Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2007 13:18:44 -0400 (EDT)
From: Nancy D'Antuono <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: literature pre 1800
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Dear Robert,
I would like to echo the sentiments of the colleague who referred to the "preparación macarrónica" of a goodly number of graduate students. We have interviewed candidates who could talk about Quevedo but had never had a course on the Quijote, nor a course on the Spanish Middle Ages. A young woman who taught for us briefly  said she couldn't teach a course on Spanish Civilization because she had not had a course in it. 

The late Edward Glaser, who was director of graduate studies at the University of Michigan in the 60's and early 70's insisted that all of us take a course with every professor in the department regardless of our area of specialization. As a specialist in Spanish Golden Age literature (prose, poetry and drama) and Italian Renaissance literature Dr. Glaser insisted I take a course in Portuguese literature of the parallel eras - and I had never studied Portuguese.  He was sure that with my knowledge of Spanish and Italian, Portuguese would not be a problem.  I must admit I enjoyed the challenge.

As for linguistics - we were required to take 3 courses in that area as well so that we would have a full sense of the development of the Spanish language across the centuries.

I remain forever grateful to Edward Glaser and the Spanish faculty at the University of Michigan who demanded that we "know it all" - or at least as much as possible. 

Nancy L. D'Antuono
Ph.D. Romance Languages, University of Michigan 1975
Professor of Spanish and Italian
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556