Literature Film & Course Description
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CONTEMPORARY SPANISH LITERATURE FILM & COURSE DESCRIPTION This course presents the ideological and cultural shifts in Spain before, during, and after the Franco dictatorship through literature and film from the beginning of the 20th century to present day. In this [SPAN 403] course, we’ll situate the diverse country in its Fall 2020 | T &TH | 12:00-1:15 European and world contexts through a variety of literary works and film productions. We will continue R. Tyler Gabbard-Rocha developing critical thinking tools as a means of Email: [email protected] studying the human condition and familiarize Office: SC G003 ourselves with the literary and artistic styles, Office Hours: Tuesday 10:45- movements, periods, ideologies, and cultural 11:45; Friday 11:00- influences that produced these works in order to 12:00; or by appointment relate them to the current world at large. PREREQUISITES Students must have completed or be currently enrolled in Spanish VI. OBJECTIVES There are several outcomes for this course. You will learn to interpret and critically analyze Spanish literature and film as demonstrated by the following goals: 1. You will be able to recognize and identify influential works of literature and film representing the contemporary canon. 2. Furthermore, you will learn to analyze these works using the appropriate terminology as they relate to sociocultural, historical, and literary movements. 3. Finally, you will learn to compare these works in their own context and in European and world contexts today, including your own experiences. P a g e | 2 REQUIRED TEXTS All texts are available on Canvas. You will need to bring the correct text to class each day, either in print or electronically. Films will be watched in the classroom. NOVELAS Baroja, Pío. El árbol de la ciencia. Rodoreda, Mercè. La Plaza del Diamante. CUENTOS Esteban Erlés, Patricia. Microrrelatos selectos. Matute, Ana María. Historias de la Artámila. Selecciones. Merino, José María. Microrrelatos selectos. Tomeo, Javier. Microrrelatos selectos. POESÍA Aleixandre, Vicente. Poesía selecta. Fuertes, Gloria. Poesía selecta. García Lorca, Federico. Poesía selecta. Salinas, Pedro. Poesía selecta. DRAMA Buero Vallejo, Antonio. Historia de una escalera. Fernán Gómez, Fernando. Las bicicletas son para el verano. Pedrero, Paloma. Resguardo personal. CINE Y MÁS Almodovar, Pedro. ¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto? Bollaín, Iciar. Te doy mis ojos Buñuel, Luis. Un chien andalou Calvo, Javier y Javier Ambrossi. Paquita Salas. Érice, Víctor. El espíritu de la colmena. García Berlanga, Luis. ¡Bienvenido Mr. Marshall! P a g e | 3 COURSE REQUIREMENTS A variety of tasks are designed to help you learn the material and demonstrate your mastery of different topics Comentarios de lectura 20% Participación profesional 20% Controles (5) 10% Análisis escritos (3) 15% Presentación (1) 10% Portafolio final 25% COMENTARIOS DE LECTURA (TAREA): 20% Before coming to class, you are expected to have read any/all assigned assigned texts for that day (see calendar below). Write down and bring to class (to turn in) answers to the following questions: 1. Para ti, ¿cuál es el tema más importante del texto? Explica. 2. Comenta un detalle del texto que te pareció interesante, curioso, o discutible. Min. 25 palabras. Please write in complete sentences. Your comments will help us guide our conversations in class in addition to providing you with a way to engage with the text in a way that is most meaningful to you. There is no assigned text to read before class on the days we will be watching films in class, but your attendance is expected because you will have in-class assignments to complete those days. The final document is due before midnight on Canvas the day we finish the film. PARTICIPACIÓN PROFESIONAL: 20% This course is taught entirely in Spanish, so your participation is important. This means more than just physical presence: it means coming to class prepared (having read the assigned text, brought it to class with your comments), actively participating in classroom activities, speaking in Spanish, and only working on material from this class during class time. Attendance is mandatory, and absences will lower this grade. See below for more on the attendance policy. CONTROLES:10% Throughout the semester, we will be using specific terminology that you will be expected to know and use in our conversations and in-class activities as well as in your individual projects. There will be five brief quizzes to be completed on Canvas. Each quiz will be made available to you for one week, but once a quiz is started, you only have 30 minutes P a g e | 4 to complete it. You will not be able to save your progress and continue later; it must be completed in one sitting. ANÁLISIS ESCRITO: 15% As we advance through the literature and film in the course, we will practice different ways of analyzing, discussing, and commenting on these works in class. You will have the opportunity to demonstrate this on your own as well. There will be three brief written papers (each worth 5% of the final grade) that you will do on your own before a peer review session in class. After the peer review session, you will have time to make final revisions before uploading it on Canvas. The rubric and a detailed description of the task is available on Canvas. PRESENTACIÓN: 10% You will be asked to give one presentation in Spanish during the semester about any one of the writers or directors. The presentation will be given on the same day that we discuss their work in class. This helps us contextualize the work from their perspective, which then allows us to relate this work to the culture in which it was produced. You are tasked with providing a biography of the writer or director and a trajectory of works (i.e. did they win any awards? Was everything published posthumously? Did they begin writing at 7 years old or at 40? Etc.). A detailed grading rubric and assignment description is available on Canvas. PORTAFOLIO FINAL: 25% Rather than a final exam or a single large paper, the final portfolio is a more organic representation of your own personal work throughout the semester. A detailed grading rubric and project description is available on Canvas. This must be submitted on Canvas no later than 11:59 PM on Thursday, December 10. This will consist of five elements typed in Spanish: 1. Cover page (10 points). In addition to your name, this is a solid one-paragraph explanation of everything in the following pages. 2. Written analyses (50 points each, 150 total). These are revised versions of the three literary analyses you previously submitted earlier in the semester, including a paragraph explaining how you incorporated your professor’s feedback. 3. Comparative thematic analysis (50 points) in which you discuss a theme across two or more works. None of the works can be the same as those you chose for your written analyses, although the writer/director may be the same. This is the final version after in-class peer review. 4. Personal reflection (10 points) in which you discuss the work(s) we examined throughout the course that sparked the most interest for you, explaining why/how it interested you, how you may have felt identified in the work, how it can relate to your personal life, and more. P a g e | 5 5. One new item (30 points) of your choosing among a variety of options (instructions and the rubric are on Canvas for each): a. Film review for a film you have not previously worked with. b. Literary analysis of a work you have not previously worked with. c. Comparative thematic analysis in which you discuss a theme across two or more works that are different from any of the previously chosen works, though they may be by the same writer/director. d. Group production: record your interpretation of an important scene from a play we read in class. This may require multiple classmates, but for each classmate, there must be at least three minutes of spoken dialogue by that student. For example, a scene with three students will be at least nine minutes long in which each student has a minimum of three minutes of their own dialogue. Even though it is a group project, each student will be graded individually for their part. HOW TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN THIS COURSE All information about every assignment is already available on Canvas. The final portfolio project is designed to be completed in pieces throughout the semester in order to better distribute the workload throughout the sixteen weeks – this way, your final weeks of the semester should be lighter, but this does not mean that the portfolio should not be taken seriously. That said, I encourage you to decide on the additional pieces earlier on in the semester so that we can work together to produce your best work. The vocabulary quizzes are not designed to trick you. Because they are to be completed on Canvas, you are more than welcome to use your notes during the quiz, but I encourage you to study in advance: not only because of the time limit, but also because the terminology is fundamental to discussing literature in depth. You may not be used to reading literature in Spanish. Some of the readings might prove especially challenging, but that is perfectly fine. Class time is dedicated to working through the literature together, especially the more challenging aspects, which is why in- class discussion and questions is an important part of your success in this course. You will not be judged or criticized for not fully understanding the reading or mispronouncing something in Spanish, though you are expected to look up any words you do not understand while you read.