29893 - Spanish Literature 1 (LM)

Learning outcomes

The student has a thorough knowledge of the history of modern Spanish literature, with particular attention to the relationship between literary texts and the historical, artistic and linguistic context . He knows and use practical methodologies for the analysis and interpretation of literary texts

Course contents

Comic and tragic in the Spanish theater of the Golden Centuries.

It will be offered a panorama of European cultural context in which was born the peculiar phenomenon of the Spanish commercial theater between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. We will study the main steps of development of the productive system and the perspective of the most involved artists, with a focus on production of Lope de Rueda, Miguel de Cervantes, Lope de Vega and Pedro Calderon de la Barca. Starting from the definition of the categories of tragic and comic, the overcoming of the classical models until the construction of the tragicomedy model, the dramas will be studied in their specificity of literary texts created for the show, in which the dramatic structure and poetic language contain all the potential performative act. The general program will be the following:

1. The theater in the sixteenth century and the actor as a profession.

2. Comic and tragic: outlook and methodology.

3. Theatre and Poetry: Cervantes and the tragic experiments in the late sixteenth century: La Numancia.

4. The corral de comedias and theater as a public service.

5. Comedy and short theater: El retablo de las maravillas.

 6. Lope de Vega and the comedia nueva.

7. The generic models of comedy: La viuda Valenciana; La dama boba; El perro del hortelano.

8. The tragicomedy of Lope: El caballero de Omedo; Peribáñez y el comendador de Ocaña

9. The world as theater Calderón: La vida es sueño.

Readings/Bibliography

Dramas:

- Calderón de la Barca, Pedro, La vida es sueño, ed. F. Antonucci, Barcelona, Crítica (coll. Clásicos y modernos), 2008 or bilingual Venice, Marsilio, 2009.

- Cervantes, Miguel de, El retablo de las maravillas, in Entremeses, ed. N. Spadaccini, Madrid, Cátedra, 1998, pp. 215-236.

- Cervantes, Miguel de, La Numancia, ed. A. Baras en Comedias y tragedias, ed. dir. L. Gómez Canseco, Madrid, RAE, 2015, pp. 1005-1100.

- Vega, Lope de, La dama boba, ed. M. G. Profeti, Venezia, Marsilio, 2009.

- Vega, Lope de, El perro del hortelano, ed. F. Antonucci and S. Arata, Napoli, Liguori, 2006.

- Vega, Lope de, El caballero de Olmedo, ed. F. Rico, Madrid, Cátedra, last ed.

- Vega, Lope de, Peribáñez y el comendador de Ocaña, ed. D. Mc Grady and M. Presotto, Barcelona, Crítica, 2001.

- Vega, Lope de, La viuda Valenciana, ed. T. Ferrer Valls, Madrid, Castalia, 2001.

Reference Manuals

- Pedraza Jiménez, Felipe B. and Rodríguez Cáceres, Milagros, Las Epocas de la literatura española, Barcelona, Ariel, 1997, chaps. III and IV, pp. 71-161.

- Arellano, Ignacio, Historia del teatro espaòol del siglo XVII, Madrid, Cátedra, 1995

NOTE: Further bibliography will be available during the course.

Teaching methods

The course will combine theoretical and practical lessons (analysis of literary texts for the theatre). In practical classes, students will participate actively, discussing the literary commentaries made following the instructions of the teacher and according to their specific interests. It will be used a Forum on line ( collaborative platform moodle ) in order to share reviews, comments and material analyzed. All these activities have the function to help the student to present a paper, according with the teacher, that will be an integral part of the final examination. The student has to participate in the Forum with a minimum of three interventions that include at least one critical study not foreseen in the program.

Assessment methods

The exam consists of an oral presentation on the topics of the course which may include a topic previously agreed with the teacher. For those attending the course there will be a final paper written in Spanish and its discussion. Students that can't attend the course will have to prepare the exam on the basic bibliography indicated in the program. In both cases, it will evaluate the critical knowledge of bibliography, as well as fluency, accuracy and appropriateness of language. Overall knowledge of the cultural and literary contexts, and proficient use of the reference texts to support this vision, will be evaluated as excellent, while a general knowledge without interpretive skills will only achieve a passing grade. Finally, the proven and repeated difficulty in creating descriptive and logical connections between cultural phenomena and literary texts will get a failing grade.

Teaching tools

Teaching materials will be available on line. Due to its interactive nature, the course includes the use of an on-line Forum on Moodle platform in order to share materials and comments. Technical features will be explained during the first day of class.

Office hours

See the website of Marco Presotto