Spanish and Latin American Studies

Understanding Spanish and Latin American Culture

Why has the gypsy culture of Andalucía been so crucial to ideas about Spanish identity and how and why has this changed? How did gender politics and the role of women change after the Franco dictatorship in Spain? How and why has historical memory about the Civil War becomes such a feature of contemporary Spanish life? How and why was modernity experienced as a crisis in Latin America? What is machismo and why is it thought to be so central to Latin American culture? How do revolutionary politics and sexual politics relate in Latin America?

More about this course

* If you are studying one or two languages students must choose at least this module or the module entitled Social and Political History of Iberia and Latin America. Note that if you have extra credits both modules can be studied.
If you are studying three languages this module is optional.

Social and Political History of Iberia and Latin America

This module examines the historical trajectory of Spain and Portugal, their emergence as states in the Iberian Peninsula, their imperial expansion overseas into Africa, Latin America and beyond, 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.

More about this course

*If you are studying one or two languages students must choose at least this module or the module entitled Understanding Spanish and Latin American Culture as their core Spanish module. Note that if you have extra credits both modules can be studied.
If you are studying three languages and cultures this module is optional.

Core/Optional

Activism and Social Change

Has racism always existed or is it a modern phenomenon? Why have some movements against racial discrimination in Latin America been more successful than others? How have women in Latin America fought for equal rights, from the suffrage campaigns of the twentieth century to the #NiUnaMenos movement of today? Why is Latin America marked by such stark inequalities in wealth and what are the best ways to combat this? These are some of the questions that will be explored in this module..

Understanding Spanish and Latin American Culture

Why has the gypsy culture of Andalucía been so crucial to ideas about Spanish identity and how and why has this changed? How did gender politics and the role of women change after the Franco dictatorship in Spain? How and why has historical memory about the Civil War becomes such a feature of contemporary Spanish life? How and why was modernity experienced as a crisis in Latin America? What is machismo and why is it thought to be so central to Latin American culture? How do revolutionary politics and sexual politics relate in Latin America?

More about this course

* If you are studying one or two languages students must choose at least this module or the module entitled Social and Political History of Iberia and Latin America. Note that if you have extra credits both modules can be studied.
If you are studying three languages this module is optional.

Social and Political History of Iberia and Latin America

This module examines the historical trajectory of Spain and Portugal, their emergence as states in the Iberian Peninsula, their imperial expansion overseas into Africa, Latin America and beyond, 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.

More about this course

* If you are studying one or two languages students must choose at least this module or the module entitled Understanding Spanish and Latin American Culture as their core Spanish module. Note that if you have extra credits both modules can be studied.
If you are studying three languages and cultures this module is optional

Core/Optional

Activism and Social Change

Has racism always existed or is it a modern phenomenon? Why have some movements against racial discrimination in Latin America been more successful than others? How have women in Latin America fought for equal rights, from the suffrage campaigns of the twentieth century to the #NiUnaMenos movement of today? Why is Latin America marked by such stark inequalities in wealth and what are the best ways to combat this? These are some of the questions that will be explored in this module..

Reality and Fantasy in Spain and Latin America

This module is a journey through reality and fantasy in Spain and Latin America. The Spanish component begins in realist Madrid, travels through New York, which is filtered through a Surrealist perspective, before ending with ghosts and fantastic creatures at a remote orphanage and an abandoned mill in Del Toro’s films of post-Civil War Spain. The Latin American component focuses on the Southern Cone and its links to the wider world, dealing with human psychology and the perception of reality, fantasy and the unconscious and primitive instinct, dream and social rebellion.

 Promised Lands

Island life is not all it seems, and Mallorca is about much more than Magaluf. We take Mallorcan culture (to be selected from e.g. propaganda, historical novel, lyrics, film, short story) as a lens through which to view key aspects of Spanish history and its modernity (the Spanish Inquisition and religious persecution; the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War; mass tourism and social
change; a dystopian vision of life in the year 2050), and explore manifestations of ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’, their interaction, and associated cultural politics. We examine Mallorca not only as a microcosm of Spain and, indeed, Europe, but as a particular locus of social upheaval.
The module is designed with students of both Spanish and Catalan in mind, but knowledge of Catalan is not required. Texts are in Spanish or English (Catalan versions are sometimes also available), and there is an English translation available to accompany the principal Spanish-language text. Teaching will combine traditional ‘lecture’-type delivery, discussion seminars, workshops, debates, informal presentations and translation. Significant reading is required.

Dictatorship, Revolution and Resistance

Students will examine the continuities and transformations in the political development of Latin America by looking at a series of case studies. They will analyse and account for the rise of diverse forms of political organisation and explore their social and cultural ramifications. In so doing, they will gain an enhanced understanding of the complexities of Latin American politics and resistance and revolutionary movements. The course will combine lectures by staff with student-led seminars, which will be assessed as an integral part of the module for all students. All students will work in a small group to give a presentation.

Hispanic Film

The course comprises a series of lectures and seminars. In one semester we will look at Latin American Cinema. The other semester covers Spanish film around the theme of the transition to democracy.

Nation and Identities in Hispanic World

This course will examine the various means by which national identities are constructed and expressed in the Lusophone World. In order to consider these issues, we will study a range of modes of cultural expression, including literature and film. The course will focus on three selected countries from across the Lusophone world (namely Brazil, Portugal and Mozambique), to offer a representative cross-section of Lusophone nations.

The Hispanic Languages: Structure and Use

This module aims to introduce students to Linguistics, the scientific study of language, within the context of the Hispanic languages. The module introduces basic notions of linguistic analysis and makes students aware of the key differences between (a) Spanish and English and (b) Spanish, Portuguese, Galician and Catalan. The module will consolidate and extend active knowledge of Spanish and/or Portuguese as it is used by different speakers and in different contexts both in the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America. This module also aims to highlight how language can be related to people and societies and how language varies and changes over space and time.

Barcelona: Culture of the City

A novel, play and films are studied as different modes for ‘representing’ the city and as starting points for a discussion of contemporary cultural and theoretical approaches to the city. We analyse the particular protagonism of the city of Barcelona within the life experiences portrayed in the primary texts, and establish the particular differential character of Barcelona within modern Spain, as well as in the wider context of cities at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

Teaching comprises seminars, smaller group work and informal presentations. Work for independent study will be set. Specific themes addressed may include:
● identity and difference (individual and collective, through language, sport, sexuality and
transgression);
● relationship between Madrid and Barcelona;
● immigration;
● profile-raising events (Word Fairs, Olympics etc.) ● literary approaches to history.

Civilisation and Barbarism

Students will examine a range of Latin American works from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which deal with the notion of Civilisation and Barbarism. This concept, which developed out of nineteenth-century Argentine nation-building, has relevance beyond its initial geographical and temporal context. In Semester 1 students will read key nineteenth-century Argentine texts written in opposition to the regime of Juan Manuel de Rosas and which formed the basis of Argentina’s ‘official’ history into the twentieth century. Through close reading and analysis of these literary works, students will explore how literature can shape historical discourses. Students will also explore how these discourses are contested and will consider their relevance to contemporary Argentine politics. In Semester 2 the focus will shift to the theme of civilisation and barbarism in other Latin American contexts.

Political Culture in the Hispanic World

This module considers the ways in which politics and culture have converged in various Hispanic contexts, with a focus on Latin America, and studies the means by which these two areas have impacted on each other at key moments in the development of different nations. This module explores these issues through an analysis of cultural policies in the nations covered and the detailed study of a range of cultural products, including literature, cinema, music, art and sport.

Gender and Sexuality in the Hispanic World

The principal aim of this module is to provide students with the critical tools to discuss gender and sexuality in nineteenth and twentieth century Spain. The students will engage with the work of five writers – Emilia Pardo Bazán, Rosalía de Castro, Ana María Matute, Dulce Chacón, and Marta Sanz. They will explore questions of gender and sexuality in terms, themes and key concepts that will include modernity, masculinities, maternity, the city, violence, trauma, and representation. The module will also enable students to acquire historical knowledge of Spain as well as wide-ranging skills in literary analysis.

Questioning Spain

Students will examine specific moments or periods in Spanish cultural history from the late nineteenth century to the present day in which a questioning of the status quo is foregrounded. They will examine a range of key texts, primary and secondary sources, and explore the issues raised. In so doing, they will acquire sophisticated techniques in interpreting the discourse of cultural expression on such subjects as the nature of social and gender roles, “race” and ethnicity.

Popular Music in the Hispanic World

The course will combine lectures by staff with student-led seminars, which will be assessed as an integral part of the module for all students. All students will work in a small group to give weekly non-assessed presentations:

- To familiarise students with important movements in Latin-American and Iberian music;
- To familiarise students with relevant examples of links between musical movements in the Hispanic world and socio-political contexts;
- To introduce students to methodological tools enabling them to analyse musical traditions, culture, society, literary texts and how they relate to each other;
- To enhance the linguistic resources of students by requiring them to acquire relevant vocabulary and discursive techniques in Spanish
- To enable students to develop organisational and artistic skills though the organisation of a musical event.
- To analyse experiences of dictatorship in the Hispanic world
- To analyse and account for the rise of diverse forms of political organisation and explore their social and cultural ramifications.
- To understand the complexities of Latin-American politics and resistance and revolutionary movements.
- the production of a CD / digital album of Latin music performed and produced by students

Adaptations and transformations