This paper is available for the academic year 2023-24.
This paper covers more than a century of literature, film and art
produced not only in Spain, and in Spanish, but also the other languages
of the Spanish state that extend beyond its physical borders in relation
to Spain’s colonial holdings.
Students who studied SP4 in Part IB will find a wealth of new material
and ideas to explore and some revisions of previously presented
materials.. Those who have not followed Peninsular focused courses before
will encounter a rich variety of cultures from the early
nineteenth-century to the present day.
The material is grouped into four broad topics which allow students to
approach varied cultural, historical and political questions. The
topics are porous, meaning that texts from any given topic are often
relevant to other topics. Students should therefore feel free to
explore alternative connections and combinations.
'Genealogical Fictions' examines questions related to education,
degeneration, politics, art versus science, gender, power, city and
country in Restoration-era Spain. The four lectures will focus on two
important novels from the late nineteenth century.
'Experiments in Form' covers literary experimentation in Spain from the
avant-garde period, centring on questions of vision, fragmentation,
gender, sexuality and politics in the first three decades of the
twentieth century.
'Writing Memory' explores questions related to the writing of the
nation, as well as the writing of the self in a range of works from the
late nineteenth century to the late 1980s.
'Spain in Crisis' explores the forty-year legacy of democracy in Spain
from the Transition in the mid 1970s to the present. Students will be
asked to screen a series of films that look back at this period through
the prism of the financial crash of 2008 and the culture of crisis
permeating Spain and other Western nation-states in the wake of the
neoliberal turn.
NB: Many key texts can be found online for free at www.gutenberg.org or http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/ or http://www.10millibrosparadescargar.com/bibliotecavirtual/
MICHAELMAS 2022
Genealogical Fictions
Emilia Pardo Bazán, Los pazos de Ulloa
Leopoldo Alas (“Clarín”), Su único hijo
Seminar Readings:
1. Excerpts from Pedro Felipe Monlau’s Higiene del matrimonio, o el libro de los casados (1865)
2. Excerpts from Ángel Pulido’s Bosquejos médico-sociales para la mujer (1874)
3. Edward Said, “Secular Criticism”. In The World, the Text, and the Critic, pp. 1-30.
Experiments in Form
José Ortega y Gasset: La deshumanización del arte
Rafael Alberti: Sobre los ángeles
Federico García Lorca: El público
Ramón María del Valle-Inclán: Luces de Bohemia
LENT 2023
Writing Memory
Carmen Laforet: Nada (1945)
Jaime Gil de Biedma: Las personas del verbo (1975; 1982)
Carmen Martín Gaite: El cuarto de atrás (1978)
Donato Ndongo: Las tinieblas de tu memoria negra (1983)
Spain in Crisis (ALL CINEMA)
Pere Portabella: Informe general II. El nuevo rapto de Europa (2015)
Pere Portabella: Informe general sobre algunas cuestiones públicas de
interés para una proyección pública (1976)
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Biutiful (2010)
Fernando León de Aranoa, Amador (2010)
Carlos Vermut, Magical Girl (2014)
Fernando Franco, La herida (2013)
Rafael Chirbes: Paris-Austerlitz (2016)
- Brenan, G. The Spanish Labyrinth (1950)
- Shubert, A. A Social History of Modern Spain (1990)
- Labanyi, Jo. Spanish Literature: a Very Short Introduction (2010)
- Triana Toribio, N. Spanish National Cinema (2004)
Teaching is provided through 16 lectures (4 hours on each topic) with an
introductory seminar for each topic. The introductory seminars for both
topics will take place in week one in order to allow and even encourage
students to move between the topics. Students also receive 8
fortnightly supervisions (plus revision support in Easter term if
offering the exam). You are expected to attend all lectures for the
paper. In supervisions you should expect to look at all the topics. Each
term students will write one supervision essay entirely in Spanish.
Additionally, SP9 students will have the option to attend one
supervision per term, which will be conducted entirely in Spanish.
Students will have the option to write one revision essay in Spanish
during Easter Term although the vast majority of the feedback will
centre on content and not issues related to grammar, lexis, spelling,
syntax, etc. NB there is no requirement to answer in Spanish in the
examination, although candidates have the option to do so.
Please see SP9's Moodle page. The enrolment password can be collected
from the paper coordinator.
Assessment is by 3-hour examination in which candidates answer three
questions, in each response making reference to at least two texts,
films or artists. Candidates may answer in either English or Spanish. It
is possible to offer an Optional Dissertation in place of SP9.
Prof Isaías Fanlo (paper co-ordinator) |
