By Abby Wargo
Elm Staff Writer
Midterms are over, and that means that it’s time to think about next semester. The registrar sent the schedule to students in an email on Oct. 11, and seniors will be able to begin registering for classes on Oct. 21.
One of the classes that will be offered next semester is How to Make Love in Early Modern Spain. It is cross listed under the gender studies and the modern language department.
Dr. Elena Deanda-Camacho, who teaches the course, said that the it “delves in the historical ways that the Western world has written about love, sex, and gender…especially in Spain during the early modern period.”
The readings range from traditional love stories to erotica, and characters such as the whore and casanova are discussed, since these stereotypes come from early Spanish literature. The historical aspects are discussed in tandem with modern issues such as prostitution and sexual harassment.
The class is given entirely in Spanish, and it is offered on Mondays and Wednesdays from 2:30 to 3:45 p.m. in Goldstein 107.
Another class that will be offered is 2PACalypse Now. It is cross listed under the American studies, anthropology, black studies, gender studies, English, and humanities departments.
The class, “will try to explore what it is that has attracted so many white male Anglophone intellectuals to a book (“Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad) that is not only demonstrably racist in its depiction of Africans, but that has been understood by so many of them to have managed to glamorize what was demonstrably the most rapid, diabolical, and comprehensive oppression of of a subject people in the whole vicious history of European colonialism,” said Dr. Richard De Prospo, the teacher of the course.
Students will read Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,” Faulkner’s “Absalom, Absalom!,” Chinua Achebe’s “Hopes and Impediments,” as well as refer to Tupac’s album 2PACalypse Now!, in addition to several other texts.
The class is offered on Wednesdays from 7 to 9:30 p.m. in Smith 222.
Another unique class being offered for spring semester is “Poetry and Book Arts.” This class is unique because it synthesizes writing, poetry in this case, with creating. It is being cross listed under the art and English departments.
Students will utilize letterpress printing to print their poems and, according to the course description, “feel the physical weight of their own words.” Students will also learn how to use InDesign to print from photopolymer plates.
The class will work together to produce a small book featuring a work of poetry from each student. Working with letterpress will encourage students to experiment with shorter forms of poetry, since hand-setting type is labor-intensive and tedious.
It will also encourage students to be creative in their use of the page. Book arts is an art form, and in combination with poetry, the result is something beautiful and unique.
Class time will be spent split between discussion and demonstration. There are two sections of the course which will be offered; one is on Mondays from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and the other is on Wednesdays from 1:30 to 4 p.m..
The course will be taught at the Rose O’Neill Literary House by Professor Emma Sovich, former Washington College alumna and winner of the 2008 Sophie
Kerr Prize.
These are just a small sampling of what is offered for next semester, and students are encouraged to review the complete list of classes that can be found on the registrar’s page at
www.registrar.washcoll.edu.
