Spanish Culture I

The course provides an overview on the history of Spanish culture in the 20th century, highlighting the major historical, political, social and economic developments in Spain. The goal is to contextualise events in a historical-diachronic perspective, thus enabling students to understand today's Spanish culture. The course analyses some fundamental moments of the 20th century and the cultural productions that characterised such moments, with a focus on the differences between cultural and linguistic identities within the country. The interrelations between culture, discourse strategies, social phenomena, mass communication, creation and consumption of cultural products are examined in light of the underlying ideology and the social, spatial, historical and political conditions that created such phenomena.

Students will be able to understand the most important changes that impacted on Spain's contemporary society, politics, economics and culture, and to illustrate the course contents with linguistic and factual correctness. Students will be able to rely on their knowledge of these phenomena to understand cultural products in different fields (literature, visual arts, music, fashion) and to recognise their fundamental elements, as well as any reference to the contexts in which these products were born. Moreover, students will be able to make comparisons with cultural phenomena from other European countries, in a historical-diachronic perspective.