Module Information

Module Identifier

SP35020

Module Title

Seeing Spain Through Cinema

Academic Year

2025/2026

Co-ordinator

Dr Jose Goni Perez

Semester

Semester 2

Pre-Requisite

SP20130

Reading List

View example reading list on Aspire

Course Delivery

Assessment

Assessment Type	Assessment length / details	Proportion
Semester Assessment	Essay 2 (in Spanish) 2000 Words	40%
Semester Assessment	Essay 1 (in Spanish) 2000 Words	40%
Semester Assessment	Oral presentation	20%
Supplementary Assessment	Oral presentation	20%
Supplementary Assessment	Essay 2 (in Spanish) 2000 Words	40%
Supplementary Assessment	Essay 1 (in Spanish) 2000 Words	40%

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:

Enter social debates concerning the study of the interactions of 'Historical Memory' and Cinema in Contemporary Spain;

Understand the historical background of current representations of Franco's Spain and Democratic Spain;

To understand the current Spanish division between the old generation and the new generation;

Develop their skills in Comparative analysis and to show familiarity with cinematic and technical vocabulary;

Engage critically with a variety of scholarly material including monographs and specialised articles;

Present their findings in a logical, organised and scholarly fashion both orally - through debates and presentations in Spanish - and in written form - through essays and text commentaries written in Spanish.

Brief description

This course studies the phenomena known as 'Historical memory' and 'Tiempo' perdido' in contemporary Spanish cinema. Through a series of contemporary films the students will put into practice comparative analyses between different representations of main historical events. The period starts with contemporary representations of the Spanish Civil War and will end with the current social cinema. The aim of this course is to consider how these historical events and current events are being portrayed in Spanish cinema. A series of seminars - based around work on cinematic sources - will allow students to explore and debate the views on the 'Historical memory'.

Aims

In both Literature and Cinema - and in many cases the cinematic adaptation of the first - the 'Historical memory' and 'Tiempo perdido' have been the main intellectual components of Spanish art since 1980. In view of this, this module will trace the 'poietic' transformation and representation of five historical periods of Spain. It will focus both on the study of historical events as well as on their cinematic product. It will develop students' ability to engage in general aspects, such as socio-historical debates, issues of fictionalization in the interaciton between generations, the study of relations between history and culture, and more specific issues such as the use of language, slang and linguistic variation in Cinema.

The study of this subject also provides a background in which to understand contemporary debates in Spanish society about politics, national identity and the relationship between 'The two sides of Spain'.

Content

This module is structured around the following topics:
1. Guerra civil: Rewriting and revising the Spanish Civil War
2. Franco's Spain: The conflict after the conflict
3. The early freedom: La Movida; Pop Art and Popular Culture in cinema
4. The Democratic cinema (1982-1999): The self-reflexive view
5. Siglo XXI: Provocation and social debate

Module Skills

Skills Type	Skills details
Communication	Students will develop oral communication in seminars; written communication will be developed in assessments and examinations, both in Spanish and English.
Improving own Learning and Performance	Students will be able to assess their own progress week by week through their increased understanding of the issues raised and the skills developed.
Information Technology	Students will use on-line journals and source collections; delivery of course materials and information via e-learning system.
Personal Development and Career planning	Students will acquire transferable skills; in-depth acquaintance with Cinema as an academic subject.
Problem solving	Students will select appropriate reading material; developing evaluative analysis and critical skills and formulating a detailed argument.
Research skills	Students will analyse cinematic representations in their political/historical contexts and synthesize information in an evaluative argument.
Subject Specific Skills	Students will acquire Modern Spanish vocabulary; slang expressions; corrupted grammatical structures, mispronunciations, 'ideolecto', 'fasolecto' and 'sociolecto'.
Team work	Students will participate in debates and group presentations in seminars.

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 6