SN2118 Religion and Society in the 16th- and 17th-century Hispanic World

2014-15: Term 2 ONLY

Course convenor: Dr Arantza Mayo

Overview

This course considers critically the socio-political and aesthetic role of religion in Hispanic Golden Age Culture through the study of a wide variety of cultural texts, both popular and ‘learned’, ranging from the work of canonical literary authors to 'how-to-die-well' manuals, festivals and visual arts (mainly sculpture and painting).

The course is taught over 20 contact hours. Classes are principally discussion-based, with a small lecture element. Students are expected to have read set texts and materials in advance of the seminars.

Classes will be conducted in English but all texts will be studied in their original Spanish.

Assessment

The course is entirely examined through coursework produced in English:

Essay 1: 30% (1500-2,000 words)

Essay 2: 70% (2,000-2,500 words)

Bibliography

Background texts include:

 Elliott, J. H., Imperial Spain, 1469 - 1716 (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1970).

 Kamen, Henry, Spain 1469 - 1714: A Society of Conflict (London: Longman, 1995).

   Golden Age Spain (2004 edition preferable)

 Rawlings, H., Church, Religion and Society in Early Modern Spain (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002).

 Brown, J., ed., The Word Made Image: Religion, Art, and Architecture in Spain and Spanish

 America, 1500-1600

 Elliott, J. H., ‘Art and Decline in 17th-century Spain’ in Spain and its World, 1500-1700 (Yale, 1989), pp. 263-286.

 Jones, R. O., A Literary History of Spain: The Golden Age: Prose and Poetry (London: Benn, 1971).

 Maravall, J. A., La cultura del Barroco (Madrid: Ariel, 1980 and later editions).

 Rodriguez G. de Ceballos, A., Kasl, R., Sacred Spain: Art and Belief in the Spanish World (2009)

 Tomlinson, J. A., Painting in Spain: El Greco to Goya, esp. Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5.

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