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Modern and Medieval Languages

UCAS Code
R800
Typical Offers Require

A Level: A*AA IB: 41-42 points, with 776 at Higher Level

The Modern Languages course at Cambridge offers students a variety of languages to choose from and a wide range of options for close study within each language area. It provides a sound linguistic foundation from which to approach the literature, history and culture of the relevant countries. It leads on to a very wide variety of careers; Cambridge Modern Linguists are highly sought-after by employers.

Robinson is an excellent college at which to pursue your interests in Modern Languages. Teaching Fellows at the college cover most of the major languages taught within MML. We admit around 7 undergraduates a year in the subject, and our students come from a wide range of backgrounds, with an equally diverse range of interests. If you want to study in an unpretentious but rigorous intellectual environment, where those with a genuine passion for their subject will thrive, then Robinson may well be a good choice for you.

MML students at Robinson follow the same course as those at any other college in Cambridge, but we also provide some additional teaching to stretch and support you as you develop the skills you will need to succeed. Students in the first year are encouraged to attend sessions which introduce elements of critical theory and focus on how to approach reading; both first- and second-year students follow a course in academic writing which covers topics such as structuring essays, constructing an argument, and developing appropriate styles. We also organise college-based meetings to help you define your plans for the Year Abroad. Termly social events are a good opportunity to get to know MML students in other years. Robinson is also very well located for MML, being close to the Sidgwick Site where lectures and classes take place, and just over the road from the University Library.

Subject Requirements

Essential: At least one language at A level (or IB Higher, or equivalent)

Highly Desirable: Another language, English Literature, History, or any other Arts/Humanities subject can often be useful preparation for the MML course, although some of our successful students have taken Mathematics and Sciences at A level instead.

Written Work

Two essays written as part of your A level (or equivalent) coursework. Advice on the kind of essay which would be suitable to send can be found here.

Admission Assessment

Written assessment: Cambridge College registered

Director(s) of Studies

Dr Rebecca Fell, Spanish

Prof Rory Finnin, Russian

Prof Joanna Page, Spanish

Dr Emily Price, French

Dr Oliver Wilson-Nunn, Spanish

Teaching Fellows, College Lecturers and Senior Members in Modern and Medieval Languages

Dr Mary Stewart, German

Dr Scott Annett, Italian

Dr Viviane Carvalho D’Annunciação, Portuguese

Dr Charlotte Woodford, German

More information

  • Details of the MML course provided by the Faculty
  • Further information on the MML course, studying languages at Robinson and our admissions process
  • Information on the Robinson MML Fund, generously supported by a donor, which provides grants for our students to participate in projects or activities abroad

Pre-Course Preparation

All incoming MML and HML students should check through the information in the sections below. NB This information is correct for students starting in October 2024 and may be updated for those starting in October 2025, so you are advised to check back in May of the year that you will start your course for a fully updated version.

This section and the others below provide important advice on preparing for Modern Languages at Cambridge; HML students, please make sure that you also check the information provided for you in relation to the History side of your course.

You can find useful overviews of the MML and HML courses at Cambridge here:

A list of the first-year papers can be found here:

  • MML papers (ab initio papers are labelled A1, A2 and A3; the post-A level language papers are B1 and B2)
  • HML papers

We recommend that you explore these webpages above carefully, to familiarise yourself with the course.

It is essential that you set aside a good amount of time over the rest of the summer for reading ahead for the course here in Cambridge and for building on your existing language skills. Please check the sections below for the preparation for each language that you will be expected to complete before you arrive in October.

Alongside work in the language(s) you are studying, you will also take a paper covering literature, linguistics and other topics, including history, thought and cinema. These papers are designed to be introductory and will expose you to a number of different subjects and approaches. They will help you discover what you enjoy most, which will be very useful when you come to choose from a range of optional papers in your second year.

It is really important that you complete a substantial amount of the core reading for these papers before you arrive. Terms at Cambridge are very short; they are exhilarating but exhausting, and you will find that you will barely have enough time to tackle secondary reading and prepare your essays, so it is vital to complete a lot of the primary reading before term. Please don’t be discouraged if you find reading in your languages heavy-going at this stage. There are no short cuts to acquiring the vocabulary you will need to read fluently without the aid of a dictionary, so you should expect to find the reading challenging (or even very challenging) at this stage. When you get here, there will be lectures and classes to help you in your work on the texts, but reading them through now, even if you feel you are only just following the gist of them, will give you a good base to work from.

Over the summer, we would also recommend that you dip into this general guide to undergraduate study at Cambridge, which has a lot of useful introductory information.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. The best person to contact would be the Fellow in the relevant language listed above (if one is not listed, please contact Dr Price). We are all very much looking forward to welcoming you in October.

An overview of the first-year French course can be found here. In addition to Faculty lectures and classes and college supervisions, you will also work on your spoken French with our lecteur throughout the year. If you have any questions about the course before you arrive, please don’t hesitate to contact the Fellow in French at Robinson, Dr Emily Kate Price (ekp26@cam.ac.uk).

Language work

We recommend that you spend some time this summer maintaining and developing your French language skills. Using a variety of methods will help: listening to internet radio and podcasts, watching French series and films online, reading (online) newspapers and magazines. It is a good idea to revise and consolidate your knowledge of grammar before you arrive, as the language course will proceed at a fast pace once you start at Cambridge in October.

Reading

Alongside your language papers, you will also learn about French and francophone literature, philosophy, culture, and film as part of Paper FR1. You will study 6 texts and one film. In order to make the most of lectures and supervisions when you arrive, you are strongly advised to read/watch all of the works listed below before you arrive in October. If you find this reading challenging, please do not worry, but do keep going (feel free to refer to translations too if you would like). Things will become clearer as you go, and especially once you arrive and attend lectures on the different works. On the FR1 page, you will also find suggestions for accessible overviews of French history and literature, which might help you to contextualise what you are reading, but this is not obligatory preparation. It is very important to buy the correct editions of the set works and the ISBN numbers are provided below to help you with this. These are all inexpensive paperback editions, which you should be able to get hold of from academic bookshops, or online (you may find it useful to look on French sites). If you are having difficulty finding any of the texts, please let me know. Please purchase the physical text, rather than an e-book – it is important that we are all referring to the same edition in class, and that you can annotate the texts easily. If you have accessibility concerns about this, please do let me know. 

In chronological order:

  • Marie de France, Lais, ed. by Karl Warnke, trans. by Laurence Harf-Lancner (Paris: Livre de Poche, 1990). ISBN: 225305271X [comes with modern French translation: try and puzzle out some of the Old French, but you are not expected to be able to read it at this stage!] Michel de Montaigne, Des cannibales, suivi de La Peur de l’autre (anthologie), ed. by Christine Bénévent (Paris: Gallimard, 2008) ISBN: 2070358208 [read Des cannibales only]
  • Corneille, Horace, ed. Jean-Pierre Chauveau, Collection Folio Théâtre no. 16 (Paris: Gallimard, 1994) ISBN: 2070386600
  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discours sur l’origine et les fondements de l’inégalité parmi les hommes, ed. Jean Starobinski, Collection Folio Essais (Paris: Gallimard, 2008 [first published 1969]). ISBN 2070325415
  • Honoré de Balzac, Le Père Goriot, ed. Stéphane Vachon (Paris: Le Livre de Poche Classiques, 1995) ISBN: 2253085790
  • Agnès Varda (director), Cléo de 5 à 7 (1962)
  • Marie NDiaye, Autoportrait en vert (Gallimard Folio, 2006) ISBN: 2070337545

Summer vacation task

It is useful for us to have an idea of your current skills in practical literary criticism. Please write a critical commentary on this passage from Balzac’s Le Père Goriot. You will find some useful guidelines on writing commentaries here. Aim to write between 750 and 1000 words. This work should be emailed to Dr Emily Kate Price (ekp26@cam.ac.uk) as soon as you arrive at Robinson in October.

An overview of the first-year German ab initio course can be found here (see Option A). Study at Cambridge is an intensive business, so it is vital that you get off to a good start by preparing in advance as much as possible – and especially so since you have chosen to study German ab initio.

Please read carefully the information provided by the Faculty for ab initio students in German. In particular, you should take careful note of the recommended materials which will help you prepare for the course, and make sure that you complete at least the chapters set for study before you arrive. It is very important that you start to familiarize yourself with the language and its forms before you arrive in Cambridge, because you will find the pace of study here very swift. If you have any questions relating to the German aspect of your course here, please contact Dr Charlotte Woodford, College Lecturer in German (cw268@cam.ac.uk).

An overview of the first-year German post-A'level course can be found here (see Option B).

Language work

To prepare for the course, you will find it helpful to revise some of your grammar (there are quizzes to be found on the ‘Practising German grammar’ website; continue building your vocabulary by listening to and reading German, for example a news website, German TV shows on the internet, YouTube videos or TED talks; you should also aim to develop your reading speed in German, for example by reading a story such as Heinrich Böll’s ‘Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum’, Bernhard Schlink’s Der Vorleser, or Sharon Dodua Otoo’s Herr Gröttrup setzt sich hin. It may take time to read one of these in German, but it will help enormously to build your vocabulary and understanding of structures.

Language reference books which are used on the course include: Carol Fehringer, German Grammar in Context (new edition, 2013); M. Durrell, Hammer's German Grammar and Usage (6th edn 2017), and Durrell, Kohl and Loftus, Practising German Grammar (4th edn 2017). 

Reading

The paper, Ge1: Introduction to German Studies, studied over 10 supervisions throughout the year, will introduce you to a wide range of topics reflecting different disciplines in German studies: past and present-day German culture, history, thought and linguistics. Lectures are provided to give you an overview of the six different modules; of which students choose to study four in more detail. The lectures will begin with Valeska Grisebach’s film Western (2017) and Kafka’s Die Verwandlung (1915). It is therefore essential to familiarise yourself with these works before the course starts. If you have read Kafka’s story before, make sure you re-read it, since you will undertake detailed textual analysis and aim to approach it from a new perspective. Wider reading could include Kafka’s Das UrteilThis interview with Grisebach serves as a helpful introduction to Western; watching films from the Berliner Schule would also be great preparation for study, and could include Christian Petzold’s Barbara.

In Michaelmas Term there will also be four lectures on History (Imperial Germany 1871-1918). James Retallack, Imperial Germany 1871-1918 (Oxford, 2008), offers a good introduction to the history module, as does Matthew Jefferies, Contesting the German Empire 1871-1918 (2008), which places it importantly in a historiographical context. Those who have studied history at A'Level might wish to take their introductory reading further by considering some of the arguments in Geoff Eley and James Retallack (ed.), Wilhelminism and Its Legacies: German Modernities, Imperialism, and the Meaning of Reform, 1890-1930 (2005) – it contains more specialist essays, engaging well with the problem of studying the German history of the Wilhelmine era, especially the role played by a need to understand the rise of Nazism, something which affected how historians tended to write about this period.

Later in Michaelmas, there will be lectures on medieval and early modern literature: good examples to look at in advance are the poems ‘Es ist alles Eitel’ or ‘Tränen des Vaterlands’ by Andreas Gryphius, a seventeenth-century poet writing during the Thirty Years War. Annette von Droste-Hülshoff’s novella Die Judenbuche is a very good introduction to nineteenth-century German fiction and it would be good to start on reading in advance; lectures on it and on Goethe’s Urfaust and will follow in Lent Term, as well as on Marx, Nietzsche and linguistics.

If you have any questions about the German aspect of your course, do feel free to email Dr Charlotte Woodford (cw268@cam.ac.uk).

Summer vacation task

Please write a critical commentary (i.e. an analysis) of around 1,200 words in ENGLISH on this passage from chapter one of Kafka’s Die Verwandlung. You should analyse the key themes of the passage (e.g. how it casts light on the relationships between the protagonists), as well the style of language used (e.g. imagery, metaphors, irony, choice of vocabulary) and the different perspectives of the narrative voice at different points in the passage (e.g. is it a third person narrator, limited point of view, free indirect speech/free indirect style – in German: ‘erlebte Rede’). Please email your commentary to Dr Charlotte Woodford (cw268@cam.ac.uk) at the very start of term in October.

An overview of the first-year Italian course can be found here (Option A).

Please check carefully through the important Faculty advice on preparation for the ab initio Italian course. Make sure that you obtain the texts listed there and work through the chapters indicated. You are very strongly encouraged to go beyond this minimum level of required preparation, using the suggestions on the webpage to develop your language skills in Italian as much as possible before you arrive in October, as the course is demanding and fast-paced. Using a wide range of different materials and approaches will be most helpful – try language-learning apps, web resources, reading texts in parallel translation, and watching Italian-language series to get a feel for intonation and pronunciation.

If you have any questions about preparing for the course, please do not hesitate to contact Dr Scott Annett (sa410@cam.ac.uk).

An overview of the first-year Italian course can be found here (Option B).

Below you will find some preparatory work that you should complete before coming to Cambridge in October. You can find out more about the different strands of the first-year course here. If you have any questions about preparing for the course, please do not hesitate to contact Dr Scott Annett (sa410@cam.ac.uk).

Language work

You are encouraged to do whatever you can to develop your Italian language skills over the summer. Using a variety of methods will help: use web-based language-learning resources, read (online) magazines and newspapers, listen to podcasts or internet radio, and watch Italianlanguage films and series. It is a good idea to revise and consolidate the grammar you have learned so far before starting the course in October, as it will proceed at a fast pace.

Reading

As well as language work in the first year, you will also study literature, film, and linguistics in Paper IT1: Italian Texts and Contexts. You should read at least the core texts before arriving in Cambridge in October, and you are strongly advised to do some of the preparatory reading outlined on that webpage as well.

Summer vacation task

It is useful for us to have an idea of your current skills in practical literary criticism. Please write a critical commentary on Dante’s Inferno, canto 5, lines 70-142. You may use a parallel text to aid your comprehension of the Italian (the particular translation that you use is not important, though you may also find the notes in the Penguin edition helpful). Some useful guidelines on writing commentaries can be found here. You might also find it helpful to read some general criticism on Dante to inform your thinking: some suggested reading is listed below. Aim to write between 600 and 1000 words. This work should be emailed to Dr Scott Annett (sa410@cam.ac.uk) as soon as you arrive at Robinson in October. 

General reading on Dante’s Commedia (suggestions only):

  • Jacoff, R. (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Dante (Cambridge: CUP, 1993)
  • Kirkpatrick, Robin. Dante’s ‘Inferno’: Difficulty and Dead Poetry (Cambridge: CUP, 1987, repr. 2008)
  • Scott, J.A. Understanding Dante (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2004)

Please check the Faculty's information on the ab initio course and take careful note of the guidance on summer preparation for this course. You should make sure that you obtain the texts listed there and work through the chapters indicated. You are very strongly encouraged to go beyond this minimum level of required preparation, using the suggestions on the webpage to develop your language skills in Portuguese as much as possible over the summer, as the course is demanding and fast-paced.

Before the end of the summer, you will be asked to sit a diagnostic test, and you will be placed in streamed classes according to your ability at that point. Using a wide range of different materials and approaches will be most helpful – try language-learning apps, web resources, reading texts in parallel translation, and watching Portuguese-language series to get a feel for intonation and pronunciation.

If you have any questions about preparing for the course, please do not hesitate to contact Prof Joanna Page (jep29@cam.ac.uk), who is the first point of contact for incoming students studying Portuguese.

An overview of the first-year ab initio Russian course may be found here. In your first year as an ab initio (aka 'Option A') student of Russian, you will be working hard to master elementary Russian grammar, syntax, and vocabulary in order to translate basic texts and to speak Russian with a reasonable degree of confidence and accuracy. And you will be reading a variety of short nineteenth- and twentieth-century texts in the Russian original, including short works by Pushkin, Turgenev, and even Lenin. In addition to reading, you will also be looking — at icons and at portraits of serfs and tsars.

Think of your summer prep as two related projects:

1) To hit the ground running come October, be sure to take time to complete the following preparatory language study as a minimum:

Work through at least the first six lessons of the ab initio textbook, Colloquial Russian by Susan E. Kay and Svetlana Le Fleming (Routledge, 4th edition).

The following links will take you to Quizlet, which contains exercises to help you learn vocabulary from the first six units.

Practice how to write in Russian. The following sites have instructions on how to form Russian letters (the last three contain worksheets for practicing cursive writing):

Please note that you will be asked to do an online exercise prior to coming to Cambridge. (Information will be sent out by the Slavonic Section in late August.) Even though this is an ab initio Russian course, students arrive with different levels of basic Russian. The aim of this exercise is to assess how much grammar and vocabulary you know and to allocate you to the right group. The exercise will be based on the material covered in the first few chapters of the textbook (as outlined above).

2) To prepare yourself for SLA3: Introduction to Russian Culture, please read the following before the start of the Michaelmas term:

1. An overview of Russian history from the ninth to at least the nineteenth centuries (and preferably into the twentieth century). Two good, basic (short) introductions are:

  • Geoffrey Hosking, Russian History: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2012)
  • Stephen Lovell, The Soviet Union: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2008)

2. Some background on Russian literature:

  • Caryl Emerson, The Cambridge Introduction to Russian Literature (Cambridge, 2008). This book may be a bit overwhelming before you have begun the course, but you would do well to look at Chapters 3 and 4 before you arrive, as they provide useful background for the material you will be tackling in the first term.

3. ALL of Mikhail Lermontov, Geroi nashego vremeni [A Hero of Our Time] IN RUSSIAN. Please use the Bristol Classical Press edition, or a similar edition that is accented, glossed and annotated.

4. As many as possible of the following (in English):

  • Alexander Pushkin, Mednyi vsadnik [The Bronze Horseman, Bristol Classical Press edition recommended]
  • Ivan Turgenev, Svidanie [The Encounter] and Kas’ian s krasivoi mechi [Kas’ian from the Beautiful Lands] from Zapiski okhotnika / A Huntsman's Sketches
  • Nikolai Gogol, Shinel’ [The Overcoat, Bristol Classical Press edition recommended]
  • Anna Akhmatova, Rekviem (Requiem)
  • All of the texts may be found in their entirety online. A quick Google search should lead you to the relevant links.

5. You could also read:

  • Simon Franklin and Emma Widdis, eds., National Identity in Russian Culture (Cambridge, 2004): Introduction and selected chapters (choose any that interest you and focus on those by Hubertus Jahn and Simon Franklin).
  • Serhii Plokhy, The Origins of the Slavic Nations: Premodern Identities in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus (2006): although this book is dense, it is an excellent history of East Slavic lands and an important reminder that the landmass that we think of as ‘Russia’, the ‘Russian Empire’, and the ‘Soviet Union’ is complex and contested.

More information can be found on the website of the Slavonic Studies Section. Please feel free to contact Prof Rory Finnin (ref35@cam.ac.uk) with any questions.

An overview of the first-year ab initio Russian course may be found here. In your first year as a ‘post-A-Level’ (aka ‘Option B’) student of Russian, you will be developing and fine-tuning your skills in the use of Russian through classes, lectures, and a weekly conversation session. And you will be travelling your own pathway through the Slavonic Section’s challenging interdisciplinary introduction to Russian and East European cultural history, SL1: Introduction to Russian Culture. Prepare yourself: a dogged-eared copy of Lermontov’s Geroi nashego vremeni [A Hero of Our Time, 1839-41] will be almost always at your side!

Think of your summer prep as two related projects:

1) To hit the ground running come October, be sure to take time over the summer to work actively on your Russian language skills. If possible, you might choose to take a summer language course or spend time living or working in a Russian-speaking country. But if that is not feasible, simply try instead to watch Russian television via YouTube, listen to Russian radio and podcasts, and read Russian news websites and newspapers – ideally every day for at least 30 minutes. You should also review Russian grammar, especially if you have taken a gap year since your Russian A-levels and have not worked much with Russian in that time. Keep in mind that your goal is to enlarge your vocabulary, improve your listening skills, and increase the grammatical accuracy and syntactic complexity of both your written and spoken Russian.

Please note that you will be asked to take a diagnostic test prior to coming to Cambridge. (Information will be sent out by the Slavonic Section in late August.) The aim of this exercise is to assess your level of Russian and allocate you to the right group. Check out this list of Basic Russian Grammar Topics (for post-A-Level and ex ab-initio students), which helps form the basis for the diagnostic test. For grammar revision, use James S. Levine, Schaum’s Outline of Russian Grammar (McGrawHill Education) or Terence Wade, A Comprehensive Russian Grammar (Blackwell).

2) To prepare yourself for SL1: Introduction to Russian culture, please read the following before the start of the Michaelmas term:

A. An overview of Russian history from the ninth to at least the nineteenth centuries (and preferably into the twentieth century). Two good, basic (short) introductions are:

  • Geoffrey Hosking, Russian History: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2012)
  • Stephen Lovell, The Soviet Union: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2008)

B. Some background on Russian literature:

  • Caryl Emerson, The Cambridge Introduction to Russian Literature (Cambridge, 2008). This book may be a bit overwhelming before you have begun the course, but you would do well to look at Chapters 3 and 4 before you arrive, as they provide useful background for the material you will be tackling in the first term.

C. ALL of Mikhail Lermontov, Geroi nashego vremeni [A Hero of Our Time] IN RUSSIAN. Please use the Bristol Classical Press edition, or a similar edition that is accented, glossed and annotated.

D. As many as possible of the following (in English):

  • Alexander Pushkin, Mednyi vsadnik [The Bronze Horseman, Bristol Classical Press edition recommended]
  • Ivan Turgenev, Svidanie [The Encounter] and Kas’ian s krasivoi mechi [Kas’ian from the Beautiful Lands] from Zapiski okhotnika / A Huntsmans Sketches 
  • Nikolai Gogol, Shinel’ [The Overcoat, Bristol Classical Press edition recommended]
  • Anna Akhmatova, Rekviem (Requiem)

All of the texts may be found in their entirety online. A quick Google search should lead you to the relevant links.

E. You could also read:

  • Simon Franklin and Emma Widdis, eds., National Identity in Russian Culture (Cambridge, 2004): Introduction, and selected chapters (chosen according to your interest, but with particular focus on those by Hubertus Jahn, Simon Franklin).
  • Serhii Plokhy, The Origins of the Slavic Nations: Premodern Identities in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus (2006): although this book is dense, it is an excellent history of East Slavic lands and an important reminder that the landmass that we may think of as ‘Russia’, the ‘Russian Empire’, and the ‘Soviet Union’ is complex and contested.

More of this information can be found on the website of the Slavonic Studies Section. Please feel free to contact Prof Rory Finnin (ref35@cam.ac.uk) with any questions.

F. In Paper SL1, you will be asked to write commentaries on literary passages, so it is very useful for us to have an idea of your current skills in practical literary criticism. Please write a critical commentary on this passage from Ivan Turgenev’s Отцы и дети (1862), which briefly alludes to life in summer during an epidemic. You will find some useful guidelines on writing commentaries further below. You might find it helpful to read some general criticism on the novel to inform your thinking; some suggested reading is listed below . Aim to write between 600 and 1000 words. This work should be submitted to Prof Rory Finnin as soon as you arrive at Robinson in October.

Suggested supplementary reading:

  • Harold Bloom, ed., Ivan Turgenev (Broomall, PA: Chelsea House Publishers, 2003), pp. 159- 188.
  • Jane Costlow, Worlds within Worlds: The Novels of Ivan Turgenev (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990), pp. 105-137.
  • F. F. Seeley, Turgenev: A Reading of His Fiction (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), pp. 215-234. 

Guidelines for commentary writing:

The following advice is taken from Paper SL1 materials distributed at the start of the academic year.

There is no set recipe for doing commentaries. The elements that make up a successful commentary tend to vary and will depend on the nature of the text and on particular approaches to it. That said, here are few guideposts:

1. A commentary is not a mere summary of the passage, nor is it an essay that would ideally address an entire work or authorial oeuvre, for example. With a commentary, you are engaged in a focused close reading of a passage. Of course, to elucidate the passage, it may be appropriate to refer to its context, but this does not mean writing an essay on the text or period.

2. It is best not to proceed line-by-line through a passage from beginning to end. Instead, you might identify important themes or elements and then discuss each of those in turn, offering illustrations with examples from the passage.

3. A commentary pays particularly close attention to the use of language. Depending on the text, this might include (but need not be limited to) some or all of the following:

  • use of rhyme, metre, and alliteration;
  • lexical [vocabulary] choices;
  • syntax [the arrangement of words within a sentence or paragraph], especially when manipulated to highlight meaning, to create ambiguity, or to interact with poetic verse form;
  • grammatical features such as sequences of verb tenses or aspect, which might be used to create a particular temporal structure.

4. There is no point in simply describing such features if you do not also explain how or why they are important or meaningful. It adds little or nothing to an understanding of a passage if the commentary, say, merely identifies verb tense, states that alliteration takes place, and lets it go at that.

5. It is important to pay attention to the means of representation and to address not only the question of what is said, but also the question of how it is said. A good commentary may well consider the assumptions that are implicitly or explicitly made by the text or attributed to the reader and the ways in which configurations of imagery and thematic developments are set up and manipulated.

6. There is no need to ascribe to the passage a definitive meaning or structure. It is fine to problematise it. Good commentaries will often point out ambiguities or inconsistencies and suggest possible alternative readings. Ideally, the different points raised by a passage for commentary should be synthesised into a coherent argument. To sum up, your commentary should try to:

  • explain how form and content interact within the passage, rather than considering them in isolation;
  • analyse how rhetorical and stylistic features (such as imagery, narrative voice, metaphors, syntax, and tenses etc.) help to convey different meanings;
  • investigate what type of emotional or cognitive responses the passage may invite in the act of reading

Please check the Faculty's information on the ab initio course and take careful note of the guidance on summer preparation for this course. You should make sure that you obtain the texts listed there and work through the chapters indicated. You are very strongly encouraged to go beyond this minimum level of required preparation, using the suggestions on the webpage to develop your language skills in Spanish as much as possible over the summer, as the course is demanding and fast-paced.

Before the end of the summer, you will be asked to sit a diagnostic test, and you will be placed in streamed classes according to your ability at that point. Using a wide range of different materials and approaches will be most helpful – try language-learning apps, web resources, reading texts in parallel translation, and watching Spanish-language series to get a feel for intonation and pronunciation.

If you have any questions about preparing for the course, please do not hesitate to contact Dr Becky Fell (rf10005@cam.ac.uk). 

Below you will find a reading list and some preparatory work that you should complete before coming to Cambridge in October. You can find out more about the different strands of the first-year course here. If you have any questions about preparing for the course, please do not hesitate to contact Dr Becky Fell (rf10005@cam.ac.uk).

Language work

You are encouraged to do whatever you can to develop your Spanish language skills over the summer. Using a variety of methods will help: use web-based language-learning resources, read (online) magazines and newspapers, listen to podcasts or internet radio, and watch Spanish-language films and series. It is a good idea to revise and consolidate the grammar you have learned so far before starting the course in October, as it will proceed at a fast pace. 

Reading

As well as language work in the first year, you will also study literature, film, and linguistics in Paper SP1: Introduction to the Language, Literatures and Cultures of the Spanish-Speaking World. For this paper, you will study six texts and two linguistics topics in depth. The paper itself contains more than six texts, and there will be lectures on all of them, but you will only be studying in supervisions the texts listed below, so there is no need to read the others unless you would like to. You should read at least the texts marked with an asterisk before arriving in Cambridge in October, and you are strongly advised to read all six of them if possible.

Try to get hold of scholarly editions with notes and glossaries where you can, as these will be a great help, but don’t worry about this if other editions (including online ones) are easier to get hold of. Books will be available for you to borrow from libraries in Cambridge when you get here, but you may wish to buy some or all of these now if you can find them at a reasonable price as it will be useful to have your own copy. Please do not worry if you find reading these texts challenging at the moment – this is inevitable! Stick with them and things will become much clearer once you have attended the relevant lectures and classes. The texts are listed below in increasing (linguistic) difficulty. 

  • Icíar Bollaín, También la lluvia (Spain/Bolivia, 2010). This is a film – you may buy a copy, but there are also copies available to view in/borrow from Cambridge libraries.
  • *Emilia Pardo Bazán, Cuentos (Spain). Selected short stories from this compilation, as follows: ‘Un matrimonio del siglo XIX’ (1866); ‘El indulto’ (1883); ‘El encaje roto’ (1897); ‘Champagne’ (1898), ‘Feminista’ (1909), ‘La boda’ (1909), ‘Las medias rojas’ (1914). The texts are all readily available online, and audio versions (useful for listening practice) of many of them can be downloaded as MP3 files from this site.
  • Marta Aponte, La muerte feliz de William Carlos Williams (Puerto Rico, 2015) – any edition.
  • Federico García Lorca, Romancero gitano (Spain, 1928). The recommended version is the Manchester University Press one, ed. Herbert Ramsden.
  • *Anon., Lazarillo de Tormes (Spain, 1554). Recommended edition: Cátedra, 1987.
  • *San Pedro, Cárcel de amor (Spain, 1492). Recommended editions: Cárcel de amor con la continuación de Nicolás Núñez, ed. Carmen Padilla, Biblioteca Clásica 17 (Barcelona: Crítica, 1995) or Obras completas, II: Cárcel de amor, ed. Keith Whinnom, Clásicos Castalia 39 (Madrid: Castalia, 1985). This is the most challenging of the texts from a language-learning perspective, but once you start to work out how mediaeval Spanish differs from contemporary Spanish, it becomes a lot easier.

Summer vacation task

It is useful for us to have an idea of your current skills in practical literary criticism. Please write a critical commentary on this extract from the short story ‘El indulto’ (1883) by Emilia Pardo Bazán. You will find some useful guidelines on writing commentaries here. You might find it useful to read some general criticism on Pardo Bazán to inform your thinking – some suggested reading is listed below the passage for commentary, but it is not necessary to have read these specific texts or indeed to have completed any critical reading before writing your commentary if you find these texts difficult to access online or in a local library. Aim to write between 600 and 1000 words. This work should be emailed to Dr Rebecca Fell (rf10005@cam.ac.uk) as soon as you arrive at Robinson in October.

Additional reading to help with the commentary:

  • Bieder, Maryellen. “Picturing the Author: The Private Woman Meets the Public Gaze.” Revista de Estudios Hispánicos 39.2 (2005): 301-318.
  • Pérez, Janet. “Subversion of Victorian Values and Ideal Types: Pardo Bazán and the ángel del hogar.” Hispanófila 113 (1995): 31-44.
  • Sherzer, William. “Writing as a Woman or Writing as a Man? The Shifting Perspective Toward Women in Three Short Stories by Emilia Pardo Bazán.” Letras Peninsulares 14.2 (2001): 195-206.