THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2024/2025

Timetable information in the Course Catalogue may be subject to change.

University Homepage
DRPS Homepage
DRPS Search
DRPS Contact
DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures : European Languages and Cultures - Hispanic Studies

Undergraduate Course: Catalan Culture and Society 1: From 1900 to 1975 (ELCH08023)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Literatures, Languages and Cultures CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 8 (Year 1 Undergraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThis course will provide an interdisciplinary introduction to the culture, politics and society in the Catalan speaking world from the beginning of the twentieth century to the end of Franco's dictatorship. Catalan Culture will be explored through the study of literary texts, architecture, art, documentaries, music and film in their socio-political and historical context. This course will be taught in English.
Course description This course will provide an interdisciplinary survey of the culture and politics of the Catalan speaking world from the beginning of the twentieth century to the end of Franco's dictatorship in the 1970s. The course will start by analysing the architecture of Antoni Gaudí and the modernist confrontation between the individual and society through a marginalised female voice in Caterina Albert's novel Solitude. The Noucentisme movement promoted a classicist approach to literature and the arts and established the foundations of contemporary nationalism in Catalonia. We will also study the challenge to tradition in the surrealist paintings of Salvador Dalí and the futurist poetry of Joan Salvat-Papasseit.

The political resistance to the Francoist dictatorship and exile will be explored through the working-class female experience in Mercè Rodoreda's In Diamond Square, the dissident 'Nova cançó' songwriters and singers, poetry and drama. Pere Calders' short stories blur the line between the real and the fantastic and questions pre-established societal norms. We will also examine the experimentalist nature of the School of Barcelona cinema, heavily influenced by pop art, and the neorealist cinema of Josep Maria Forn.

Students will actively contribute to seminars and groups discussions, develop team work ethics and oral and written analytical skills.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Additional Costs £15-20
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesNone
High Demand Course? Yes
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1) Quota:  30
Course Start Full Year
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 196 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) Formative «br /»
«br /»
Documentary log (150 words) «br /»
«br /»
«br /»
«br /»
Summative «br /»
«br /»
Research Poster (group assessment, 350 words) 20% «br /»
«br /»
Book/film Review (500 words) 25% «br /»
«br /»
Commentary (800 words) 45% «br /»
«br /»
Class performance 10%
Feedback There will be a formative written exercise.



Feedback will be given in written form for all the written assignments.



There will be continuous oral feedback in class both for group work and individuals.
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Utilise analytical and communication and presentation skills through group discussions and individual presentations on aspects of literature and history.
  2. Assess the relationship between Catalonia¿s history, politics, society and aspects of cultural expression.
  3. Apply knowledge of the background to the cultural and artistic expression of Catalonia, the Valencian Community and the Balearic Islands.
  4. Consider the present of Catalonia in relation to the past and understand the wider role of culture and memory in the shaping of a nation's development as well as its political institutions.
  5. Identify and compare different kinds of Catalan audiovisual and written materials.
Reading List
Essential



ALBERT, Catarina (1992), Solitude: A Novel of Catalonia, London, Readers International.

FORN, Josep Maria, dir. (1967). La piel quemada [Burnt Skin], Teide P.C. (film)

RODOREDA, Mercè (2013). In Diamond Square, London, Virago.

SALVAT-PAPASSEIT, Joan (1982). Selected Poems, Oxford, Anglo-Catalan Society. (free online access)

Recommended



ARCHER, Robert (1993). Catalan Literature, Madrid, Vox/AHS.

ARKINSTALL, Christine (2004). Gender, Class, and Nation: Mercè Rodoreda and the Subjects of Modernism, Lewisburg, Bucknell University Press.

EVERLY, Kathryn A. (2003). Catalan Women Writers and Artists: Revisionist Views from a Feminist Space, London, Bucknell University Press.

GRAHAM, Helen (2005). The Spanish Civil War: A very Short Introduction, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

GUIBERNAU, Montserrat (2004). Catalan Nationalism: Francoism, Transition, and Democracy, London, Routledge.

KEOWN, Dominic (ed.), (2011). A Companion to Catalan Culture, Woodbridge, Támesis.

McNERNEY, Kathleen and Nancy VOSBURG (ed.) (1994), The Garden across the Border: Mercè Rodoreda¿s Fiction, Selinsgrove, Susquehanna University Press.

PAYNE, John (2003). Catalonia: History and Culture, Nottingham, Five Leaves.

RADFORD, Robert (1998). Dalí, London, Phaidon Press. PENROSE, Roland (1993). Miró, London, Thames and Hudson.

WALTERS, D. Gareth (2006). The Poetry of Salvador Espriu, Woodbridge, Boydell and Brewer.



Further Reading

BALCELLS, Albert (1996). Catalan Nationalism: Past and Present, New York, St. Martin¿s Press.

BLAU, Herbert (1992). To All Appearances: Ideology and Performance, New York, Routledge.

EAUDE, Michael (2007). Catalonia: A Cultural History, Oxford, Signal Books Ltd.

GINER, Salvador (1980). The Social Structure of Catalonia, Sheffield, The Anglo-Catalan Society.

JACKSON, Gabriel (1965). The Spanish Republic and the Civil War, 1931-39, Princeton, Princeton University Press.

LLOBERA, Josep R. (2004). Foundations of National Identity: From Catalonia to Europe, Oxford, Berghahn Books.

MAR-MOLINERO, Clare (2000). The Politics of Language in the Spanish-Speaking World: From Colonisation to Globalisation, London, Routledge.

MARFANY, Joan-Lluís (2005). ¿Religion and the Survival of ¿Minority¿ Languages: The Catalan Case¿, Social History, 30, 154-74.

MAY, Stephen (2012). Language and Minority Rights: Ethnicity, Nationalism and the Politics of Language, New York and London, Routledge.

McROBERTS, KENNETH (2001). Catalonia: Nation Building without a State, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

PRESTON, Paul (2006). The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution and Revenge, London, Harper Perennial.

SOBRER, Josep Miquel (ed.) (1992). Catalonia: A Self-Portrait, Indianapolis, Indiana University Press.

TRUETA, Josep. The Spirit of Catalonia (London: Oxford University Press, 1946)

WEBBER, Jude and Miquel STRUBELL i TRUETA (1991). The Catalan Language, Sheffield, The Anglo-Catalan Society.

TERRY, Arthur (2003). A Companion to Catalan Literature, London, Támesis.
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills On Completion of this course, student will be able to:

be sensitive to and understand¿the diversity in people from different communities, genders and backgrounds.

communicate complex ideas and arguments in oral and written form.

think independently and come up with their own lines of arguments.

Conduct research and enquiry into specific areas of knowledge.
KeywordsCatalan,culture,society,history,literature,art,cinema,politics
Contacts
Course organiserDr Sergi Mainer
Tel: (0131 6)50 8966
Email: sergi.mainer@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Hope Hamilton
Tel: (0131 6)50 4167
Email: hope.hamilton@ed.ac.uk
Navigation
Help & Information
Home
Introduction
Glossary
Search DPTs and Courses
Regulations
Regulations
Degree Programmes
Introduction
Browse DPTs
Courses
Introduction
Humanities and Social Science
Science and Engineering
Medicine and Veterinary Medicine
Other Information
Combined Course Timetable
Prospectuses
Important Information