SN3121 Devotion, Deceit, Desire: Literature of the Spanish Golden Age

2018-9 Term 1

Convenor: Dr Arantza Mayo

Assessment:  Coursework only (details to be confirmed) 

Overview:

This course engages with early modern preoccupations about the relationship between inner truth and outward appearance through the close reading of a range of literary works of different genres by key figures of the Spanish Golden Age and world literature: Miguel de Cervantes, Lope de Vega and Pedro Calderón de la Barca. Can we trust what we see or even what we experience through any of our senses? How does a society marked by its religious beliefs and rigid hierarchies understand the possibilities and consequences of pursuing individual desire through deceit? Is literature glitter or gold?

Key bibliography:

Primary Texts for 2017-18:

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, The Complete Novelas ejemplares/Exemplary Novels, ed. B. Ife and J. Thacker (Oxford: Aris and Phillips, 2013)[bilingual edition; you should have your own copy of this text]

Lope de Vega, Lo fingido verdadero, http://emothe.uv.es/biblioteca/textosEMOTHE/EMOTHE0044_LoFingidoVerdadero.php The recommended English translation of this play is: Lope de Vega, Two Plays by Lope de Vega: The Great Pretenders and The Gentleman from Olmedo, trans. David Johnston (Bath: Absolute, 1992). Also available here: http://emothe.uv.es/biblioteca/textosEMOTHE/EMOTHE0046_TheGreatPretenders.php

Pedro Calderón de la Barca, La dama duende, ed. J. Pérez Magallón (Madrid: Cátedra, 2011). The recommended English translation of this play is: Pedro Calderón de la Barca, The Phantom Lady, trans. Rick Davis. In Four Great Plays of the Golden Age. Lyme, NH, Smith and Kraus, 2008.