SN2121 The Romancero: The Spanish Ballad Tradition from the Reconquista to Lorca

SN2121 The Romancero: The Spanish Ballad Tradition from the Reconquista to Lorca

Term 1 only in 2013

Convenor: Dr Tyler Fisher

Assessment:

Essay: 30%, 1,500-2,000 words; Oral presentation: 10%; Exam: 60%

Overview

The course provides an overview of an important Spanish poetic genre, the romance or Spanish ballad. It traces the conventions of this verse form across six centuries, from those composed on the frontier between Moorish and Christian Spain, to those adapted to avant-garde aesthetics in the early twentieth century. This involves critical commentary on particular texts and broader study of the romancero in its varying cultural contexts in Spain and the New World. Students will have the opportunity to analyze recurring motifs and to identify innovations in this enduring genre, while honing their critical writing skills. The course is also open to CLC students who may elect to study the ballads in translation. 

Key Primary Bibliography

El Romancero viejo, ed. Mercedes Díaz Roig (Cátedra, 2003 or any more recent edition); translations of the poems are available in Spanish Ballads, ed. and trans. Roger Wright (Aris and Phillips, 1987 and many reprints since).

The Spanish Ballad in the Golden Age, ed. Nigel Griffin et al. (Tamesis, 2008).

García Lorca, Federico, Romancero gitano (Alianza, 1998); recommended translations are available in Gypsy Ballads, ed. and trans. Robert Havard (Aris and Phillips, 1995) or in Selected Poems, trans. Martin Sorrell (OUP 2009).

Other primary readings, such as the ballads of Alfonso Reyes, are supplied via the course Moodle page. The primary texts are all readily available in bilingual, Spanish-English editions for CLC students.

Secondary Readings: General, Theoretical, Introductory

Secondary texts for SN2121 are supplied via the course Moodle page. They include the following:

Menéndez Pidal, Ramón. ‘Los romances tradicionales en América’, in Los romances en América, y otros estudios. Buenos Aires: Espasa-Calpe, 1939 [1906].

Osorio, Oscar. ‘La jácara del Escarramán, de Quevedo’. Poligramas 21 (2004): 93-119.

Smith, Colin C. ‘On the Ethos of the Romancero Viejo’, in N. D. Shergold, ed. Studies of the Spanish and Portuguese Ballad (London: Tamesis and U of Wales P, 1972), 5-24.

Wardropper, Bruce W. ‘La más bella niña’. Studies in Philology 63.5 (1966): 661-76.