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2023/2024

Linguistic Commentary of Literary Texts

Code: 100581 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2504386 English and Spanish Studies OB 4 2
2504388 Catalan and Spanish Studies OB 4 2

Contact

Name:
Margarita Freixas Alás
Email:
margarita.freixas@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject. Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2023.

Teachers

Dolors Poch Olive

Prerequisites

By obtaining the minimum of credits in basic training subjects, students have demonstrated to have acquired the basic competences and they will be able to express themselves orally and in writing.

For this reason, any spelling and expression errors that may be committed will lead to a score decrease in the final grade.

Activities, practical sessions and papers submitted in the course must be original and under no circumstances will the total or partial plagiarism of third-party materials published on any medium be admitted.

Any submission of non-original material without properly indicating its origin will automatically result in a failure rating (0).

It is also expected that students know the general rules of submission of an academic work. However, students could apply the specific rules that the teacher of the subject may indicate to them, if they deem it necessary.


Objectives and Contextualisation

"Linguistic Commentary on Literary Texts" is integrated into the subject of Texts Commentary, which is part of the 108 credits of compulsory education of Spanish Language and Literature Degree, which the student attends along with other Spanish language subjects.

Among the basic training objectives, the student is required to acquire mastery of the techniques and methods of linguistic commentary and to be able to analyze a literary text from both the synchronic and diachronic point of view.

On the other hand, students will apply their acquired specific competences in the realization of speeches related to the area of Spanish literature by using the methods, concepts and literary theories they have acquired.


Competences

    English and Spanish Studies
  • Apply scientific ethical principles to information processing.
  • Critically analyse linguistic, literary and cultural production in English and Spanish, applying the techniques and methods of critical editing and digital processing.
  • Develop arguments applicable to the fields of literature, culture, literary theory, language and linguistics, in Spanish and English, and evaluate their academic relevance.
  • Interpret literary texts in English or Spanish within their cultural and historical context using current philological methodologies and textual and comparative strategies.
  • Students can apply the knowledge to their own work or vocation in a professional manner and have the powers generally demonstrated by preparing and defending arguments and solving problems within their area of study.
  • Use digital tools and specific documentary sources to gather and organise information.
    Catalan and Spanish Studies
  • Critically apply different analytical instruments to different types of linguistic data, whether in synchronic or diachronic.
  • Demonstrate the ability to work autonomously and in teams with the aim of attaining the planned objectives in multicultural and interdisciplinary contexts.
  • Innovate in the methods and processes of this area of knowledge in response to the needs and wishes of society.
  • Produce arguments applicable to the areas of Catalan and Spanish philology, literary theory and linguistics and evaluate their academic relevance.
  • Students can apply the knowledge to their own work or vocation in a professional manner and have the powers generally demonstrated by preparing and defending arguments and solving problems within their area of study.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
  • Use digital tools and specific documentary sources to gather and organise information.
  • Use the methodology and concepts of literary analysis taking into account the sources and the historical and social context.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Analyse rhetorically a text from any period.
  2. Apply the principles of ecdotics to text commentary.
  3. Apply the techniques and methods of literary and linguistic commentary of texts and critical analysis of works as a whole.
  4. Apply the theoretical knowledge acquired to carry out work.
  5. Argue about different topics and problems of literary language in relation to different works and evaluate the results.
  6. Comment on literary texts, apply the acquired tools and take into account the historical and sociocultural context.
  7. Demonstrate comprehension of specialist and non-specialist texts in English of high difficulty and interpret these critically.
  8. Distinguish principal ideas from secondary ideas and synthesise their contents in literary texts in English from earlier to contemporary periods.
  9. Incorporate ideas and concepts from published sources into work, citing and referencing appropriately.
  10. Interpret Western cultural tradition from the 19th century to the present day, pinpointing features of the Western tradition in a contemporary text.
  11. Locate specialised and academic information and select this according to its relevance.
  12. Recognizing the great genres from the perspective of poetics and its evolution over the centuries.
  13. Relate linguistic resources in Spanish to their literary function.
  14. Strengthen the capacity of reading, interpretation and critical analysis of literary texts and language.
  15. To delimit the characteristics of literary language.
  16. Understand and differentiate adequately between the concepts of literature and culture in English, as well as their mutual relations and interactions.
  17. Understand the relationship between text and discourse.
  18. Use digital tools and documentary sources to obtain, classify, interpret and analyse relevant data related to the practice of commenting on literary texts.
  19. Use technological resources (digital and audiovisual) to acquire knowledge and apply it in language and literature.
  20. Use the appropriate terminology in the construction of an academic text and in the transmission of their knowledge.
  21. Write text commentaries from a critical standpoint.

Content

1. Problems of delimitation of the literary language. Main theoretical approaches. The importance of the language form. Rhetoric and the literary language.

2. The literary language: orality and writing. Oral literature. Written literature: characteristics of the written literary text. The structure of the book.

3. The textual structure. The Rhetoric. Rhetoric and Literature. The organization of the text. Macrostructure and microstructure. The epistle. The sermon. The construction of their own voice: women and writing during the Golden Age.

4. The linguistic resources of the literary language (1): Phonetics and Phonology. Sound's function in the literary work. Demarcation between prose and verse. The metric prose. The theoretical and historical problems of the rhyme.

5. The linguistic resources of the literary language (2): Lexicon and Morphology. The formation of words. Archaisms and neologisms. The characterization: the expansion of nouns and verbs. The adjective: typology and distribution.

6. The linguistic resources of the literary language (3): The syntax. Syntax and style. The structure of the sentence according to the nature of the text.

7. The linguistic resources of the literary language (4): The pragmatic. Dictum and modality. The formal frameworks of the modality. The speech acts. The information structure of the sentence. The notions of theme and rema. The focus. Syntactic forms in relief.


* The aspects related to the gender perspective are taken into account in the content of the subject.


Methodology

The learning of this subject by the students is distributed as follows:

• Directed activities (35%). These activities are divided into master classes and seminars and classroom practices led by the teacher, in which theoretical explanation is combined with discussion of all types of texts.

• Supervised activities (10%). These tutorials are programmed by the teacher, dedicated to correcting and commenting on problems at different levels of literary analysis.

• Autonomous activities (50%). These activities include both time devoted to individual study and production of reviews, papers and analytical comments written, as well as oral presentations.

• Evaluation activities (5%). The evaluation of the subject will be carried out through written tests.

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      
Theoretical-practical classes 50 2 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 17, 15, 7, 20, 10, 12, 13
Type: Supervised      
Tutorials 21 0.84 1, 17, 15, 20, 14
Type: Autonomous      
Preparation of written tests and papers 71.5 2.86 1, 4, 2, 3, 5, 6, 17, 15, 8, 20, 18, 9, 10, 11, 14, 12, 13, 19

Assessment

The students will be assessed by means of:

−          Classroom participation, with the submission of a review on a topic discussed in class (10%).

−          A text comment done in the classroom (40%)

−          A final paper (50%).

In the evaluation process, the following issues will be taken into account:

• An excellent command of writing skills (spelling and normative errors will affect negatively on the score).
• Participation of students in class.

All assessment activities are mandatory which will take place on the dates agreed by the students and the teacher at the beginning of the course (the dates will be indicated in the Moodle of the subject during the first two weeks of the course). The student who does not perform one of the three assessment activities will be considered "Not assessed".

Re-assessment: The text comment and a final paper can be re-assessed (on the date set for re-assessment) if students achieve an average grade equal to or greater than 3.5.

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.

SINGLE EVALUATION

It will consist of a written synthesis test conducted in the classroom (40%) and the submission, on the same date, of a review on one of the subject's topics (10%) and a written assignment (50%).

 


Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Oral participation in the class 10% 1.5 0.06 1, 3, 6, 15, 20
Practical test (Text comment in class) 40% 1.5 0.06 1, 4, 2, 3, 5, 6, 16, 17, 15, 7, 8, 20, 18, 9, 10, 11, 14, 12, 21, 13, 19
Written paper 50% 4.5 0.18 1, 4, 2, 3, 5, 6, 17, 15, 8, 20, 18, 9, 10, 11, 14, 12, 21, 19

Bibliography

Essential bibliography:

Clavería, Gloria y Dolors Poch, coords. (2010), Al otro lado del espejo. Comentario lingüístico de textos literarios, Barcelona, Ariel.

 

General bibliography:

Jakobson, Roman (1975 [1960]): “Lingüística y Poética”, en Ensayos de lingüística general, Barcelona, Seix y Barral, pp. 347-396.

López Grigera, Luisa (1994): La retórica en la España del Siglo de Oro: teoría y práctica, Salamanca, Universidad de Salamanca.

Mortara Garavelli, Bice (1992): Manual de retórica, Barcelona, Cátedra.

Pozuelo, José María (1988): Teoría del lenguaje literario, Madrid, Cátedra (numerosas ediciones posteriores).

Segre, Cesare (1985): Principios de análisis del texto literario, Barcelona, Crítica (traducción de 1985).

Vega Ramos, María José (1992): El secreto artificio: maronolatría y tradición pontaniana en la poética del Renacimiento, Madrid, CSIC.


Software

Special software are not required.