HISPANIC STUDIES

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr T R Stack

Pre-requisites

None.

Overview

This course focuses on Latin American cultural history, from pre-conquest 'America' to the present day. It explores key themes in Latin American cultural experience as they are presented in a variety of written and visual texts, including monuments and codices, explorer and missionary accounts, history and ethnography, fiction and film, songs, rituals, and rebel communiqués.

Structure

3 one-hour lectures/seminars a week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 essay (40%), 1 two-hour examination (40%) and in-course assessment (20%).

Resit: written examination (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Ms S Domingo

Pre-requisites

No previous knowledge of the language required.

Notes

Not available to students qualified for Spanish Language 2, 3, 4 or higher level courses and/or native speakers of Spanish. Students with little knowledge of the language will sit a placement test to ensure they have been allocated to the appropriate level course.

Overview

The course will involve three closely integrated classes per week to develop speaking, writing and listening skills, and a further hour to assist students towards the rapid acquisition of spoken Spanish.

Structure

3 one-hour classes per week; one further tutorial per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%), in-course assessment: written exercises (30%), class test (10%) and oral skills (10%).

In order to pass the course, students must pass the written examination and oral skills element of assessment and present themselves for all elements of assessment.

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Ms S Domingo

Pre-requisites

Spanish Language 1 or Higher or A level Spanish or equivalent.

Notes

Not available to students qualified for Spanish Language 1, 3, 4 or higher level courses and/or native speakers of Spanish. Students who have not recently completed Spanish Language 1 will sit a placement test to ensure they have been allocated to the appropriate level course.

Overview

The course will involve three closely integrated classes per week to develop speaking, writing and listening skills, and a further hour to assist students towards the rapid development of basic communicative fluency.

Structure

3 one-hour classes per week; one further tutorial per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%); in-course assessment: written exercises (30%), class test (10%) and oral skills (10%).

In order to pass the course, students must pass the written examination and oral skills element of assessment and present themselves for all elements of assessment.

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr J A Biggane

Pre-requisites

None.

Notes

This course is compulsory for students on the MA Honours Programme in Hispanic Studies.

Overview

This course focuses on cultural history in the Iberian peninsula, from the early medieval period to the present day. It explores selected key social and political history themes as they are presented in a variety of written and visual texts, which will include some of the following: contemporaneous accounts, narrative fiction, graphic fiction, poetry, film, visual arts and architecture. All texts studied will be available in English translation.

Structure

3 one-hour lectures per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%), essay 1,500 words (50%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (40%); essay (40%); presentation (10%); short written assignment (10%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Ms S Domingo

Pre-requisites

Spanish Language 2 or equivalent.

Notes

Not available to students qualified for Spanish Language 1, 2, 4 or higher level courses and/or native speakers of Spanish. Students who have not recently completed Spanish Language 2 will sit a placement test to ensure they have been allocated to the appropriate level course.

Overview

The course will involve three closely integrated classes per week to develop speaking, writing and listening skills, and a further hour to assist students towards the rapid development of communicative fluency. In addition to the three weekly classes, students follow a programme of private audio-visual study (1 hour per week) in the Language Centre.

Structure

3 one-hour classes per week; one further tutorial per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (40%); in-course assessment: written exercises (30%), class test (10%) and oral skills (20%).

In order to pass the course, students must pass the written examination and oral skills element of assessment and present themselves for all elements of assessment.

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Ms S Domingo

Pre-requisites

Spanish Language 3 or equivalent. Not available to students qualified for Spanish Language 1, 2, 3 or higher level courses and/or native speakers of Spanish.

Notes

Students who have not recently completed Spanish Language 3 will sit a placement test to ensure they have been allocated to the appropriate level course.

Overview

The course will involve two closely integrated classes per week to develop speaking, writing and listening skills, and a further hour to assist students towards the rapid development of communicative fluency. In addition to the three weekly classes, students follow a programme of private audio-visual and phonetics study (1 hour per week) in the Language Centre.

Structure

2 one-hour seminars per week; one further tutorial per week (plus one-hour private study in the Language Centre).

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (40%) and in-course assessment: written exercises (30%), class test (10%) and oral skills (20%).

In order to pass the course, students must pass the written examination and oral skills element of assessment and present themselves for all elements of assessment.

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Ms S Domingo

Pre-requisites

Spanish Language 4.

Notes

Not available to native speakers of Spanish.

Overview

This course provides training in Spanish through guided readings of landmark literary texts from Spain and Latin America. Emphasis is on reading skills, strengthening of grammar, and syntax. The cousre will involve two closely integrated classes per week to develop speaking, writing and comprehension skills, and a further hour to assist students towards consolidation of communicative accuracy and fluency. In addition to the three weekly classes, students folllow a programme of private audio and audio-visual study in the Language Centre.

Structure

3 one-hour seminars per week (plus 1-1.5 hours private study in the Language Centre).

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%), 1 oral examination (20%) and 1 in-class test (10%), 2 written assessments (10%) and 1 oral project (10%).

In order to pass the course, students must pass the written examination and oral skills element of assessment and present themselves for all elements of assessment.

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (70%), oral examination (30%). Candidates pass both elements.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor D James

Pre-requisites

Spanish Language Level 1 and Spanish Language Level 2 or equivalent.

Overview

This course explores themes and issues raised by written and visual texts from Latin America. The texts will be related to their local and international contexts of production and consumption. The course aims to equip students with analytical skills in preparation for more advanced study of literary and visual texts at Honours level, but is also suitable for students not intending to proceed to Honours.

Structure

Two 1.5 hour seminars/lectures per week - Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 mid-term written in-class examination (35%); 1 two-hour final written examination (40%); in-class exercises (25%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr J Biggane

Pre-requisites

Spanish Language Level 1 and Spanish Language Level 2, or equivalent.

Overview

This course explores questions raised by written and visual texts from Spain from the early modern to the contemporary period. The texts will be related to their local and international contexts of production and consumption. The course aims to equip students with analytical skills in preparation for more advanced study of literary and visual texts at Honours level, but is also suitable, and useful for students not intending to proceed to Honours.

Structure

Two 1.5 hour seminars/lectures per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Final written examination (40%); Continuous Assessment: 1 essay (40%): Seminar Assessment (10%); short written commentaries (10%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (100%).

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr T Stack

Pre-requisites

Available only to candidates in European Studies in Programme Year 3.

Notes

This course is run over the full session.

Overview

Prose passages for translation.

Assessment

1st Attempt: In-course assessment (100%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr T Stack

Pre-requisites

Available only to Honours candidates in European Studies in Programme Year 3.

Overview

Prose passages for translation.

Assessment

1st Attempt: In-course assessment (100%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (100%).

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Ms S Domingo

Pre-requisites

SP 2518. May be taken only by students not taking Honours in Hispanic Studies.

Notes

This course is run over the full session.

Overview

This course will be based on a series of topic areas aiming at covering as wide a range of vocabulary and linguistic registers as possible, with particular emphasis on those areas related to current affairs. Reading and writing skills will be developed through a series of contemporary written materials. Listening and speaking skills will be developed through the use of audio-visual material and different oral activities in class. Particular emphasis will be placed on those grammatical areas which are likely to cause difficulties to students.

Structure

3 one-hour classes per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 three-hour written examination (50%), in-course assessment (30%), oral skills in-course assessment (10%) and oral examination (10%).

Resit: 1 three-hour written examination (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr J Biggane

Pre-requisites

SP 2518 (Level 2 Spanish Language 2) or equivalent. This course may be taken only by Junior Honours Mode B candidates in Hispanic Studies while studying or working in a Spanish-speaking country.

Notes

This course is open only to mode B Junior Honours students of Hispanic Studies, fulfilling their residence requirements in a Spanish-speaking country.

Overview

This course contains a variety of advanced language exercises designed to further develop students' linguistic competence while they are residing in a Spanish-speaking country.

Structure

Required field work; regular submission of written and/or recorded material by correspondence.

Assessment

1st Attempt: In-course assessment (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr T R Stack

Pre-requisites

Only available to students in Programme Year 3.

Notes

This course may NOT be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 4088 (Citizenship in Latin America B).

Overview

This course focuses on the principles and practices of citizenship across Latin America. It begins by considering different models of citizenship and then looks at the application of those models across diverse contexts in Latin America.

Structure

1 two-hour lecture/seminar per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Two essays (50% each).

Resit: Two essays (50% each).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr T R Stack

Pre-requisites

SP 2518. May be taken only by students not pursuing Hispanic Studies at Honours level.

Overview

This course will be based on a series of topic areas, aiming to cover a selected range of vocabulary, grammar and registers, with a particular emphasis on current affairs. Reading and Writing will be developed through a selection of contemporary written materials. Listening and speaking skills will be developed through the use of audio-visual and selected oral activities in class. Particular emphasis will be placed on selected grammar points likely to cause difficulties to students.

Structure

3 one-hour classes per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 ninety minute written examination (50%) in-course assessment (30%), oral skills assessment (20%).

Resit: 1 ninety minute written examination (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor A Moreiras

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2009/10. This course may not be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 4095 (Colonial Chronicles IB).

Overview

This course studies some of the most important sixteenth chronicles concerning the New World. Primary texts - written by Cristobal Colon, Bartolome de las Casas, Gines de Sepulveda, Hernan Cortes, Fray Toribio de Benavente, Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Jose de Acosta, and Garcilaso de la Vega el Inca - will be complemented by critical and historiographical literature. The class will be conducted in Spanish.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Essay (3,000 word essay) (100%).

Resit: Written examination (2 hours) (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr N Arruti

Pre-requisites

240 credit points. Normally only available to students in Programme Year 3.

Notes

This course may NOT be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 4096 (Basque Culture: Memory and Modernity B). It will be available in 2009/10 and in alternate sessions thereafter.

Overview

This course reflects a current and growing interest in the autochthonous in an increasingly global environment. It aims to reflect the plurality of cultures and the conflict between peripheral politics and central government in the Spanish peninsula. It will analyse the various definitions of nationalism that have offered specific constructions of the Basque nation throughout history. Moreover, it will explore realities and myths surrounding the Nationalist ideology. In order to teach this multifaceted phenomenon, the approach will be an interdisciplinary one, building on historical, political and cultural discourses within the field.

Structure

1 two-hour lecture/seminar per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: In-course assessment (100%): two essays.

Resit: Essay (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor A Moreiras

Pre-requisites

This course is only available to students in Programme Year 3 or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

This course will not be available in session 2009/10. Class will be conducted in Spanish. This course cannot be taken as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 4098.

Overview

The course studies the life and work of Argentinean author Jorge Luis Borges. Particular attention will be paid to Borges' mature fiction and essays. A biographical study will be conducted on the basis of Edwin Williamson and Emir Rodriguez Monegal's biographies, as well as Adolfo Bioy Casares's extensive diary entries concerning his friendship with Borges.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar meeting per week, including lecture and discussion.

Assessment

1st Attempt: In-course assessment; one essay (3,000 words) (80%); oral presentation (20%).

Resit: Essay (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr N Arruti

Pre-requisites

Normally only available to students in Programme Year 3.

Notes

This course may NOT be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 40AA (Basque Arts: The Conflict of Belonging B). It will be available in 2010/11 and in alternate sessions thereafter.

Overview

This course focuses on Basque literature and visual arts from the 1898 period onwards. The course will study both traditions of writers writing in Spanish and those writing in Basque (for the purpose of this course read in Spanish). The Basque writing tradition in Spanish language will be studied from the critical framework for the “minor literature”; their problematic insertion into the Spanish canon will also be explored. The tensions between the local and global will also be studied in the visual media, from the interest in Basque art exclusively from the anthropological perspective, to the current global spectacle created by the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.

Structure

1 two-hour lecture/seminar per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: In-course assessment (100%): two essays.

Resit: Essay (100%).

Credit Points

5

Course Coordinator

Professor T Vilarόs-Soler

Pre-requisites

Available only to Honours candidates in Programme Year 3 or above or by permission of the Head of School.

Overview

This seminar programme covers a broad range of topics embracing political, philosophical, social and aesthetic issues, and aims to broaden and deepen students' understanding of major questions and debates within the field of Hispanic Studies, placing this field within a wider humanities-study context. It aims to help students prepare for honours study, the Hispanic Studies dissertation and beyond. The programme will combine tutor-led discussion, visiting lectures and student-led seminars.

Structure

6 two-hour seminars (in alternate weeks).

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 oral presentation (100%).

Resit: 1 oral presentation (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr J Biggane

Pre-requisites

240 credit points (including SP 2518) including Spanish language 4 or equivalent. Normally only available to students in Programme Year 3.

Overview

This course aims to extend and refine students’ practical translation skills from Spanish into English. It will also introduce students to selected key issues in translation studies and theory, and enable students to think critically about linguistic, political, cultural, and philosophical issues associated with translation from Spanish into English. Students will translate texts on a variety of topics using a variety of discourses, evaluating published translations, discussing, analysing and engaging with different translation theories and strategies, and will produce annotated translations.

Structure

1 two-hour lecture/seminar per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Continuous assessment: five written exercises (12% each), and 1 two-hour written examination (40%).

Resit: 1 extended translation exercise (40%), 1 two-hour written exercise (60%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr J Biggane

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above, or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

This course will be available in 2009/10. This course may not be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 40BD Historical Memory in Contemporary Spanish Literature and Film B. This course will be taught in Spanish.

Overview

Over the last twenty years, the Spanish Civil War has become subject to intense interest and debate in Spanish cultural production, civil society and state policy, the latter culminating in the 2007 "Law of Historical Memory". This course will engage in critical study and theoretical analysis of Spanish literature and film of the 1990s and 2000s that represents the Civil War within this context. The course will interrogate the concept of "historical memory", and the complex relations between the contemporary socio-political conjuncture in Span and the need/desire to remember or commemorate the events and victims of 1936-1939.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Continuous Assessment: two x 2,000 word essays (50% each)

Resit: Two 2000-word essays (50% each).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor D James

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 4 or above or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

This course may not be taken as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 40JA Life and Times of Evita Peron B. This course will be available in 2010/11.

Overview

This course aims to introduce the student to the various aspects of Evita Peron's life and career. Evita Peron was a crucial figure in the history of twentieth-century Argentina combining a wide array of roles from Argentina's First Lady, champion of the underprivilidged, militant feminist to religious icon and revolutionary symbol after her death. The seminar will be structured around the study of a range of historical documents, and visual and cultural artifacts and texts. In the course of the seminar the student will also be introduced to some crucial theoretical concepts such as "populism" and "gender" essential to understand twentieth-century Latin American.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Continuous assessment: essay 3,000 words (80%); presentation (10%); seminar participation (10%).

Resit: Essay (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor D James

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in programme year 3 or above or by permission of the Head of School.

Co-requisites

Normally two of the following courses: SP2518, SP2524, SP2024, SP2525, SP2526, SP2529, SP2028.

Notes

This course will be available in 2009-10. This course may not be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP40JB Contemporary Argentina : Film and Literature in Historical Context B.

Overview

This course introduces the student to a broad range of themes that help to make up contemporary Argentine culture. By studying a variety of literary and visual texts the course aims to help the student understand the complex nature of the various cross currents that make up the contemporary Argentine cultural and political scene. Among the themes covered are: Peronism, the legacy of Argentina’s authoritarian past, current debates about human rights and commemorative strategies, the changing nature of gender roles and the construction of youth culture.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Continuous assessment: essay 3,000 words (80%); presentation (10%); seminar participation (10%).
Resit: Essay (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor A Moreiras

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in programme year 3 or above or by permission of the Head of School

Co-requisites

Either SP2518 or SP2026/SP2526

Notes

The class will be conducted in Spanish
This course will be available in 2009-10 and in alternate years thereafter. This course may not be taken as part of a graduating curriculum with SP40MA: Early Modern Spain B

Overview

This course studies fundamental literary texts of early modern Spain. Primary texts will be complemented by critical and historiographical literature.

Structure

One two-hour seminar per week

Assessment

1st attempt: 50% essay (1 x 2, 000 word essay); 50% exam
Resit: 100% written exam (2 hours)

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr T Stack

Pre-requisites

Available only to candidates in Programme Year 3 or above or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

This course may not be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 40SA: Democracy in Latin America B. This course will be available in 2010/11 and in alternate years thereafter. The course willl be taught in English.

Overview

There has been much talk of a "transition to democracy" in Latin America (just as in Spain and other countries). This course will interrogate that claim and, in the process, take a broad look at democracy in a variety of Latin American contexts. We will note the increase in electoral competition, but we will also ask other questions of that "democracy". Does electoral competition benefit everyone? Does democracy go beyond the vote? Is there more to citizenship than democracy? Must deomocracy be focused on government? Is civil society democratic? How important is the rule of law for democracy? Do the media facilitate or subvert democracy? How about other business interests? Can democracy be multicultural? What do coups and rebellions do to democracy? How does the idea of "democracy" play out internationally? Students will be encouraged to compare what they learn about democracy in Latin America with democracy in other countries, including Spain, the USA and the UK.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Essay 3,000 words (100%).

Resit: Essay 3,000 words (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr T Stack

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

This course is not available in 2009/10. This course may not be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 40SC (The Rule of Law in Latin America B).

Overview

This course will address recent debates about the rule of law in Latin America. Politicians across the continent (and in other parts of the world) have been proclaiming the virtues of the "rule of law". That is partly because international bodies such as World Bank are making rule-of-law reforms a condition of financial aid. But what do politicians mean by the rule of law, are they putting it into practice, and if so, with what consequences? For example, is the US supposed to be the model, and if so, does it live up to its ideals? Within Latin America, given the rhetoric about the rule of law, how can we explain the slow pace of judicial reform in the face of fast-paced electoral reform? Are governments themselves bound by the rule of law, or is it just for their citizens? And does the rule of law just serve the interests of political and economic elites? Or can it bring equality, and if so, what kind of equality? Is it enough to be equal before the law, or could the rule of law do better that that?

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Continuous assessment: two essays (40% each); seminar assessment (10%), short written sommentaries (10%).

Resit: Two essays (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor T Vilarós

Pre-requisites

Notes

This course will be available in 2009/10 and in alternate sessions thereafter. This course may not be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 40VA (Spain in the Sixties I: Banality and Biopolitics B)

Overview

This course engages in a theory-based analysis of the state-sponsored, mass-culture production put in place during the middle years of the Francoist dictatorship, in relation to the local launching of the Spanish mass-tourism industry and global Cold War politics. Texts studied include child-actress Marisol's film hits such as Fernando Palacio's Búsqueme a esa chica, official propaganda documentries like José Luis Sánchez de Heredia Franco, ese hombre, Pedro Lazaga's successful B-movies Los tramposos or EL turismo es un gran invento, as well as mass-pop music and TV programmes of the period.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week; and (one-hour film screening per week).

Assessment

1st Attempt: 2 written assignments (1,000 words each) (40% each), 1 final essay (3,000 words) (60%).

Resit: Written examination (2 hours) (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor T Vilarós

Pre-requisites

Available only to candidates in Programme Year 3 or above.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2009/10. This course may not be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 4592 (Spain in the Sixties II: La Escuela de Barcelona in Film and Literature B).

Overview

This course offers a theory-based analysis of two related movements of the sixties, one literary and one cinematic, known as La Escuela de Barcelona. The course engages with selected novels, poetry, and films produced by both schools in relation to broader left-wing ideologies and political aims of the period. Literary texts include novels and poetry by Juan, Jose Agustin, and Luis Goytsisolo, Gabriel Ferrater, Carlos Barral and Jaime Gil de Biedma. Cinematic texts include the avant-garde production of Joaquim Jordà, Jacint Esteve, Pere Portabella, Carles Duran, and Vincente Aranda.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Essay (4,000 word essay) (100%).

Resit: Written examination (2 hours) (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor A Moreiras

Pre-requisites

SP 3095 Colonial Chronicles IA

Notes

This course will not be available in 2009/10. This course may not be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 4593 (Colonial Chronicles IIB).

Overview

This honours seminar studies some of the most important chronicles concerning the New World from the mid 16th to the late 17th centuries. Primary texts - written by Garcilaso de la Vega el Inca, Pedro Cieze de Leon, Fernando de Alva lxlilxhochiti, and Fernando Alvarado Tezozomoc - will be complemented by critical and historiographical literature, notably books by Serge Gruzinski and J. H. Elliott. The class will be conducted in Spanish.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Essay (3,000 word) (100%).

Resit: Written examination (2 hours) (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor T M Vilarós

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above, or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2009/10. This course may not be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 4594 (Spanish Film) B. Available to Film Studies students also.

Overview

This course engages in a theory-based, critical study of the broad Spanish film production of the twentieth century in relation to the political. Texts studied include films by Buñuel, Heredia, Lucia, Maso, Bardem, Berlanga, Jorda, Patiño, Erice, Saura, film theory texts, and writings on political theory.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week for eleven weeks and weekly film screenings.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Essay (one 4,000 word essay) (100%).

Resit: 2 hour written examination (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor A Moreiras

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2009/10.

Class will be conducted in Spanish. This course cannot be taken as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 4598.

Overview

This course studies the contemporary novel in Latin America and Spain. It focuses on new tendencies. By targeting individual reading of some of the best authors of the present it aims to produce direct knowledge of the main problems confronting not just the Hispanic literary tradition today, but also the societies where they live. Spanish authors will be studied together with Argentinean, Peruvian, and Chilean.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar meeting per week, including lecture and discussion.

Assessment

1st Attempt: In-course assessment: Essay (3,000 words) (80%); oral presentation (20%).

Resit: Essay (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr N Arruti

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

This course may not be taken as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 45AA: Film and Visual Culture B. Available in 2010/11 and alternate sessions thereafter.

Overview

The first block of the course will engage in a theory-based, critical study of the broad Spanish film production of the twentieth-century. The second block of the course will study contemporary Latin-American cinema and photography in relation to the political. Materials studied within the course will include the following: film, painting, photography and architecture.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture and one-hour tutorial per week. Two-hour film screening per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Two 2,000-word essays (50% each).

Resit: Two 2,000-word essays (50% each).

Credit Points

5

Course Coordinator

Dr N Arruti

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

Compulsory course for Honours students in Hispanic Studies.

Overview

This course provides a foundation for students beginning research into the Hispanic Studies dissertation and, more generally, for other Honours-level assessments. Students will review the critical apparatus relevant to the topic chosen and will consider the approach and technique to be adopted in carrying it out.

Structure

6 one-hour seminars in alternate weeks.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Continuous assessment: bibliographical exercise (100%).

Resit: Continuous assessment: bibliographical exercise (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr N Arruti

Pre-requisites

240 credit points (including SP 2518). Normally only available to students in Programme Year 3.

Notes

This course may NOT be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 45AC (Representations of Violence in Spain and Latin America B). It will be available in 2009/10 and in alternate sessions thereafter.

Overview

The course will focus on narrative accounts that challenge the boundaries between personal and public spheres. One of the key themes of the course will be the power and limitation of linguistic communication when exploring the issue of political repression and Violence.

Structure

1 two-hour lecture/seminar per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Two 2,000-word essays (50% each).

Resit: Essay (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr J A Biggane

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in programme year 3 or above or by the permission of the Head of School.

Notes

This course will be available in 2010-11 and alternate years thereafter. This course may not be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 45BA Representations of Spain in UK Cultural Production 1975-2005 B.

Overview

This course examines visions and representations of Spain in UK cultural production (which may include music, literature, the essay, travel writing, visual arts, film and television) between 1975 and 2005. It will consider the ways in which such representations have altered (or have remained unaltered) in the forty years since the end of the Franco dictatorship, a period in which both countries underwent major political, economic, social and cultural change and entered global postmodernity. It will examine how textual constructions of Spain might be viewed as responding to various and shifting political and social needs, desires and fantasies played out in UK cultural production of the period.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week.

Assessment

1st attempt: 100% continuous assessment: 2 x 1,500-word essays (40%) each; oral presentation (10%) and regular brief oral and written assignments (10%).

Resit: 2 x 2,000-word essays.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Ms S Domingo

Pre-requisites

Spanish Language 4. May be taken only by Hispanic Studies candidates in their Junior Honours year.

Notes

Not open to students who have take SP 2027 / SP 2527 Spanish Language and Literature. Not available to native speakers of Spanish.

Overview

This course provides advanced training in Spanish through guided readings of landmark literary texts from Spain and Latin America. Emphasis is on reading skills, strengthening of grammar, and syntax. The course will involve two closely integrated classes per week to develop speaking, writing and comprehension skills, and a further hour to assist students towards consolidation of communicative accuracy and fluency. In addition to the three weekly clases, students follow a programme of private audio and audio-visual study in the Language Centre.

Structure

3 one-hour seminars per week (plus 1-1½ hours private study per week in the Language Centre).

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (50%), 1 in-class test (20%), 2 written assessments (20% and 1 oral project (10%). In order to pass the course, students must pass the written examination and oral skills element of assessment and present themselves for all elements of assignment.

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (70%), oral examination (30%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor D James

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above or by permission of the Head of School.

Co-requisites

Normally two of the following courses: SP 2518, SP 2524, SP 2024, SP 2525, SP 2526, SP 2529, SP 2028.

Notes

This course will be available in 2009/10. This course may not be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 45JA Revolutionary Political Texts in Twentieth Century Latin America B.

Overview

Latin America has been a site of intense social and political upheaval in the course of the 20th Century. Anarchist, Communist, Nationalist/Populist movements have sought to construct movements that challenged the repressive political, economic and social structures of their nations. This seminar will introduce the student to a number of key texts that represent these very different intellectual/political traditions. The readings will range from texts by early twentieth century anarchists in Mexico and Argentina to populist caudillos in mid-century Colombia to texts by urban and rural guerrilla leaders in the 1960s and 1970s. Finally the texts by late 20th century radical leaders such as Subcomandante Marcos and Evo Morales will be examined.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Continuous assessment: essay 3,000 words (80%); presentation (10%); seminar participation (10%).

Resit: Essay (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor A Moreiras

Pre-requisites

Available only to candidates in Programme Year 3 or above, or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

This course may not be taken as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 45MA: Mexican Visions B. The course will be conducted in Spanish. Available in 2010/11 and alternate sessions thereafter.

Overview

From DH Lawrence, B Traven, Antonin Artaud, Georges Bataille, Graham Greene to John Houston, Malcolm Lowry, Rebecca West, a number of Mexican representations by a foreign gaze have influenced Mexican self-understanding and the international place of Latin America in world culture. This course will attempt to understand these movements through careful attention to the authors named above.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar meeting per week, including lecture and discussion.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Continuous assessment: essay (3,000 words) (80%); presentation (10%); seminar participation (10%).

Resit: Essay (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor D James and Professor A Moreiras

Pre-requisites

Available only to candidates in Programme Year 3 or above or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

This course may not be taken as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 45MB: Spanish Civil War B. The course will be conducted in Spanish and English. The course will be available in 2010/11 and in alternate sessions thereafter.

Overview

The Spanish Civil War was the defining event of twentieth-century Spanish history and a defining moment in European history. This course aims to provide students with an understanding of the fundamental reasons for the conflict, the main participants and the long term consequences for Spain and the world. The course will draw upon a wide range of materials including historical documents, film and literary texts.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar meeting per week, including lecture and discussion.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Continuous assessment: essay 3,000 words (80%); presentation (10%); seminar participation (10%).

Resit: Essay (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor A Moreiras

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in programme year 3 or above or by permission of the Head of School

Co-requisites

Either SP2518 or SP2026/SP2526

Notes

This course will not be available in 2009-10. This course may not be taken as part of a graduating curriculum with SP45MC Latin America in Colonial times B.
The class will be conducted in Spanish.

Overview

This course studies some of the most important cultural and historical issues concerning the New World. Amongst the authors and topics it studies will be the Valladolid Controversy, the Destruccion de idolatrias processes, the establishments of Jesuit missions in the South, the ideologies regarding the second wave of colonization, and mestizo chroniclers such as Garcilaso de la Vega el Inca and Guaman Poma. Primary texts will be complemented by critical and historiographical literature. students will extend their understanding of the subject by means of independent research, setting the topics treated in an appropriately wide context, and synthesising and analysing material from a range of sources.

Structure

One two-hour seminar per week.

Assessment

1st attempt: Essay (one 2,000 word essay) (50%); written exam (50%).

Resit: Written exam (3 hours) (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor A Moreiras

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in programme year 3 or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

Class will be partially conducted in Spanish.

Overview

The course studies the history of war in Spain or its imperial possessions since the xvth century and/or Latin America since the beginning of the xixth century. Historical context and understanding will be complemented by a political analysis of the causes and consequences of wars, and their insertion into the contemporary world system.

Structure

One two hour seminar meeting, including lecture and discussion.

Assessment

1st attempt: One essay 3,000 words, 80%. Continuous assessment: Seminar Assessment 10%; short written commentaries 10%
Resit: Essay 100%

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr T Stack

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above, or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2009/10. This course may not be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 45SA (Politics in Mexico B).

Overview

This course gives a broad introduction to the political system of modern Mexico from the early twentieth-century to the present day. It will focus on the rise and fall of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and its system of government, but it will also consider the rise of the National Action Party (PAN), which finally won the Presidency in 2000, and of the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). Beyond party politics, the course will consider a range of other actors, including trade unions, the Church, artists and intellectuals, and social movements such as the Zapatistas.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week for twelve weeks.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 3,000-word essay (100%).

Resit: One 3,000-word essay (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr T Stack

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above, or by the permission of the Head of School.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2009/10. This course may not be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 4595 (The Golden State: History, Culture and Politics of California B).

Overview

This course engages in a broad-based analysis of the history, culture and politics of the state of California. It begins with the indifenous and Spanish colonial settlement of the region, followed by the period within the independent Mexican Republic, before California became one of the United States of America. More recent topics will include the fate of the Californios after Independence and mass immigration in the 20th century, especially from Mexico, as well as the status of the Spanish language in contemporary California. The course will include approaches from history, anthropology, cultural studies, and political science.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week for eleven weeks.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Two essays (40% each) and continuous assessment: seminar assessment (10%); short written commentaries (10%).

Resit: Two essays (50% each).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor T M Vilarós

Pre-requisites

Available only to candidates in Programme Year 3 or above or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

This course may not be taken as part of a graduation curriculum with SP 45VA: From Gaudi to Dali B. The course will be taught in English. The course will be available in 2010/11 and in alternate sessions thereafter.

Overview

This course will provide an exposure to architecture, film, painting and literature. It references the relation between art and political movements, both within Spain and in the wider European context. The seminar engages in four interrelated units, one per artist, offering a study of the propositions of modernism and the new art, cubism, the avant-garde and provides exposure to the organic naturalism of Gaudi, and Dali's nuclear-paranoid method.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar/lecture/discussion per week. Film screening second and fourth.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Continuous assessment: essay 3,000 words (80%); presentation (10%); seminar participation (10%).

Resit: Essay (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor T M Vilarós

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

This course will be available in 2009/10. This course may not be studied as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 45VB The Movida Culture: the Euphoric Disenchantment of the Spanish Political Transition (1973-1993) B.

Overview

This course engages in a psychoanalysis-based, theoretical study of the broad and unorthodox urban cultural production put in place in Madrid and Barcelona by the generation that came to age during the Spanish political transition. Texts studied include Pedro Almodovar's and Ivan Zulueta's first movies: the photographys of Ouka Lele and Alberto Alix; the paintings of Costus: the comic-book production boom of the period; the music of Sisa and other urban groups; and the iconoclastic literary texts published at the time in the magazine "La luna de Madrid."

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week and 1 two-hour screening per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 2 written assignments (1,000 words each) (40%, 1 final essay (60%) (3,000 words).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr T R Stack

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 4 or above.

Notes

This course may NOT be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 3088 (Citizenship in Latin America A).

Overview

This course focuses on the principles and practices of citizenship across Latin America. It begins by considering different models of citizenship and then looks at the application of those models across diverse contexts in Latin America.

Structure

1 two-hour lecture/seminar per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Two essays (50% each).

Resit: Two essays (50% each).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor A Moreiras

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 4 or above.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2009/10. This course may not be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 3095 (Colonial Chronicles IA).

Overview

This course studies some of the most important sixteenth chronicles concerning the New World. Primary texts - written by Cristobal Colon, Bartolome de las Casas, Gines de Sepulveda, Hernan Cortes, Fray Toribio de Benavente, Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Jose de Acosta, and Garcilaso de la Vega el Inca - will be complemented by critical and historiographical literature. The class will be conducted in Spanish.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Essay (4,000 words) (100%).

Resit: Written examination (3 hour) (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr N Arruti

Pre-requisites

240 credit points. Normally only available to students in Programme Year 4 or above.

Notes

This course may NOT be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 3096 (Basque Culture: Memory and Modernity A). It will be available in 2009/10 and in alternate sessions thereafter.

Overview

This course reflects a current and growing interest in the autochthonous in an increasingly global environment. It aims to reflect the plurality of cultures and the conflict between peripheral politics and central government in the Spanish peninsula. It will analyse the various definitions of nationalism that have offered specific constructions of the Basque nation throughout history. Moreover, it will explore realities and myths surrounding Nationalist ideology. In order to teach this multifaced phenomenon, the approach will be an interdisciplinary one, building on historical, political and cultural discourses within the field.

Structure

1 two-hour lecture/seminar per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: In-course assessment (100%): two essays.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor A Moreiras

Pre-requisites

This course is available only to students in Programme Year 4 or above or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2009/10.

Class will be conducted in Spanish. This course cannot be taken as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 3098.

Overview

The course studies the life and work of Argentinean author Jorge Luis Borges. Particular attention will be paid to Borges' mature fiction and essays. A biographical study will be conducted on the basis of Edwin Williamson and Emir Rodriguez Monegal's biographies, as well as Adolfo Bioy Casare's extensive diary entries concerning his friendship with Borges. In addition, students will extend their understanding of the subject by means of reading and independent research and by synthesizing material from a range of sources.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar meeting per week, including lecture and discussion.

Assessment

1st Attempt: In-course assessment; one essay (4,000 words) (80%); oral presentation (20%).

Resit: Essay (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr N Arruti

Pre-requisites

Normally only available to students in Programme Year 4 or above.

Notes

This course may NOT be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 30AA (Basque Arts: The Conflict of Belonging A). It will be available in 2010/11 and in alternate sessions thereafter.

Overview

This course focuses on Basque literature and visual arts from the 1898 period onwards. The course will study both traditions of writers writing in Spanish and those writing in Basque (for the purpose of this course read in Spanish). The Basque writing tradition in Spanish language will be studied from the critical framework of the “minor literature”; their problematic insertion into the Spanish canon will also be explored. The tensions between the local and global will also be studied in the visual media, from the interest in Basque art exclusively from the anthropological perspective to the current global spectacle created by the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.

Structure

1 two-hour lecture/seminar per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: In-course assessment (100%): two essays.

Credit Points

5

Course Coordinator

Professor T Vilarόs-Soler

Pre-requisites

Available only to candidates in Programme Year 4 or above, or by permission of the Head of School.

Co-requisites

SP 30BA Advanced Hispanic Seminar A.

Overview

This seminar programme covers a broad range of topics embracing political, philosophical, social and aesthetic issues, and aims to broaden and deepen students' understanding of major questions and debates within the field of Hispanic Studies, placing this field within a wider humanities-study context. It aims to help students prepare for honours study, the Hispanic Studies dissertation and beyond. The programme will combine tutor-led discussion, visiting lectures and student-led seminars.

Structure

6 two-hour seminars in alternate weeks.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 oral presentation (100%).

Resit: 1 oral presentation (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr J Biggane

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3 or above, or by permission of the Head of School

Notes

This course will be available in 2009/10. This course may not be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 30BD Historical Memory in Contemporary Spanish Literature and Film A. This course will be taught in Spanish.

Overview

Over the last twenty years, the Spanish Civil War has become subject to intense interest and debate in Spanish cultural production, civil society and state policy, the latter culminating in the 2007 "Law of Historical Memory". This course will engage in critical study and theoretical analysis of Spanish literature and film of the 1990s and 2000s that represents the Civil War within this context. The course will interrogate the concept of "historical memory" , and the complex relations between the contemporary socio-political conjuncture in Spain and the need/desire to remember or commemorate the events and victims of 1936-1939.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week for eleven weeks (Friday 9-11).

Assessment

1st Attempt: Continuous assessment: two 1,750 word essays (40% each); seminar assessment mark (10%); short written commentaries (10%).

Resit: Two 2500-word essays (50% each).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor D James

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 4 or above or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

This course may not be taken as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 30JA Life and Times of Evita Peron A. This course will be available in 2010/11.

Overview

This course aims to introduce the student to the various aspects of Evita Peron's life and career. Evita Peron was a crucial figure in the history of twentieth-century Argentina combining a wide array of roles from Argentina's First Lady, champion of the underprivileged, militant feminist to religious icon and revolutionary symbol after her death. The seminar will be structured around the study of a range of historical documents, and visual and cultural artifacts and texts. In the course of the seminar the student will also be introduced to some crucial theoretical concepts such as "populism" and "gender" essential to understand twentieth-century Latin America.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Continuous assessment: essay 4,000 words (80%); presentation (10%); seminar participation (10%).

Resit: Essay (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor D James

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 4 or above or by permission of the Head of School.

Co-requisites

Normally two of the following courses: SP 2518, SP 2524, SP 2024, SP 2525, SP 2526, SP 2529, SP 2028.

Notes

This course will be available in 2009/10. This course may not be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 30JB Contemporary Argentina: Film and Literature in Historical Context A.

Overview

This course introduces the student to a broad range of themes that help to make up contemporary Argentine culture. By studying a variety of literary and visual texts the course aims to help the student understand the complex nature of the various cross currents that make up the contemporary Argentine cultural and political scene. Among the themes covered are: Peronism, the legacy of Argentina's authoritarian past, current debates about human rights and commemorative strategies, the changing nature of gender roles and the construction of youth culture.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Continuous assessment: essay 4,000 words (80%); presentation (10%); seminar participation (10%).

Resit: Essay (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor A Moreiras

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in programme year 4 or above or by permission of the Head of School

Co-requisites

Either SP2518 or SP2026/SP2526

Notes

The class will be conducted in Spanish.
This course will be available in 2009-10 and in alternate years thereafter. This course may not be taken as part of a graduating curriculum with SP30MA Early Modern Spain A

Overview

This course studies fundamental literary texts of early modern Spain. Primary texts will be complemented by critical and historiographical literature.

Structure

One two-hour seminar per week

Assessment

1st attempt: 50% essay (1x 2, 500 word essay); 50% exam
Resit: 100% written exam (3 hours)

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr T Stack

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 4 or above or by permission of the Head of School

Notes

This course will be available in 2009-10 and in alternate years thereafter. This course may not be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP30SC (The Rule of Law in Latin America A).

Overview

This course will address recent debates about the rule of law in Latin America. Politicians across the continent (and in other parts of the world) have been proclaiming the virtues of the "rule of law". That is partly because international bodies such as the World Bank are making rule-of-law reforms a condition of financial aid. But what do politicians mean by the rule of law, are they putting it into practice, and if so, with what consequences? For example, is the US supposed to be the model, and if so, does it live up to its ideals? Within Latin America, given the rhetoric about the rule of law, how can we explain the slow pace of judicial reform in the face of fast-paced electoral reform? Are governments themselves bound by the rule of law, or is it just for their citizens? And does the rule of law just serve the interests of political and economic elites? Or can it bring equality, and if so, what kind of equality? Is it enough to be equal before the law, or could the rule of law do better than that?

Structure

One two-hour seminar

Assessment

1st attempt: One 4000-word essay (100%)

Resit: One 4000-word essay (100%)

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr T Stack

Pre-requisites

Available only to candidates in Programme Year 4 or above or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

This course may not be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 30SA: Democracy in Latin America A. This course will be available in 2010/11 and in alternate years thereafter. The course will be taught in English.

Overview

There has been much talk of a "transition to democracy" in Latin America (just as in Spain and other countries). This course will interrogate that claim and, in the process, take a broad look at democracy in a variety of Latin American contexts. We will note the increase in electoral competition, but we will also ask other questions of that "democracy". Does electoral competition benefit everyone? Does democracy go beyond the vote? Is there more to citizenship than democracy? Must democracy be focused on government? Is civil society democratic? How important is the rule of law for democracy? Do the media facilitate or subvert democracy? How about other business interests? Can democracy be multicultural? What does coups and rebellions do to democracy? How does the idea of "democracy" play out internationally? Students will be encouraged to compare what they learn about democracy in Latin America with democracy in other countries, including Spain, the USA and the UK.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 4,000-word essay (100%).

Resit: One 4,000-word essay (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr T Stack

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 4 or above or by permission of the Head of School

Notes

This course is not available in 2009-10.
This course may not be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 30SC (The Rule of Law in Latin America A).

Overview

This course will address recent debates about the rule of law in Latin America. Politicians across the continent (and in other parts of the world) have been proclaiming the virtues of the “rule of law”. That is partly because international bodies such as the World Bank are making rule-of-law reforms a condition of financial aid. But what do politicians mean by the rule of law, are they putting it in to practice, and if so, with what consequences? For example, is the US supposed to be the model, and if so, does it live up to its ideals? Within Latin America, given the rhetoric about the rule of law, how can we explain the slow pace of judicial reform in the face of fast-paced electoral reform? Are governments themselves bound by the rule of law, or is it just for their citizens? And does the rule of law just serve the interests of political and economic elites? Or can it bring equality, and if so, what kind of equality? Is it enough to be equal before the law, or could the rule of law do better than that?

Structure

One two-hour seminar per week.

Assessment

1st attempt: Continuous assessment: two essays (40% each); seminar assessment (10%); short written commentaries (10%).

Resit: Two essays (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor T Vilarós

Pre-requisites

Notes

This course will be available in 2009/10 and in alternate sessions thereafter. This course may not be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 30VA (Spain in the Sixties: Banality and Biopolitics A).

Overview

This course engages in a theory-based analysis of the state-sponsored, mass-culture production put in place during the middle years of the Francoist dictatorship, in relation to the local launching of the Spanish industry of mass-tourism and global Cold War politics. Texts studied include film hits such as Fernando Palacio's Búsqueme a esa chica, official propoganda documentaries, successful B-movies, as well as mass-pop music and TV programmes of the period. Students will extend their understanding of the subject by means of independent research, setting the topics treated in an appropriately wide context, and synthesising and analysing material from a range of sources.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week, plus 2 hour film screening per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 2 essays (20% each) (1,000 words), 1 final essay (60%) (4,000 words).

Resit: Written examination (2 hours) (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

Available only to Senior Honours students in Hispanic Studies.

Overview

A dissertation of 8,000-10,000 words on a topic approved by the Dissertation Co-ordinator to be submitted by the beginning of Senior Honours.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Dissertation (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

To be confirmed

Pre-requisites

Available only to Senior Honours students in Hispanic Studies.

Overview

This course will examine theories of creativity with an emphasis on creativity in literary writing. It will focus on a piece of writing by a Spanish author and will consider the creative process involved in that writing. In addition, students will extend their understanding of the subject by means of independent research, setting the topics treated in their wider context, and synthesizing material from a range of sources.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: In-course assessment: two essays (50% each).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor T Vilarós

Pre-requisites

Notes

This course will not be available in 2009/10. This course may not be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 3592 (Spain in the Sixties II: La Escuela de Barcelona in Film and Literature A).

Overview

This course analyses two related movements of the 1960s, one literary and the other cinematic, known as La Esceula de Barcelona. The course relates texts of both schools in relation to broader left-wing ideologies and political aims of the period, examining, amongst other things, their relation to events of May 1968. Students will extend their understanding of the subject by means of independent research, setting topics treated in an appropriately wide context, and synthesising and analysing material from a range of sources.

Structure

1 two-hour seminars per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Essay (5,000 words) (100%).

Resit: Written examination (2 hours) (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor A Moreiras

Pre-requisites

SP 4095 Colonial Chronicles IB

Notes

This course will not be available in 2009/10. This course may not be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 3593 (Colonial Chronicles IIA).

Overview

This honours seminar studies some of the most important chronicles concerning the New World from the mid 16th to the late 17th centuries. Primary texts - written by Garcilaso de la Vega el Inca, Pedro Cieza de Leon, Fernando de Alva lxlilxhochitl, and Fernando Alvarado Tezozomoc - will be complemented by critical and historiographical literature, notably books by Serge Gruzinski and J.H. Elliott. The class will be conducted in Spanish.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week (Tues 12-2pm).

Assessment

1st Attempt: Essay (one essay 3,000 words) (100%).

Resit: Three-hour written examination (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor T M Vilarós

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 4 or above, or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2009/10. This course may not be taken as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 3594 Film and the Political: Spanish Film from Its Beginnings up to 1975 (A).

Overview

This course engages in a theory-based, critical study of the broad Spanish film production of the twentieth century in relation to the political. Texts studied include films by Buñuel, Heredia, Lucia, Maso, Bardem, Berlanga, Jorda, Patiño, Erice, Saura, film theory texts, and writings of political theory.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week (Thursday 1-3pm) and weekly film screenings.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Essay (one 5,000 word essay) (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor A Moreiras

Pre-requisites

This course is available only to candidates for Honours in Hispanic Studies.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2009/10.

Class will be conducted in Spanish. This course cannot be taken as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 3598.

Overview

This course studies the contemporary novel in Latin America and Spain. It focuses on new tendencies. By targeting individual reading of some of the best authors of the present it aims to produce direct knowledge of the main problems confronting not just the Hispanic literary tradition today, but also the societies where they live. Spanish authors will be studied together with Argentinean, Peruvian, and Chilean.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar meeting, including lecture and discussion.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One essay (no more than 4,000 words, minimum of 2,000): (80%); continuous assessment (20%).

Resit: Essay (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr N Arruti

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 4 or above or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

This course may not be taken as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 35AA: Film & Visual Culture in Spain and Latin America A. Available in 2010/11 and alternate sessions thereafter.

Overview

The first block of the course will engage in a theory-based, critical study of the broad Spanish film production of the twentieth-century. The second block of the course will study contemporary Latin-American cinema and photography in relation to the political. Materials studied within the course will include the following: film, painting, photography and architecture.

Structure

1 one-hour lectures and one-hour tutorial per week. Two-hour film screenings per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Two 3,000-word essays (50% each).

Two 3,000-word essays (50% each).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr N Arruti

Pre-requisites

Normally only available to Senior Honours students or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

This course may NOT be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 35AC (Represtations of Violence in Spain and Latin America A). It will be available in 2009/10 and in alternate sessions thereafter.

Overview

The course will focus on narrative accounts that challenge the boundaries between personal and public spheres. One key theme of the course will be the power and limitation of linguistic communication when exploring the issue of political repression and violence.

Structure

1 two-hour lecture/seminar per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Two 2,500 word essays (50% each).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr J A Biggane

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in programme year 4 or above or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

This course will be available in 2010-11 and in alternate years thereafter. This course may not be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP35BA Representations of Spain in UK Cultural Production 1975-2005 A.

Overview

This course examines visions and representations of Spain in UK cultural production (which may include music, literature, the essay, travel writing, visual arts, film and television) between 1975 and 2005. It will consider the ways in which such representations have altered (or have remained unaltered) in the forty years since the end of the Franco dictatorship, a period in which both countries underwent major political, economic, social and cultural change and entered global postmodernity. It will examine how textual constructions of Spain might be viewed as responding to various and shifting political and social needs, desires and fantasies as played out in UK cultural production of the period.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week.

Assessment

1st attempt: 100% continuous assessment: two 1,750-word essays: (40%, each); oral presentation (10%) and regular brief oral and written assignments (10%).

Resit: Two 2,500-word essays.

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Ms M Fernández

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Senior Honours in Hispanic Studies.

Overview

This course aims to extend and refine students' practical skills for translation from English into Spanish. By the end of the course, students will have acquired and/or developed: practical strategies for translation into Spanish at an advanced level; the terminology and techniques necessary for analytical discussion of selected issues in recent translation theory; the ability to read modern English discourse in various registers with due sensitivity to translation issues; the ability to apply and evaluate appropriate translation strategies with respect to various forms of literary and non-literary English discourse. Particular attention will be paid to the ability to analyse, self-reflexively, one's own translations.

Structure

1 two-hour session per week, combining lecture, practical and seminar elements.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Continuous assessment (5 written exercises) (60%); 2 hour written examination (40%).

Resit: 3 hour written examination (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor D James

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 4 or above or by permission of the Head of School.

Co-requisites

Normally two of the following courses: SP 2518, SP 2524, SP 2024, SP 2525, SP 2526, SP 2529, SP 2028.

Notes

This course will be available in 2009/10. This course may not be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 35JA Revolutionary Political Texts in Latin America A.

Overview

Latin America has been a site of intense social and political upheaval in the course of the 20th Century. Anarchist, Communist, National/Populist movements have sought to construct movements that challenged the repressive political, economic and social structures of their nationas. This seminar will introduce the student to a number of key texts that represent these very different intellectual/political traditions. The readings will range from texts by early twentieth century anarchists in Mexico and Argentina to populist caudillos in mid-century Colombia to texts by urban and rural guerrilla leaders in the 1960s and 1970s. Finally the texts by late 20th century radical leaders such as Subcomandante Marcos and Evo Morales will be examined.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Continuous assessment: essay 4,000 words (80%); presentation (10%), seminar participation (10%).

Resit: Essay (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor A Moreiras

Pre-requisites

Available only to candidates in Programme Year 3 or above or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

This course may not be taken as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 35MA: Mexican Visions A. The course will be conducted in Spanish. Available in 2010/11 and alternate sessions thereafter.

Overview

From DH Lawrence, B Traven, Antonin Artaud, Georges Bataille, Graham Greene to John Houston, Malcolm Lowry, Rebecca West, a number of Mexican representations by a foreign gaze have influenced Mexican self-understanding and the international place of Latin America in world culture. This course will atttempt to understand these movements through careful attention to the authors named above.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar meeting per week, including lecture and discussion.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Continuous assessment: essay 4,000 words (80%); presentation (10%); seminar participation (10%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor D James and Professor A Moreiras

Pre-requisites

Available only to candidates in Programme Year 3 or above or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

This course may not be taken as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 35MB: Spanish Civil War A. Class will be conducted in Spanich and English. The course will run in 2010/11 and in alternate sessions thereafter.

Overview

The Spanish Civil War was the defining event of twentieth-century history and a defining moment in European history. This course aims to provide students with an understanding of the fundamental reasons for the conflict, the main participants and the long term consequences for Spain and the world. The course will draw upon a wide range of materials including historical documents, film and literary texts.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar meeting per week, including lecture and discussion.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Continuous assessment: essay 4,000 words (80%); presentation (10%); seminar participation (10%).

Resit: Essay (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor A Moreiras

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in programme year 4 or above or by permission of the Head of School

Co-requisites

Either SP2518 or SP2026/SP2526

Notes

This course will be available in 2009-10 and in alternate years thereafter. This course may not be taken as part of a graduating curriculum with SP35MC Latin America in Colonial times A
The class will be conducted in Spanish.

Overview

This course studies some of the most important cultural and historical issues concerning the New World. Amongst the authors and topics it studies will be the Valladolid Controversy, the Destruccion de idolatrias processes, the establishments of Jesuit missions in the South, the ideologies regarding the second wave of colonization, and mestizo chroniclers such as Garcilaso de la Vega el Inca and Guaman Poma. Primary texts will be complemented by critical and historiographical literature. students will extend their understanding of the subject by means of independent research, setting the topics treated in an appropriately wide context, and synthesising and analysing material from a range of sources.

Structure

One two-hour seminar per week

Assessment

1st attempt: 50% essay (1x 2,500 words) ; 50% written exam
Resit: 100% written exam (3 hours)

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor A Moreiras

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in programme year 4 or by permission by the Head of School.

Notes

Class will be partially conducted in Spanish.

Overview

The course studies the history of war in Spain or its imperial possessions since the xvth century and/or Latin America since the beginning of the xixth century. Historical context and understanding will be complemented by a political analysis of the causes and consequences of wars, and their insertion into the contemporary world system.

Structure

One two hour seminar meeting, including lecture and discussion.

Assessment

1st attempt: One essay 4000 words, 80%. Continuous assessment: Seminar Assessment 10%; short written commentaries 10%
Resit: Essay 100%

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr T Stack

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 4 or above or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2009/10. This course may not be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 35SA (Politics in Mexico A).

Overview

This course gives a broad introduction to the political system of modern Mexico from the early twentieth-century to the present day. It will focus on the rise and fall of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and its system of government, but it will also consider the rise of the National Action Party (PAN), which finally won the Presidency in 2000, and of the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). Beyond party politics, the course will consider a range of other actors, including trade unions, the Church, artists and intellectuals, and sociol movement such as the Zapatistas.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week for eleven weeks.

Assessment

1st Attempt: One 4,000-word essay (100%).

Resit: One 4,000-word essay (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Dr T Stack

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programm Year 4 or above,or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

This course will not be available in 2009/10. This course may not be included as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 3595 (The Golden State: History, Culture and Politics of California A).

Overview

This course engages in a broad-based analysis of the history, culture and politics of the state of California. It begins with the indigenous and Spanish colonial settlement of the region, followed by the period within the independent Mexican Republic, before California became one of the United States of America. More recent topics will include the fate of the Californios after Independence and mass immigration in the 20th century, especially from Mexico, as well as the status of the Spanish language in contemporary California. The course will include approaches from history, anthropology, cultural studies, and political science.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week for eleven weeks.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Continuous Assessment: Two essays (40% each); seminar assessment (10%), short written commentaries (10%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor T M Vilarós

Pre-requisites

Available only to candidates in Programme Year 3 or above or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

This course may not be taken as part of a graduation curriculum with SP 35VA: Gaudi to Dali A. The course will be taught in English. Available in 2010/11 and in alternate sessions thereafter.

Overview

The course will provide exposure to architecture, film, painting and literature. Critical and political theory. The seminar references the various relations established between art and the political movements and propositions of the period encompassing the 1898 Spanish-American War and the end of the Spanish Civil War. Based on the Spanish historical context, the seminar explores its material of study in relation to the wider European and global context. The seminar engages in five interrelated units, one per artist. Readings include Jose Ortega's, Walter Benjamin's, Hanna Arendt's, and Dalis' and Lorca's own writings. Among others, films included are a Thomas Edison's sample of fake-documentaries on the 1898 war; Buñuel's Land without Bread; Dali and Buñuel's Le chien Andalou; Lopez-Linares documentary on Trotsky's assassination; and Orson Welles's Fake.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week, film viewing second and fourth.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Continuous assessment: essay 4,000 words (80%); presentation (10%); seminar participation (10%).

Resit: Essay (100%).

Credit Points

15

Course Coordinator

Professor T M Vilarós

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 4 or above or by permission of the Head of School.

Notes

This course will be available in 2009/10. This course may not be studied as part of a graduating curriculum with SP 35VB The Movida Culture: the Euphoric Disenchantment of the Spanish Political Transition (1973-1993) A.

Overview

This course engages in a psychoanalytical, theoretical study of the broad and unorthodox urban cultural production put in place in Madrid and Barcelona by the generation that came to age during the Spanish political transition. Texts studied include Pedro Almodovar's and Ivan Zulueta's first movies; the photographs of Ouka Lele and Alberto Alix; the paintings of Costus; the comic-book production boom of the period; the music of Sisa and other urban groups; and the iconoclast literary texts published at the time in the magazine "La luna de Madrid."

Structure

1 two-hour seminar per week, 2 hour film screening per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 2 written assignments (1,000 words each) (40%), 1 final essay (60%) (4,000 words).