The Classics in Contemporary Culture
Code: 103563 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year | Semester |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2502758 Humanities | OT | 3 | 2 |
| 2502758 Humanities | OT | 4 | 2 |
| 2504394 English and Classics Studies | OT | 3 | 2 |
| 2504394 English and Classics Studies | OT | 4 | 2 |
Contact
- Name:
- Oscar Luis Cruz Palma
- Email:
- oscar.delacruz@uab.cat
Use of Languages
- Principal working language:
- catalan (cat)
- Some groups entirely in English:
- No
- Some groups entirely in Catalan:
- Yes
- Some groups entirely in Spanish:
- No
Prerequisites
The English version of this teaching guide has been developed with the Google-translator.
The contents will go to theoretical knowledge about the history of culture that students have acquired in other subjects, especially referred to the period of the XVIII-XXI centuries.A level of writing is also considered to be acquired, which includes the way of citing the writing of the works scientifically.
Objectives and Contextualisation
The English version of this teaching guide has been developed with the Google-translator.
Study of the cultural events that have taken place and that take place in contemporary times, for the comprehension and the analysis of which we will have to make reference to their antecedents in the classical world.
For an understanding of the history of contemporary culture, it is essential to realize that significant innovations have not been able to develop without taking into account traditions that often start from the classical world. The new transcendental cultural events have not prescidido of it, updating the classic references for reasons on which it is necessary to reflect.
The subject works on this general idea and will try to demonstrate its application taking into account the following objectives:
- To concede the weight of the classical tradition in the panorama of contemporary culture.
- Detect cultural elements of classical tradition, current in the history of recent culture.
- Locate new phenomena that depend on the use or interpretation of classical themes or classical culture.
- Evaluate and assess the weight of classical culture in the current cultural landscape.
Competences
- Humanities
- Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
- Identifying the historical processes of contemporary culture.
Learning Outcomes
- Analysing the recycling of classical motifs in new contexts.
- Applying the historical, institutional, cultural and literary knowledge to the commentary of texts.
- Assessing the reception in the West of the thought and history of the classical world.
- Criticising the film adaptations of the classical mythological legends.
- Enumerating concepts of classic culture that have survived to the present society.
- Identifying the Greco-Roman sources that have inspired artists and literary people through history.
- Identifying the results of the projection of the classical world to the Western culture on various levels and in several eras and territories.
- Interpreting the material and cultural context of transmission of ancient texts.
- Relating the contemporary myths with the classical antiquity.
Content
The English version of this teaching guide has been developed with the Google-translator.
Introduction: Background of the panorama of contemporary culture (ss. XIX-XXI)
0.1. Identification of culture as "high culture".
0.2. Auctoritas as a transmission system in high culture.
0.3 Definitions and considerations on the concept of "classical tradition".
0.4. Methodology of studies on classical tradition: clarification of the concepts of influence, transmission, parallel, copy, version, adaptation, etc.
Development: The classics in the great cultural innovations of the contemporary world.
1. The cultural impact of colonialism: rupture of the concept of “high culture”.
2. Romanticism and the classics.
3. Cultural impact of scientific advances: the appearance of science fiction.
4. Interest in the irrational: ghosts, visions and theosophy.
5. The cultural crisis of Existentialism. The presence of the classics in Existentialism.
6. The search for new artistic techniques: the Vanguards and the classics.
7. The aestheticism of the dandies.
8. The classics as an image of fascism.
9. The concept of culture in Postmodernity: the function of the classics.
10. Postmodern relativistic revisionism: imagology and other critical analyses.
11. Current trend towards Neohumanism.
12. Confirmation of the use of classical references today.
Methodology
In addition to the teacher's theoretical explanations, the students will have to deliver the following exercises: or a single review per module with a value of 2 points and a maximum length of 4 pages;or three short essays per module (total, 9 essays) worth one point each.. The objective of these reviews will be to illustrate with some concrete example the survival or influence of the classical tradition during the study periods.
Review 1 / short essays 1-3 (subject of module 1):
On the new myths of the s.XVIII - XIX
Review 2 / short essays 4-6 (subject of module 2):
On the representation of the classics by the Vanguards
On the use of the classics by Fascism
Review 3 / short essays 7-9 (subject of module 3):
On the use of classics in the 20th century: Existentialism - Postmodernity
Activity calendar
The teacher will detail a schedule of delivery of evaluable activities at the beginning of the course.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Activities
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Methodological introduction | 8 | 0.32 | |
| theoretical exposition about the 1-4 topics | 12 | 0.48 | |
| theoretical exposition about the 5-8 topics | 9 | 0.36 | |
| theoretical exposition about the 9-12 topics | 12 | 0.48 | |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Specialized indications for writing ot the 3 reviews | 6 | 0.24 | |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Reading of bibliography for each of the contents | 75 | 3 | |
| Writing 3 reviews | 12 | 0.48 | |
| Writing of conclusions and preparation of the final exam | 12 | 0.48 |
Assessment
Delivery of 3 rshort essays: 60%. To obtain the 20% corresponding to each year, it is essential to deliver it on the date indicated. In the case of unjustified delay in delivery, it will lower the grade in proportion to the days of the delay. On the other hand, students can review and correct their essays if they have not obtained in the first instance the maximum score of 2 points per exercise.
Written test (compulsory exam): 40%
On carrying out each evaluation activity, lecturers will inform students (on Moodle) of the procedures to be followed for reviewing all grades awarded, and the date on which such a review will take place.
In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.
Reassessment:
The exam grade cannot be re-evaluated with a second test, in any case it can be discussed during the grade review period (re-evaluation period).
Those students who have not passed and take the re-assessment, have the option of only passing (5 points) as a maximum grade.
To be assessed, it is necessary to have taken the compulsory examination, without which test the result of the assessment will be "non-assessable".
Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delivery of 3 reviews related to the contents of the subject | 60% | 2.5 | 0.1 | 1, 4, 7, 6, 8, 9, 3 |
| Written test | 40% | 1.5 | 0.06 | 2, 5, 7 |
Bibliography
In addition to the suggestion of various literary works, in support of the set of theoretical aspects that the subject deals with, the following references are useful:
L. Canfora, Ideologías de los estudios clásicos, 1980, trad. cast. M. Llinares García, Madrid, 1991.
O. Fullat, El siglo postmoderno (1900-2001), Barcelona, 2001.
R. Gubern, Máscaras de ficción, Barcelona, 2002.
D. Hernández de la Fuente, El hilo de oro: los clásicos en el laberinto de hoy, Barcelona, 2021.
J. F. Lyotard, La condición postmoderna, Madrid, 1994.
N. Ordine, La utilidad de lo inútil, Madrid, 2013.
J. Picó, Cultura y modernidad, Madrid, 1999.
E. Said, Humanisme et démocratie, Paris, 2005
E. Said, Orientalismo, Barcelona, 2002.
R. Sala Rose, Diccionario crítico de mitos y símbolos del nazismo, Barcelona, 2003.
J. P. Sartre, El existencialismo es un humanismo, Buenos Aires, 1972.
S. Settis, El futuro de lo clásico, Madrid, 2005.
Tz. Todorov, El jardín imperfecto, Barcelona, 1999 (trad. franc. 19981).
I. Vallejo, El infinito en un junco, Barcelona, 2020.
M.J. Vega, Imperios de papel. Introducción a la crítica postcolonial, Barcelona, 2003.
D. Viñas Piquer, Historia de la crítica literaria, Barcelona, 2002.
Software
pdf - Power-Point - Word