The Rise and Emergence of the Novel in Golden-Age Spain (U03688)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 10 ? Acronym : LLC-4-LLC

How and when the novel, as a new genre, appeared in the history of literature is still the object of many critical debates; however, a significant number of scholars agree that it was during the Golden Age of Spanish literature. This course will consider the main theories of the novel — particularly Watt´s rise of the novel, Bakhtin´s novelisation and emergence of the novel, and Frye´s distinction between novel and romance — in order to consider how these theories apply to the most conspicuous Spanish novels of the 16th and the 17th centuries. In so doing, we will discover the first specimens of the novel in Spain, in the anonymous Lazarillo de Tormes and Mateo Alemán´s Guzmán de Alfarache. We will also discuss the nature of the picaresque novel and how it had a profound influence upon European literature, especially on the most important 18th-century British novelists. This course will also analyse the foil romance-novel in Cervantes´s Novelas ejemplares, with references to Don Quixote (which does not have to be read). Finally, the two most important specimens of the picaresque novel, i.e. Quevedo´s El Buscón and López de Úbeda´s La pícara Justina, will be examined in class in order to understand the decline of the picaresque and the novel.

? Keywords : novel, picaresque novel

Entry Requirements

? Pre-requisites : Spanish 2 (HS0008)

? Costs : Purchase of primary texts

Subject Areas

Home subject area

European Languages and Cultures - Hispanic Studies, (School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures, Schedule G)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : 4th year

? Delivery Period : Semester 2 (Blocks 3-4)

? Contact Teaching Time : 20 hour(s) per week for 10 weeks

First Class Information

Date	Start	End	Room	Area	Additional Information
07/01/2008	16:00	18:00	Room 9.18, David Hume Tower	Central

All of the following classes

Type	Day	Start	End	Area
Lecture	Monday	16:10	18:00	Central

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

The aim of this course is three-fold - it seeks:

(1) to provide an extensive analysis of the Golden-Age novel, specifically of the picaresque novel,
(2) to understand fully and comprehensively the nature of the novel as a literary genre,
(3) to show the relevance of the Spanish picaresque novel in the establishment of the novel as a new genre.