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An Introduction to the Hispanic World: Texts in Context

Module description

How does Hispanic culture engage with politics, society and history? What makes Hispanic culture so widely known? What can you learn from the work of acclaimed writers and directors such as Ramón J. Sender and Carlos Saura? This course introduces you to key themes and lines of enquiry relevant to modern and contemporary Hispanism through film and text. Texts may be used in translation or parallel text and films are available with subtitles. Your confidence to read in the target language will develop as the term progresses and your knowledge of the language increases.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The aim of this core module is to:

• Introduce you to a representative sample of Hispanic texts and films from a variety of genres and periods
• Acquaint you with the salient thematic emphases and motifs of key works and their essential historical background
• Familiarise you with the principal socio-cultural issues underpinning Hispanic creative work by way of preparation for the later study of more specific elements of Hispanic historical culture

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

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

• 1. Demonstrate familiarity with and understanding of a range of canonical Hispanic texts and films

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

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

• 2. Describe and evaluate, under guidance from the course tutor, key critical responses and apply standard critical approaches to the material. Recognise the existence of differing critical responses to the material
• 3. Mount an argument in sound written English using textual or other evidence
• 4. Recognise, understand and use critical terminology
• 5. With initial guidance, navigate the relevant subject areas of the University Library and access and use learning resources specified by the course tutor(s)
• 6. Read and analyse passages from texts/ scenes from films, relating them to specified aspects of their cultural and historical context
• 7. Use a reading list to identify material relevant to a given aspect of the subject. Show ability to give bibliographical information accurately and consistently, following established guidelines

ILO: Personal and key skills

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

• 8. Assimilate, select and organise material in order to produce, to a deadline, a written argument
• 9. Present cogent arguments on a specified topic and following guidelines provided

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:

• Texts and Contexts
• Lazarillo de Tormes
• Ramón J. Sender, Réquiem por un campesino español
• Carlos Saura, Cría cuervos
• Latin American short stories

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

Basic reading:

• Lazarillo de Tormes
• Ramón J. Sender, Réquiem por un campesino español
• Short Stories in Spanish [Penguin Parallel Text], ed. by John R. King (London: Penguin, 1999)

Secondary reading:

• Bordwell, D and Thompson, K   Film Art: an Introduction (New York, Magraw-Hill, 1990).
• Cuddon, J A     The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory (London, Penguin, any recent edition)
• Davies, C, The Companion to Hispanic Studies (London, Arnold, 2002)
• Gies, D T, The Cambridge Companion to Modern Spanish Culture (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1999)
• Graham, H and Labanyi, J, Spanish Cultural Studies: an Introduction.  The Struggle for Modernity (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1995)
• Hart, S, A Companion to Spanish-American Literature (Woodbridge, Tamesis, 2001)
• Hart, S and Young, R,  Contemporary Latin American Cultural Studies (London, Arnold, 2003)
• Hopewell, J, Out of the Past: Spanish Cinema after Franco (London, British Film Institute, 1986)
• Jordan, B and Morgan-Tamosunas, R Contemporary Spanish Cinema (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1998)
• Perriam, C et al, A New History of Spanish Writing 1939 to the 1990s (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2000)
• Stone, R, Spanish Cinema (London, Longman and Pearson, 2002)
• Walters, D G, The Cambridge Introduction to Spanish Poetry: Spain and Spanish America (Cambridge, Cambridge University

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE – https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=1927

Key words search

Lazarillo, Saura, Sender, Almodóvar