Unit information: Children and Adolescents in Iberian and Latin American Cinema in 2019/20

Unit name	Children and Adolescents in Iberian and Latin American Cinema
Unit code	HISP30093
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. Randall
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of Hispanic, Portuguese and Latin American Studies
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This unit addresses a variety of Iberian and Latin American films featuring child and adolescent protagonists from countries including (but not limited to) Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Spain and Brazil. The films studied are united by their explorations of ‘coming-of-age’, impoverished childhood and the relationship between childhood and national identity. Students will reflect on the extent to which childhood and adolescence are socially constructed and intersected by race, gender and class. They will also critically consider the films’ deployment of the child’s gaze to reconstruct past periods of dictatorship or civil conflict in Spain and Latin America throughout the twentieth century. Finally, students will examine the cinematic techniques used to evoke child characters’ subjectivity and agency on film, thereby cultivating their skills of close filmic analysis.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this unit students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate an advanced knowledge of a variety of Iberian and Latin American films featuring child or

adolescent protagonists (B).

2. Articulate a complex understanding of the key socio-political and historical contexts to which the

primary texts relate (B).

3. Respond critically and analytically to the issues and debates raised by the films studied (B).

4. Engage critically with theoretical and critical scholarship in the relevant fields of study (B).

5. Demonstrate skills of filmic analysis appropriate to the level (B).

6. Demonstrate good oral presentation skills and the ability to work together in groups (C and D).

Teaching Information

1 x 2 hour seminar per week, including plenary presentation, class discussion and small group

presentations.

Assessment Information

1 x 20-minute group presentation about one of the films studied (20% group mark) with a 500-word individual reflection following the presentation (20% mark): this tests ILOs 2-6

1 x 3,000-word comparative essay focusing on two films (60%): this tests ILOs 1-6

Reading and References

Selected Primary Texts ·

• Los olvidados (Luis Buñuel, Mexico 1950)
• Cría cuervos (Carlos Saura, Spain 1976)
• Pixote (Héctor Babenco, Brazil 1980)
• Central do Brasil (Walter Salles, Brazil 1998) · Machuca (Andrés Wood, Chile 2004)
• La niña santa (Lucrecia Martel, Argentina 2004)

Selected Critical Reading

• LeBeau, Vicky. 2010. The Child in Film. London: I.B. Tauris.
• Lury, Karen. 2008. Childhood and Cinema. London: Reaktion Books.
• Martin, Deborah. 2011. ‘Wholly ambivalent demon-girl: horror, the uncanny and the representation of feminine adolescence in Lucrecia Martel’s La niña santa’. Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies. 17 (1): 59-76.
• Randall, Rachel. 2017. Children on the Threshold in Contemporary Latin American Cinema. Maryland: Lexington Books.
• Shaw, Deborah. 2003. ‘National Identity and the Family: Pixote by Héctor Babenco and Central Station by Walter Salles’, in Contemporary Cinema of Latin America: Ten Key Films. New York: Continuum.