Spanish and Contemporary Chinese Studies BA Jt Hons

This module builds on A level Spanish to consolidate your understanding of grammar, and your ability to comprehend both structures and meanings in a variety of written and aural texts.

You will be guided in using a broader range of discursive strategies in both written and spoken Spanish, and trained in the comprehension of broadcast items, on current affairs and culture, from across the Spanish-speaking world.

This module is designed as a foundation for all later modules covering Spanish and Portuguese literatures.

Its main aims are to:

• give students a general introduction to literature and to the study of literature
• provide students with a partial overview of literary writing in the Spanish language
• introduce students to some of the key theoretical issues of literary study
• inculcate good reading and critical habits.

The main skills tested on this module are:

• close reading
• textual analysis
• seminar participation
• the ability to write cogent and convincing commentaries and essays.

This module aims to introduce students to the main patterns of Latin American political, economic and social history, between independence in the 1820s and the end of the twentieth century.

Attention will be drawn to specific concepts, terminology, events and people, so as to develop an understanding of different perspectives and interpretations of the history in question. You will also gain an appreciation of the interaction between the:

• ‘political history’ of major events and protagonists in official positions of power
• ‘social history’ of populations who both contributed to, and were affected by, political change.

This module provides you with a foundation in Chinese phonetics, grammar and vocabulary in order to develop your competence in Mandarin Chinese. The focus is on communicative competence in both spoken and written language, and you will begin thorough training in use of the Mandarin Chinese script. As well as equipping you with skills in the language, the module also informs you about Chinese culture and society.

This module intends to provide the fundamental knowledge of China's economic transformation and business development. It assists you to establish an understanding of issues including economic strategies, industrial sector transformation, investment, trade and business management.

This module builds on grammatical knowledge and communication skills developed in Spanish 1, and aims to prepare you to function effectively in a university or work situation in a Spanish-speaking country.

Written classes focus on developing essay writing skills in Spanish, using a range of texts from Spanish and Spanish American sources as stimuli. Special attention is given to developing complex sentence structures and rhetorical devices. Laboratory classes use a full range of contemporary audio-visual materials to develop aural comprehension and conversational ability in Spanish.

This module consolidates the skills you have acquired in the first year and further develops your oral and written communicative ability in Mandarin. It introduces use in more complex situations and broadens your vocabulary. A range of activities, including listening exercises, discussion, reading comprehension and producing short written texts, will improve your fluency and confidence.

Mandarin Chinese for the Intermediate Level 2B

In preparation for your year abroad this module further develops your use of and confidence with Mandarin in increasingly complex situations. Teaching continues to focus on the four key skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, and takes place in Mandarin wherever possible. By the end of the module you will have firm knowledge of Mandarin at intermediate level.

This module explores a cultural period in the Hispanic world characterised by profound social change and the emergence of major world-figures of modern art (e.g. Pablo Picasso). It is structured around key literary and artistic movements from Spain and Spanish America from the early nineteenth century to the late 20th century, such as Romanticism, Realism, Symbolism, the Avant-garde, and Modernism. The module focuses on reading literary and visual texts of the period in relation to the socio-economic and political context of Spain’s and Spanish America’s rapid, but hugely uneven, modernisation. Individual novels, plays, films, paintings or poems are used to exemplify and explore particular movements and historical moments. The module offers students skills in close analysis of complex texts, an understanding of some of the major directions of Spain and Spanish American literature in the twentieth century, and the ability to relate texts studied to historico-cultural contexts.

This module will provide a general introduction to cinema in the Hispanic and Lusophone worlds. The first semester will examine contemporary cinema from Spain and Latin America and the second semester will examine cinema from Portugal, Brazil and Lusophone Africa. The module will address questions of style, form, socio-historical context and narrative content. The films will be available with English subtitles

This module examines major public policy programs since the beginning of the reform and opening up in the 1978 in the areas of education, environment, media and communications, health, population, labour, ethnicity, along with social changes and their consequences for people's livelihoods.

In addition to exploring the content, evolution and effects of policy in these areas, the module will examine how policies are made and implemented. Lectures will introduce substantive issues and the appropriate theoretical frameworks for making sense of developments on the ground while seminars will help students to understand the impacts of these policies and the social changes accompnaying them.

This module covers the history of China from the 1840s, through to the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949. It looks at social, cultural, political and economic developments in this period from a variety of angles and approaches.

The module focuses in particular on the ways in which Chinese society responded to the arrival of 'modernity' in the form of the Western powers and Japan throughout the period in question, but also how different groups in China tried to remould or redefine China as a 'modern' nation-state and society.

In this module you’ll learn about the physical, human and geographical issues that have occurred in recent years due to China’s development policies over the past century. You’ll explore these in the context of political, economic and social changes. Topics covered include air and water pollution, the impact of industrialisation and the evolution of the environmental legal system among others. You’ll have two hours per week of lectures studying this module.

This module capitalises on the progress made in colloquial and informal language skills during your year abroad, and trains you in a more formal, sophisticated register of spoken and written Spanish.

It uses stimulus texts from a broad range of authentic sources to impart understanding of how texts are put together, and to build up your knowledge of, and confidence in, this register, thus enabling production of written and spoken Spanish of maximum clarity and strength of argumentation.

Mandarin Chinese for the Advanced Level 3A

The final year Mandarin Chinese course will develop your communicative competence in Mandarin Chinese in both spoken and written language to a high level. The module follows on from your work during your time abroad, enabling you to further improve your ability to employ your language skills in both formal and informal situations.

This module looks at key 20th-century Spanish American novels and short stories and considers issues such as race, gender, sexuality and the conflict of cultures. Students will be trained in using a broad range of tools of narrative and rhetorical analysis so as to engage in debates about literary representation and aesthetics, and will hone their use of these through a programme of research tasks, seminar presentations, group discussions, and written assignments.

This module focuses on China from the founding of the People's Republic through the pre-reform era (1949-1978), examining how China was organized and governed as well as changes in rural and urban society, the family, the economy and the Chinese workplace under the socialist period (1949-1978). Major topics covered include:

• The CCP's rise to power;
• The transformation of rural and urban society post-1949;
• The Great Leap Forward and subsequent famine;
• In-depth analysis of all phases of the Cultural Revolution;
• Return to Power of the pragmatists and the Beginning of Reform;
• Changing views of Mao as a leader.

The module examines the close linkage between literature and cinema in China. It also explores trends in modern Chinese cinema and literature, with a primary focus on different genres and themes developed since 1978. By placing Chinese cinema and literature within their cultural, social and historical contexts, students will analyse, interpret and appreciate such phenomena.

It will include analyses of individual texts in translation and films with English subtitles. The module requires you to view films in English subtitles each week. It will increase your awareness of the major developments in literature and film as they are embedded in the wider changes in modern China.