I have really loved reading the message board for a long time, yet never posted before now! I was just offered a new course to teach called "Contemporary Spain". I am THRILLED yet I know it is a daunting task. It is a senior elective in the high school I teach at. I can approach the topic any way I would like to...it is all up to me. I need to find a good text book (if there is one!) and also think of an interesting syllabus. It is a one semester course. I would love to hear other's ideas and suggestions for the course as I am planning it. It will be in September, so I have a good amount of time to plan. some basic questions:
What movies would you suggest represent contemporary Spain?
What music?
Should I start with the Civil War as a backdrop?
Etc.
I hope to make this a fantastic couse...I know I will LOVE talking about Spain everyday...Just hope the seniors will too...(senioritis is what is scring me I guess...) Sorry for rambling on. I really respect all of your opinions. I feel like I have come to know you all in a spiritual way as I have been reading all of your thoughts and yearnings for Spain. Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions. Hasta luego. Marilena

Hello marilena and welcome to our Spain-Loving group!

I would think any student which takes this course as an elective must/might have SOME interest in Spain already, no? I would think you'd have PLENTY of material to share with them. Where in the world (i.e. USA, Russia, Antarctica?) are you teaching this course?? Your location isn't listed in your profile. I was just curious.

We have MANY educators here on the board and many Spanish teachers as well. Maybe even some of our Spaniard friends here would have suggestions.

Good luck and enjoy the course! Saludos, MadridMan

Marilena writes: U.S. High School 'seniors' will view the Spanish Civil War as ancient history; although you might reference it from time to time in your course. Contemporary Spain, in my view, begins with the death of Dictator Francisco Franco and beginning of a Parliamentary Monarchy with a King & Queen (like the U.K.).
I don't know of a good, English language textbook on Contemporary Spain; there may be one somewhere.
You'll undoubtedly have to include some Physical and economic geography. Your seniors may not be interested in the highways and railroads but when you get to Spain's 1,500 or so miles of beaches, that might get their attention. If they don't like the beaches, try the ski slopes. You may also stress that tourism is one of Spain's major industries.
Wouldn't it be nice if you could take the class to Spain at the end of the semester?

For a contemporary view of Spain, the movie: Todo para mi Madre comes to mind. I may have that title wrong: The words Todo and mi Madre are in the title and I believe it won a best Picture award at the Cannes film festival a few years ago. It's a bit raw, probably rated 'R' here in the U.S. I liked it because it depicts a totally contemporary view of Madrid and Barcelona
Let's see what other people suggest ...
You'll want to keep some classical guitar music going in the background for some of your lectures (but Spanish Popular music is not all that different from U.S. popular music.

If I come up with an idea for a text, I will add it to this post. ¡Suerte!

Hi.

If you want to show a spanish movie that shows what kind of movies we like, you should choose ... TORRENTE

Yes, I know that all of you are going to say that this is a rubbish but, it was the spanish film that got the highest amount of revenues of all our history until "the others" movie came. Ah!, by the way, the main actor in TORRENTE is Santiago Segura and appears in the new film BLADE II!!!. Soon he will be more famous than Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas in the U.S.

Before TORRENTE movie was finished, the spanish film with the highest movigoers was "AIRBAG", another fool and funny movie. :p

I want to remark that maybe, those two films are not the best movies that our country has created, those films are just the two spanish films most seen in our country (before "the others" appeared), so I suppose that they are showing what the spaniards want to see.

bye!

Thanks for your ideas so far. Eddie, I also think that the Civil War is the start...I was thinking of La casa de Bernarda ALba by Garcia Lorca to show the repression as a start off point. I agree that I can entice them with the cultural aspects of Spain, but I have to get into the nittygritty, so a textbook would be helpful. I am in search of one, so if anyone has ANY ideas...thanks
As for movies: I haven't seen Torrente yet, so I will preview it soon.
I know Almodovar is popular, yet I don't think I would want to show more than one of his films. There are so many other good ones.
As for taking them to Spain at the end of the semester...ojala
BTW...i am in NYC, so there are lots of cultural opportunities too that are right here.
Keep your ideas coming and GRACIAS
mari

marilena,

I tend to agree with Eddie, but at the same time, I think the situation that caused the 1931 revolution, and the Civil War which began in 1936 will give a great background as to why circumstances played out the way they did. Franco's era would also be important. Not to be neglected.

There are a wealth of online areas which deal with the civil war era. It's possible that era could be dealt with through selected sources online, to insure that you have all sides of the issues properly represented.

As far as a specific text, I don't know that I can say there is one that is offered, but you might check for a college level course that offers a text for "Modern Spain," circa 1960 to present, to get a true comparison of the two distinctly different types of governments, and business practices, that exist. Here's one reference that may be of interest to you though, since it takes a third party point of view of the transition period...

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0...6149479-6514205

Hope this helps! I think you may be starting a fantastic course for young people who can start to understand a wonderful and interesting culture that has affected our own US culture in so many ways.

Wolf

Wow! What an exciting opportunity. I wish I could teach that course! I just took some graduate courses on FL instruction last summer and one of them was on that very topic. Most of the info was "review" for me but very interesting nonetheless. I think you must speak of the civil war to give the students some perspective of the changes that take place in the second half of the century. One way to combat senioritis would be to focus on la movida towards the end; I can't imagine any teen not taking an interest in that time period. I can look at the syllabus we used for the course (I'm away on business right now but I'd be happy to search for it when I return home). I can send you a copy of the materials we used. Granted, it was all in Spanish, but you could get some good ideas. Is your course going to be taught in English or in Spanish? Just the thought of it is getting me excited.

I guess Wolf was on the same wave length as me!

You might try The New Spaniards by John Hooper as a textbook. It's a good read and sound enough introduction to modern Spain. By the way, a quick search through good old google turned up a lot of info on such courses. Of course I'm not suggesting you rip off someone else's syllabus, but have a look and get some ideas. Here's one for example I just saw:
http://www.stedwards.edu/hum/randle/cfstudy.htm
A good civil war movie for example is Ken Loach's Lad and Freedom. While a fascinating subject in itself, try not to get bogged down too much in the Spanish Civil War. That conflict would easily make a course in itself, and indeed needs one to do both it, and those who fought for the Republic, justice.
Anyway, best of luck

A good example of today's Spanish cinema is the movie 'Abre los ojos', the original version of the American film Vanilla Sky. Another good one that takes place in the Spanish war times is 'La niña de tus ojos'(sort of a musical), or the award winning 'Belle Epoque' starring Penélope Cruz too. One that's a good example of the most modern style is 'Los Amantes del Círculo Polar', ....

Gee! I can think of many recent good movies, but most of them I guess aren't suitable for you to show your H.S. students!!!

I tought a similar course (more focused on literature, though) to this as a mid-level college course. I started with the generation of '98. It's always the chicken and the egg thing: if you want to cover the civil war, you have to get into the causes of it, which means going further back, etc.

I would definitely give the students an overview of Spain (maybe 1-2 weeks) up until your official "start period." Mark Williams' _The Story of Spain_ is a very accesible overview of all of Spanish history. It is somewhat "light", but should be ideal for high schoolers. Raymond Carr's books (especially _Modern_Spain) are excellent textbooks for the period in question, but more academic than Williams. He also has general overviews. Hooper's _The New Spaniards_ is an excellent account of the post-Franco period.

Literature and philosophy: I would hit Unamuno, Lorca, maybe Galdos, Ortega y Gasset, Azorin, Cela, and, if you want to get a little more edgy, Carme Riera and Terenci Moix. More conservative would be Gironella.

Movies (yes, Torrente!), Almdodovar, Saura, etc. Bunuel's films are also interesting. Some Franco-era cinema would be a good contrast.

"La movida" makes an interesting topic in terms of the emergence from dictatorship.

At any rate, it should be a lot of fun for both ou and the students. Good luck.

shoot, I forgot the Civil war entirely. I agree that it would take a course in and of itself. There are several excellent textbooks on it from which you could draw excerpts. A collection called "Blood of Spain" provides a fascinating series of first person accounts. An intelligent and suitable recent movie is "The Butterfly." Orwell comes to mind as well.

Michener's _Iberia_ is a good travelogue, and excerpts from it would be useful as well.