Course Details in 2026/27 Session

Module Title	LH The Marginal Other in the Hispanic World
School	Lan, Cult, Art Hist & Music
Department	Modern Languages
Module Code	09 34941
Module Lead	Lorraine Ryan
Level	Honours Level
Credits	20
Semester	Semester 2
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites
Restrictions	None
Contact Hours	Lecture-20 hours Seminar-10 hours Guided independent study-170 hours Total: 200 hours
Exclusions
Description	This module deals with the processes of inclusion and exclusion in cinematic and literary texts from the Hispanic and Lusophone worlds. In the texts under study, dictatorships, imperialism, war, post-conflict societies, and the ascendancy of market societies give rise to rigid national “imagined communities” (Anderson), which create coteries of excluded individuals who are displaced corporeally (disability and ageing), economically (neoliberalism and immigration), spatially (ecocriticism including waste and trash culture, globalisation), geographically (refugees and immigrants), and ideologically (memory). Departing from cultural critiques and sociological perspectives on the relationship between nationhood, power, domination and resistance, this module analyses a range of texts in which marginalised citizens, who are generally considered relatively powerless social coteries are used to scrutinise a panoply of cutting-edge themes and literary and filmic texts, as well as a wide range of theoretical frameworks. This course will afford students an increased understanding of the intersection between social and political change and the subjective experiences of nationhood, individual identity, and globalisation.
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the module students should be able to: demonstrate a critical understanding of the historical and social issues that have shaped Contemporary Hispanic societies; identify and analyse the relationship between literary and filmic aesthetics and socially committed artistic practice; Demonstrate comprehension of “the other”, alterity in its full complexity; demonstrate proficiency in the target language by a using a wide range of digital apps that facilitate the assimilation of content and the improvement of linguistic skills.
Assessment
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	Assessment: 1 X 2500 -word essay in Spanish (75%); 1 x 5 minute presentation (using a digital app) to be submitted on CANVAS in Spanish (25%). Reassessment: No resits are permitted in final year. If students miss the assessed task owing to extenuating circumstances, the failed task would be rescheduled at a later date.
Other
Reading List