This course provides an introduction to contemporary Spanish society through cinematic representation. The year 1975 – Franco’s death and the end of the dictatorship – shall be our point of departure, because it represents the beginning of the changes that began to conform Spanish society as it is today. The course will address cultural stereotypes and, definitions of self/other, as well as notions of “nationality” in cinema. We shall focus particularly on representations of the city as social and symbolic space, in order to understand the important changes that have taken place in the past 25 years. By the end of the course, students will understand that the country’s cinematic representation is linked to its political, social and economic evolution. Students will also gain some knowledge of the conceptual tools required to study cinematic texts, and basic concepts of film theory.
Attendance policy:
Attendance is mandatory for all IES classes, including field studies. Any exams, tests, presentations, or other work missed due to student absences can only be rescheduled in cases of documented medical or family emergencies. If a student misses more than three classes in any course half a letter grade will be deducted from the final grade for every additional absence. Seven absences in any course will result in a failing grade.
Learning outcomes:
By the end of the course, students are able to:
• Recognize the influence of contemporary social and historical evolution on Spanish film;
• Determine the aesthetic strategies filmmakers produce to address social issues;
• Analyze and interpret filmic texts in their cultural and aesthetic context;
• Compare and contrast dominant film with arthouse and auteurist film.
Method of presentation:
Classes will combine guided film screenings, lectures, discussions, field studies, and student presentations. Lectures will include instructor’s exposition of the historical, social, cultural and ideological background. During film analysis students will participate actively. In addition to the 2 class sessions per week, there will be weekly film screenings, to which assistance is compulsory. Discussions on readings will be guided by students (each student will be assigned a reading to present in class). Viewing guides will be prepared by the professor to guide the discussion on films.
LANGUAGE OF PRESENTATION: English
Required work and form of assessment:
Class participation (20%); Oral presentation (10%);
written assignments (30%); midterm exam (20%); final exam (20%).
content:
Session 1: Introduction and course presentation. Stereotypes of “Spanishness” in film.
Session 2: Spanish film before 1975. Censorship in Spanish film during the dictatorship.
Required Reading:
Stone, Rob. (2002). Spanish Cinema. 61-84.
Essex: Pearson.
Session 3: The ‘dictablanda’: censorship in the final period of the dictatorship. El espíritu de la colmena (Erice, 1973).
Session 4: Metaphor as political commentary.
Required Reading:
Kinder, M. (1983) The Children of Franco in the New Spanish Cinema. Quarterly Review of Film Studies 8 (2): 57-76.
Session 5: The Carmen myth in contemporary representation. Carmen (Saura, 1983). Cultural
reinscription in Carlos Saura’s musicals.
Required Reading:
D’Lugo, Marvin. (1987): Historical Reflexivity: Saura’s Anti-Carmen. Wide Angle. A Film
Quarterly: 53-61.
Session 6: How to write a film review. Practical class in which we will work with examples from different publications on film. Discussion of self-guided field study to see a Spanish film.
Session 7: Field study: film festival.
Session 8: The Movida and the configuration of a new Spanish myth. Discussion: ¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto? (Almodóvar, 1984). The identification of Madrid with the liberation of the female.
First written assignment due. (film review)
Required Reading:
D’Lugo, M. (1995) Almodóvar’s City of Desire. in K. Vernon (ed.) Post-Franco,
Postmodern. The Films of Pedro Almodóvar.
Westport, CT: Greenwood.47-66
Session 9: The evolution of post-Franco Spain in Almodóvar’s films. Creating a new stereotype for international consumption.
Required Reading:
Allinson, M. (2001). A Spanish Labyrinth.
London: I.B. Tauris.111-157
Session 10: The Miró law: Spanish film in the 1980s. Discussion: Los santos inocentes (Camus, 1984). The rural genre.and caciquismo in post-Civil War Spain. The city’s other: rural Spain. The myth of “las dos Españas” and the black legend of Spain.
Required Reading:
N. Triana-Toribio (2003). Spanish National
Cinema. London: Routledge: 108-142.
Session 11: Midterm exam
Session 12: Field study: Film forum
Session 13: Midterm exam.
Session 14: Catalan (and other regional) film. Discussion: La teta y la luna (Bigas Luna, 1994)
Required Reading:
M. D’Lugo, (1997). La teta i la lluna: The Form of Transnational Cinema in Spain. In
Kinder, M. (ed.) Refiguring Spain. Durham: Duke UP. 196-214
Session 15 : Hybrids: after Almodóvar. Genre film in Spanish cinema. Reconfiguring the Spanish myth for a globalized Europe. Postmodernism and urban culture in Spanish film. Discussion: El día de la bestia (de la Iglesia, 1995).
Required Reading:
Kinder, Marsha. (1997). Refiguring Spain.
Cinema/Media/Representation: 1-32. Durham: Duke UP.
Session 16: Representing women in Spanish film. Solas (Zambrano, 1998). Andalucía: subverting the unified notion of “Spanishness”. Women in contemporary Spain.
Required Reading:
Rabalska, C. (1996): Women in Spanish
Cinema in Transition. IJIS 9 (3) 166-179.
Session 17: Field study: film library.
Session 18: The tradition of social film in Spain. Discussion: Barrio (León, 1998). Youth culture in contemporary Spain and Spanish film.
Required Reading:
Allinson, M. (2000) The construction of youth culture in Spain in the 1980s and 1990s. in Jordan and Morgan-Tamosunas (eds.).
Contemporary Spanish Cultural Studies. London: Arnold. 265-273
Session 19: The documentary genre in Spain. Changes in turn of the century Spanish cities: the
phenomenon of immigration.
Required Reading:
Kinder, Marsha. (1997). Refiguring Spain: Cinema, Media, Representation. 66-98.
Duke University Press.
Session 20: The configuration of the city for the new century. En construcción (Guerín, 2000). Field study to the site of the film, Raval neighborhood.
Session 21: tutoring session
Session 22: Presentations. Final assignment due.
Session 23: Presentations
Session 24: Presentations.
Final Exam
Required readings:
[All required readings can be found in the course reader. The readings listed for a particular session must be completed before coming to class that day].
Allinson, M. (2000) The construction of youth culture in Spain in the 1980s and 1990s. in Jordan and Morgan-Tamosunas (eds.). Contemporary Spanish Cultural Studies. London: Arnold. 265-273
---. (2001). A Spanish Labyrinth. London: I.B. Tauris. 111-157
D’Lugo, Marvin. (1987): Historical Reflexivity: Saura’s Anti-Carmen. Wide Angle. A Film Quarterly: 53-61.
---. (1995) Almodóvar’s City of Desire. in K. Vernon (ed.) Post-Franco, Postmodern. The Films of Pedro Almodóvar. Westport, CT: Greenwood.47-66
---. (1997). La teta i la lluna: The Form of Transnational Cinema in Spain. In Kinder, M. (ed.) Refiguring Spain. Durham: Duke UP. 196-214
Kinder, Marsha. (1983) The Children of Franco in the New Spanish Cinema. Quarterly Review of Film Studies 8 (2): 57-76.
---. (1997). Refiguring Spain. Cinema/Media/Representation: 1-32; 66-98. Durham: Duke UP.
Rabalska, C. (1996): Women in Spanish Cinema in Transition. IJIS 9 (3) 166-179.
Triana-Toribio. N. (2003). Spanish National Cinema. London: Routledge: 108-142.
Recommended readings:
Bordwell, David and K. Thompson. (2009). Film Art: An Introduction. New York: McGraw Hill. Bruzzi, Stella. (2001). New Documentary. London: Routledge.
Deveny, Thomas. (1993). Cain on Screen: Contemporary Spanish Cinema. Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow
Press.
Evans, Peter. (2000). Spanish Cinema. The Auteurist Tradition. London: Oxford UP. Higginbotham, Virginia. (1988). Spanish Film Under Franco. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Hopewell, John. (1986). Out of the Past. Spanish Cinema after Franco. London: British Film Institute.
Smith, Paul Julian. (2000). Desire Unlimited. London: Verso.
Contemporary Spanish Film
This course provides an introduction to contemporary Spanish society through cinematic representation. The year 1975 – Franco’s death and the end of the dictatorship – shall be our point of departure, because it represents the beginning of the changes that began to conform Spanish society as it is today. The course will address cultural stereotypes and, definitions of self/other, as well as notions of “nationality” in cinema. We shall focus particularly on representations of the city as social and symbolic space, in order to understand the important changes that have taken place in the past 25 years. By the end of the course, students will understand that the country’s cinematic representation is linked to its political, social and economic evolution. Students will also gain some knowledge of the conceptual tools required to study cinematic texts, and basic concepts of film theory.
Attendance is mandatory for all IES classes, including field studies. Any exams, tests, presentations, or other work missed due to student absences can only be rescheduled in cases of documented medical or family emergencies. If a student misses more than three classes in any course half a letter grade will be deducted from the final grade for every additional absence. Seven absences in any course will result in a failing grade.
By the end of the course, students are able to:
• Recognize the influence of contemporary social and historical evolution on Spanish film;
• Determine the aesthetic strategies filmmakers produce to address social issues;
• Analyze and interpret filmic texts in their cultural and aesthetic context;
• Compare and contrast dominant film with arthouse and auteurist film.
Classes will combine guided film screenings, lectures, discussions, field studies, and student presentations. Lectures will include instructor’s exposition of the historical, social, cultural and ideological background. During film analysis students will participate actively. In addition to the 2 class sessions per week, there will be weekly film screenings, to which assistance is compulsory. Discussions on readings will be guided by students (each student will be assigned a reading to present in class). Viewing guides will be prepared by the professor to guide the discussion on films.
LANGUAGE OF PRESENTATION: English
Class participation (20%); Oral presentation (10%);
written assignments (30%); midterm exam (20%); final exam (20%).
Session 1: Introduction and course presentation. Stereotypes of “Spanishness” in film.
Session 2: Spanish film before 1975. Censorship in Spanish film during the dictatorship.
Required Reading:
Stone, Rob. (2002). Spanish Cinema. 61-84.
Essex: Pearson.
Session 3: The ‘dictablanda’: censorship in the final period of the dictatorship. El espíritu de la colmena (Erice, 1973).
Session 4: Metaphor as political commentary.
Required Reading:
Kinder, M. (1983) The Children of Franco in the New Spanish Cinema. Quarterly Review of Film Studies 8 (2): 57-76.
Session 5: The Carmen myth in contemporary representation. Carmen (Saura, 1983). Cultural
reinscription in Carlos Saura’s musicals.
Required Reading:
D’Lugo, Marvin. (1987): Historical Reflexivity: Saura’s Anti-Carmen. Wide Angle. A Film
Quarterly: 53-61.
Session 6: How to write a film review. Practical class in which we will work with examples from different publications on film. Discussion of self-guided field study to see a Spanish film.
Session 7: Field study: film festival.
Session 8: The Movida and the configuration of a new Spanish myth. Discussion: ¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto? (Almodóvar, 1984). The identification of Madrid with the liberation of the female.
First written assignment due. (film review)
Required Reading:
D’Lugo, M. (1995) Almodóvar’s City of Desire. in K. Vernon (ed.) Post-Franco,
Postmodern. The Films of Pedro Almodóvar.
Westport, CT: Greenwood.47-66
Session 9: The evolution of post-Franco Spain in Almodóvar’s films. Creating a new stereotype for international consumption.
Required Reading:
Allinson, M. (2001). A Spanish Labyrinth.
London: I.B. Tauris.111-157
Session 10: The Miró law: Spanish film in the 1980s. Discussion: Los santos inocentes (Camus, 1984). The rural genre.and caciquismo in post-Civil War Spain. The city’s other: rural Spain. The myth of “las dos Españas” and the black legend of Spain.
Required Reading:
N. Triana-Toribio (2003). Spanish National
Cinema. London: Routledge: 108-142.
Session 11: Midterm exam
Session 12: Field study: Film forum
Session 13: Midterm exam.
Session 14: Catalan (and other regional) film. Discussion: La teta y la luna (Bigas Luna, 1994)
Required Reading:
M. D’Lugo, (1997). La teta i la lluna: The Form of Transnational Cinema in Spain. In
Kinder, M. (ed.) Refiguring Spain. Durham: Duke UP. 196-214
Session 15 : Hybrids: after Almodóvar. Genre film in Spanish cinema. Reconfiguring the Spanish myth for a globalized Europe. Postmodernism and urban culture in Spanish film. Discussion: El día de la bestia (de la Iglesia, 1995).
Required Reading:
Kinder, Marsha. (1997). Refiguring Spain.
Cinema/Media/Representation: 1-32. Durham: Duke UP.
Session 16: Representing women in Spanish film. Solas (Zambrano, 1998). Andalucía: subverting the unified notion of “Spanishness”. Women in contemporary Spain.
Required Reading:
Rabalska, C. (1996): Women in Spanish
Cinema in Transition. IJIS 9 (3) 166-179.
Session 17: Field study: film library.
Session 18: The tradition of social film in Spain. Discussion: Barrio (León, 1998). Youth culture in contemporary Spain and Spanish film.
Required Reading:
Allinson, M. (2000) The construction of youth culture in Spain in the 1980s and 1990s. in Jordan and Morgan-Tamosunas (eds.).
Contemporary Spanish Cultural Studies. London: Arnold. 265-273
Session 19: The documentary genre in Spain. Changes in turn of the century Spanish cities: the
phenomenon of immigration.
Required Reading:
Kinder, Marsha. (1997). Refiguring Spain: Cinema, Media, Representation. 66-98.
Duke University Press.
Session 20: The configuration of the city for the new century. En construcción (Guerín, 2000). Field study to the site of the film, Raval neighborhood.
Session 21: tutoring session
Session 22: Presentations. Final assignment due.
Session 23: Presentations
Session 24: Presentations.
Final Exam
[All required readings can be found in the course reader. The readings listed for a particular session must be completed before coming to class that day].
Allinson, M. (2000) The construction of youth culture in Spain in the 1980s and 1990s. in Jordan and Morgan-Tamosunas (eds.). Contemporary Spanish Cultural Studies. London: Arnold. 265-273
---. (2001). A Spanish Labyrinth. London: I.B. Tauris. 111-157
D’Lugo, Marvin. (1987): Historical Reflexivity: Saura’s Anti-Carmen. Wide Angle. A Film Quarterly: 53-61.
---. (1995) Almodóvar’s City of Desire. in K. Vernon (ed.) Post-Franco, Postmodern. The Films of Pedro Almodóvar. Westport, CT: Greenwood.47-66
---. (1997). La teta i la lluna: The Form of Transnational Cinema in Spain. In Kinder, M. (ed.) Refiguring Spain. Durham: Duke UP. 196-214
Kinder, Marsha. (1983) The Children of Franco in the New Spanish Cinema. Quarterly Review of Film Studies 8 (2): 57-76.
---. (1997). Refiguring Spain. Cinema/Media/Representation: 1-32; 66-98. Durham: Duke UP.
Rabalska, C. (1996): Women in Spanish Cinema in Transition. IJIS 9 (3) 166-179.
Stone, Rob. (2002). Spanish Cinema. 61-84. Essex: Pearson.
Triana-Toribio. N. (2003). Spanish National Cinema. London: Routledge: 108-142.
Bordwell, David and K. Thompson. (2009). Film Art: An Introduction. New York: McGraw Hill. Bruzzi, Stella. (2001). New Documentary. London: Routledge.
Deveny, Thomas. (1993). Cain on Screen: Contemporary Spanish Cinema. Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow
Press.
Evans, Peter. (2000). Spanish Cinema. The Auteurist Tradition. London: Oxford UP. Higginbotham, Virginia. (1988). Spanish Film Under Franco. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Hopewell, John. (1986). Out of the Past. Spanish Cinema after Franco. London: British Film Institute.
Smith, Paul Julian. (2000). Desire Unlimited. London: Verso.