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School of Modern Languages & Cultures: Department of Hispanic Studies

Spanish Texts

About this Module

This module, which is taught and assessed in English, is open to students who are taking Spanish Language 2A or Spanish Language 2B and provides an introduction to the development of Spanish cultural production from the Middle Ages to the present day, thus laying the foundations for advanced study in these areas in year 4. Topics covered in the module will vary from year to year according to staff availability, but ordinarily, students will be invited to engage with a variety of different themes (notably, love, death, identity, politics, and society) in a range of different forms of cultural production. This includes literature in its traditional sense (novels, short stories, poetry, drama, and so on) as well as filmic and artistic representations. As the module develops, students will acquire a detailed understanding not just of Spanish cultural production, but of the contexts in which it was produced and the socio-cultural purposes that it serves. In this sense, the module functions as a direct pathway into the Department's complement of Peninsula Spanish options available to final-year students. It is therefore highly recommended to students who wish to develop an advanced understanding of Spanish cultural production in the broadest sense. 

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 

Michaelmas Term:

Medieval collection of short stories (exempla):

  • Juan Manuel, El Conde Lucanor, ed. José Manuel Blecua (Madrid: Castalia, 2010)

Early-Modern Novel: 

  • Fernando de Rojas, La Celestina, ed. Dorothy S. Severin (Madrid: Cátedra, 1993).

20th century Novel:

  • Pío Baroja, El árbol de la ciencia, ed. Pío Caro Baroja (Madrid: Cátedra, 2006)

NOTE: These are well known, easily available texts, they will be available in Waterstones from the beginning of the Michaelmas text. Any other edition of the texts is valid, but please avoid modern Spanish editions of El conde Lucanor such as the one included in the 'Odres Nuevos' series of Castalia)

Epiphany Term:

To be confirmed

Module Coordinators