SPANISH LITERATURE 1

The topic of lectures will be the novel "Uncertain glory" by Joan Sales and the Spanish Civil War considered from the defeated republican side.
Through the most significant novel by Joan Sales and further readings of two short stories, written by some of the foremost Spanish contemporary writers, the course aims at sketching an outline of literature and memory on/of the Spanish Civil War (and the postwar period) and its relationship with today’s Spaniards. The first fifteen hours of lectures will be devoted to explain the social and political background of Spain during the Second Republic and the Civil War. After that, lectures will be focused (for about ten hours) on the origins of "Uncertain Glory" and the point of view of this novel on the topic dealt with. The last five hours of lectures will be devoted to the most recent novelistic literature on the Spanish Civil War and its relation with "Uncertain Glory". At the end of lectures students will be able to better understand much of the novels of/on the period between 1931-1939.

The course aims at making students aware of some characteristics of the history of the Spanish Civil War and the Second Republic. It will also provide information and tools to better understand
the manifold framework of cultures and languages ​​that characterize the Iberian Peninsula. A situation which becomes of political relevance at the turn of the Twenties and Thirties of the Twentieth century. In addition, tools will be provided to acquire the ability to read and understand a literary text also in connection with the historical background. Students will then be able to read a novel as a fragment of a wider geography, that is to say as a possible historical source and as an aesthetic artifact. Between history and literature there is much more harmony than discrepancy.

No previous knowledge is required. However, a good command of Spanish will make it easier to read all the texts in the program.

During the course a survey of Spanish literature from 1930 up to the present day, from the Spanish Civil War standpoint will be offered along with an introduction to some of the main issues in Sales' work and in contemporary Spanish history (from the Second Republic to late Francoism).

Students are required to study the following books (an alternative list of readings in English is also available for students unable to read Italian. Students are requested to ask the professor during the first lectures).

a) Joan Sales, Uncertain Glory, translated by Peter Bush, London, MacLehose Press, 2014.

Ignacio Martínez de Pisón (ed.), Partes de guerra, Barcelona, RBA, 2009 (Choice of two short stories)


b) Andrés Trapiello, Las armas y las letras. Literatura y guerra civil, Barcelona, Destino, 2010 (pp. 27-47, 137-213, 427-487) OR Enrico Lodi. Scrittura e violenza. Narrazioni della guerra civile. Il caso spagnolo, Milano, Medusa, 2011, pp. 158. OR Nial Binns, La llamada de España. Escritores extranjeros en la Guerra Civil, Vilassar de Dalt, Montesinos, 2004.


c) Harry Browne, Spain's Civil War, London, Longman.

Three questions to be answered in a written examination concerning the main topics of the training program.
Due to health emergency for Covid 19, examination settings have been changed. Please contact the professor for further details.

Conventional lectures with the aid of films, slides, documentaries and interviews.

Italian

The course will be taught mostly in Italian: a basic knowledge of Spanish in order to understand the material handed out during lectures is also recommended. Important notice: some parts of the compulsory bibliography will be available on the Moodle platform.

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