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Spanish Modernists: Narratives of Identity, Gender and Nation

Module description

What is Modernism? On this module, you will study the ways in which Modernism manifested itself in Spanish literary fiction alongside other art forms in the early twentieth century. You will consider the ways in which Modernists engaged with the emergence at the turn of the century of new ideas about reality and perception, and powerful debates about identity, gender and nation that were fuelled by historical events such as the 1898 disaster.

You will begin by looking at an example of Picasso’s Cubist paintings, before going on to study three works of fiction by well-known Spanish authors who belong to this period of cultural brilliance and innovation. From best-sellers to canonical fiction, you will consider how the texts reflect or resist established cultural categories and hierarchies, including a long-standing critical emphasis on Hispanic literary generations.

Students should have MLS 2001 Spanish Language or equivalent to take this module.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module analyses the development of Spanish Modernism in the early twentieth century, a period of striking innovation and experimentation in European literature and culture. You will consider works of fiction in the context of contemporary debates about identity, gender and representation in early twentieth-century Spain. By examining the texts as examples of the development of Modernism, we will ask why the Spanish novel of this period has traditionally been excluded from the European mainstream.

In any given year you will study a selection of the following areas: Realism, Naturalism and Modernism; selfhood and its representation; national identity and regenerationism; the femme fatale, gender and the New Woman; artistic form and techniques; canonical and popular fiction.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

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

• 1. Demonstrate detailed knowledge of the chosen works of early-twentieth-century Spain, and an understanding of their significance in the broader literary and 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 text and with opinions from secondary literature.
• 4. Use a range of literary-critical terminology, applying it to independently researched material as well as to material introduced by the course tutor.
• 5. Use a range of literary-critical terminology, applying it to independently researched material as well as to material introduced by the course tutor.

ILO: Personal and key skills

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

• 6. Negotiate individual assessment tasks and/or topics with the course tutor, identifying your own areas of strength and interest.
• 7. 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.
• 8. Present information and arguments on a designated or negotiated topic to a group of listeners and respond to questions and responses from the group.

Syllabus plan

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

• Introduction: Realism, Modernismand the ‘Generation of 1898’
• Picasso, Les Demoiselles D’Avignon (painting, 1906)
• The artist’s journey: Baroja, Camino de perfección (novel, 1902)
• Valencia and the femme fatale: Blasco Ibáñez, Cañas y barro (novel, 1902)
• The anti-novel: Unamuno, Niebla (novel 1914)

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

Primary Texts (to be purchased by the student):
You are expected to read the novels before the start of the module.

• Baroja, Pío, Camino de perfección (Caro Raggio)
• Blasco Ibáñez, Vicente, Cañas y barro (Alianza)
• Unamuno, Miguel de, Niebla (Cátedra)

Secondary Reading:

• Bradbury, Malcolm and James McFarlane, eds., Modernism: A Guide to European Literature 1890-1930 (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1991)
• Carillo, Beatriz Celaya, La mujer deseante: sexualidad femenina en la cultura y novela españolas (1900-1936) (Newark: Juan de la Cuesta, 2006)
• Harrison, Joseph and Alan Hoyle (eds.), Spain’s 1898 Crisis: Regenerationism, Modernism, Postcolonialism (Manchester: Manchester Univ. Press, 2000)
• Johnson, Roberta, Gender and Nation in the Spanish Modernist Novel (Vanderbilt University Press, 2003)
• Kirkpatrick, Susan, Mujer, modernismo y vanguardia en España (1898-1931) (Universidad de Valencia, 2003)
• Murphy, Katharine, Bodies of Disorder: Gender and Degeneration in Baroja and Blasco Ibáñez (Cambridge: Legenda / MHRA, 2017)
• Orringer, N. R. (ed), ‘Hispanic Modernisms’, Bulletin of Spanish Studies, Special Issue, 79 (2-3) 2002
• Otis, Laura, Organic Memory: History and the Body in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994)
• Soufas, C. Christopher, The Subject in Question: Early Contemporary Spanish Literature and Modernism (Washington: The Catholic University of America Press, 2007)
• Tsuchiya, Akiko, Marginal Subjects. Gender and Deviance in fin-de-siècle Spain (University of Toronto Press, 2011)

Key words search

Modernism, Naturalism, Spanish literature, gender, identity, representation