Module Content and Indicative Topics 

This course offers an introduction to key aspects of global Hispanic history and culture from the late medieval period to the 21st century, and acts as a foundation on which students will build throughout the rest of their degree. It exposes students to a wide variety of materials – poetry, prose fiction, essay and film – and explores different ways of making sense of them through historical contextualisation, close reading and critical analysis. Students gain a critical appreciation of the canon of Spanish and Latin American Studies, whilst also developing the tools to explore less canonical authors and works. In the seminars that accompany the lectures, we will focus on discussing the primary materials and develop key skills in reading and writing. 

The module is team-taught by permanent members of academic staff and designed to allow students to become acquainted with a wide range of Hispanist topics, research methods and approaches. It runs over two terms, enabling students to engage in in-depth readings of the literary and critical materials, including some longer texts in Spanish, and in a systematic development of skills that will prove useful throughout their studies. A series of films will be also screened as part of the module. 

The module will cover the following topics, which may be subject to variation depending on developments in academic research and the interests of the class. 

 

Term 1: 


	Spain in the Golden Age   
	
	
	Poverty and social critique in El Lazarillo de Tormes  
	
	
	How to write a critical commentary  
	
	
	Columbus, Cortés and the beginnings of Conquest  
	
	
	Colonial Spanish America and Independence  
	

	Society and gender in the Spanish colonies  
	
	
	Spain in the 18th Century  
	
 

Term 2: 


	An enslaved man in love: Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda’s Sab (Cuba)  
	

	Legacies of Decline: Antonio Machado and Emilia Pardo Bazán (Spain)  
	
	
	Revolution, violence and hope: El llano en llamas (Mexico)  
	
	
	The Afro-Cuban poetry of Nicolás Guillén (Cuba)  
	
	
	Spain under Franco: El espíritu de la colmena (Spain)  
	
	
	Argentine cinema and society: La ciénaga (Argentina)  
	

	Conclusions 
	
Teaching Delivery 

This module consists of 14 hour-long lectures followed by hour-long seminar sessions in which a core text or film is explored. This is complemented by a workshop on commentary writing. Students are expected to read the mandatory texts for group work in the seminar sessions. 

This is a compulsory module for all students of Spanish.  
By the end of the module, you should be able to: 


	General knowledge and understanding of the principal lines of political, social and cultural history in the Spanish-speaking world from the medieval period to our time 
	

	Fundamental knowledge and understanding of key moments in the development of a global Spanish-speaking culture 
	

	Knowledge of a range of textual, pictorial and filmic materials and the context of their production and reception 
	

	Critical understanding of the connections between literature, visual culture, politics and society 
	

	Ability to conduct critical enquiries into key artefacts and their contexts 
	

	Ability to search independently for secondary materials and use them in coursework 
	

	Awareness of fundamental historical, textual and film study methods  
	

	 
	Recommended Reading 
	
In preparation for the module, we advise reading the following core texts. These can be found in the UCL Library: 


	Raymond Carr, ed., Spain: a History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000)  
	
	
	Edwin Williamson, The Penguin History of Latin America (London: Penguin, 2009 
	

	La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes, consolidated annotated edition available online at https://moodle.ucl.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/893399/mod_resource/content/2/lazarillo_pdf.pdf 
	
	
	Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, Sab, edited with an Introduction by Catherine Davies (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001) 
	
 