This module introduces students to key concepts, movements and historical moments pertaining to the cultures, literatures and societies of the Iberian Peninsula (i.e. Spain and Portugal). It explores a selection of texts (literary and visual) from a range of authors and artists from the early modern period (16^th / 17^th century) to the present day. This course will give you a broad overview of the main historical events in Spain and Portugal from a cultural perspective.

This module introduces students to key concepts, movements and historical moments pertaining to the cultures, literatures and societies of Spanish and Portuguese Latin America (examining countries such as Mexico, Cuba and Brazil). It explores a representative selection of primary and secondary texts (literary and visual) from a range of authors from the pre-colonial period to the present day. You will be introduced to a range of cultures from across Latin America and will be expected to think about the impact of colonisation (by Spain and Portugal) as well as the importance of indigenous cultures in contemporary society.

Module Convenor: Dr Anne Holloway

Module description to follow.

Module convenor - Dr Fiona Clark

This module includes a selection of texts that portray experiences of exploration, shipwreck, and survival in Latin America from the initiation of the colonial period and the arrival of the conquistadors, to modern confrontation with the deforestation of the Amazon jungle. This module will use a variety of genres to investigate the following topics, among others: the changing perception of ‘nature’ and the relationship between the human and the natural world; the perception of ‘otherness’, wonder and horror in descriptions of the Americas; and the interaction between the internal and the external journey.

Module convenor - Dr Sarah Bowskill

The year 2010 marked the centenary of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) and this conflict continues to loom large in the country’s literature, art and film. This module introduces students to the extraordinary range of cultural production about the Mexican Revolution from Mariano Azuela’s novel Los de abajo, based on his firsthand experiences of the fighting, to the murals of Diego Rivera, to the HBO film And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself starring Antonio Banderas. We will reflect on how and why representations of the revolution and its leaders have changed over time as well as why the revolution continues to captivate the Mexican public.

Module convenor - Dr Gabriel Sánchez Espinosa

As the title suggests this module will focus on memoirs and autobiographies written in Spain and in the 20th century. Particular attention will be paid to the republican, Francoist and democratic periods.  The analysis will aim to situate this genre within the contexts both of literature and contemporary Spanish history.

Module convenor - Dr Roberta Quance

This module examines four modern narratives (two novels and two films) which present a child’s point of view on sexuality and politics during the Spanish Civil War and the Francoist period. Novels studied include: El barranco [The Ravine] by Nivaria Tejera; Primera memoria [School of the Sun] by Ana Maria Matute. Films may include: Victor Érice’s El espíritu de la colmena [Spirit of the Beehive], Guillermo de Toro’s El laberinto del fauno [The Labyrinth of the Faun], or José Luis Cuerda’s La lengua de las mariposas [Butterfly's Tongue]. The emphasis will be on the elements of fantasy in the way children interpret violence and their relations to father and mother figures.

Module convenor - Dr Anthony Soares

This course offers students an introduction to the Portuguese-speaking world as a postcolonial space. As European colonisation of various parts of the globe has shaped the world we live in today, this module will introduce you to postcolonial theories that can help us to understand issues vital to an age of globalization, and show how Portugal's colonial past differed from the colonizing efforts of other European powers, and how this difference may have influenced the development of Portugal's former colonies. Through the study of "Portuguese postcolonialism", students will gain a critical knowledge of postcolonial studies in general, and of issues pertinent to Portuguese-speaking countries seeking a place in today's globalized world.

The external examiner writes that this module 'is unique in its subject matter and engagement with theoretical issues'.

Module convenor - Professor Isabel Torres

“All the world’s a stage” and “life’s a dream” are two maxims which capture the obsessions at the heart of much early modern Spanish drama. This course aims to introduce you to a representative selection of plays from the Golden Age period (think Spanish Inquisition, Discovery of the Americas, the Armada) which encapsulate these themes. We will explore whether the plays in question do indeed mirror the concerns of their own time and what, if anything, do they say to us today.

Module convenor - Dr Roberta Quance

This module concentrates on some of the most innovative work of the avant-garde by focusing on the theme of explorations and inner journeys. In a period grown increasingly sceptical of religious consolation, writers and artists of the avant-garde (1909-1936) take up Apollinaire’s famous call to explore the 'universes that pulse silently above our heads'. For reasons both personal and social, poets and artists journey through history and language or conduct an exploration into unheard-of worlds parallel to our own, situated beyond physical reality in dreams and fantasy, in order to grasp human limits and ends. This module brings both poetry and the visual arts into play as the privileged spaces where these explorations take place. Although students are introduced to different literary/artistic movements such as ‘creacionismo’ and surrealism, the emphasis is on reading the artist’s work as a response to modernity and the crisis in religious belief in the first half of the 20th century.

Module Convenor: Dr Tori Holmes

The Wall Street Journal recently called Brazil ‘the social media capital of the universe’. Beyond such media interest and hype, this module focuses on the diverse and dynamic arena of contemporary Brazilian digital culture. Topics to be covered include trends in access to the internet, social media, free and open source software, internet policy and governance, digital activism, the impact of digital technologies on artistic, cultural and literary work in Brazil, and digital media as a tool for self-representation by marginalised social groups. Digital culture is explored critically and analytically in the light of broader themes in Brazilian culture and society as well as relevant theories, approaches and developments in the academic study of the internet and digital technologies.

Module convenor - Dr Fiona Clark

This course will explore the political, social, cultural and economic dimensions of disease and medical practice from 15th to 18th-century Latin America. Using a variety of examples of diseases and cures (such as, smallpox, venereal disease, ‘chocolatl’, and cinchona/quinine), the module will investigate: the interactions of individuals and communities – European and Indigenous – and the impact of new diseases imported and exported through the movement of peoples across the Atlantic; the development  of understanding of the natural resources of the Americas and their medical value, such as Aztec herbal knowledge; and the importance of a growing trans-Atlantic market and its use within structures of empire.

Module convenor - Dr Sarah Bowskill

This module examines the failed romances at the heart of much contemporary Latin American literature. Critic Doris Sommer has suggested that the foundational texts of nineteenth-century Latin America were national romances, in which the reciprocated love between hero and heroine fostered love for the nation. This module will ask what has changed; why is there rarely a happy ending for today’s lovers and what, if anything, do their failures say about the contemporary nation?

'The different assessment methods used by the lecturer help to evaluate the students’ skills and capacities in different fields of academic work.' (External Examiner for Latin American Studies)

Module convenor - Professor Isabel Torres

This course will focus on a representative selection of love poetry produced by major and minor writers during the Renaissance.  Particular attention will be paid to the practice of imitation and recreation, and the appropriation and exploitation of classical mythology in this context.  Students will be encouraged to find resonance of the earlier culture in their own (analysis of marketing strategies, TV ads, cinematographic ‘remakes’, song lyrics) and to take advantage of the tutorial setting and relatively small class size to develop transferable skills beyond the subject-specific, e.g. confident oral presentations of guided independent research, etc.

In her review of this module the external examiner writes: 'As ever, the imaginative responses produced by the students on the creative element of this module must be noted as exemplary practice. These responses are highly sensitive to the original texts, and very knowing, and speak volumes of the quality and intensity of the teaching of this module.'

Module convenor - Dr Terry McMullan

This course explores various manifestations of Surrealism in Spanish poetry, painting and cinema during the late 1920s and early 1930s.  Background knowledge of Surrealist painting will be provided and there will be particular emphasis on the pre-Civil War canvasses of Joan Miró and Salvador Dalí.  Some attempt will be made to relate events in Spain to contemporary avant-garde developments in Paris.

Module convenor - Dr Gabriel Sánchez Espinosa

Este curso discurrirá en torno a la historia y la literatura españolas del periodo 1700 (muerte de Carlos II) – 1814 (final de la guerra de la Independencia).  El siglo XVIII español presenta características políticas y culturales que le singularizan con respecto a periodos anteriores: reformismo, apertura a las corrientes culturales europeas.  Su momento más brillante coincidará con el reinado de Carlos III (1759-1788), al adoptarse por parte del estado reformista muchas de las ideas de la Ilustración.