Option D: Spain's European Identity

ECTS allocation: 10 credits (22 contact hours, plus student work load 220 hours)
Module Coordinator : Dr Susana Bayó Belenguer
Teaching Staff: Members of the Spanish Department

This 22 hour lecture/seminar course runs for 2 hours in each week of a 12-week teaching term, except for Study Week.

Aims

This module will ask why Spanish social, political and cultural life did not develop in tandem with that of its European neighbours. The lectures will review the impact on Spain's European identity of historic internal and external developments, among them the centuries-long occupation of Spain by the Moors and their eventual expulsion or assimilation, the discovery of America, and the voyages of Hernan Cortés. These events, coupled with a national Catholic identity, decisively shifted the axis of Spanish interests away from their neighbours to the north until the Civil War propelled Spain into the centre of European conflict in the 1930s, and the Transition to Democracy established it once again as a full partner in the new Europe.

Working methods

The course will follow a standard lecture-seminar format. Each week, students will be required to read and discuss assignments and make presentations. Their work will be assessed at the end of the course option by a submitted essay on an agreed topic.

Learning outcomes

Students should have a thorough understanding of the influences that shaped the socio-political and cultural relations of Spain with Europe, of Spain's own perceptions of its European identity, and of its role in the new expanded European Union of the 21 st century.

Topics

1. General Introduction
2. Spain and its Moorish Identity (GM)
3. Spain and its Jewish Identity (KG)
4. Spain and the Other: The Discovery of America I (CC)
5. Spain and the Other: European Enlightenment: Black Legend Rhetoric in the Eighteenth Century (CO’H)
6. The Dispute of the New World: The Spanish Conquest of America in Jeopardy (CO’H)
7. Study week
8. The Defence of the New World: Challenging European Criticism of Spain’s Colonial Record (CO’H)
9. Spain and Europe, 1898-1945 (SBB)
10. Spain and post-1945 Europe (SBB)
11. Spain, Europe and Latin America today (SBB)
12. General Discussion

Assessment

Students will write an essay of 3500-5000 words. In addition, as well as fulfilling the reading and other requirements, students will be expected to make oral presentation in class, individually or in small groups.

Preliminary Bibliography

• Chejne, Anwar G. Islam and the West: the Moriscos. A Cultural and Social History. Albany: State U of NY P, 1983 [LEN 309.146M31]
• Fuchs, Barbara. Mimesis and Empire: the New World, Islam and European identities. Cambridge: CUP, 2002 [ARTS 860.9P13]
• GarcÍa-Arenal, Mercedes. Messianism and Puritanical Reform. Madhis of the Muslim West. Brull: Leiden, 2006 [LEN 709.53P6]
• Harvey, Leonard P. Islamic Spain. 1250-1500. Chicago: U Chicago Press, 1990 [946.02N01 - 2 copies]
• Muslims in Spain (1500-1614). Chicago/London: Chicago UP, 2005 [946.04P5 - 4 copies]
• Baer, Yitzhak, A History of the Jews in Christian Spain. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1992 [296.0902N21.1 - 2 copies]
• Díaz-Mas, Paloma, Sephardim: The Jews from Spain. Chicago, London: Chicago University Press, 1992 [[296.09N28 - 2 copies]
• Gerber, Jane S., The Jews of Spain: A History of the Sephardic Experience. New York: Free Press, 1994 [296.09N28]
• Roth, Cecil, A History of the Marranos. New York: Sephe-Hermon Press, 1992 [Santry 47.h.191]
• Cortés, Hernán Letters from Mexico, translated and edited by Anthony Pagden (Yale U.P., 1986) [972.02L2 - 2 copies]
• Todorov, Tzvetan . The Conquest of America ( The Question of the Other ), translated by Richard Howard, Harper and Row, 1982 [Santry HL-77-265 / 970.1N9:1 - 4 copies]
• Díaz, Bernal. The Conquest of New Spain, Penguin Classics, 1973 [Santry pB-219-684 - 4 copies]
• Elliott, J.H. 'Spain and America before 1700', in Colonial Spanish America, ed. Leslie Bethell, Cambridge University Press, 1987 [Santry HL-101-370]
• Casas, BartolomÉ de las. Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies (translated by Nigel Griffin), Penguin, 1999 [Santry PB-118.268 - 4 copies]
• AzcÁrate, Gumersindo de. Minuta de un testamento [Memoirs of a Krausist] [868.5AZC:5K7]
• Machado, Antonio. Campos de Castilla (Lands of Castille) [Santry PL-61-353 - 4 copies]
• López Morillas, J. The Krausist Movement and Ideological Change in Spain (CUP, 1981) [ARTS 860.9M196]
• Carr, Raymond. Modern Spain, 1875-1980 (OUP, 1980) [946.08MO1 - 5 copies]
• Balfour, Sebastian. The End of the Spanish Empire (OUP, 1997) [[Santry HL-194-622]
• Almarcha Barbado, Amparo. Spain & EC Membership Evaluated . 2004 [ARTS 338.94N03.8]
• Alpert, Michael. New International History of the Spanish Civil War . 2004 [Stacks PL-418-840]
• Balfour, Sebastian & Paul Preston. Spain and the Great Powers in the Twentieth Century . London: Routledge, 1999 [Santry HL-218-285 - 2 copies]
• Closa, Carlos and Paul Heywood. Spain and the European Union . Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004 [Open Access HL-275-549 - 2 copies]
• Heywood, Paul. Spain and the European Dimension . Glasgow: U of Strathclyde, 1993 [Stacks PL-252-797]
• Maclenna Crespo, Julio. Spain and the Process of European Integration, 1957-85 . Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2000 [Santry HL-241-85]
• Maxwell, Kenneth & Steven Spiegel. The New Spain: from Isolation to Influence . New York: Council of Foreign Relation, 1994 [320.946N4]
• Pollack, Benny with Graham Hunter. The Paradox of Spanish Foreign Policy . London: Pinter, 1987 [ARTS 327.46M7 - 2 copies]