Teaching plan for the course unit

 

 
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General information

 

Course unit name: Orientalism and Anti-Orientalism

Course unit code: 569569

Academic year: 2025-2026

Coordinator: Myriam Mallart Brussosa

Department: Department of Classical, Romance and Semitic Languages

Credits: 6

Single program: No definit

 

 

Estimated learning time

Total number of hours 150

 

Face-to-face and/or online activities

60
 

-  Document study

Face-to-face and online

  

6
 

-  Seminar

Face-to-face and online

  

42
 

-  Experimental workshop

Face-to-face and online

  

12

Supervised project

45

Independent learning

45

 

 

Recommendations

 

The subject will be taught in English, Catalan and/or Spanish. Students may use any of these three languages for presentations and written work. Other languages may also be accepted, subject to approval by the teaching staff.


Further recommendations

This subject may include organized outings among its activities. 

 

 

Competences / Learning outcomes to be gained during study

 

Basic and general competences
 

— Knowledge forming the basis of original thinking in the development or application of ideas, typically in a research context.

 

— Capacity to integrate knowledge and tackle the complexity of formulating judgements based on incomplete or limited information, taking due consideration of the social and ethical responsibilities involved in applying knowledge and making judgements.

 

— Skills to enable lifelong self-directed and independent learning.

 

— Capacity to understand: identification of concepts, problems and key questions in debates on the construction of cultural identities.

 

— Capacity to manage information: capacity to extract and integrate information from different sources, making effective use of libraries, archives, newspaper archives and other resources (particularly digital resources) relevant to research in the humanities.

 

— Capacity to apply the acquired knowledge to problem-solving in new or relatively unknown environments within broader (or multidisciplinary) contexts related to the field of study.

 

— Capacity to communicate conclusions, judgements and the grounds on which they have been reached to specialist and non-specialist audiences in a clear and unambiguous manner.

 

— Capacity to interpret texts from different eras and cultural traditions.

 

— Capacity for reflection: awareness of one’s own thought process, and ability to acknowledge and appraise different theories and points of view in the field of literary and cultural studies.

 

— Capacity to develop independent thought: critical and self-critical capabilities, capacity to develop original problem-solving strategies, capacity to generate new ideas, and capacity to delimit an object or field of study in terms of the construction and representation of cultural identities.

 

— Capacity to conduct basic research and monitor recent developments in the international scientific community in the fields of cultural studies, literary studies and gender studies.

 

— Ability to work in a team (capacity to collaborate with others and contribute to a common project / capacity to work in cross-disciplinary and multicultural teams).

 

Specific competences
 

— Advanced understanding of the different theories and methodologies applied to interculturality, globalisation and post-colonial studies, and the analysis of different types of texts in these fields; more detailed knowledge of the tools of philology needed to analyse complex texts and conduct comparative studies.

 

— Theoretical and critical capabilities for constructing discourse on interculturality, otherness and globalisation.

 

— Capacity to analyse the links between contemporary artistic creation and history, cultural institutions and social and political trends, taking into account the influences of colonisation and globalisation.

 

 

 

 

Learning objectives

 

Referring to knowledge

• Understand the formulations of the main intellectuals who have addressed the topic of orientalism and anti-orientalism.

• Evaluate the influence of these formulations on the definition of a European and Western identity, and on the corresponding response from the East.

• Read and critically analyse some significant texts, taking into account the historical context in which they were written and the influence of political and cultural phenomena of the period.

 

Referring to abilities, skills

• Develop the capacity to construct robust, complex arguments that address the state of the art on an international level.

• Develop the capacity to manage information effectively, to identify the literary, sociological and cultural theories and methodologies applicable to specific cases, and to contribute clearly and accurately to discussions of literary and cultural issues.

 

Referring to attitudes, values and norms

• Demonstrate a respect for all reasonably argued and well-founded viewpoints.

 

 

Teaching blocks

 

1. Orientalism up to the nineteenth century (travel literature, painting, music)

2. Orientalism in the twentieth century (cinema and translation)

3. The crisis of orientalism and post-orientalism: criticism of the underlying ideology, the method and the objectives of studying the “Eastern subject” from the second half of the twentieth century

 

 

Teaching methods and general organization

 

The general methodology combines theoretical and practical learning, through lectures and practical applied activities which may include directed debates, group work, oral presentations, written assignments and research tasks. 

The gender perspective will be taken into consideration in the content of the subject. 

 

 

Official assessment of learning outcomes

 

Submission and oral presentation of two critical exercises (40% and 40%), each of which must be discussed in advance in an individual tutorial session. Each exercise must be passed independently. The first one will be submitted in March and the second one on the last session of May. Active participation (20%).

The development of the subject may include Service Learning methodology, which implies the participation of students in social organisations, institutions or centres outside the Faculty.

 

Examination-based assessment

Students who are unable to meet the requirements for continuous assessment may change to the single assessment option, in which case a written request must be submitted before the deadline stipulated by the Faculty.

The single assessment consists of the preparation of a written essay of 4,000 words, proposed by the teacher, and the oral defence of this essay (100%).

Repeat assessment

The procedure for repeat assessment is the same as that established for single assessment.