- Docente: Eugenio Maggi
- Credits: 9
- SSD: L-LIN/05
- Language: Spanish
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
- Campus: Bologna
- Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Modern, Post-Colonial and Comparative Literatures (cod. 0981)
Course contents
La conquista del aire. Forms of critical realism in dissident Spanish narrative
The course (in Spanish) intends to trace reading paths between some significant works that, starting from the problematic and changing conception of "literary realism", have questioned the history and present of Spanish society. After an introduction to narrative proposals of writers that used critical realism as a weapon against the Francoist dictatorship in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, we will examine some of the most significant names in contemporary fiction (Vázquez Montalbán, Chirbes, Gopegui, Rosa, Sanz) that have given continuity to an idea of committed and conflictual literature from the period of the democratic Transition to the present day.
In particular, we will discuss the themes of the traumatic legacy of dictatorships (the "trilogy of resistance" by Vázquez Montalbán, "El vano ayer", the first books by Chirbes), the Transition reconsidered from a gender perspective ("Daniela Astor y la caja negra "), and eventually, with the novels of Gopegui, Chirbes and Rosa, the ongoing crisis and the current forms of socio-economic violence and exploitation.
The course includes both lectures and student-led seminars.
Readings/Bibliography
Bibliography
Novels and short stories:
Rafael Chirbes, “La buena letra” (1992), “Los disparos del cazador” (1994) [now in: “Pecados originales”, 2013], "La larga marcha" (1996), "La caída de Madrid" (2000), "Crematorio" (2007), "En la orilla" (2013)
Antonio Ferres, "Los vencidos" (1965)
Belén Gopegui, “La conquista del aire” (1998)
Juan Goytisolo, "Para vivir aquí" (1960), "Señas de identidad" (1966)
Armando López Salinas, "La mina" (1960; ed. D. Becerra Mayor, Akal, 2013)
Juan Marsé, "Si te dicen que caí" (1973; ed. A. Rodríguez Fischer y M. Jiménez León, Cátedra, 2010)
Isaac Rosa, "¡Otra maldita novela sobre la guerra civil!" (1999/2007), "El vano ayer" (2004), "La mano invisible" (2011), "La habitación oscura" (2013)
Marta Sanz, "Daniela Astor y la caja negra" (2013)
Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, "El pianista" (1985; ed. J. Colmeiro, Cátedra, 2017), "Galíndez" (1991), "Autobiografía del General Franco" (1992)
Movies and TV series:
“Las razones de mis amigos” (2000), dir. by Gerardo Herrero
"El misterio Galíndez" (2003), dir. by Gerardo Herrero
"La vida en rojo" (2008), dir. by Andrés Linares
"Crematorio" (2011), TV series, dir. by Jorge Sánchez-Cabezudo
"La mano invisible" (2016), dir. by David Macián
Critical bibliography (provisional):
- AAVV, monografico della rivista Turia (n. 112, 2014) su Rafael Chirbes
- Arias Careaga, Raquel-David Becerra Mayor-Julio Rodríguez Puértolas-Marta Sanz, Qué hacemos con la literatura, Madrid, Akal, 2013
- Becerra Mayor, David, La Guerra Civil como moda literaria, Madrid, Clave Intelectual, 2015
- Becerra Mayor, David, El realismo social en España. Historia de un olvido, Macerata, Quodlibet, 2017.
-Colmeiro, José F. [ed.], Manuel Vázquez Montalbán: el compromiso con la memoria, Woodbridge, Tamesis, 2007.
- Dardot, Pierre-Christian Laval, La nuova ragione del mondo: critica della razionalità neoliberista, Roma, DeriveApprodi, 2013.
-Gómez López-Quiñones, Antonio, La guerra persistente. Memoria, violencia y utopía:representaciones contemporáneas de la Guerra Civil española, Madrid, Iberoamericana, 2006.
-Lauge Hansen, Hans; Cruz Suárez, Juan Carlos, La memoria novelada. Hibridación degéneros y metaficción en la novela española sobre la guerra civil y el franquismo (2000-2010), Frankfurt, Peter Lang, 2012.
-Martínez, Guillem [coord.], CT o Cultura de la Transición. Crítica a 35 años de cultura española, Barcelona, Mondadori, 2012.
- Martínez Rubio, José, Las formas de la verdad. Investigación, docuficción y memoria en la novela hispánica, Barcelona, Anthropos, 2015.
-Ros Ferrer, Violeta (coord.): «Monográfico. Contar la transición: discursos e imaginarios del cambio político en España», Kamchatka. Revista de análisis cultural, n.4, 2014
- Ros Ferrer, Violeta: "Entrevista a Marta Sanz. Contar la transición, o cómo hablar de la china en el zapato", Kamchatka: revista de análisis cultural (Monográfico: Contar la transición. Narrativas e imaginarios del cambio político en España), pp. 257-263
- Subirats, Eduardo (coord.), Intransiciones, Madrid, Biblioteca Nueva, 2002.
Teaching methods
Traditional teaching (in Spanish) with the use of digital texts partly available on line. Student-led classes and seminars in the second half of the course.
Assessment methods
Students will read four novels (or short stories collections) (by four different authors) and write a 10/15-page paper in Spanish, on a subject to be discussed with the professor in advance. The paper (to be handed in at least 10 days before the oral exam) can be substituted with an oral presentation during the course. The final oral exam, in Spanish, will be focused on the paper and the chosen readings.
Teaching tools
Traditional teaching (in Spanish) with the use of digital texts; online platform with teaching materials and a student forum.
Office hours
See the website of Eugenio Maggi