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The Short Story of the Spanish Golden Age

Module description

The ‘Golden Age’ of Spain, a designation which covers the majority of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, represents the Peninsular at her most receptive, innovative and dynamic. Her authors welcome European trends and combine them with native traditions and increasing literary confidence to produce texts which are distinctive and enduring. In this module, you will look at the genre of the short story, following its passage from the more simple and derivative forms found in collections such as Juan de Timoneda’s El patrañuelo (1567) to the sophisticated Novelas ejemplares (1613) of Cervantes, and beyond.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module provides the student both with an overview of a literary genre in the Spanish Golden Age and with specialised and detailed knowledge of specific texts in the Spanish short-story tradition. The student will learn how to analyse and interpret representative works from the key period of Spanish literary production, and how to relate them to their domestic and European cultural context. The course will enable the student to situate the short story and its evolution among the variety of other prose forms with which authors of the age were continually experimenting.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

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

• 1. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the texts covered in the module, and of the origins and development of the genre to which they belong.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

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

• 2. Analyse selected primary texts, relating them to significant elements in their historical, intellectual and generic context.
• 3. Mount a detailed argument in the appropriate register of English, mustering a range of textual or other evidence in its support.
• 4. Read, prioritise and utilise appropriately the secondary literature – in both English and the target language – recommended by the course tutor.
• 5. Pursue independently further avenues of primary and secondary reading, consulting if appropriate with the course tutor(s), and use these to compile a topic-specific bibliography.
• 6. Understand and use appositely a range of literary and critical terms.

ILO: Personal and key skills

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

• 7. Undertake defined learning activities with a measure of autonomy, asking for guidance where necessary.
• 8. Adopt a critical approach to the selection and organisation of material in order to produce coherently structured and expressed arguments.
• 9. Using course material provided and suggestions from the tutor(s), research, plan and write an essay on a chosen aspect of the subject, to a specified length and deadline.
• 10. Demonstrate general competence in word-processing and in the use of the Internet.

Syllabus plan

The antecedents and development the Spanish short story.

Timoneda’s Patrañuelo and the short story of the sixteenth century.

Cervantes: tradition and originality in the Novelas ejemplares.

The short story in Spain after Cervantes.

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)

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Cervantes, Miguel de, Novelas ejemplares, ed. by Harry Sieber, 2 vols. (Madrid: Cátedra, 2005)

Timoneda, Juan de, El patrañuelo, ed. by Rafael Ferreres (Madrid: Castalia, 1971)

Zayas, María de, Novelas amorosas y ejemplares, ed. by Julián Olivares (Madrid: Cátedra, 2000)

Key words search

Golden Age, Cervantes, short story, Early Modern, prose fiction