Milli mála - 2021, Page 107
MILLI MÁLA
106 Milli mála 13/2021
Abstract
Entre visillos: A learning proposal for teaching
Carmen Martín Gaite’s novel to non-native universi-
ty students
This article shows a specific teaching proposal to guide the reading
and the discussion of the novel Entre visillos (1958) by Spanish
author Carmen Martín Gaite (1925–2000) with non-native stu-
dents of the course Spanish Literature of the 19th and 20th Centuries at
the University of Iceland. The novel is a relevant literary text to
work with this type of student for two main reasons. On the one
hand, its historical, sociocultural and literary context reflects post-
civil war Spanish customs and the trend of social realism. On the
other, its discursive characteristics (a mixture of different literary
subgenres) and narratological attributes (a combination of points of
view, archetypal characters, the symbology of the settings, and the
apparent simplicity of language) illustrate the author’s endless
interest in communicating effectively with the reader. Our pro-
posal, based on a communicative approach, gives priority to group
work and class discussion and its main objective is improving the
students’ literary, communicative, and linguistic skills. The seven
showcased activities, divided in three sessions, cover the different
external and internal categories of the novel and seek active partici-
pation from the student. In addition, these work activities can be
extrapolated to other readings within the same course and could
also be transferred to similar educational contexts.
Keywords: Carmen Martín Gaite, Teaching of Literature, Spanish as
a Foreign Language, Contemporary Spanish Literature, Literary
Communication
ENTRE VISILLOS
10.33112/millimala.13.4