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School of Modern Languages & Cultures: Department of Hispanic Studies

The Cultures of the Hispanic Caribbean: Texts and Theoretical Frameworks

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 recent texts from Hispanic Caribbean with a specific focus on the way in which these texts work through colonial and imperialist legacies, as well as present realities of inequality, tourism, and neo-imperialism. Students will examine how these affect national and personal identity, selfhood and aesthetic form and explore the ways in which the texts think beyond them. Issues that will be discussed include gender, race, class and sexuality - categories that are of central importance to the formulation of the modern individual. The main emphasis of this course lies on the form of the novel, but it will also include other genres (film, poetry and testimonio). Students will become familiar with postcolonial issues and debates in the Caribbean context through a study of key theoretical texts. It is recommended that students read some of the key novels before the beginning of term (they will be announced at the beginning of Term 3 of the previous year).

Teaching and Learning

 There are two weekly lectures and a weekly seminar in which students are divided into smaller groups. Classes are in English. The module is capped at 28 places.

Summative Assessment

Coursework (100%) comprising: 2,000-word summative essay (40%) and 2,500-word summative essay (60%) 

Set Texts

  • Carpentier, Alejo (2005) El reino de este mundo (Barcelona: Editorial Seix Barral)
  • Barnet, Miguel and Montejo, Esteban (2010) Biografía de un cimarrón (Manchester: MUP) 
  • Santos Febres, Mayra (2009) Sirena Selena vestida de pena (Madrid: Punto de Lectura)
  • Cabiya, Pedro (2010) Malas hierbas

The first two texts will be available in Waterstones. The Department will obtain copies of the other two (Usmaíl and Sirena Selena), which will be available for purchase. Sirena Selena is available on amazon, but please make sure you are buying the Spanish version.

The editions referenced here are the ones that will be used in class, but other editions are also acceptable.

Co-ordinator:

Dr Kerstin Oloff [k.d.oloff@durham.ac.uk], Room A51, Elvet Riverside I