Sharing the experience of teaching Spanish and Spanish-American literatures at V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University

Abstract

The article describes the pedagogical experience of teaching Spanish-language literatures at the Faculty of Foreign Languages ​​of the V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University carried out by the Department of Romance and Germanic Philology. The history of Spanish-language literatures is taught over two semesters: “Literature of Spain” (VI semester) and a special course “History of Literatures of the Spanish-speaking Countries of America” (VII semester; such a course exists at Karazin University only). The emphasis is placed on the historical primacy of the V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University in some aspects of awakening interest in this linguistic and cultural continuum in Ukraine. The article explains why the name “Literature of Spain” was chosen instead of “Spanish Literature”, and why the term “Spanish-language Literatures of America” was used in place of the more familiar “Latin American Literature”. The structure of both courses is explained in detail, and a list of writers and works selected by the author of both courses is provided as well;reading these works is mandatory for students. The need to teach the history of literature of countries that are quite specific for Ukrainian higher education students is emphasized not as a purely chronological change of eras and names, but as the preservation and development of national traditions that will help increase students' intercultural competence. The need to control the historical and literary material read by students in Spanish during lectures is emphasized, and the expediency of conducting short tests on knowledge of literary texts read (to optimize control) is emphasized too. At the same time, only prose and dramatic works are given for home reading, whereas important examples of poetic texts are analyzed directly during classes within the framework of a communicative approach. The topics of such tests are given and examples (translated into Ukrainian from Spanish) of the questions posed are provided with comments necessary for readers of the article not specialized in Spanish. Particular attention is paid to the complexity of teaching the history of Hispanic American literatures due to the presence of a large number of quite different national traditions, despite the unity of language, which makes inappropriate a review of literature according to the different countries.