Nobel Prizes in Spanish and Latin American Literature: A Critical Approach (in English)

Course Description
Annually since its foundation, the Nobel Prize in literature has awarded the contributions of men and women from many different languages and cultures. However, its history is one of controversy: major authors have been ignored by the Swedish Academy. The study will be carried out from a critical and comparative perspective within a historical and literary context. The Generation of 1927, Post-Spanish Civil War narrative or Magical Realism among other great literary tendencies will be included.
This course is about literature, so the students are required to read literary texts: poems, short stories, essays, fragments of novels, full novels and to have interest in analyzing and understanding the texts from different perspectives.

Course Goals and Methodology
The aim of this course is to read and analyze the life and the works of the Spanish and Latin American Literature Nobel Prize Winners and the Academy’s reasons for its choices and the image of Spain and the Latin American countries conveyed in these literary works.
The methodology of the course is called flipped learning and will be based on the presentations carried out by the students, debate and theoretical practical components. On the one hand, the instructor will give a set of lectures. On the other hand, students are expected to introduce the authors, carried out previous research, read the texts and participate in in-class debates and activities.

Learning Objectives
Through this course, students will:
• Be able to develop and carry out research projects, to articulate them within appropriate conceptual and methodological frameworks, and to locate, evaluate, organize, and incorporate information.
• Acquire familiarity with a wide range of literary terms and categories relating to literary history, theory, and criticism, including figurative language and prosody.
• Demonstrate an ability to grasp and synthesize ideas in literary form and use literary terms in historical contexts.
• Appreciate cultural differences as they are mirrored in social, artistic and literary artifacts originating in different national and geographical traditions.
• Be able to recognize and appreciate the importance of major literary genres, subgenres, and periods in different traditions. • Acquire familiarity with the nature of the canon and of canon-formation, including issues of culture, history, race, ethnicity, and gender. 
Required Texts Compulsory text to be bought by the students: Vargas Llosa, Mario. The Feast of the Goat. 2002. All other materials will be provided by the professor during the course (selections of texts, theory, videos, power points, websites etc.). Recommended webs: • Links and recommended sources on the official website: www.nobelprize.org Additional readings: • Aleixandre, Vicente. A Longing for the Light. Ed. Lewis Hyde. Copper Canyon Press, Washington: 1978. • Cobb, Carl. “Vicente Aleixandre and Solidarity of the Cosmos”. In Studies in 20th Century Literature. Vol 2, I, 1997. • De la Cruz, Sor Juana. Answer by the poet to the most illustrious Sister Filotea de la Cruz (1691). Translated by William Little (2008). • Domke, Joan. Education, Fascism and the Catholic Church in Francos’s Spain. Loyola University, Chicago: 2011. • Dunn, Peter N. Spanish Picaresque Fiction: A New Literary History. Cornell UP, Ithaca: 1994. • Fallon, A.: “Culture in the Mirror. Sociocultural determinants of body image”. In Crash, T.F. and Pruzinsky, T. (ed.) Body images. Development, deviance and change. Guilford: New York 1994, pp. 80-109. • Flores, Angel. Magical Realism in Spanish American Fiction. Duke UP, 1995. • Graham, Helen. A Look Back. The Spanish Civil War. A Very Short Introduction. Oxford UP, New York:1995. • Magill, Frank. The Nobel Prize Winners: Literature 1901-1926 (Volume 1) 1988. • Pérez-Samaniego, Víctor and Carmen Santamaría-García. Education, Curriculum and Masculinity in Spain. Universidad de Alcalá, Alcalá:1995. • Predmore, Michael. The Structure of “Platero y Yo”. In MLA, Vol 85, No 1 (Jan., 1970), pp 56-64. 
Course Requirements and Grading Your final grade will be calculated as follows: • Participation (10%) • Oral Presentations (15%) • Blog (25%) • Mid-term Exam (25%) • Final Exam (25%) 

Course contents

1. The Nobel Prize: The Institution. 2. Nobel Prizes in Spanish Literature in Context. 3. The Spanish Theatre and Novel in Context. 4. Image of Spanish culture and society in the USA. 5. Nobel Prizes in Latin American Literature. 6. The Latin American poetry, essay and novel in Context. 7. Image of Latin American culture and society. Class Schedule The following schedule is an ideal proposal. The professor will always take into account students´ learning speed and their opinions. Therefore, the schedule will be susceptible of change in benefit of students, except for the exam dates. • Introduction to the course and to the Nobel Prize. Alfred Nobel and his last will. • Jose Echegaray • Life and Work. Reading. • Comedies and social criticism. 
• Life and Work. Reading. • Children’s poems and religion. • Juan Ramón Jiménez. Life and Work. • Platero and I. Image of Andalusia. BLOG • Miguel Angel Asturias. Life and Work • Miguel Angel Asturias and the novel of the dictator. • Thursday 7th March. Pablo Neruda. Life and Work. • Tuesday 12th March. Memories, love and Chile. BLOG • Vicente Aleixandre. Life and Work. • Surrealism and poetry. Seville in Vicente Aleixandre. • Gabriel García Márquez. Life and Work. • Magical realism. BLOG • Camilo José Cela. Life and Work. • Social realism. The Hive. • Octavio Paz. Life and Work. • Religion. BLOG • Mario Vargas Llosa. Life and Work • Short stories. • The Feast of the Goat. • Revie