Spanish reading list (pdf) - New College

First-year Spanish: Literature and Language workThe Spanish Preliminary Examination, for which you study in your first year at Oxford,consists of four papers.Paper I:A translation into Spanish (called a ‘prose’) and set of sentences to translate, also intoSpanish. Tuition for this paper is organised centrally and you will be taught mainly bynative speakers in classes with students from other Colleges.Paper II:Two translations into English. This paper is taught by me in a weekly College tutorial inwhich students from my three Colleges (Merton, Jesus and New) work together. As wellas learning translation skills, we continue to work on Spanish grammar and vocabulary inthis tutorial. You will need a vocabulary book, and the set grammar and dictionary.Paper III:(see attached list of set texts and preferred editions)This paper consists of the close study of four important Spanish texts from differentperiods, covering the short story, the novel, drama and poetry. You will have lectures onthese texts throughout the year, not necessarily coinciding with your tutorials on themwhich are taught by me (and in which you will be in a group of two or three). Yourlecturers will give you reading lists to help guide your reading. Tutorials on these textswill begin in Michaelmas Term (i.e. October) when we shall study El médico de suhonra, Rinconete y Cortadillo and Campos de Castilla. La fiesta del Chivo will bestudied at the start of Hilary Term (i.e. January).Paper IV:(see attached list of set texts and preferred editions)This paper traces the history of the Spanish ballad (or romance) from medieval times tothe twentieth century. It is taught, like paper III, in tutorials in College, and throughlectures given at various times during the academic year. Lecturers will provide you withdetailed reading lists and our tutorial study of these texts will begin in Hilary Term withthe romancero viejo and the romances by Lope de Vega, Quevedo and Góngora. Some ofthe texts by these three poets are difficult and you shouldn’t expect to understand all oftheir references or fathom their linguistic complexity immediately. You will be givensome sample commentaries during the first year to help you contextualize and understandthem. The modern romances by Rivas, Machado, and Lorca will be studied in TrinityTerm (after Easter) in which we also revise the year’s work.Texts should be read before you come to Oxford.

As you know the learning of a language is a gradual business. You should take everyopportunity to enrich your knowledge of Spanish by speaking the language when youhave the chance, reading the newspapers and watching or listening to news and otherbroadcasts, and noting down new vocabulary or words and phrases that you don’tunderstand as you hear and read them. An active attitude to language acquisition and awillingness to go on learning is enormously helpful for a language student.The literary side of the course will be new to many students and although some feeluncertain as they undertake the reading, the vast majority of students at Oxford end uprelishing this part of the course and the worlds it opens up. It can take some time and hardwork to come to terms with the content and the demands of the literature papers and so itpays to be prepared. As well as reading the texts set, you should try to see and discussSpanish plays and films and read something about the history and culture of Spain andSpanish America. Below are some suggestions that you may find helpful:Raymond Carr, ed., Spain: A History (Oxford, OUP, 2000)Edwin Williamson, The Penguin History of Latin America (London: Penguin, 1992)Peter Russell, ed., Spain: A Companion to Spanish Studies (London: Routledge, 1989)Jonathan ThackerMarch 2013

Reading List for Preliminary Examination in SpanishPaper IIIMiguel de Cervantes, Rinconete y Cortadillo, in Novelas ejemplares, vol. 1, ed. HarrySieber (Madrid: Cátedra).Pedro Calderón de la Barca, El médico de su honra, ed. D. W. Cruikshank (Madrid:Castalia).Antonio Machado, Campos de Castilla (excluding ‘La tierra de Alvargonzález’, butincluding ‘Elogios’), ed. Geoffrey Ribbans (Madrid: Cátedra).Mario Vargas Llosa, La fiesta del Chivo (any edition).Paper IVEl romancero viejo, ed. M. Díaz Roig (Madrid: Cátedra). Poems nos. 1-3, 5-6, 8-9, 11,13-14, 23-24, 29-32, 38-59, 63-66, 68, 71-73, 76, 78, 83, 85-86, 88, 91, 94, 96-99, 101,104, 111, 115-119, 121, 125-128.Lope de Vega, Lírica, ed. José Manuel Blecua (Madrid: Castalia). Poems nos. 1-2, 6-10,125-126. [If you cannot find this text in advance, don’t worry, as we provide electronicversions of the relevant poems on the University web-site, accessible from Oxford.]Luis de Góngora, Romances, ed. Antonio Carreño (Madrid: Cátedra). Poems nos. 3, 10-11, 15-16, 18, 23, 27, 48, 52, 58, 79.Francisco de Quevedo, Poemas escogidos, ed. José Manuel Blecua (Madrid: Castalia).Poems nos. 155, 160, 165, 167, 172.Duque de Rivas, ‘El alcázar de Sevilla’, ‘El fratricidio’, ‘El conde de Villamediana’,‘Bailén’ in Romances históricos, ed. Salvador García Castañeda (Madrid: Cátedra).[alternatively, these poems can be found athttp://www.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/45704064324570540887891/index.htm]Antonio Machado, ‘La tierra de Alvargonzález’, in Campos de Castilla (see above).Federico García Lorca, Romancero gitano, ed. Mario Hernández (Madrid: Alianza)Additionally you should buy the Oxford Spanish Dictionary (4th ed., 2008) – althoughdon’t worry if you already have a different unabridged bilingual dictionary – and Buttand Benjamin, A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish (5th ed., London: Arnold,2011) which will be essential throughout your degree.