| Unit name | War Without Limits:- Understanding the Spanish Civil War in European Literature |
|---|---|
| Unit code | MODLM2065 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | M/7 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Professor. Hurcombe |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | School of Modern Languages |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit examines the ideological and political significance of the Spanish Civil War for both Spain and Europe more generally through cultural representations of this conflict. These are drawn from a variety of cultures, including those of France, Great Britain, Italy and Spain. The unit begins with an historical introduction to the war's Spanish origins and its rapid internationalisation through foreign intervention. It then considers the response of a variety of genres to the conflict (reportage, travel writing, the novel and film), examining issues of pertaining to the representation or war and ideology, ideological appropriation and propaganda, humour, cultural translation and acculturation. It concludes by examining recent Spanish attempts to remember a conflict deliberately forgotten in the post-war era. The unit also comprises a research project where students are required to develop their knowledge of one particular culture's or genre's understanding of the conflict under the guidance of one of the unit tutors.
Aims:
This unit aims to introduce students to the historical context of the Spanish Civil War and to attempts to represent that conflict in the Europe since the late 1930s. It does this through a range of genres (reportage, travel writing, the novel and film) in a range of cultures (those of France, Great Britain, Italy and Spain). It therefore aims to give students an interdisciplinary and intercultural perspective of the conflict whilst grounding their understanding of it in Spanish history. It considers cultural representations of the Spanish Civil War in terms of the propaganda aims of each work, its attempt to ideologically appropriate anothers conflict and thereby to translate culturally an originally Spanish phenomenon. It concludes by examining a distinct Spanish memory of the conflict and its problematic emergence from deliberate policies of forgetting.
Students of this unit will receive a broader understanding of the issues outlined above. More particularly, this unit will enable students to understand the complex relationship between the aesthetic representation of conflict and ideology in cultural forms. Through its interdisciplinarity, it aims to develop a comparativist approach among students whilst also allowing them to pursue an individual research project under suitable supervision. The unit therefore allows students to deepen their understanding of the units principal issues and their reflection in one particular culture of interest to them.
Weekly seminars.
1 x 5000-word essay.
