31043 - Spanish Literature 1

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students should know the general outline of literary history. They should be able to read, understand and translate texts from Spanish into Italian and they should also be acquainted with the methods and analytical tools they need to interpret the works of the main authors, contextualising them within their cultural and historical period.

Course contents

MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY SPANISH LITERATURE
The course will examine the historical period that goes from the eighteenth century to Contemporaneity and will be based mainly on the study of literary representations of the idea of reality, its constitution, evolution, negation and fragmentation. Texts by Benito Pérez Galdós, Miguel de Unamuno, Federico García Lorca, Jesús Fernández Santos, Carmen Martín Gaite and Juan José Millás will be analyzed through historical, philosophical and literature theory tools. In addition, the following topics will be explored: Enlightenment, Realism, Naturalism, Existentialism, Avant-gardes, Trauma, Civil War, Francoism, Neorealism, Postmodernity, Otherness, Symbol, Metamorphosis.

Readings/Bibliography

Benito Pérez Galdós, Marianela

Miguel de Unamuno, Niebla

Federico García Lorca, selection of poems

Carmen Martín Gaite, El cuarto de atrás

Juan José Millás, La soledad era esto

Further references will be made available on-line in the file "MATERIALI DIDATTICI" downloadable (pdf).

Lina Rodríguez, Manual de historia de la literatura española. 2. Siglos XVIII-XX, Madrid, Castalia, 2009

Teaching methods

Traditional teaching with the use of digital texts, in italian and in spanish.

Assessment methods

Written examination. The examination consists of a written test lasting 90 minutes. The written test consists of 5 open questions concerning: topic of cultural or philosophical history; topic of literary history; topic of description of a literary text; topic of description of a specific aspect within a literary text; comment to a fragment of a literary text. It will be verified the linguistic understanding of literary texts provided in the course. It will be tested the descriptive knowledge of the topics covered during the course, the ability to contextualize the cultural and literary phenomena and to identify the originality of the texts studied. It will also be evaluated the ability of critical synthesis of bibliography, as well as expressive properties, in terms of accuracy and appropriateness of language. Overall knowledge of the cultural-historical period and specifically literary, and ease of use of the reference texts to support this vision, will be evaluated as excellent, while a general knowledge without support interpretation will be considered by an affirmative vote but not high. Finally, the proven and repeated difficulty in creating descriptive and logical connections between cultural phenomena and literary texts make insufficient evaluation.

Teaching tools

Multi-media computer and projector. Dossiers will be included on the website.

Office hours

See the website of Luigi Contadini