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Women and Feminism in 20th Century Spain

Module description

The twentieth-century witnessed the development of feminism as a political movement. This development is still ongoing. Feminist thought has also played an influential part in Spanish twentieth-century history. You will study the development of feminist thought and you will learn about the history of women in the most controversial century of Spanish history. A vast array of interesting sources will be used: novels, memoirs, press articles, TV and newspaper advertisements, songs, medical texts and legal texts. Understanding feminism and women’s history will incorporate a gender perspective into your understanding of reality and will make you understand Hispanic culture anew.

Module aims - intentions of the module

Women's role in Spanish society has changed rapidly, juggling tradition and modernity in a unique way. This module aims to:

• Understand the many discourses on female identity that exist and conflict within contemporary Spanish society in relation to the last hundred years of Spanish politics and history
• Analyse the extent to which this history has generated a distinctively Spanish brand of feminism
• Analyse the productivity of key concepts in gender theory, such as representation, subjectivity, repression and abjection
• Examine gender in relation to body and psyche, sex and sexuality, the individual and the social

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate detailed knowledge of relevant feminist thought and works and an understanding of their significance in the broader historical / literary / cultural context in which they were produced

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 2. After initial input from the course tutor, apply and evaluate critical approaches to the material under analysis independently
• 3. Argue at length and in detail about an aspect of the topic, supporting the argument with evidence from the texts and with opinions from secondary literature
• 4. Use a range of critical terminology, applying it to independently researched material as well as to material introduced by the course tutor
• 5. Access and use critically printed and, where appropriate, electronic learning resources identified as useful by the course tutor(s); find independently and evaluate critically other relevant resources
• 6. Analyse Spanish texts in a variety of genres and styles, showing awareness of their relation to the social, historical and generic context in which they were written, and present the results orally and in writing
• 7. Using recommended bibliographical tools, present a critical bibliography giving a balanced overview of an aspect of the subject

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 8. Negotiate individual assessment tasks and/or topics with course tutor(s), identifying own areas of strength and interest
• 9. Undertake independent research on the basis of a taught course
• 10. Manage own learning time and learning activities with minimal guidance from course tutor(s)
• 11. Present information and arguments on a designated or negotiated topic to a group of listeners and respond to questions and responses from the group
• 12. Adopt a critical approach to the selection and organisation of a large body of material in order to produce, to a deadline, a written or oral argument of some complexity
• 13. Present a cogent and sustained argument orally / in writing, in English / in Spanish, on an aspect of the subject of the student's own choosing, and selecting appropriate methods of exposition
• 14. Using bibliographical material provided, select, plan and carry out a programme of study leading to an essay on a chosen topic, to a specified length and deadline or to an examination

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Introduction. Feminism and fin de sicle: The Origins of the Women's Liberation Movement. Europe and Spain
• La Segunda Repblica (1931-1936)
• Las madres de nuestro feminismo/ Mothers of Our Feminism
• La guerra civil, Women at war (1936-39)
• Mujer y franquismo (1939-1975)
• Student Centred Learning Week
• Reading Gender/ Leyendo el gnero
• Gnero y feminismo durante la transicin a la democracia/ Gender & feminism during the transition to democracy
• Representaciones de la mujer durante la transicin/ Representations of women during the transition to democracy
• Gnero y feminismo en la Espaa del nuevo milenio/ Gender & feminism in the new millennium
• Representaciones de la mujer en la Espaa del nuevo milenio/ Representations of women in the new millennium

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Set tests:

• Recuerdos de una mujer de la generación del 98 (Carmen Baroja Nessi)
• Nada (Carmen Laforet)
• La secreta guerra de los sexos (María Laffitte, condesa de Campo Alange)
• Malena es un nombre de tango (Almudena Grandes)

Other texts:

• Aguado, A. M. Capel, R. M.. et al. (eds.) (1994): Textos para la historia de las mujeres en España. Cátedra.
• Amat, Nuria (2000): El siglo de las mujeres. Ediciones del bronce.
• Arenal, Concepción (1974): La emancipación de la mujer en España. Júcar.
• Campoamor, Clara, El voto femenino y yo . Madrid: horas y HORAS.
• Capdevila-Argüelles, Nuria (2008): Autoras inciertas. Voces olvidadas de nuestro feminismo . Madrid: horas y HORAS.
• de la Fuente, Inmaculada (2002): Mujeres de la posguerra . Planeta.
• Freixas, Laura (ed.) (2000): Ser mujer . Ediciones Temas de hoy.
• Gamble, Sarah (1999): The Routledge Critical Dictionary of Feminism and Postfeminism . Routledge
• (2001): Las modernas de Madrid . Península
• Mangini, Shirley (1995) Memories of resistance : Women's voices from the Spanish Civil War . Yale U.P
• Jones, Anny B. (1997): Women in Contemporary Spain . Manchester University Press.
• Martín Gaite, Carmen (1994, 1987): Usos amorosos de la posguerra española. Colección Compactos. Anagrama
• Montero R. (1995): ‘Political Transition and Cultural Democracy: Coping with the Speed of Change’ (pp.315-320) & ‘The Silent Revolution: The Social and Cultural Advances of Women in Democratic Spain’ (pp. 381-385) in Graham, H. & Labanyi, J. (eds.) (1995): Spanish Cultural Studies. An Introduction. The Struggle for Modernity . O.U.P.
• Oyarzabal, Isabel. Mujer, voto y libertad. Edicion de Amparo Quiles Faz, Renacimiento.
• Preston, Paul (2001): Palomas de guerra . Plaza & Janés Editores. English version, Harper Collins.
• Scanlon, Geraldine M. (1976): La polémica feminista en la España contemporánea (1868-1974) . Siglo XXI de España editores.

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE – https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=1446