31159 - Spanish Literature 2

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student should know the general outline of literary history. He should be able to read, understand and translate texts from Spanish into Italian and he should also be acquainted with the methods and analytical tools he needs to interpret the the main  contents and is able to comment and explain texts according to specific methodologies for the analysis of literary texts.

Course contents

The program will focus on late-Medieval and Golden Age Spanish literature, including these main topics:

1. Epic poetry and  Romancero.

2. Mester de clerecía

3. The originality of La Celestina.

4. Garcilaso's lyric poetry and Italianism.

5. Prose fiction and idealistic narrative.

6. The Lazarillo and the picaresque model.

7. Cervantes' way of writing.

8. Cervantes' Quijote and the reflection on narrative

9. The Baroque revolution. Góngora and Quevedo.

10. Commercial theatre, Lope de Vega and his dramatic formula.

11. Calderón and La vida es sueño.

Readings/Bibliography

Reference manual:

Rodríguez Cacho, Lina, Manual de historia literaria española, 1. Siglos XIII al XVII, Madrid, Castalia Universidad, 2009

otherwise: Pedraza, Felipe e Rodríguez Cáceres, Las épocas de la literatura española, Barcelona, Ariel, 1997, latest ed.

Literary texts:

- Lazarillo de Tormes, ed. A. Gargano, Venezia, Marsilio, 2017

- Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quijote de la Mancha, I, ed. J. J. Allen, Madrid, Cátedra, 2005 or another recent annotated edition in Spanish; students can also use translations in their own language, but are obliged to read in spanish the following chapters: I-XIV; XX-XXI; XLVII-XLVIII.

- Vega,Lope de, Il cane dell'ortolano, ed. Fausta Antonucci & Stefano Arata, Napoli, Liguori, 2006

- Calderón de la Barca, Pedro, La vita è un sogno, ed. F. Antonucci, Venezia, Marsilio, 2009 or the Spanish edition, La vida es sueño, Barcelona, Crítica, 2008.

The rest of the required readings (short texts, anthological passages) will be available on line (Materiali didattici 1 e Materiali didattici 2).

Teaching methods

Traditional teaching (in Spanish) with the use of digital texts available on line.

Assessment methods

The examination consists in an  oral examination in spanish, concerning, approximately: 1 topic of cultural history; 1 topic of literary history; 1 topic of description of a literary text; 1 topic of description of a specific aspect within a literary text; 1 comment to a fragment of a literary text. For italian students, 1 translation of a sample of a literary text. It will test the descriptive knowledge of the topics discussed during the course, the ability to contextualize the cultural and literary phenomena and to identify the originality of the texts studied. It will also evaluate the critical knowledge of bibliography, as well as fluency, accuracy and appropriateness of language. Overall knowledge of the cultural, historical 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,  consisting mainly of two dossiers (anthologies of texts used in the course )  the projector will be regularly used to display summaries, concepts, fragments of text, images and video sequences. ; it will be provided weekly on line the slides presented. It will also make use of literary translation to better analyze the characteristics of the selected texts.

Office hours

See the website of Marco Presotto