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Romance Languages

ROML 050 [006E]: Orality and Literacy
Social & Behavioral Science/Other (SS) [GC Social Science]
James Noblitt
This seminar provides an opportunity to examine the impact of information technology on language use. Multimedia presentations in class will combine image, sound, and text to demonstrate the expressive uses of language in other cultures. Using the Romance languages for context, students will also examine issues that confront a multi-cultural society, such as the development of standards for oral and written communication as well as the linguistic aspects of power and prestige.
Previous study of a Romance language is not required, since readings are in English, but those who have studied a Romance language will find a new perspective on their previous language study. Students participate in an online discussion forum to create a dialogue on the various issues raised and to engage in collaborative learning.
Readings for the course provide three focal points:

• Language & Evolution: What are the biological determinants of language?
• Language & Technology: How does writing differ from speaking?
• Language & Thought: Why does literacy lead to science?

Students are asked to explore the links between Arts and Sciences as they examine a variety of texts, from popular music to scientific prose. Particular emphasis is placed on the contribution of recent developments in the cognitive sciences to our understanding of human language.
The course grade will depend on an understanding of primary text readings, contributions to class discussion, and weekly submissions to the online discussion forum. In addition, students prepare a multimedia presentation for their class project consisting of research on actual language use. This seminar stresses critical thinking, originality, and creativity.

ROML 051 [006M]: National and Cultural Identities in the Romance Area
Social & Behavioral Science/Other (SS) [GC Aesthetic/Literature]
Lucia Binotti
This course will explore the birth and development of national identities in the Romance world. It focuses on the cultural and social phenomena that tie the feeling of being "Italian", "Castilian", "French", or "Portuguese" to the consolidation of the Romance languages which, though all sprung from Latin, followed thrillingly diverse paths toward standardization and marked a territory while creating a sense of community. Through primary sources in English translation, the course will analyze in diachronic fashion the conscious and unconscious attitudes toward language that helped fashion the four major Romance languages. Students should acquire from the course a definite grasp of the sociolinguistic dynamics that help model today's Europe.

ROML 052 [006E]: The Value of Language in Identity, Hispanics in the United States
Social & Behavioral Science/Other (SS) [GC Social Science]
Julia Mack
This course explores the cultural challenges for Spanish speaking immigrants in the United States, particularly the importance of language in culture and identity. Students are encouraged to consider news reporting and public policies regarding the Hispanic community and the importance of linguistic identity in artistic expression. Knowledge of Spanish is useful, but not essential, since readings will also be available in English. Class members will be encouraged to form personal ties with organizations and individuals from the Spanish speaking community. Students who plan to continue studying Spanish will have the opportunity to practice their Spanish language skills.

ROML 053 [006E]: Oral Histories of Our Local Community
Social & Behavioral Science/Other (SS) [GC Social Science]
William Maisch
Student participants in the seminar will study procedures of gathering oral histories and issues related to the growing Hispanic population at both the national and local levels. Teams of two students will collect, transcribe, research, and analyze the oral histories of two members of the local Hispanic community. They will then report on their findings to the class for group discussion. Finally, the class will design together and publish a web page to share our research with others in the local, national and international communities. After the first round of oral histories, which will be more open-ended, the class will decide, based on their interests in their findings and readings, on a narrower focus for the second oral interviews and class study. We are particularly interested in how Latino families in the area are changing as a result of living in North Carolina and how those changes are similar and/or dissimilar to the changes experienced by Latino families living in other and all parts of the country as reported in published studies. Possible areas of focus are: 1) the changing ethnic identity of Latinos in our local community; 2) the changing family dynamics in the local Latino community; and, 3) changes in ties with their countries of origin in the local Latino community. Although not required, knowledge of Spanish is welcomed.

ROML 054 [006M]: Issues in Francophone Literature
Literary Arts (LA) [GC Aesthetic/Literature]
Dominique Fisher
This course addressed the treatment of multiculturalism, globalization, extremism in the Francophone literature of Africa. Francophone literature deals with the ambiguities of national identities and national memory, the impact of colonization, post-colonialism and globalization, the conflict between tradition and modernity, the rise of fundamentalist and national movements, and the place of women in history. The course will be divided into three parts in which we will read representative works on Ben Jelloun, Boudjedra, Djebar, Mernissi, Bouraoui, as well as selected extracts.

ROML 055 [006M]: Writing with an Accent: Latino Literature and Culture
Literary Arts (LA) [GC Aesthetic/Literature]
Rosa Perelmuter
In this seminar I propose to study the literary production of Hispanics living in the U.S. Using a variety of materials (essays, documentaries, films, music) and English-language texts (novels, short stories, plays, poetry) we will examine works by Chicano, Puerto Rican, Nuyorican, Dominican, and Cuban-American writers. Topics to be discussed include: Latino or Hispanic? What's in a Name?; Negotiating the Barrio; The politics of Bilingualism; The search for Home in Migrant, Rural, and Urban Environments; The Many Faces of Machismo; Religion and Spirituality in Latino Communities; Forms of Prejudice and Discrimination; Music as a Cultural Bridge. All readings will be in English though knowledge of Spanish is welcomed.

ROML 056 [006M] Italians in Search of Harmony
Literary Arts (LA) [GC Aesthetic/Literature]
Ennio Rao
This course explores the concept of harmony in selected Italian writers, from Dante to contemporary writers. In the 14th century, Dante dreamed of a universal empire that would assure peace on earth, thus allowing mankind to pursue knowledge and wisdom and to achieve the ultimate harmony in the next world: the natural reunion of creature and creator. Dante himself directs hid readers to interpret the journey of the pilgrim in the Divine Comedy as Everyman's quest for transcendental harmony with God. This quest for harmony is characteristic of many Italian writers, from Petrarch to Leopardi, to many contemporary poets, novelists, and film directors.

ROML 057 [006M]: Nature in Latin American Literature: Ecology, Gender, and Other Issues
Literary Arts (LA) [GC Aesthetic/Literature]
Alicia Rivero
Concerns about nature that appear in Latin American literature are usually overlooked. The course explores indigenous ecology and the survival of Native Americans; economic development and the destruction of the environment; nature viewed as woman and as Other; woman seen as nature and as Other. We will examine those topics in 20th century translated texts by renowned authors of different races from Spanish-speaking countries and Brazil, as well as by a Mexican-American.

ROML 058 [006M]: Writing a Woman's Life
Literary Arts (LA) [GC Aesthetic/Literature]
Carol Sherman
Taking its title from Carolyn Heilbrun's book, the course will explore the narratives by which women expect and are expected to live. Participants will read stories by women who have lived the usual life and then re-written it; and they will read stories writen by young women trying to compose their lives right the first time, that is, in new narratives they discover as they reflect upon the ones their culture holds out to them. Essays from various disciplines that treat life-narratives will offer contexts for the readings. Participants will keep a journal recording their reactions to the texts, and they will share responses with the group when they choose to do so.
Theoretical frames will be provided by Heilbrun (Writing a Woman's Life), by Olivier (Jocasta's Children), and by Volger (The Writer's Journey). Novelized autobiography and autobiographical novels to be read include Letters from a Peruvian Woman (Graffigny), Letters of Mistriss Henley
(Charriere), The Story of Ernestine (Riccoboni), Ourika (Duras), A Woman's Story (Ernaux), Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter (de Beauvoir), Childhood (Sarraute), and The Words to Say It (Cardinal). Viewing the film Strangers in Good Company will also be required, and from it students will be asked to choose one character among the women depicted and to observe and imagine her past and the steps that led to the reactions and events that occur.

ROML 059 [006M]: Courts, Courtiers, and Court Culture in 16th- and 17th-Century Europe
Historical Analysis (HS); North Atlantic World (NA) [GC Aesthetic/Literature]
Marsha Collins
The courts of 16th- and 17th-century Europe were theatrical spaces and locales of vibrant culture in which a privileged elite performed dramas of power, gossip, intrigue, and dazzling entertainment. This course provides you with an opportunity to experience this glittering other world vicariously, entering into another time, place, and culture. You will gain new understanding of the lives of monarchs and courtiers, and the passion for power, learning, and exploration that played such an important part of court culture through the study of literature and visual arts from or pertaining to that time. The course also provides insight into the values cultivated in the European courts that have become an enduring part of Western culture.

ROML 060 [006M]: Literature, Magic and Society: A Question of Reality
Literary Arts (LA) [GC Aesthetic/Literature]
Glynis Cowell
This course will focus on the cultural forces that led to the rise of the literary mode of magical realism and the way that mode is manifested in a variety of texts representing different parts of the world. Together we will explore how politics, history, language, religion, and geography may have contributed to the development of magical realism. In so doing, we will read and discuss the English versions of texts from different countries and different time periods, not just from our American point of view, but attempting to approach those texts from the cultural and temporal perspective of the native reader. Ultimately we will question reality, the reality/realities of the author and the reality/realities of the reader, both actual and implied, and the contradictions we may discover.

ROML 060: Spanish and Entrepreneurship: Languages, Cultures, and North Carolina Communities
Communication Intensive (CI); Experiential Education (EE)
Darcy Lear
How can we apply entrepreneurial principles to support the missions of social service agencies in NC?   To answer that question, we will study the theory and practice of social entrepreneurship—a process of opportunity recognition, resource gathering and value creation that can contribute to the sustainability of a social mission.  Using the critical thinking skills emphasized in the seminar, students will examine issues in NC Latino communities and learn important business skills that can help sustain endeavors that benefit the community.  Students will experience rather than simply examine the bilingual and bicultural commercial and social enterprises that surround our campus by working & networking in a local agency or business 2-3 hours each week.  This community service-learning experience will allow students to apply the knowledge and skills that they developed in the seminar.  Previous knowledge of Spanish will “come in handy,” but is not a prerequisite in this seminar.