Syllabus

AP Spanish Literature and Culture (281)

Course Description

This course is designed to provide students with a learning experience equivalent to that of an introductory college course in literature. The course introduces students to the formal study of a representative body of texts from Peninsular Spanish, Latin American, and U.S. Hispanic literature.  In particular, the course encourages students to reflect on the many voices and cultures included in a rich and diverse body of literature written in Spanish, with special attention to critical reading and analytical writing. Emphasis is placed on approaching the study of literature through global, historical and contemporary cultural contexts. A key objective is to encourage students not only to understand and retell the content of the texts they read but also to relate that content to literary, historical, sociocultural and geopolitical contexts in Spanish.

Course Objectives

• Provide students with ongoing and varied opportunities to develop proficiency

in Spanish across a full range of skills, with emphasis on critical reading and

analytical writing.

• Encourage students to reflect on the many voices and cultures included in a

rich and diverse body of literature written in Spanish.

• Integrate the three modes of communication (interpersonal, interpretive and

presentational).

• Integrate Communications, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and

Communities goal areas of the Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the

21st Century.

• Emphasize contextual analysis, relating the readings to literary, historical,

socio-cultural and geopolitical contexts.

• Incorporate media as an aid in teaching Spanish literature, including artistic

representations, audio and audiovisual resources.

• Incorporate graphic organizers, and concept maps to enable students to process

new information, and organize ideas.

• Develop proficiency in interpretive listening by providing students with

opportunities to hear audio texts related to course content.

• Make contextual connections across genres and time periods.
• Address the six required themes: Las sociedades en contacto, La construcción

del género, El tiempo y el espacio, Las relaciones interpersonales, La dualidad

del ser, and La creación literaria. Organizing concepts will be incorporated for

making contextual connections among works.

• Use essential questions in order to enable the students to investigate and

express different views on issues, make connections to other disciplines and

compare products, practices and perspectives of target cultures to their own.

Course Content

Selected Works of the Required Authors: 

Medieval and Golden Age

• Romance de la pérdida de Alhambra
• Lazarillo de Tormes. Prólogo; Tratados 1, 2, 3, 7
• Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de. El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha

(Primera parte - capítulos 1-5, 8 y 9; Segunda parte, capítulo 74)

• Cruz, Sor Juana Inés de la. “Hombres necios que acusáis”
• Góngora y Argote, Luis de. Soneto CLXVI (“Mientras por competir con tu

cabello”)

• Juan Manuel, Infante de Castilla. Conde Lucanor: Ejemplo XXXV (“Lo que

aconteció a un mozo que se casó con una mujer muy fuerte y muy brava”)

• Cortés, Hernán. “Segunda carta de relación” (selecciones)
• Quevedo y Villegas, Francisco de. Salmo XVII (“Miré los muros de la patria

mía”)

• Téllez, Gabriel (Tirso de Molina). El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra
• Vega, Garcilaso de la. Soneto XXIII (“En tanto que de rosa y de azucena”)

The 19th Century

• Bécquer, Gustavo Adolfo. Rima LIII (“Volverán las oscuras golondrinas”)
• Darío, Rubén. “A Roosevelt”
• Heredia, José María. “En una tempestad”
• Martí, José. “Nuestra América”
• Pardo Bazán, Emilia. “Las medias rojas”

The 20th Century

• Allende, Isabel. “Dos palabras”
• Borges, Jorge Luis. “El sur” y “Borges y yo”
• Burgos, Julia de. “A Julia de Burgos”
• Cortázar, Julio. “La noche boca arriba”
• Dragún, Osvaldo. El hombre que se convirtió en perro
• Fuentes, Carlos. “Chac Mool”
• León-Portilla, Miguel. Visión de los vencidos (dos secciones: “Los presagios,

según los informantes de Sahagún” y “Se ha perdido el pueblo mexicatl”)

• García Lorca, Federico. La casa de Bernarda Alba y “Prendimiento de Antoñito

el Camborio en el camino de Sevilla”

• García Márquez, Gabriel. “El ahogado más hermoso del mundo” y “La siesta

del martes”

• Guillen, Nicolás. “Balada de los dos abuelos”
• Machado, Antonio. “He andado muchos caminos”
• Montero, Rosa. “Como la vida misma”
• Morejón, Nancy. “Mujer negra”
• Neruda, Pablo. “Walking around”
• Quiroga, Horacio. “El hijo”
• Tomás Rivera. … y se lo tragó la tierra (dos capítulos “….y no se lo tragó la tierra” y “La noche buena”)
• Rulfo, Juan. “No oyes ladrar los perros”
• Storni, Alfonsina. “Peso ancestral”
• Ulibarrí, Sabine R. “Mi caballo mago”
• Unamuno y Jugo, Miguel de. San Manuel Bueno, mártir

Resources 

1. Textbooks:  "Abriendo puertas, ampliando perspectivas" e "Intrigas"
2. Websites:VHLCentral.com        Holt McDougal Online: http://my.hrw.com                                                                                                                 
3. Instructor Web Site: sausd.us/Domain/910
4. College Board Web Site: http://apcentral.collegeboard.com