Approaches to Spanish Culture and Society (Level 6)

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 6
• Convenor: Dr Mari Paz Balibrea Enríquez
• Assessment: a two-hour in-class examination (60%) and 3000-word essay (40%)

In this module we study Spanish culture and society from the early nineteenth century to the present, conceived as a reflection on the development of modernity in the country. You will become familiar with:

• cultural movements and phenomena such as the Enlightenment, Romanticism, Realism, Avant-garde, popular and mass culture
• political forms and actors such as the Catholic Church, liberalism, Republic, dictatorship and democracy
• historical events such as civil war, crisis of 1898, transition.

The material studied on this module will be diverse, ranging from literature to visual culture. All texts will be available in the original and in English translation/with English subtitles. Texts to be studied include:

• Inés Joyes y Blake, 'Apología de las mujeres' (1798)
• Juan Pablo Forner, 'Amor de la patria' (1794)
• Mariano José de Larra, 'El castellano viejo' (1832)
• Carolina Coronado, Selection of poems (1843)
• José María Blanco White, Bosquexo del comercio de esclavos (1814) and 'Letter III' from Letters from Spain (1825)
• Prosper Merimée, Carmen (1845)
• Jose Martí, 'Nuestra América' (1891)
• Ramón del Valle-Inclán, Luces de bohemia (1920)
• Benito Perojo (director), El negro que tenía el alma blanca (film, 1927)
• Excerpts from Fascist literature
• Rafael Alberti, selected poems
• José Luis Saenz de Heredia, Raza (film, 1941)
• Max Aub, 'Enero sin nombre' (1994)
• Manuel Hernández Sanjuan (director), Una cruz en la selva and Bajo la lámpara del bosque (films, 1944-46)
• José Val del Omar, Fuego en Castilla (film, 1957-1960)
• Montserrat Roig, Tiempo de cerezas (1977)
• José Luis Garci, Volver a empezar (film, 1982)