BA Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies

This course unit introduces students to aspects of the cinematic representation of key social issues in the late 20th/early 21st century, in particular as they relate to contemporary Portuguese and Spanish cultures.  As well as for students of Spanish and/or Portuguese, this unit is also suitable for students of World Cinema.  All films are in Spanish or Portuguese, with English subtitles available.

Using a range of documentary, docufictional, and feature films, the unit will provide a critical awareness of the relationships between social issues and cinematic representation. Issues under analysis include: marginalization and social exclusion through economic hardship; domestic violence; drug addiction; colonial war; racism; displacement of communities through land exploitation; collective and family identities and subjectivity; the impacts of crisis.

Available on: All programmes related to Spanish and/or Portuguese.

To consolidate the cross-cultural and interdisciplinary skills and knowledge of students in their final year of study.

Students will be expected to:

• Draw on an appropriately wide knowledge of the social issues listed in the Course Unit Overview
• Relate them cogently to their treatment in films of different genres

Students will be expected to:

• Develop informed analyses of film form in context
• Develop an appreciation and critique of different forms of filmic representation
• Form judgments and opinions based on detailed cross-cultural knowledge

Students will be expected to develop skills in:

• Working towards conclusions from the basis of case studies
• Conducting effective issue-based research

Students will be expected to develop skills relating to:

• Transactional interaction with their peers
• Clear communication of complex ideas
• Empathy
• Social responsibility

1. Jo Labanyi and Tatjana Pavlovic (eds) A Companion to Spanish Cinema (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013). 
2. Alberto Mira, Historical Dictionary of Spanish Cinema (Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2012)
3. Carolin Overhoff-Ferreira, Identity and Difference Postcoloniality and Transnationality in Lusophone Films (Berlin: Lit Verlag, 2013) 
4. Graeme Turner, Film as Social Practice. 4th edn (London: Routledge, 2007)