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School of Modern Languages & Cultures: Department of Hispanic Studies

Contemporary Spanish Cinema

This module will run as a short fat module in Epiphany Term 2014

About this module

This module is open to students taking Spanish Language 4. It covers aspects of contemporary Spanish History and Culture with specific focus on 1990s and 2000s cinema, but in the wider context of pre- and post-Franco Spanish society, history and politics. Students will become familiar with important Spanish issues such as national stereotypes, European integration, violence, trauma, race, immigration and changing gender and sexual identities, as well as relevant concepts in Film Studies such as cinematic genre, spectatorship and the star system. Films by major Spanish directors such as Pedro Almodóvar, Alejandro Amenábar, Vicente Aranda, Juan José Bigas Luna, Iciar Bollaín, Fernando León de Aranoa, Julio Médem, or Fernando Trueba will be studied, as well as contemporary stars such as Victoria Abril, Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Jordi Mollà, Jorge Sanz, Luis Tosar or Maribel Verdú.

Students are advised that some of the films studied contain scenes that deal with matters of a violent or sexual nature in an explicit way. 

Teaching and Learning

There is a two-hour weekly lecture and a weekly small-group seminar. Classes will be in English. Films are in Spanish with English subtitles. 
The module is capped at 30 places.

Summative Assessment

  • 1000-word film analysis Seen Paper (25%) (mid-term)
  • 1,000-word film review (25%) (end of term)
  • 2,500-word summative essay (50%) (after the break) 

Core Texts

  • Ballesteros, Isolina (2001) Cine (ins)urgente: Textos fílmicos y contextos culturales de la España posfranquista (Madrid: Fundamentos)
  • Bordwell, David and Kristin Thompson (2001) Film Art: An Introduction (New York and London: McGraw Hill)
  • D’Lugo, Marvin and Kathleen Vernon (eds) (2013) A Companion to Pedro Almodóvar. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Delgado, Maria M and Robin Fiddian (eds) (2013) Spanish Cinema 1973-2010. Auteurism, Landscape and Memory. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
  • Epps, Brad and Despina Kakoudaki (eds) (2009) All About Almodóvar: A Passion for cinema (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press)
  • Evans, Peter (ed.) (1999) Spanish Cinema: the Auteurist Tradition (Oxford: Oxford University Press)
  • Faulkner, Sally (2013) A History of Spanish Film: Cinema and Society 1910-2010. London: Bloomsbury.
  • Fouz-Hernández, Santiago and Alfredo Martínez-Expósito (2007) Live Flesh: The Male Body in Contemporary Spanish Cinema (London and New York: I. B. Tauris)
  • Jordan, Barry (2012) Alejandro Amenábar. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
  • Jordan, Barry and Mark Allinson (2005) Spanish Cinema: A Student's Guide (London: Hodder Arnold)
  • Jordan, Barry and Rikki Morgan-Tamosunas (1998) Contemporary Spanish Cinema (Manchester: Manchester University Press)
  • Kinder, Marsha (1993) Blood Cinema: The Reconstruction of National Identity in Spain (Berkeley and London: University of California Press)
  • Labanyi, Jo and Tatjana Pavolović (eds) (2013) A Companion to Spanish Cinema. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Marsh, Steven and Parvati Nair (eds) (2004) Gender and Spanish Cinema (Oxford: Berg)
  • Martin-Márquez, Susan (1999) Feminist Discourse and Spanish Cinema: Sight Unseen (Oxford: Oxford University Press)
  • Mira, Alberto (2010) A to Z of Spanish Cinema (Lanham: Scarecrow Press)
  • Mira, Alberto (ed) (2005) The Cinema of Spain and Portugal (London: Wallflower Press)
  • Moreiras Menor (2002) Cristina, Cultura herida: literatura y cine en la España democrática (Madrid, Libertarias)
  • Pavlović, Tatjana (2003) Despotic Bodies and Transgressive Bodies: Spanish Culture from Francisco Franco to Jesús Franco (New York: State University of New York Press)
  • Pavlović, Tatjana et al (2009) 100 Years of Spanish Cinema (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell)
  • Perriam, Chris (2003) Stars and Masculinities in Spanish Cinema: From Banderas to Bardem (Oxford: OUP)
  • Resina, José Ramón with Andrés Lema-Hincapié (eds) (2008) Burning Darkness: A Half Century of Spanish Cinema (New York: SUNY)
  • Santaolalla, Isabel (2012) The Cinema of Iciar Bollaín. Manchester: Manchester University Press
  • Screen (eds) (1992) The Sexual Subject: A Screen Reader in Sexuality (London and New York: Routledge)
  • Stone, Rob (2007) Julio Medem (Manchester and New York: MUP)
  • Stone, Rob (2001) Spanish Cinema (London and New York: Longman)
  • Talens, Jenaro and Santos Zunzunegui (eds) (1998) Modes of Representation in Spanish Cinema (Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press) 

Further information on this course, including aims and objectives, bibliographies and programme, are available here, in the Faculty handbook, and in the DUO intranet environment (Durham University Website).

Co-ordinator:

Dr Santiago Fouz-Hernández (santiago.fouz@durham.ac.uk), room A11, Elvet Riverside I.