Teaching code

4S010849

Teacher

Antonella Gallo

Coordinator

Antonella Gallo

Credits

6

Language

Spanish

Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD)

L-LIN/05 - SPANISH LITERATURE

Period

I semestre (Area Lingue e letterature straniere) dal Sep 22, 2025 al Dec 24, 2025.

Courses Single

Authorized

Lessons timetable Moodle Seminars 0

Learning objectives

The main learning outcome of this course is to provide students with specialized knowledge, in a comparative perspective, of Spanish literature in its different forms, genres and various critical stances. Acquired knowledge and competences will regard interdisciplinary approaches, the study of critical methodologies, translation, the critical analysis of texts in Spanish, and writing skills on an advanced level. With the acquisition of these abilities students will become proficient in spoken Spanish, both on the level of contents and on that of critical awareness in intertextual and intercultural contexts, also in view of high-level professional opportunities or further developments in the academic field, such as a PhD programme. Expected learning outcomes are: - Knowledge and understanding: on completion of this course students will acquire advanced knowledge on Spanish literary history and culture in its diverse expressions. Applying Knowledge and understanding: students will be able to apply acquired historical and literary knowledge, theoretical, didactic and methodological instruments to the professional fields of research, teaching of languages and literatures, translation, literary publishing, international cooperation and cultural promotion.

Prerequisites and basic notions

Being a first-year, first-semester examination, there are no specific prerequisites other than those required for access to the master’s degree course. Students from Erasmus+, or other international mobility programmes, who wish to attend the course are required to have an advanced knowledge of Spanish history and literature and a language proficiency in Spanish at C1 level.

Program

The course aims to make known the figure of Carmen de Burgos "Colombine", an enterprising journalist, eclectic writer and authoritative public figure in the 1920s. Her existential and intellectual parable is very similar to those of many other feminists of the "first wave", whose political and civil commitment for the full citizenship of women is born and often feeds on courageous and painful life choices precisely because of their nonconformism. After a necessary and synthetic historical and cultural framing of the so-called "women’s question" in the years from the eighteenth and early twentieth centuries, the feminist creed of Colombine will be related to other Spanish feminists’ thinking, such as Concepción Arenal, Emilia Pardo Bazán and Concepción Gimeno de Flaquer, who influenced its evolution from an initial moderatism to a convinced radicalism. The final part of the course will focus on the analysis of two works by Carmen de Burgos, the novel "La rampa" and the short story "El artículo 438", where she denounces the unjust oppression of patriarchy on women, tells the story of their fatal defeat in the face of social conventionalisms but at the same time she prefigures by contrast new models of femininity imagining today’s modern woman, free, responsible and able to defend her right to a full and happy existence. The analysis will be conducted in the light of the critical perspectives of Gender Studies, whose objective is to give voice to many women writers excluded from the official literary canon by recovering a new vision of reality aimed at transforming traditional gender dynamics in an egalitarian way.

PRIMARY TEXTS

E. PARDO BAZÁN, La mujer española y otros escritos, ed. de G. Gómez-Ferrer, Madrid, Cátedra, 2018 (only the texts listed above):
La mujer española (1889),
La educación del hombre y de la mujer. Sus relaciones y diferencias (1892)
Concepción Arenal y sus ideas acerca de la mujer (1893)

C. GIMENO DE FLAQUER, La cuestión feminista (1903)

C. DE BURGOS, La rampa (1917)

C. DE BURGOS, El artículo 438 (1921)

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Antonio Sevillano Miralles-Anyes Segura Fernández, Carmen de Burgos “Colombine” (Almería, 1867-Madrid, 1932), Instituto de Estudios Almerienses-Diputación de Almería-Facultad de Humanidades (Universidad de Almería), 2009.

G. Gómez-Ferrer, “Hacia una redefinición de la identidad femenina: las primeras décadas del siglo XX”, in “Cuadernos de Historia contemporánea”, n. 26, 2004, pp. 9-22.

C. Núñez Rey, “El ensayismo de Carmen de Burgos, Colombine, en defensa de la igualdad de la mujer”, in “Estudios románicos”, vol. 27, 2018, pp. 61-74.

A. GALLO, Introduzione a C. de Burgos, Il piano inclinato, Firenze, Le Lettere, 2023, pp. V-XXXVI.

K. Doyle, «The legislation of Female desire in “El artículo 438” by Carmen de Burgos», in “Letras femeninas”, vol. 30, n.1, pp. 155-164.

N.B. All the references listed in the syllabus (primary texts and critical bibliography) can be found at the University Libraries or on the web as articles from magazines or digitised works that are accessible for free. Further readings (optional) on the topics covered by the module will be indicated during the lectures.

Please be advised that the program also applies to non-attending students. Students who are not attending lectures should contact the teacher by email for further explanations.

Bibliography

Didactic methods

Frontal lessons in Spanish, alternating with more interactive lectures of a seminar nature, aimed at the involvement of students in reading exercises and critical comments on the primary texts proposed by the teacher. Attendance is not compulsory but strongly recommended.

TEACHING SUPPORT: All the materials used in the classroom (slides, supplementary texts, images) will be downloadable from the e-learning platform Moodle by the end of the lessons and will remain available to both attending students for the recovery of missing lessons and non-attending students to facilitate individual learning of course content.
In addition, the teacher will be available to clarify doubts and/ or suggest further references on the topics discussed in class and on the critical-methodological tools used for the analysis of primary texts during the receiving hours in the days and times indicated on the web page.

Learning assessment procedures

ORAL EXAMINATION IN SPANISH
For all students (attending and non-attending, students in international mobility programmes), the final exam will consist of a single oral test on the entire program, including the mandatory critical bibliography, to be taken in Spanish. The test will include reading and commenting on some passages from the primary texts, which students are required to bring with them on the day of the exam. For students who wish to take the course as a single course, the same verification procedure will apply.

Evaluation criteria

The aim of the oral examination is to verify:
-the breadth and depth of knowledge acquired in relation to the topics discussed during the course
-the ability to contextualise primary texts in relation to the historical period, also in a comparative and intercultural perspective
-the analytical skills aimed at revealing the deep structures of a narrative text
-the ability to formulate an independent critical judgment on primary texts using in a relevant manner the acquired critical-methodological tools
-the language property and the expository and argumentative clarity of the examinee/a in foreign language
The final mark will be expressed in thirtieths

Criteria for the composition of the final grade

The final grade will be the one resulting from the oral exam and will be defined on the basis of the criteria mentioned above. No mid-term examination will take place.

Exam language

Spagnolo/Spanish

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