Spanish Literature (MA)

The course is divided into two parts.
The first part (modules A and B, taught by Prof. Marrella), worth 6 credits, is entitled "Contemporary Spanish Fiction (1980-2025): memory, violence, and new representations", and aims to provide a critical overview of contemporary Spanish fiction from the 1980s to the present day, with a particular focus on new aesthetic experiments and the relationship between literature and society, through themes such as historical memory, political violence, social inequality, and new subjectivities. Starting from the context of the democratic transition, with special attention to the pact of oblivion and the evolution of memory policies (up to the Ley de Memoria Histórica, 2007), the course will examine how recent Spanish fiction has represented the nation's conflicts and sociocultural transformations during the 21st century.
The course takes an interdisciplinary approach and integrates methodological perspectives derived from memory studies, trauma studies, gender studies, queer theory, and disability studies, with the aim of providing students with a structured and coherent theoretical framework for the analysis of narrative texts. The program also includes an examination of new forms of realism in contemporary fiction, an analysis of precarious conditions in the current sociocultural context, and the study of narratives that critically question body politics and forms of institutional authority. In addition to theoretical lecture and guided reading of texts provided by the instructor, the course requires students to read four novels in their entirety, representing four fundamental vectors of recent fiction: Fernando Aramburu, "Patria" (2016); Edurne Portela, "Mejor la ausencia" (2017); Cristina Morales, "Lectura fácil" (2018); María Agúndez, "Casas Limpias" (2025).
The second part of the course (module C, taught by Prof. Cassol), worth 3 credits, is entitled "Work and Workers on Stage" and will examine several plays from the first quarter of the new century that reflect on issues related to employment, job hunting, unemployment, and selection processes, with the repercussions that tensions in the workplace can have on people's lives. The competition to live or survive in contemporary society raises disturbing ethical and moral questions that affect individuals and their family and social relationships. The works to be read and, where possible, viewed in theatrical or film versions, are "Almacenados" by David Desola (2001), "El método Grönholm" by Jordi Galcerán (2003), "La punta del iceberg" by Antonio Tabares (2014), "Los temporales" by Lucía Carballal (2016), and "Los parados también sueñan" by Felisa Moreno (2017).