SPAN30280 Women's Life Writing in Spain

Academic Year 2022/2023

This module will explore the practice of writing women’s lives in Spain from the Francoist dictatorship (1939-1975) into the twenty-first century. The course will explore what we understand by and expect from autobiographical writing, and how expectations about content, form, and authorship of this literary practice have changed fundamentally since the mid-twentieth century with the evolution of life-writing theory. It will investigate the impact of socio-historical context on the development of this tradition in Spain, where, under the long dictatorship and during the transition to democracy, the status and production of autobiographical writing seems to be out of step with the boon in works and innovation elsewhere in Europe, in Latin America, and in the US. The course will examine the effects of censorship and self-censorship on literary self-expression during this period and consider why the impact on women’s writing was particularly pronounced and enduring. By analysing and comparing a range of first-person prose fictions, auto/biographical accounts, and autofictions published in the early years of the dictatorship, at the start of the Transition to democracy, and since the turn of the millennium, it will trace the response and challenge to the stifling of voices and identities under Franco in women’s life-writing. It will map the key characteristics and recurrent preoccupations of this practice of self-representation, together with the evolution in form and style, as we move through to the present day.

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

• Identify and discuss key developments in expectations around autobiographical writing since the mid-twentieth century
• Evaluate how historical, political, and social developments shape narratives of selfhood and identity, and how these narratives can in turn navigate and challenge constraints on self-representation
• Use skills in close reading and comparative analysis to analyse and present on different forms of life-writing and identify key motifs, techniques, and approaches in women’s self-representation in Spain

Indicative Module Content:

Week 1 - Introduction to life-writing theory
1 lecture, 1 seminar: What do we understand by ‘writing lives’? [readings to be distributed and questions to prepare in advance of seminar]

Week 2 - Censorship, self-censorship, and the status of life-writing in Spain
1 lecture, 1 seminar: Exploring the effects on literary self-representation [readings to be distributed and questions to prepare in advance of seminar]

Weeks 3–5 - Imposed identities and fictions of the self
2 lectures, 3 seminars: Carmen Laforet and Rosa Chacel (case studies)
Week 3: 1 lecture and 1 seminar [group presentations: Carmen Laforet, Nada]
Week 4:1 lecture and 1 seminar [group presentations: Rosa Chacel, Memorias de Leticia Valle]
Week 5: 1 seminar [group discussion with questions to prepare in advance]

Weeks 5–6 - Political, cultural, and literary transitions
2 lectures, 1 seminar: Carmen Martín Gaite, El cuarto de atrás (case study)
Week 5: 1 lecture [socio-political context of the transition from dictatorship to democracy]
Week 6: 1 lecture [literary context and introduction to El cuarto de atrás] and 1 seminar [group discussion with questions to prepare in advance]

Week 7 - Carmen Martín Gaite, El cuarto de atrás
2 seminars [Group presentations and discussion]

Weeks 8–10 - The Spanish ‘Memory Boom’ and (Auto)biographical Accounts
2 lectures, 2 seminars: Dulce Chacón and Cristina Fallarás (case studies)
Week 8: 1 lecture and 1 seminar [social, political, and literary context of the ‘memory boom’]
Week 9: 1 lecture and 1 seminar [group presentations: Dulce Chacón, La voz dormida]
Week 10: 2 seminars [group presentations: Cristina Fallarás, Honrarás a tu padre y a tu madre and group discussion with questions to prepare in advance]

Week 11 – Twenty-First-Century Autobiographical Experiments
1 close-reading workshop, 1 seminar [comparing forms and strategies in contemporary women’s life-writing]

Week 12 - Individual Revision Sessions (in preparation for the final essay)

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

24
Specified Learning Activities

34
Autonomous Student Learning

52
Total

110
Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
This course will be taught face to face unless public health guidelines dictate otherwise, in a mixture of lectures and seminars. Students are expected to read three primary texts in Spanish (consulting English translations if needed) from the following list:
Either Carmen Laforet, Nada (1945) or Rosa Chacel, Memorias de Leticia Valle (1945)
Carmen Martín Gaite, El cuarto de atrás (1978)
Either Dulce Chacón, La voz dormida (2002) or Cristina Fallarás, Honrarás a tu padre y a tu madre (2018)
N.B. Student presentations will be allocated in advance and may determine one of the ‘optional’ texts that you will need to read.
There will be extracts to read and questions to prepare ahead of the seminars, and students will be expected to participate actively. Reading at least two of the texts in advance of the seminars is strongly recommended.
 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Essay: Students will write one essay on the development of life-writing practices in Spain across the period, comparing at least two of the texts they have read (to be submitted by the end of Wk 12,. Week 12 n/a Standard conversion grade scale 40% No

70
Presentation: Presentation (to be allocated in advance) [30%] Throughout the Trimester n/a Standard conversion grade scale 40% No

30

Carry forward of passed components
No
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Autumn No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, on an activity or draft prior to summative assessment
• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

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