• Offered for Year: 2026/27

• Module Leader(s): Dr Dunja Fehimovic

• Owning School: Modern Languages
• Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus

Semesters

Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.

Aims

In consonance with the overall aim of the degrees offered in the SML, to contribute to students’ broad-based knowledge of aspects of the history, politics, society and culture of a variety of Hispanic countries, focusing on the culture of the Hispanophone Caribbean and its diasporas.

Outline Of Syllabus

This module introduces students to a selection of key imaginaries of the Caribbean. Students will re-examine preconceived images and stereotypes of the region through a consideration of the area's geographical openness, racial dynamics, cultural intermixture, violent history, and diasporic movements. They will study the diverse, creative reworkings of and resistances to these central imaginaries produced by artists, musicians, writers, filmmakers, and performers from the Spanish-speaking Caribbean.

The material is organised into interrelated topics such as Delicious 'Discoveries'; Slavery and the Plantation; The Marvellous and the Monstrous; Rhythm and music; Diasporic dilemmas.

The material is chosen to encourage students to reflect critically on the intersections of culture, history, and politics, but also to encourage close attention to form, medium and genre. The module is therefore comparative in spirit, as reflected by assessment. The module is taught in English, with primary and secondary materials in Spanish, offering students the opportunity to build on their language skills whilst also consolidating their ability to analyse a variety of cultural forms.

Teaching Methods

Teaching Activities

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

All knowledge outcomes are addressed by the mix of lectures, seminars, and guided independent study. The module is taught in English with primary materials in Spanish, and assessed in English.

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities:
- 1 x 1-hour scheduled lecture per week over 10 weeks. Lectures will provide key concepts and historical information for each topic.
- 1 x 2-hour scheduled seminar per week over 10 weeks. These in-person seminars will allow for in-depth analysis of primary sources using contextual and conceptual material provided by the lecture. They will prioritise student-led discussion and presentations, and students will benefit from peer feedback as well as guidance from the seminar leader.
- 1 x 2-hour drop-in surgery at the end of the semester will allow students to ask questions about assessment and receive guidance before/ while writing their final assessed essays.

Guided Independent Study:
- Guided study activities include directed research and reading; online discussion; student-led group activity; and independent study. Students are expected to work independently on most of these activities, but with directions from the seminar leader to ensure students use this time effectively to practice critical thinking and analysis (e.g. through online discussion), and to prepare for group presentations and seminar discussion.

Assessment Methods

The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners

Other Assessment

Formative Assessments

Formative Assessment is an assessment which develops your skills in being assessed, allows for you to receive feedback, and prepares you for being assessed. However, it does not count to your final mark.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The portfolio prompts students to consolidate the contextually and conceptually-informed comparative analyses developed in seminar discussion. It also ensures that they engage carefully with theoretical and conceptual frameworks. By using central concepts from the module as prompts for this written reflection, these smaller assessments help students build up to the final assessed essay, which similarly uses open, conceptual prompts on which students are required to build a contextualised comparative analysis of two or three primary sources (films, visual art, literature, music, performance etc.) from the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and/or its diasporas. The essay also assesses the analytical and argumentative skills the students develop through seminar discussion and group presentations.

Reading Lists

• LAS4032's Reading List

Timetable

• Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
• LAS4032's Timetable