Course Convenor: Dr Bryan Cameron, Section of Spanish & Portuguese
This module centres on the cultural, historical, and political underpinnings of Spanish cinema from the 1939 to the present. Seminars will focus on a variety of themes, ranging from repression and censorship under the Francoist regime, political dissidence in cinematic discourse, the Spanish star system, the Transition from dictatorship to democracy, the death of Franco and la movida madrileña, regional identities and Spanish nationalism(s), the recuperation of historical memory, Spanish national identity within the European Union, and issues related to immigration, the Movimiento 15-M, and (post-) crisis cinema. Teaching will take the form of open-discussion seminars for which students will be asked to present short response papers (2-3 pages). Please note that many of the films set for study in this module may not available with English subtitles and that a number of the secondary readings will be conducted in Spanish.
Introductory reading:
- Benet, Vicente. El cine español: una historia cultural. Barcelona: Paidós, 2012.
- Faulkner, Sally. A History of Spanish Film: Cinema and Society, 1910-2010. London: Bloomsbury, 2013.
- Kinder, Marsha. Blood Cinema: The Reconstruction of National Identity in Spain. Berkeley: U of California P, 1993.
- Labanyi, Jo, and Tatjana Pavlović eds. A Companion to Spanish Cinema. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.
- Pavlović, Tatjana, ed. 100 Years of Spanish Cinema. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.
- Pérez Rubio, Pablo. Escritos sobre cine español: tradición y géneros populares. Zaragoza: Institución Fernando el Católico, 2011.
- Resina, Joan Ramon, ed. Burning Darkness: A Half Century of Spanish Cinema. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2008.
- Triana-Toribio, Núria. Spanish National Cinema. London: Routledge, 2003.
- Zunzunegui, Santos. El extraño viaje: el celuloide atrapado por la cola o la crítica norteamericana ante el cine español. Valencia: Ediciones Episteme, 1999.
Films:
- Projections of Francoist ideology: Raza (José Luis Sáenz de Heredia, 1942), Los derechos de la mujer (Sáenz de Heredia, 1961), Las cuatro bodas de Marisol (Luis Lucia, 1967)
- The ruling class under Franco: Plácido (Luis García Berlanga, 1961), El ángel exterminador (Luis Buñuel, 1962), Ana y los lobos (Carlos Saura, 1973)
- Peripheral visions of national identity: La escopeta nacional (Luis García Berlanga, 1978), La teta i la luna (Bigas Luna, 1994), Tierra (Julio Medem, 1997)
- Immigration, migration, and emigration: Surcos (José Antonio Nieves Conde, 1951), Las cartas de Alou (Montxo Armendáriz, 1990), En tierra extraña (Icíar Bollaín, 2014)
- Documenting the Transition to democracy: Informe general sobre algunas cuestiones de interés para una proyección pública (Pere Portabella, 1976), Arrebato (Iván Zulueta, 1979), Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón (Pedro Almodóvar, 1980)
- The Spanish Crisis and beyond: La plaga (Neus Ballús, 2013), Magical Girl (Carlos Vermut, 2014), Informe general II (Pere Portabella, 2015)
