Sex, Soap Operas and Female Dissidents: Representations of Women in the Hispanic World

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• use libraries, archives, learning resources and ICT to access relevant information
• select, synthesise and focus information about the Spanish speaking world from a range of primary and secondary sources
• engage with subject matter and opinion in both breadth and depth
• apply knowledge, understanding and analysis critically to different topics relating to the Spanish speaking world
• define, present and exemplify concepts related to the Spanish Speaking world

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• The similarities and differences between the cultures and societies of the Spanish Speaking world and how it may compare to your own culture
• Key aspects within Postmodern/Postcolonial/Western/ (Post)feminist /Intersectional and Latin American feminist (literary) theory and within a broader Gender/Cultural Studies debates/ context and how these relate to the cultural production examples studied
• The ways in which cultural production reinforces or deconstructs gender, sexual racial and national identities
• The representation of sexuality, identity, race, gender (roles), oppression and transgression
• The relationship between cultural production and its social/political context in the context of censorship and modernization relating to the Spanish Speaking world
• A variety of Iberian and Spanish American forms of cultural production (may include music, soap operas, literature, film) produced from the 1980s to the present

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• plan and organise your learning through self-management;
• exercise independence and initiative
• produce writing in appropriate genres and to required conventions, including referencing and identification
• adhere to guidelines and deadlines;

Texts studies will comprise a range of literary texts and examples from visual arts, performance art, multimedia, music, film, and soap operas (cultural production examined may be subject to change year on year). These texts will be examined in the light of reception and relevant works of criticism, providing you with an understanding of the hybrid images of identity and female sexuality

Teaching and learning methods

The lectures will relate the cultural products to their specific Spanish and Spanish American historical context, and will introduce you to key critical and theoretical debates. You will be encouraged to assess these debates critically, and will be provided with lecture summaries indicating key points for further study and reflection. The lectures will invite you to think about specific issues covered and you will be asked to think further about these issues in your own independent study time.

Through class presentations, and guided debates, you will develop communication, problem solving and team working skills. You will develop research skills and methodologies by using library and internet resources. The seminar classes will provide you with an opportunity to discuss, in a group, the issues raised in the lectures which will also give you a chance to evaluate cultural production using various theoretical frameworks. The first written assignment (an essay) will assess your ability to construct and develop a sustained argument, drawing on appropriate evidence, and applying insights gained from independent reading of existing critical studies and of relevant feminist theory. The second written assignment (critical analysis) will assess your ability to critically evaluate an excerpt from a text. The third assignment (presentation) will test your capacity for teamwork and allow you to demonstrate interpersonal skills by working with other students, by problem solving, information gathering and presenting findings collaboratively.

Teaching methods include:

• Lectures
• Seminars (including compulsory student presentations and group discussion)

Learning activities include:

• Close reading and analysis of varied forms of cultural expression
• Debating in class theoretical issues and differing interpretations of the texts
• Constructing arguments for presentation orally and in written work
• Independent research and study
• One-to-one tutorials

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

Frances R. Aparicio and Susana Chávez-Silverman, eds (1997). Tropicalizations: Transcultural Representation of Latinidad.. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.

Dir Pedro Almodóvar (1990). ¡Átame!. Spain.

Mosquita y Mari (2012). Aurora Guerrero. Mexico/USA.

Laura Esquivel (1985). Como agua para chocolate. Mexico.

McRobbie, Angela (2007). Post Feminism and Popular Culture: Bridget Jones and the New Gender Regime. In: Diane Negra and Yvonne Tasker, eds. Interrogating Postfeminism: Gender and the Politics of Popular Culture. Duke University Press, pp. 27-39.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External