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Spain: Country and Civilization

Teaching Staff: Voutsa Styliani
Course Code: YE-0600
Gram-Web Code: ΧΠ0801
Course Category: General Background
Course Type: Compulsory Elective
Course Level: Undergraduate
Course Language: English / Greek
Semester: Any Winter
ECTS: 2
Total Hours: 2
Erasmus: Not Available

Spain: Country and Civilization
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Short Description:

Students learn all about Spain, the Spanish civilization and Spanish society, as well as about the Latin American countries, their histories and civilizations. They learn about their music, their literature, their food, the patterns of their history. Via films, music, photos, power points they learn to understand and appreciate the most important undercurrents of Spanish history: the Muslim presence, the importance of La Reconquista and the crusade for the reconquest of Spain, duende and the all-pervasive presence of death, the Catholic Church, the clearness of blood and the persecution of Jews and marranos, the Holy Inquisition, the civil wars and the great inconsistencies and contradictions in the continuous fight between conservatism and rebellion (in society, politics and art). They also learn about the construction of Latin America as a separate entity, they appreciate the fight of these countries for freedom and social justice in the continuous battle for economic and political independence.

Objectives - Learning Outcomes:

In this course and irrelevantly to the students’ grasp of the Spanish language, they get to know Spain and they come close to the basic features of Spanish history, civilization and society. They also get to know the basic features of the Latin American history, society and civilization. The course follows the academic and pedagogical logic of the other courses of language and civilization (about United Kingdom, France and Germany). The course is not connected, though, to languages in the Spanish language nor is knowledge of Spanish needed. The course functions as a first contact of the students with Spain, Latin America and their history and civilization. By the end of the semester, students should have obtained a sound knowledge of the religious, ideological, political and social features of Spanish history. More specifically, students learn to:

· Decipher the basic and most fundamental tenets and rules of Spanish history (duende).

· Find their way around Spanish and Latin American history (Roman conquest, Al Andalus, Reconquista, the great Spanish Empire, the conquests, the fall of the Spanish empire and its reasons, the French conquest, the Carlist wars, the crisis of ’89, the Civil War, La transicion)

· Debate in the class in relation to these issues

· Understand in depth the intricacies of Spanish and Latin American society (importance of Catholic Church in history, music, food, etc)

Appreciate Spanish civilization (Cervantes, Velasquez, Goya, Picaso, Dali, Bunuel, Unamuno, Reverte, Gaudi etc)

Syllabus:

1^st week:

SPAIN: GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY

2^nd week:

AL ANDALUS AND RECONQUISTA

3d week:

THE CATHOLIC KINGS – THE HOLY INQUISITION AND THE FOUR PURGES

4^th week:

THE CONQUEST OF LATIN AMERICA – TRADITIONALISM AND REBELLION IN SPANISH HISTORY

5^th week:

THE CIVIL WAR – THE NEW SPAIN

6^th week:

THE CHURCH

7^th week:

THE BASQUE COUNTRY - CATALUNA

8^th week:

ART I: THE SPANISH JESUS

9^th week:

Art ii: innovation and revolution

10^th week:

LATIN AMERICA: FROM THE SPANISH EMPIRE TO THE NEW COUNTRIES

11th week:

LATIN AMERICA II: MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA IN THE 20^th CENTURY

12th week:

LATIN AMERICA IN THE 20^th CENTURY (DICTATORSHIP, FASCISM AND REVOLUTION)

13^th week:

LATIN AMERICAN CIVILIZATION: TANGOS AND THE REALM OF THE IMAGINERY

Suggested Bibliography:

Anthony Beevor: Spanish Civil War

Preston: Comrades

Teaching Methods:

*Activity*	*Semester workload*
Lectures	26

Examination	2

Study and analysis of bibliography	22

*Course total* *(25 hours of workload per credit unit)*	50