Cervantes, Metafiction and Hollywood COMPLIT5038

  • Academic Session: 2024-25
  • School: School of Modern Languages and Cultures
  • Credits: 20
  • Level: Level 5 (SCQF level 11)
  • Typically Offered: Runs Throughout Semesters 1 and 2
  • Available to Visiting Students: No
  • Collaborative Online International Learning: No

Short Description

This course is an exploration of Don Quixote I and II´s major themes by means of an intercultural close reading of a selection of passages from Cervantes´ Don Quixote. Cervantes´ aesthetic principles of authors interacting with their own metafictional characters, and of outcasts forced to become villains, will be examined with reference to key contemporary Hollywood films such as Once upon a time in Hollywood and Joker.

Timetable

20 x 1 hour sessions over both semesters as scheduled in MyCampus

Requirements of Entry

Standard entry to Masters at College level.

Excluded Courses

COMPLIT4037

Co-requisites

None

Assessment

A 10 minute individual presentation (equivalent to 1000 words) - 30%

Essay (4000 words) - 70%

Main Assessment In: April/May

Course Aims

This course aims to:

■  introduce students to a comparative study of the presence and origins of metafictional theory in the Spanish Golden Age period and its reflection in contemporary Hollywood films;

■  serve as an introduction and expansion to the study of the complex literary resources present in the first modern narrative, Cervantes´ Don Quixote;

■  enable students to critically compare textual and visual materials across a variety of periods and genres to enhance their critical thinking;

■  facilitate students´ ability to comparatively understand intellectual, cultural and historical content and contexts across related historical and cultural periods, as evidenced in their and final essay;

■  encourage public speaking skills and confidence in oral and written self-expression, as evidenced in the students´ class presentation.

Intended Learning Outcomes of Course

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ By the end of this course students will be able to:

compare Spanish, European and US cultures when exploring informed historical, political and cultural contexts of literary texts and films, as evidenced in the students´ final paper and class presentation.;

■ reflect critically about social, political, historical and cultural contexts, developing a stronger international awareness, to be reflected in their class presentation and final essay;

■ present and defend with evidence their own criteria and analysis of comparative metafiction in essays and in class discussions and presentations, guided by the research question in their final essay.

Minimum Requirement for Award of Credits

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.