultural phenomenon; historical and geographical parameters; social and political factors in its emergence and development; intellectual and aesthetic foundations as expressed in essential literary texts and essays.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: one of FREN 2F03, GERM 2F90 (2F20), ITAL 2F00, SPAN 2P20 and 2P21 (2F00 or 2F10) or permission of the instructor.
Note: given in English. May be counted as part of a major program in French, Italian or Spanish.
Completion of this course will replace previous assigned grade in MLLC 3P92.

MLLC 3P99
Modern Narratives
(also offered as GBLS 3P99)
French, German, Italian and Hispanic 20th-century narrative writing. May include avant-garde, surrealist, existentialist, modernist and postmodernist issues.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: one of FREN 2F03, GERM 2F90 (2F20), ITAL 2F00, SPAN 2P20 and 2P21 (2F00 or 2F10) or permission of the instructor.
Note: given in English. May be counted as part of a major program in French, Italian or Spanish.
Completion of this course will replace previous assigned grade in MLLC 3P93.

MLLC 3Q90
Cultures
Introduction to textual analysis and interpretation using computational tools and methods to expand the qualitative evidentiary field. Preparation, markup, processing of text using concordancing and full text-retrieval software and interpretation of resultant data.
Restriction: consult the instructor regarding permission to register.

MLLC 3Q91
New Comparative Literature: Scribal Text and the Digital Text
Comparative study of selected texts in translation (from among German, Italian, French, and Spanish works) in both scribal and digital forms, including hypertext, examining the ways in which the construction of literary meaning is influenced by the modality of its transmission. Models of meaning derived from modern critical theorists.
Restriction: consult the instructor regarding permission to register.

MLLC 4P01
History of Romance Languages
Formation and evolution of the Romance languages from their origins to the present day. Factors affecting language change: internal history (sounds and inflection) and external forces (politics, society, thought).
Lectures, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisites: MLLC 2P94; one of FREN 2F00, ITAL 2F00, SPAN 2P20 and 2P21 (2F00 or 2F10) or permission of the instructor.
Note: given in English. May be counted as part of a major program in French, Italian or Spanish.

Portuguese
PORT 1F00
Introductory Portuguese
Listening, reading, writing and speaking emphasizing a communicative approach to learning a language.
Lectures, tutorial, 4 hours per week.
Note: for students with little or no background in Portuguese.

PORT 1F90
Intermediate Portuguese
Review of Portuguese grammar emphasizing written and oral practice. Introduction to Portuguese and Brazilian literary and cultural readings, as well as to topics of current interest.
Lectures, tutorial, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisite: PORT 1F00 or equivalent, or permission of the instructor.

PORT 1P95
Conquest and Colonization
(also offered as SPAN 1P95)
Creation of a new culture founded on Amerindian, Iberian and African traditions; visual arts, architecture, literature and music; disparity between cultural identity and economic and political identity, utopian ideals, alienation through imitation, rediscovery of autochthonous cultural models.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Note: given in English.

PORT 2P10
Latin American Culture
(also offered as SPAN 2P10)
Survey of social history through texts and images; pre-Columbian cultures; cultural hybridization and colonization to the present day.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Note: guided readings in English and Spanish.

PORT 2P11
Iberian Culture
(also offered as SPAN 2P11)
Social, political and cultural history of Portugal and Spain through historical and literary texts, film and other visual arts.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Note: guided readings in English and Spanish.

PORT 2P82
Latin American and Iberian Film
(also offered as FILM 2P82 and SPAN 2P82)
Spanish and Latin American representations of identity crises involving issues of nationality, ethnicity, gender and politics. Pastiche, parody and camp aesthetics, and the envisioning of new possibilities of solidarity leading to social transformations.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week; plus weekly film lab.
Note: Spanish and Portuguese language films with English subtitles.

PORT 3P94
Iberian Narrative
(also offered as SPAN 3P94)
Development of Spanish and Portuguese narrative from postwar social realism to the present. Authors may include Cela, Matute, Puértolas, MuZoz Molina, Montero and Saramago.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: SPAN 2P20 and 2P21 (2F00 or 2F10) or permission of the instructor.

Russian
RUSS 1F00
Introductory Russian
Development of the four basic skills in language proficiency (reading, writing, speaking and comprehension).
Lectures, language lab, 4 hours per week.