2017/18

The aim of this module is to further extend and refine competence in modern Spanish. Emphasis is placed on the four key skills of reading, listening, speaking and writing and on the deepening of both grammatical understanding and the appropriate use of advanced linguistic structures, vocabulary, and register in spoken and written discourse. The course aims to reinforce your mastery of the language in a wide range of authentic situations. At the end of the course you will be able to understand discourse about concrete and abstract topics, to give presentations about different topics, to report on the results of your independent reading and research, and to state your point of view and support it with solid arguments. You will make use of authentic resources from around the Hispanic world, including films, books, articles, newspapers, television and radio. You will complete a range of self-study activities through our multimedia VLE (Moodle) and take part in our virtual language exchange with students in Latin America and Spain.

This course explores the relationship between cinema, mobility and the city through the close analysis of contemporary films from Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Uruguay. In encouraging students to think geographically about film, we will consider how cinematic locations – urban, rural and mobile – enable filmmakers to address broader social and cultural issues, such as migration, neo-colonialism, transnationalism and social inequality.

 How is this course taught?

The course is taught through a combination of weekly lectures and seminars. The lectures will serve to contextualise the individual films, while the seminars will include close textual analysis. Students will be required to watch each of the seven films before lectures/seminars, as well as carry out background readings on both the films and their geographical contexts. References to the background readings will be available for each week on Moodle.

This course provides a detailed introduction to Spanish film from the 1950s until the present day. It explores the ways in which Spanish cinema has frequently explored, constructed and problematized Spanish nationhood across a diverse range of cinematic movements and genres. In studying the works of key directors such as Pedro Almodóvar, Alex de la Iglesia and Julio Medem, the course considers how Spanish film has responded to key moments, crises and contradictions in Spanish history. The course will consider the practices of both Spanish art cinema and popular cinema alike, and closely examine these trends within their sociohistorical, political and industrial contexts.