| Lecturers: Marta Puxan & Pere Gifra |
| email: marta.puxan@upf.edu & pere.gifra@upf.edu |
| Offices: 20.273 bis (Marta) - 20.2E64 (Pere) Jaume I Building - Ciutadella Campus |
Course Description:
This course, conducted in English, is an introduction to Catalan literature from the late 19th century to the present. Students will get a general knowledge of the conventionally defined literary periods of the Catalan literary tradition through readings and analyses of fiction, poetry and drama produced by canonical authors like Àngel Guimerà, Jacint Verdaguer, Josep Carner, Víctor Català, Mercè Rodoreda, J. V. Foix, Gabriel Ferrater, Sergi Belbel, and Quim Monzó, among many others. In the analysis of the works we shall pay attention not just to the literary techniques employed by their authors corresponding with the literary conventions of their time but we shall also explore the social, historical, aesthetic, ideological, and political backgrounds that contributed to their creation. Some of the issues we will explore include the relationship between literature and other artistic forms, the concept of national and linguistic identity, the impact of the Civil War and the experience of exile, gender roles in Catalan literature, the use of the fantastic or the uncanny, and the function of collective memory. At the end of the term the students will have learned, on the one hand, the basic trends in the development of Catalan literature, and they will be familiarized, on the other hand, with the analysis of literary texts from a variety of critical perspectives.
Course Methodology
The course will be taught in English and will combine introductory lectures, class discussions, and film screenings. The reading assignments will all be in English and the films in Catalan or Spanish (with English subtitles).
Evaluation
The final grade will take into account class participation (20%), a midterm exam (30%), two short analyses of poems (20%), and a final exam (30%). The content of the final exam does not include that of the midterm exam.
Contents:
Unit 1: Beginnings, or The Catalan Renaissance: Àngel Guimerà and Jacint Verdaguer (sessions 1-4).
Unit 2: Catalan Modernisme: Joan Maragall, Víctor Català (sessions 5-7).
Unit 3: The Noucentisme and its Classical and Cosmopolitan Trends: Josep Carner (sessions 8-9)
Unit 4: The rupture of the Avantgardes: J. V. Foix (session 10)
Unit 5: The Spanish Civil War and the Experience of Exile: Mercè Rodoreda (sessions 12-14)
Unit 6: The short story from Exile to Postmodernism: Pere Calders, Quim Monzó (sessions 15-16)
Unit 7: New Directions in Catalan Poetry: Gabriel Ferrater (sessions 17-18)
Unit 8: Introdution to Contemporary Theater: Sergi Belbel (sessions 19-21)
Required Readings:
Victor Català's Solitude, Mercè Rodoreda's A Broken Mirror, and a selection of other texts to be read from a coursepack for sale and pdfs posted by the teachers in the class website.
REMINDER: As this syllabus may be subject to changes, make sure you keep updating all the necessary information related to the course.
SECONDARY BIBLIOGRAPHY (CRITICISM)
-BORDONS, Glòria & Jaume SUBIRANA (eds.). Literatura catalana contemporània. Barcelona: UOC, 1998.
-CARBÓ, Ferran & Vicent SIMBOR. Literatura catalana del siglo XX. Madrid: Síntesis, 2005.
-McNERNEY, Kathleen & Nancy VOSBURG. The Garden across the Border: Mercè Rodoreda's Fiction. Salinsgrove: Susquehanna University Press, 1994.
-RAGUÉ-ARIAS, María-José. ¿Nuevas dramaturgias? Los autores de fin de siglo en Cataluña, Valencia y Baleares. Madrid: Instituto Nacional de las artes escénicas y de la música, 2000.
-RIQUER, M. de, A. COMAS & J. MOLAS. Història de la literatura catalana, 11 vols. Barcelona: Ariel, 1964-1988.
-ROCA-PONS, Josep, Introduction to Catalan Literature. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Department of Spanish and Portuguese, 1977.
-ROSENTHAL, David H. Postwar Catalan Poetry. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1991.
-TERRY, Arthur. A Companion to Catalan Literature. Woodbridge: Tamesis Books, 2003. (Main reference work)
PRIMARY COURSE BIBLOGRAPHY (LITERARY WORKS)
-BELBEL, Sergi. Strangers. In Barcelona Plays: A Collection of New Plays by Catalan Playwrights. Edited and Translated by Marion Peter Holt, and Sharon G. Feldman. New York: Martin E. Segal Theater Center Publications, 2008.
-CATALÀ, Victor. Solitude. Columbia: Readers International, 1992.
-GUIMERÀ, Àngel, Marta of the Lowlands (available in a pdf document)
-A selection of short stories and poems will be available in the coursepack.