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Study information

Staging Conflicts: Spanish Romantic Drama

Module titleStaging Conflicts: Spanish Romantic Drama
Module codeMLS3068
Academic year2023/4
Credits15
Module staff

(Convenor)

Duration: Term123
Duration: Weeks

11

Number students taking module (anticipated)

30

Module description

Spanish Romantic drama came to the stage at a crucial point in national history, when Spain had recently been occupied by Napoleon’s armies and when constitutional liberalism had come to the fore as an ideological force; ‘liberal’ as a political designation first coheres in the course of the Peninsular War. The age was dominated by political conflicts and the emergence of a radical questioning of traditional values and societal structures.

You will consider in detail the intimate challenges enunciated in plays first performed between 1835 and 1844, embedded in a world where orthodoxies of all kinds were being questioned in the light of post-revolutionary experience and where a new and modern literary and wider aesthetic sensibility was in the process of development.

In order to study this course, you will need to have successfully completed MLS2001 at Level 2. It is particularly recommended to those of you wishing to pursue the pathway initiated with MLS2060 at Level 2.

Module aims - intentions of the module

You will consider four canonical plays from the Spanish Romantic period. In each of them, the male protagonist is a marginalised figure due to his ethnicity, social class or status, or by the reputation he has acquired as a renegade. In each case, he is in love, or falls in love, with a young woman of impeccable aristocratic credentials who will return his affections but feel herself constrained by the demands of a patriarchal society and an honour code that conspire to forbid her personal happiness.

Human love acquires many of the call-signs of religious faith, and the loving relationship is portrayed as something upon which personal salvation or damnation are felt to depend. This ‘theology of love’ contests with traditional religious faith, and the plays show the two as either conflictive or as vital impulses which can be precariously reconciled. Physical death is the inevitable outcome for the main characters, but their love is depicted as surviving that death and bringing eternal reward.

You will therefore consider a drama that shows personal aspiration as a form of rebellion, against social structures or by the defiance of patriarchy and the assertion of female independence. 

This is a research-led module on which the convenor has published widely in the form of books and articles.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

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

  • 1. Demonstrate a confident understanding of the chosen texts, including reference to their place in the historical/ literary/ cultural context of their time
  • 2. Acquire a firm understanding of the place of these texts in Spain’s developing cultural history

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

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

  • 3. Evaluate and apply, with tutorial support, a range of critical approaches to the material covered
  • 4. Mount a detailed argument in the appropriate register of English, mustering a range of textual or other evidence in support

ILO: Personal and key skills

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

  • 5. Use recommended reference works to compile a bibliography, within chronological or thematic parameters, on a specific topic
  • 6. Show awareness of the nature of cultural difference

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that the term will begin with a short series of lectures aimed at providing a thorough contextualisation of the plays, under headings germane to the aims of the module. These may include:

  • Definitions of Romanticism
  • The sublimation within Romantic drama of human love
  • Challenges to traditional social structures in the nineteenth century
  • The religious dimension within which the plays are enacted
  • The liberation of the Romantic heroine from forms of constraint

The module will proceed through student-led seminars on defined topics attaching to each of the four plays in turn, and will cover a wide range of targeted specific issues. It is envisioned that this will cover:

  • Religious questioning
  • Symbolism in drama
  • The relevance of historical setting
  • The perception of the Romantic artist
  • Depictions of the exotic
  • Challenges to the prevailing honour code
  • Death and the beyond as imagined and performed
  • Romantic stagecraft
  • Dichotomies of physical and spiritual
  • The evolving role of the dramatic heroine

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

Scheduled Learning and Teaching ActivitiesGuided independent studyPlacement / study abroad
161340

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

CategoryHours of study timeDescription
Scheduled Learning and Teaching5Lectures (whole-group contextual introduction)
Scheduled Learning and Teaching10Seminars (interpretation and analysis of texts led by student presentations)
Scheduled Learning and Teaching1Conclusion
Guided Independent Study134Private study

Formative assessment

Form of assessmentSize of the assessment (eg length / duration)ILOs assessedFeedback method
Presentation plan750 words1-6Written and face-to-face

Summative assessment (% of credit)

CourseworkWritten examsPractical exams
10000

Details of summative assessment

Form of assessment% of creditSize of the assessment (eg length / duration)ILOs assessedFeedback method
Essay on agreed topic1003000 words1-6Feedback sheet
0
0
0
0
0

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

Original form of assessmentForm of re-assessmentILOs re-assessedTimescale for re-assessment
EssayEssay1-6Referral/Deferral period

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

  • Duque de Rivas, Don Alvaro, o la fuerza del sino (any edition)
  • Antonio García Gutiérrez, El trovador (any edition)
  • Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch, Los amantes de Teruel (the edition should be one of the original 1837 version of the play in five acts)
  • José Zorrilla, Don Juan Tenorio (any edition)

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

Key words search

Drama, Romantic, Religion, Patriarchy, Rebellion

Credit value15
Module ECTS

7.5

Module pre-requisites

MLS2001 or equivalents

Module co-requisites

None

NQF level (module)

6

Available as distance learning?

No

Origin date

15/01/2018

Last revision date

28/01/2019