Catalan Studies

Catalan is a Romance language spoken in Northern Spain (Catalonia, Valencia, the ‘Franja de Ponent’, Southern France, Andorra, the Balearic Islands, and in the city of Alguer (Alghero) on Sardinia.

A view over Barcelona at sunset.

Catalonia is home to a fiercely proud people and boasts a rich artistic history which includes the work of Dalí, Gaudí and Miró., while all the territories in which Catalan is spoken, the so-called ‘Països Catalans’ are vibrant, diverse, and have their own singular characteristics.

The prominence of Catalonia both in a Spanish and a European context makes Catalan Studies an important discipline. The region's cultural, intellectual and political heritage offers significant avenues for rewarding and worthwhile study. The capital of Catalonia, Barcelona, is one of the world's major cultural and economic centres.

Sheffield has, since the 1950s, been recognised as an international centre of excellence for the teaching of Catalan and related research. We have a native language teacher part-funded by the Institut Ramon Llull. Our close-knit Catalan community extends beyond the classroom to regular social events for staff and students.

Find out more about the Catalan community at Sheffield


Undergraduate degree combinations

To see how our degrees can be structured and combined, please visit the following:

BA Modern Languages & Cultures (BAMLC) - this course allows you to choose between one and three languages to study.

Dual degrees with a non-language - these options allow you to take a language (or two, in some cases) alongside a non-language subject.


Course

By the end of your first year studying Catalan, with four hours per week of classes, you’ll be able to discuss a variety of everyday topics with native speakers and begin to understand the differential nature of Catalonia within Spain (Common European Framework Reference for Languages ( aka CEFR A1 to A2).

By the end of your second year, you’ll have the tools to thrive in a Catalan-speaking region as a student, including talking about more complex, abstract topics and expressing your views and opinions (CEFR B1 to B2).

By the end of your final year, you’ll be able to tackle complex topics in speech and writing and will be familiar with social and political issues in the Catalan-speaking world (CEFR C1).

Depending on your degree programme, you will be able to take modules that explore the literature, history and culture of the Catalan-speaking regions. You may also choose to write a Catalan Studies dissertation in your final year.


Modules

You will study 40 credits in language and culture at beginner's level.

Beginner's Catalan

Title

Credits

Core/Optional

Catalan Language Beginners

20 Core

Social and Political History of Iberia and Latin America

This module examines the historical trajectory of Spain, its emergence as a state in the Iberian Peninsula, its imperial expansion overseas into Latin America, the eventual independence of the colonies and their development and consolidation into the various modern-day states we know today. The module will explore the social, political, linguistic and cultural characteristics of these states and its peoples and highlight the importance of understanding their complex history in the formation of their identities, their languages and their cultural and political values. The module has a particular emphasis on the importance of myths and how, regardless of their historical veracity, they can condition behaviours, mould identities and shape future history.

20 Core (if you are studying one or two languages and cultures)
Optional (if you are studying three languages and cultures)

Optional school-wide modules

Title Credits Core/Optional

Intersections: Text, Image, Thought in the French-speaking world

This module will focus on two important French texts per semester (with 'text' taken in its largest sense of book, film, art work, piece of music, cultural product, etc.). Each text will form the basis for a close reading, followed by analyses using French cultural, historical, literary and critical theory approaches as well as adaptations into other media (such as film, art and music) where appropriate. The module will be taught and assessed in English, but the materials will be made available in both French and English, with French students required to use and cite the French materials. The aim of the module is to introduce students to significant French texts and to illustrate and explore a range of possible critical approaches to them, including cross-media or intermedial reinterpretations.

20 Optional

Resist! The Art of Protest in Berlin and Amsterdam

Berlin and Amsterdam: two capitals at the forefront of protest and alternative lifestyles from the early 20th century right up to the present. Where did their radical traditions spring from? What do these protests say about how the cities and nations see themselves? How does creative resistance fuel gentrification and urban tourism? 

This module explores the culture of resistance and protest from the first women's march for the vote and posters and activism against war and fascism, to the creative resistance of the Amsterdam PROVO movement in the 1960s to Black Lives Matter/Kick out Zwarte Piet. 

We will cover concepts such as populism, activism, colonial resistance, feminism, BLM, climate activism. How do these movement use art and image to press their causes?  

20 Optional

Comparative Visual Cultures

Visual literacy is a key skill and visual culture remains one of the most accessible and important modes through which we represent, understand and critique our world. This module provides an introduction to some of the major trends within visual cultures in European languages, and the development of visual media. Students will work on a selection of visual texts across national frameworks and historical periods to examine their conditions of production, distribution and reception and to explore how meaning is constructed and critiqued in visual culture. In seminars we will engage with detailed analysis of core texts and with critical materials. Students will be encouraged to consider country-specific, transnational and comparative trends through a critical lens. 

20 Optional

The Soviet Union 1917-1991

Overview of the formation, development and collapse of the USSR, beginning from c.1900. Covers historiographic problems in analysing primary materials, ideological problems in dealing with the revolutionary movement and subsequent developments, debates over the nature and trajectory of the USSR and its place in the wider world.

  Optional (Autumn Semester only)

The content of our courses is reviewed annually to make sure it is up-to-date and relevant. Individual modules are occasionally updated or withdrawn. This is in response to discoveries through our world-leading research, funding changes, professional accreditation requirements, student or employer feedback, outcomes of reviews, and variations in staff or student numbers. In the event of any change we'll consult and inform students in good time and take reasonable steps to minimise disruption.

Information last updated:


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