31159 - Spanish Literature 2

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students should know the general outline of literary history. They should be able to read, understand and translate texts from Spanish into Italian and they should also be acquainted with the methods and analytical tools they need to interpret the works of the main authors, contextualising them within their cultural and historical period.

Course contents

Modern and contemporary Spanish literature.

 

We will study the most important Spanish literary products of the contemporary age, and their lines of development, with a sketch of the main cultural phenomena of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries. The following topics will be discussed:

 

1. Towards modernity

 

            1.1 Outline of the history of Spain in the Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Century

            1.2 Special features of Spanish Enlightenment culture in the European context

            1.3 The Romantic models

 

 2. The realist novel in Spain in the Nineteenth Century

            2.1 Cultural and social systems of the second half of the century

            2.2 The reflection upon literature.

            2.3 Galdós

            2.4 Elements of interpretation of the narrative text

 

3. The awareness of the crisis and the construction of an idea of Spain

            3.1 Modernism and poetry

            3.2. The reflection upon the novel

            3.3. García Lorca and the Avant-Garde

            3.4 The renewal of the theater

 

4. Civil War and dictatorship

            4.1 Culture under Franco's dictatorship: propaganda, censorship and control mechanisms

            4.2 Dissent and critical realism in post-war literature. The ambiguous case of Cela's La colmena

           4.3 La España peregrina: literature and Republican exile

 

5. Spain's Transición.

            5.1 The book industry in democratic Spain

            5.2 Experimentation and metaliterature

            5.3 Towards a postmodern narrative

            5.4 The literature of plural Spain

 

6. The narrative of the Third Millennium

            6.1 The Post-Memory era (Cercas, Rosa)

          

Readings/Bibliography

Reference books:

- Antonucci, Fausta, Il Novecento letterario spagnolo: percorsi, Pisa, ETS, 2004

- Ceserani, Remo, Guida breve allo studio della letteratura, Bari, Laterza, 2003, "Il testo narrativo", pp. 100-129  e "La letteratura e i lettori", pp. 130-148.


Literary texts:

Students will read 6 texts, the following 5 are mandatory:

1. Pérez Galdós, Benito, Misericordia, ed. by L. García Lorenzo, Madrid, Cátedra, latest reprint

2. García Lorca, Federico, La casa de Bernarda Alba, ed. by M.F. Vilches de Frutos, Madrid, latest reprint

3. Cela, Camilo José, La colmena, ed. by E. Alonso, Madrid, Espasa Calpe, latest reprint

4. Aub, Max, La verdadera historia de la muerte de Francisco Franco, in Escritos sobre el exilio, ed. by M. Aznar Soler, Sevilla, Renacimiento, 2008 (pp. 83-112)

5. Rosa, Isaac, El vano ayer, Barcelona, Seix Barral, 2004 (paperback ed.: Barcelona, Booket, 2012)

 
6.The sixth text is chosen from the following list (any modern edition is acceptable):

 - Mendoza, Eduardo, La verdad sobre el caso Savolta, Barcelona, Seix Barral, 1975

- Martín Gaite, Carmen, El cuarto de atrás, Madrid, Destino, 1978

- Marías, Javier, Mañana en la batalla piensa en mí, Barcelona, Anagrama, 1994

- Cercas, Javier, Soldados de Salamina, Barcelona, Tusquets, 2001

Further bibliographical references will be uploaded in the "MATERIALI DIDATTICI" section.

Teaching methods

Traditional teaching (in Spanish) with the use of digital texts partly available on line.

Assessment methods

The examination consists of two inseparable parts, both in Spanish: a written test lasting a maximum of 2 hours and a subsequent oral examination, to be taken after approximately 24/48 hours from the written test, depending on the number of students. The written test consists of 5 open questions concerning, in order: 1 topic of cultural history; 1 topic of literary history; 1 topic of description of a literary text; 1 topic of description of a specific aspect within a literary text; 1 comment to a fragment of a literary text. The oral examination consists of a discussion of the results of the written test and further questions regarding the free-choice text (see "Literary texts", point 6). The final grade will be the average of its individual parts (written and oral). I will test the descriptive knowledge of the topics discussed during the course, the ability to contextualize the cultural and literary phenomena and to identify the originality of the texts studied. I will also evaluate the critical knowledge of bibliography, as well as fluency, accuracy and appropriateness of language. Overall knowledge of the cultural, historical and literary contexts, and proficient use of the reference texts to support this vision, will be evaluated as excellent, while a general knowledge without interpretive skills will only achieve a passing grade. Finally, the proven and repeated difficulty in creating descriptive and logical connections between cultural phenomena and literary texts will get a failing grade.

Teaching tools

Teaching materials will be available on-line; the projector will be regularly used to display summaries, concepts, fragments of text, images and video sequences; the slides used during the lessons will be uploaded on a weekly basis.

Office hours

See the website of Eugenio Maggi