Introductory description

This module explores the rich and varied presentation of desire in Golden-Age literature. Students will assess how people typically thought and wrote about love, and how those ideas are developed, challenged, and ridiculed throughout the period. We will ask whether love language is just a mask, as authors use its tropes to discuss a range of other questions, from gender politics to the relationship between humans and God – or, indeed, simply to amuse the reader. And we will ask why literary lovers are so often unsuccessful, by examining a series of Golden-Age masterpieces about jealousy and illicit desire. Throughout the module, emphasis will be placed on the close reading of primary texts, to see what they can tell us about the human condition, and to explore the dynamics of one of the most vibrant of all literary traditions.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

1. The Petrarchan Sonnet: Imitation and Developments
2. The Petrarchan Sonnet: Rejection, Parody, and Wit
3. The Petrarchan Sonnet: Mythology and Neo-Platonism
4. Divine Love and Mystical Union: Francisco de Aldana, Santa Teresa de Jesús, San Juan de la Cruz
5. New Perspectives and Feminist Critique: María de Zayas, 'La fuerza del amor'
6. READING WEEK
7. Impossible Love (i): Lope de Vega, El perro del hortelano
8. Impossible Love (ii): Lope de Vega, El castigo sin venganza
9. Love and Death in Mythology (i): Luis de Góngora, ‘Arrojóse el mancebito’, ‘La ciudad de Babilonia’
10. Love and Death in Mythology (ii): Luis de Góngora, 'Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea'

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• - an awareness of the ways in which love was conceptualized in the Golden Age, and of the relationship between Golden-Age models of love and those of other literary traditions
• - an ability to produce detailed close readings of complex literary texts, with reference to their cultural context and analysis of stylistic features
• - an ability to present clear and cogent arguments drawing evidence from primary texts
• Knowledge, awareness and understanding of one or more cultures and societies, other than their own (Level 5)
• Ability to access, read and critically analyse primary and secondary source materials in target language (Level 5)
• Knowledge and understanding of one or more aspects of the literatures, cultures, linguistic contexts, history, politics, social and economic structures of the country or countries of the target language (Level 6)
• Ability to access, read and critically analyse primary and secondary source materials in target language (Level 6)
• Refined knowledge of language varieties, register, genre, nuances of meaning and language use (Level 6)

Indicative reading list

Primary texts are detailed below; for full secondary bibliography see the Talis Aspire bibliography.

Weeks 1-3: a dossier of love sonnets. (Made available directly to students by the module convener; includes works by: Juan Boscán, Garcilaso de la Vega, Francisco de Aldana, Gutierre de Cetina, Fernando de Herrera, Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola, Luis de Góngora, Lope de Vega, Don Juan de Tarsis (Conde de Villamediana), Francisco de Quevedo, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.)

Week 4: Francisco de Aldana, 'Carta para Arias Montano'. Santa Teresa de Jesús, Libro de la vida, chapter 29. San Juan de la Cruz, 'En una noche oscura', 'Oh llama de amor viva'.

Week 5: María de Zayas y Sotomayor, 'La fuerza del amor', in Novelas amorosas y ejemplares, ed. Julián Olivares (Madrid: Cátedra, 2000), pp. 343-71.

Week 7: Lope de Vega, 'El perro del hortelano', ed. Mauro Armiño (Madrid: Cátedra, 2001).

Week 8: Lope de Vega, 'El castigo sin venganza', ed. Jonathan Thacker (Manchester: MUP, 2016).

Week 9: Luis de Góngora, 'Arrojóse el mancebito' and 'La ciudad de Babilonia', in Romances, ed. Antonio Carreño (Madrid: Cátedra, 2000).

Week 10: Luis de Góngora, 'Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea', ed. Jesús Ponce Cárdenas (Madrid: Cátedra, 2010).

View reading list on Talis Aspire

International

All modules delivered in SMLC are necessarily international. Students engage with themes and ideas from a culture other than that of the UK and employ their linguistic skills in the analysis of primary materials from a non-Anglophone context. Students will also be encouraged to draw on the experiences of visiting exchange students in the classroom and will frequently engage with theoretical and critical frameworks from across the world.

Subject specific skills

This module will develop students’ linguistic skills through engaging with primary materials in the target language. It will build students’ capacity to engage with aspects of Hispanic culture through analysis of this primary material and through seminar discussion aimed at deeper critical thinking. In particular, students’ awareness of Golden-Age discourses of love and desire, and the literature which they inform, will be enhanced through lectures and seminars which engage with scholarship in the field.

Transferable skills

All SMLC culture modules demand critical and analytical engagement with artefacts from target-language cultures. In the course of independent study, class work and assessment students will develop the following skills: written and oral communication, creative and critical thinking, problem solving and analysis, time management and organisation, independent research in both English and their target language(s), intercultural understanding and the ability to mediate between languages and cultures, ICT literacy in both English and the target language(s), personal responsibility and the exercise of initiative.