Teaching and learning methods
The lectures will relate the cultural products to their specific Spanish and Spanish American historical context, and will introduce you to key critical and theoretical debates. You will be encouraged to assess these debates critically, and will be provided with lecture summaries indicating key points for further study and reflection. The lectures will invite you to think about specific issues covered and you will be asked to think further about these issues in your own independent study time.
Through class presentations, and guided debates, you will develop communication, problem solving and team working skills. You will develop research skills and methodologies by using library and internet resources. The seminar classes will provide you with an opportunity to discuss, in a group, the issues raised in the lectures which will also give you a chance to evaluate cultural production using various theoretical frameworks. The first written assignment (an essay) will assess your ability to construct and develop a sustained argument, drawing on appropriate evidence, and applying insights gained from independent reading of existing critical studies and of relevant feminist theory. The second written assignment (critical analysis) will assess your ability to critically evaluate an excerpt from a text. The third assignment (presentation) will test your capacity for teamwork and allow you to demonstrate interpersonal skills by working with other students, by problem solving, information gathering and presenting findings collaboratively.
Teaching methods include:
- Lectures
- Seminars (including compulsory student presentations and group discussion)
Learning activities include:
- Close reading and analysis of varied forms of cultural expression
- Debating in class theoretical issues and differing interpretations of the texts
- Constructing arguments for presentation orally and in written work
- Independent research and study
- One-to-one tutorials
Study time
Type |
Hours |
Independent Study |
125 |
Teaching |
24 |
Total study time |
149 |
Resources & Reading list
Textbooks
Frances R. Aparicio and Susana Chávez-Silverman, eds (1997). Tropicalizations: Transcultural Representation of Latinidad.. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.
Dir Pedro Almodóvar (1990). ¡Átame!. Spain.
McRobbie, Angela (2007). Post Feminism and Popular Culture: Bridget Jones and the New Gender Regime. In: Diane Negra and Yvonne Tasker, eds. Interrogating Postfeminism: Gender and the Politics of Popular Culture. Duke University Press, pp. 27-39.
Laura Esquivel (1985). Como agua para chocolate. Mexico.
Mosquita y Mari (2012). Aurora Guerrero. Mexico/USA.