Courses
What can I study?
Undergraduate Modules
The following information relates to modules offered in the current academic year. For further information regarding assessment, please click on the heading links (where applicable), which will take you directly to the university's Book of Modules. If you would like any further information, please contact Prof. Nuala Finnegan .
UNDERGRADUATE MODULES
HS2046 US - HISPANIC FICTION: LATINO WRITERS IN FOCUS
This course examines the sudden explosion of writing by and about the millions of Mexican-American citizens concentrated in the Southern states of the U.S. After the invasion of Mexico by the US in the mid nineteenth century, many Spanish speakers found themselves suddenly part of an Anglo-Saxon world, discriminated against in the workplace and in the institutions of state. Since then there has been widespread immigration (both legal and illegal) from Mexico to the US, which has led to a rich and diverse cultural strand producing amongst other cultural forms, fiction, art, film and theatre.
HS2057 CINEMA AND IDENTITY IN SPAIN AND LATIN-AMERICA
The module will explore issues surrounding film and censorship in Franco's Spain and include an introduction to Spanish cinema since the transition (Period 1). The second half of the module will focus on the cinematic industries of Mexico and Argentina with particular reference to recent film production (Period 2). Directors studied will include V. Erice, F. Trueba and Pedro Almodovar from Spain, and Luis Puenzo, Maria Luisa Bemberg and Jaime Humberto Hermosillo from Latin America.
HS3054 GENDER, WRITING AND POLITICS IN MEXICO
This module will examine the interconnection between the contemporary socio-political climate and artistic representations of gender in mexico. Questions of gender and the visibility of women (and their bodies) will be considered in terms of national identity. By examining emerging concerns for women in contemporary Mexican society, we will analyse the political socio-cultural implication of women's representation of themselves as women, versus how they are represented by their male counterparts.
Postgraduate Modules
HS6009 POLITICS AND CULTURE IN LATIN AMERICA
This course will explore the interplay between culture and politics on various levels, e.g. the political ramifications of cultural production; the study of cultural politics; the cultural dimensions of power and/or the study of power and politics in recent examples of Latin American culture. Course content will vary to cater to student need on the course but may include cover recent Mexican cinema and literature including authors Elena Poniatowksa or Rosario Castellanos along with history, literature and film from the Southern Cone and/or Central America. It may also include texts that examine the debate around Chicano and Latino cultural production in the U.S.
This course will explore the evolution of Latin American cinema with particular emphasis on questions of identity - national, personal, political - as they are played out in film-making in the region. It will consider the cultural and theoretical writings of the New Latin American Cinema movement in the late 1950s and assess its impact on the development and study of Third World cinema. The course will examine the key role of ICAIC (National Cinematographic Institute) in Cuba focusing on the work of acclaimed filmmaker, Tomas Gutierrez Alea. In the Mexican context, the course will focus on the so-called New Wave of Mexican cinema, looking at production since 2000 and examining work by acclaimed directors, including Marisa Sistach; Maria Novaro; Alfonso Cuaron; Alejandro Gonzalez I?arritu and Guillermo del Toro.
What can I study?