Gwybodaeth Modiwlau
Course Delivery
Delivery Type | Delivery length / details |
---|---|
Lecture | Ten 1-hour lectures |
Seminars / Tutorials | Ten 1-hour seminars to be conducted directly after lectures, on same day |
Assessment
Assessment Type | Assessment length / details | Proportion |
---|---|---|
Semester Assessment | Semester assessment Three 500-word text commentaries | 20% |
Semester Assessment | Semester assessment One 1000-word paper | 30% |
Semester Assessment | Semester assessment One final essay (2500 words) | 40% |
Semester Assessment | Semester assessment Attendance and participation | 10% |
Supplementary Exam | 3 Hours Supplementary exam One 2-hour examination if continuous assessment submitted. / One 3-hour examination if no continuous assessment submitted. | 100% |
Learning Outcomes
1. Participate in debates about the local and transatlantic ramifications of a period of complete or partial post-coloniality in Spanish America;
2. Demonstrate a firm grasp of the intersections of history and narrative in Latin America during the 19th and 20th centuries;
3. Demonstrate familiarity with some of the most influential critical texts surrounding these issues;
4. Develop their own lines of inquiry about the topics at hand, under careful guidance;
5. Engage in oral discussions and (brief and extended) written exercises inspired by the issues raised throughout the module.
Aims
This module exposes students to some of the most representative narrative moments in the history of Latin American letters after the Wars of Independence of the 1820s. Looking at the work of practitioners like Domingo Sarmiento, Jose Marti, Ruben Dario, Jorge Luis Borges and Manuel Puig, it asks students in Year 2 to engage in debates centred around issues of cultural sovereignty and the aesthetics of self-representation in the wake of the extrication from the tutelage of Spanish empire.
Brief description
What happens after the colonising country is removed from the sphere of national self-definition? How do the republics of Spanish America, and the still-possessed islands of the Caribbean, envision the future of their self-representation after Independence in the 1820s? How do these issues manifest themselves on the level of language? In this module, students will be asked to critically engage texts ranging from the initial expressions of discovery to focus on the discourses of nation and narration in the 19th and 20th centuries. Two-hour class meetings (combining one hour of lecture and one of seminar discussion) organized around the rubric of ten (10) weekly 'themes' or units, will allow the students to analyse and discuss the historical, narrative, and aesthetic development of Spanish American expression until the late 20th century.
Content
1. Introduction: Discovery, 'Marvellous Possession' and the Path to Postcoloniality
2. Anxieties of Influence: The European Tradition and the Invention of Spanish American Language
3. Civilization and Barbarism: The Invention of a National Self and its Others
4. The Literature of 'costumbrismo': Local colour and regional expression
5. Lettered Cities and the Urban Writers of the 'fin de siglo'
6. 'Modernismo' and Our America
7. The 1920s and 1930s: 'Novelas de la tierra' and the reappraisal of regional literature
8. From Rulfo to the 'Boom': The mid-twentieth century
9. Magical Realism and its discontents: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
10. The gendered subjectivities of Spanish America: Manuel Puig.
Module Skills
Skills Type | Skills details |
---|---|
Application of Number | n/a |
Communication | Oral communication developed in seminars; written communication developed in series of papers |
Improving own Learning and Performance | Students will be able to assess their own progress week by week through their increased understanding of the issues raised and the skills developed, as well as through the continuous assessment of their writing and comprehension skills in the paper assignments |
Information Technology | Use of online journals and source collections; delivery of course materials and information via email and e-learning system |
Personal Development and Career planning | Acquisition of transferable skills; in-depth acquaintance with the intersections of literature and history as a comparative academic subject |
Problem solving | Selecting appropriate reading material; developing evaluative analysis and critical skills and formulating a detailed argument |
Research skills | Research preparation of written assessments; search for appropriate material in journals and texts of fiction and non-fiction; preparation for seminars |
Subject Specific Skills | Acquisition of regional Spanish-American vocabularies from different countries |
Team work | Debates and small-group discussions in seminars |
Reading List
Should Be PurchasedBorges, Jorge Luis (1997) Ficciones Madrid: Alianza Editorial Primo search Cabrera Infante, Guillermo, Julio Cortázar and José Donoso (2006) Tierra marcada: Antología de cuentos latinoamericanos del siglo XX Madrid: Alfaguara Primo search Dario, Rubén (1995) Azul... Cantos de vida y esperanza Madrid: Cátedra Primo search Güiraldes, Ricardo (1978) Don Segundo Sombra Madrid: Cátedra Primo search García Márquez, Gabriel (2006) La increíble y triste historia de la cándida Eréndira y de su abuela desalmada Madrid: Plaza y Janés Primo search Martí, José (1995) Ensayos y crónicas Madrid: Cátedra Primo search Puig, Manuel (2006) El beso de la mujer araña Barcelona: Seix Barral Primo search Rulfo, Juan (1985) El llano en llamas Madrid: Cátedra Primo search
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 5