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School of Modern Languages & Cultures: Department of Hispanic Studies

The Diversity of the Spanish Speaking World

About this Module

This module, which is taught and assessed in English, is open to students taking Spanish Language 1A or Spanish Language 1B and offers a broad introduction to the Spanish-speaking world, focusing specifically on the question of diversity. The module begins by looking at the origin and evolution of the Spanish language before considering some of the other major issues that have defined and shaped the Spanish-speaking world as it exists today. These include the transition from frontier society to Empire and the cognate colonization of Latin America, the role of religion and faith in society, and the emergence of the nation state - particularly in terms of the evolution of political systems and the distinction between democracy and dictatorship. It concludes by looking at questions of racial, linguistic, and cultural diversity in the Spanish-speaking world and the series of unique factors that have elevated Spanish to the position of the world's second language. The module requires no prior knowledge of Spanish, but assumes that students will gain in fluency and ability during the programme. Correspondingly, in addition to short samples of literary production analysed in the second term, students will assess notions of cultural diversity in a variety of comparable interrelated media, notably painting, music, and film.

Teaching and Learning

You are required to attend one lecture per week and a fortnightly seminar conducted in smaller groups. Classes are in English. Attendance will be monitored in all classes. The module is capped at 90 places.

Summative Assessment

  • 2000-word essay (50%) based on the texts studied in the Michaelmas Term
  • 2-hour written examination (50%) based on the texts studied in the Epiphany Term

Topics Covered

Michaelmas Term

Weeks 1-3: The Origins of the Spanish Language

Topics include:

  • The status of Spanish as a world language.
  • Languages in contact in the Hispanic world.
  • The origins of Spanish in the Iberian Peninsula.
  • Regional and social variations of Spanish in Spain.
  • The origins of Spanish: Latin America.
  • The Spanish of Argentina.

Texts to be used include:

  • Mar-Molinero, C. (1997) The Spanish Speaking World: A Practical Introduction to Sociolinguistic Issues. London: Routledge.
  • Penny, R. (2002) A History of the Spanish Language. Cambridge: CUP.
  • Stockwell, P. (2002) Sociolinguistics: A resource book for students. London: Routledge.

Weeks 4-6: From Frontier to Empire

Topics include:

  • The Fall of Visigothic Spain (cultural diversity)
  • The Reconquista (racial diversity)
  • El Cid (diversity within social interaction)

Primary texts to be used include:

  • Menéndez Pidal, Ramón, 1944-56. Cantar de mio Cid, Nueva edición, 3 vols. (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe). 866 PID. Other editions are also available in the library. Translation of this edition by Harold Sunderland at 946.02C5
  • Sarmiento, E., ed., 1953. Fray Luis de León, The Original Poems of Fray Luis de León (Manchester: Manchester University Press). 865.3 LEO
  • Severin, Dorothy Sherman, ed., 1987. Fernando de Rojas, La Celestina, Letras Hispánicas, 4 (Madrid: Cátedra). 864.5 ROJ. Other editions are also available in the library.
  • Wright, Roger, ed. & tr., 1987. Spanish Ballads, Hispanic Classics (Warminster: Aris & Phillips). Offers parallel verse translations. 861.21 SPA

Weeks 7-10: Political Systems in Post-Independence Latin America: The Case of 20th/21st Century Venezuela

Topics include:

  • Political systems in post-Independence Latin America: 20th Century Venezuela: Dictatorship (Gómez: 1908-1935)
  • Political systems in post-Independence Latin America: 20th Century Venezuela: Representative Democracy (1958-1999)

Texts to be used include:

  • Vallenilla Lanz, L. (1919) Cesarismo democrático: estudios sobre las bases sociológicas de la constitución efectiva de Venezuela. Caracas: Empresa El Cojo
  • Hellinger, D. (1991) Venezuela: Tarnished Democracy. Boulder: Westview Press.

Epiphany Term

Weeks 11-13: Atlantic Divides

Topics include

  • Haiti and the Plantation Complex: Sugar and Revolution in the Americas
  • Reason and Territory: Napoleon and the Fall of Spanish Imperialism
  • Bolívar’s Vision: Carta de Jamaica
  • Reinventing América / Reinventing Europe

Texts to be used include:

  • Andrews, G. R. (2004) Afro-Latin America, 1800-2000. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Bolívar, S. Carta de Jamaica http://es.wikisource.org/wiki/Carta_de_Jamaica
  • Castro-Klaren, Sara, ed. (2008) A Companion to Latin American Literature and Culture. Oxford: Blackwell.
  • Eltis, D. and D. Richardson (2010) Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. New Haven: Yale University Press.
  • Lynch, J. (2006) Simón Bolívar: A Life. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
  • Pratt, M. L. (1992) Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation. New York: Routledge.
  • Williamson, E. (1992) The Penguin History of Latin America. London: Penguin.

Weeks 14-16: Holy Diversity

Topics include:

  • Holiness and the Rest of Us
  • Fluidity and Gender
  • Diversity to the Point of Monstrosity
  • Race and Saint Moses the Ethiopian

Texts to be used include:

  • Baños Vallejo, Fernando, & Isabel Uría Maqua, ed., 2000. La Leyenda de los Santos (‘Flos Sanctorum’ del ms. 8 de la Biblioteca de Menéndez Pelayo), Estudios de Literatura y Pensamiento Hispánicos, 18 (Santander: Asociación Cultural Año Jubilar Lebaniego & Sociedad Menéndez Pelayo). 862 BAN
  • Gatland, Emma, 2011. Women from the Golden Legend: Female Authority in a Medieval Castilian Sanctoral, Mongrafias A (Woodbridge: Tamesis). 270.0922 JAC/GAT
  • Ryan, William Granger, trans., 1993. ‘Saint George’, in Jacobus de Voragine, ‘The Golden Legend’: Readings on the Saints, 2 vols. (Princeton, NJ: University Press), i, pp. 238–42. 235.2 JAC

Weeks 17-19: Linguistic Diversity in the Spanish-Speaking World

Topics include:

  • Regional and Social Variations of Spanish in Spain
  • Spanish in Latin America
  • Spanish in the USA
  • Language Contact in Spain and Latin America: Code-switching, Code-mixing, and Spanglish.

Texts to be used include:

  • Mar-Molinero, C. (1997) The Spanish Speaking World: A Practical Introduction to Sociolinguistic Issues. London: Routledge.

Module Coordinators

Term 1: Dr Nicholas Roberts [n.d.t.roberts@durham.ac.uk], Room A20, Elvet Riverside I
Term 2: Dr Marcela Cazzoli Goeta [m.a.goeta@durham.ac.uk], Room A19, Elvet Riverside I