LROM0119-1 : Introduction to the history of Spanish literature

University of Liege | Version française

Academic year 2014-2015

Value date : 12/05/2015

LROM0119-1

Introduction to the history of Spanish literature

Duration :

30h Th

Number of credits :

Bachelier en langues et lettres modernes, orientation générale		4

Bachelor in Ancient Languages and Literatures, Classics, 2nd year		5

Bachelor in Ancient Languages and Literatures, Classics, 3rd year		5

Bachelor in Information and Communication, 2nd year		5

Bachelor in Modern Languages and Literatures, German, Dutch and English, 2nd year		5

Bachelor in History of Art and Archeology, General, 2nd year		5

Bachelor in History, 2nd year		5

Bachelor in modern languages and literatures, general orientation, 2nd year		5

Bachelor in History of Art and Archeology, Musicology, 2nd year		5

Bachelor in Ancient Languages and Literatures: Oriental Studies, 2nd year		5

Bachelor in Ancient Languages and Literatures: Oriental Studies, 3rd year		5

Bachelor in philosophy, 2nd year		5

Bachelor in French and Romance Languages and Literatures, 2nd year		5

Master en communication multilingue, à finalité spécialisée en langue et culture, 1st year		8

Lecturer :

Alvaro Ceballos Viro

Language(s) of instruction :

French language

Organisation and examination :

Teaching in the first semester, review in January

Course contents :

This course provides a general panorama and chronological overview of Spanish literature from its origins to the present day. Lectures will be illustrated by reading and commentary upon extracts from representative publications (in either French translation or in bilingual editions).
At the end of the course, you should have acquired knowledge relating to the history of Spanish literature, which will enable you to read some masterpieces, as we will do in the second term. It is in fact necessary to familiarise oneself with, for example, the clichés of books on chivalry before embarking upon Don Quijote de la Mancha, or to have read a popular novel in order to better understand the Federico Garcia Lorca's aesthetic bet. However this is not only a preparatory course: you will be able to discover, among other things, that the code for expression used in the most modern hit songs dates back to more than seven centuries; some fables that we have grown up with have their origins in the East and were imported to Europe through Spain; that the monks of the Middle Ages were not always wise; that the playwright Lope de Vega in the XVII century set the rules which are still in force in Hollywood cinema; that romanticism is above all a highly political movement, etc.
Command of Spanish is an indispensable pre-requisite for reading the Hispanic classics. Other courses offered by the Spanish Department of the University of Liège will allow you in a few months to start reading complex texts, using a dictionary. This History of Literature will sometimes be given in French because, on the one hand the vast majority of students still have a rudimentary grasp of Spanish and, on the other, we will be reading and commenting upon texts which date from several centuries ago. However, even using a translation, we will need some historical information and several analytical categories to be able to produce a coherent and commended interpretation of Spanish texts published before the 21st century.
This course is therefore, somewhat untraditional: lectures providing a broad introduction to the subject, during which the lecturer will provide definitions and historical information. However, you will also have the possibility of reading a collection of texts (translated into French, the original Spanish versions will be available in the Romance library), commenting upon them with your fellow students or other teaching staff from the Spanish Department, and thus familiarising yourself with the different periods and genres of Spanish literature.

Learning outcomes of the course :

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

recognise the most widespread or historically important poetic forms of Spanish literature: jarcha, sonnet, romance, cuaderna vía, etc.
chronologically place (albeit approximately) some Spanish texts. For example: when did the Picaresque novel really take off? And when was naturalism introduced to Spain?
produce brief stylistic commentaries and be able to comment on the form of literary texts.
know around a dozen important dates in the history of Spanish literature (marked with an asterisk in the syllabus), and the events associated with them.
appreciate the importance of some authors and works in the history of Spanish literature. What is, for example, the role played by Garcilaso de la Vega, in the history of poetry? Why was Tirant lo Blanc one of Miguel de Cervantes favourite books on chivalry?
appreciate the nuances between the definitions of some literary terms.

Prerequisites and co-requisites/ Recommended optional programme components :

None.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods :

Reading selections and literary works from Spanish literature (in French translation) and work on exercises.

Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning) :

Course is given in French.

See: http://cipl82.philo.ulg.ac.be/horaires