Unseen Things: Fantastic Narratives in Contemporary Spain

3 points · University catalogue

This course is a survey of Spanish literature and cinema that offers a glimpse to the Spanish canon through the cultural topology of “Fantasy”. By conceiving fantasy as a historically produced—and therefore historically changing—notion, we will travel across five centuries to examine how phenomena associated with the supernatural and the paranormal were understood in their time and how they are understood today. Haunting memories and spaces, ghosts and imaginary representations, supernatural events, monsters, spiritistic practices, and phantasmagorias will parade before our eyes as we try to come up with a comprehensive account for what we could call the “Spanish uneven development”. The discussions over differential temporalities, social and political imaginaries, collective memories, the role of fiction and symbolic representations, and the connection between fantasy and the economic, political, and ideological practices in a determinate social formation will be interrogated in our seminar from different historical vantage points. Readings (most of them by major authors) will be the center of the discussion, whereas visual materials, documentary, art and movies will do their part to illustrate the readings. Several questions will be raised (and hopefully answered) along this journey: How can we explain proliferation of fantastic narratives in Contemporary Spain? And, finally, how can we examine the recent boom and success of Spanish fantastic, supernatural and horror pieces, particularly in film and in the novel? Is there such thing as a “Spanish fantastic” genre?