Introductory description

How can you be sure of what is real? What do you do if you cannot trust your senses? And is it a sin to be tricked? Questions like these defined the Baroque period, which was obsessed with deceit, and terrified of its consequences. This module asks why that happened, and explores the effects of these ideas in some of the greatest writing of the age.

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. 'Ser' vs. 'parecer': Introducing Deceit
2. Don Quijote (i): Parody and Authority
3. Don Quijote (ii): Madness, Developments, and Cures
4. Don Quijote (iii): The Problem of Dulcinea
5. Don Quijote (iv): Truth, Authority, and Metafiction - Don Quijote's End
6. READING WEEK
7. The Burden of Proof: Pedro Calderón de la Barca, 'El médico de su honra'
8. Reality, Dreams, and Prophecy: Pedro Calderón de la Barca, 'La vida es sueño'
9. Francisco de Quevedo, ‘El mundo por de dentro’: Uncertainty, Knowledge, and Ethics
10. Power, Ambition, and Deceit: Literature and the Court

Learning outcomes

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

• a clear understanding of the Spanish literary Baroque, and the issues at stake in its perception of engaño
• an awareness of the various responses which the theme of engaño provoked during the period
• an ability to present clear and cogent arguments drawing evidence from primary texts and secondary reading
• Knowledge, awareness and understanding of one or more cultures and societies, other than their own
• Ability to access, read and critically analyse primary and secondary source materials in target language

Indicative reading list

Primary reading is given below. For full secondary bibliography, see the Talis Aspire bibliography.

Cervantes, Miguel de, Don Quijote de la Mancha, ed. Francisco Rico et al., 2 vols. (Madrid: Real Academia Española, 2015). [Extracts prescribed]
Calderón de la Barca, Pedro, El médico de su honra, ed. Jesús Pérez Magallón, Letras Hispánicas 702 (Madrid: Cátedra, 2012).
Calderón de la Barca, Pedro, La vida es sueño, ed. Fausta Antonucci (Barcelona: Crítica, 2008).
Quevedo, Francisco de, 'El mundo por de dentro', in Los sueños, ed. Ignacio Arellano, Letras Hispánicas 355 (Madrid: Cátedra, 1991).
Gracián, Baltasar, Oráculo manual y arte de prudencia, ed. Emilio Blanco, Letras Hispánicas, 395 (Madrid: Cátedra, 1995).
Quevedo, Francisco de, 'A la corte vas, Perico', in Poesía varia, ed. James O. Crosby, Letras Hispánicas, 134 (Madrid: Cátedra, 1981).

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 Baroque literature and its defining theme of 'engaño' 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.