What can Spain’s medieval musical heritage tell us about how the modern state was forged out of Iberia’s unique mixture of races, religions and languages? What did it mean to engage on the imperial enterprise in America?

This module explores the construction of cultures in Spain and the 'New' World’. It begins with an investigation of the textual, musical and visual circulation of literature in a pre-literate age, through close reading of selected texts from the medieval Spanish Cantiga and Romance traditions. You will be introduced to the foundations of Spanish literary language, and gain an understanding of the tensions between cultures, faiths, genders and social classes that characterise the emergence of the modern Spanish state. This perspective is then developed through an exploration of Spanish writings on the discovery of the 'New World', which will explore the role and importance of the historical archive, testimonies and historical novel in Latin American Culture, with a specific examination of the New Historical Latin American Novel.