Undergraduate Course: Catalan Culture and Society 1: From 1900 to 1975 (ELCH08023)
Course Outline
| School | School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 8 (Year 1 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This 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 feminist photography. Pere Calders' short stories blur the line between the real and the fantastic and questions pre-established societal norms. We will also examine the countercultural nature of the School of Barcelona cinema, heavily influenced by pop art, and the experimentalist films of Pere Portabella.
Students will actively contribute to seminars and groups discussions, develop team work ethics and oral and written analytical skills.
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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-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2025/26, Available to all students (SV1)
|
Quota: 0 |
| 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 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Coursework 100%
Research Poster - 20% of the final mark - LO1, LO2, LO3 and LO4
Book/Film Review - 30% - LO1, LO2, LO3 and LO4
Comparative Commentary - 50% - LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4 and LO5 |
| 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:
- Utilise analytical and communication and presentation skills through group discussions and individual presentations on aspects of literature and history.
- Assess the relationship between Catalonia's history, politics, society and aspects of cultural expression.
- Apply knowledge of the background to the cultural and artistic expression of Catalonia, the Valencian Community and the Balearic Islands.
- 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.
- Identify and compare different kinds of Catalan audiovisual and written materials.
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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. |
| Keywords | Catalan,culture,society,history,literature,art,cinema,politics |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Sergi Mainer
Tel: (0131 6)50 8966
Email: sergi.mainer@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Hope Hamilton
Tel: (0131 6)50 4167
Email: hope.hamilton@ed.ac.uk |
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