The literature of Latin America with particular emphasis in 20^th and 21^st centuries. Representative authors, texts, and styles from this period will be studied in their sociohistorical context, along with Popular Culture, Feminism, and Digital Culture.

This course uses the short story as a vehicle to introduce some of Latin America’s best-known writers and literary movements of the 20th and 21st centuries. Focusing on the works of Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, Juan Rulfo, and Gabriel García Márquez, among others, the course focuses on the cultural, artistic, social, and political dimensions of the short story as a literary form. Students also analyze a selection of short stories written by Latin American women authors, such as Rosario Castellanos, Elena Poniatowska, Rosa Beltrán, and Guadalupe Nettel, whose works challenge gender divisions, inequalities, and discrimination. The course considers the thematic issues and narrative features that characterize works belonging to Fantastic Literature, Magical Realism, the Boom and Post-Boom, and Post-Nationalism. We also cover the most recent production of Latin American literature produced in the United States. The goals of the course, in addition to acquainting majors and minors with significant milestones in the development of a new Spanish-language literature, include strengthening reading ability and sharpening critical skills. Literary terms and concepts introduced in Spanish 301 will be assumed for practical application.

Prerequisite: SPAN 301 or SPAN 302

The main goal of this course is to make a panoramic approach to twentieth century Latin American authors approaching both literary and autobiographical texts.  The course aims to foster student’s understanding of literary works, both narrative and poetic, and autobiographical pieces, establishing connections between the aesthetic creation and live experiences. Thus, students will analyze different kind of materials such as: poems, short stories, novel’s extracts, letters, diaries, memoirs, and interviews, in order to understand the intersection between different genres as a key element of the literary phenomenon as a whole and its relationship with the reality from which it emerges.

Perquisites: SPAN 301 or SPAN 302

Fall 2021: SPAN 373.001 Studies in Spanish American Literature: Latin American Short Stories of the 20th and 21st centuries

Instructor: Prof. Oswaldo Estrada

This course uses the short story as a vehicle to introduce some of Latin America’s best-known writers and literary movements of the 20th and 21st centuries. Focusing on the works of Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, Juan Rulfo, and Gabriel García Márquez, among others, the course focuses on the cultural, artistic, social, and political dimensions of the short story as a literary form. Students also analyze a selection of short stories written by Latin American women authors, such as Rosario Castellanos, Rosa Beltrán, and Mayra Santos-Febres, whose works challenge gender divisions, inequalities, and discrimination. The course considers the thematic issues and narrative features that characterize works belonging to Fantastic Literature, Magical Realism, the Boom and Post-Boom, and Post-Nationalism. The goals of the course, in addition to acquainting majors and minors with significant milestones in the development of a new Spanish-language literature, include strengthening reading ability and sharpening critical skills. Literary terms and concepts introduced in Spanish 301 will be assumed for practical application.

Fall 2021: 373.002 Studies in Spanish American Literature: Latin American Literature and Cultural Traditions

Instructor: Prof. Emil’ Keme (aka, Emilio del Valle Escalante)

This course offers a critical study of major Latin American writers, and literary movements from the colonial period to the present. Following Edmundo O’Gorman’s seminal work about Latin America’s struggle to define itself against colonial and imperial legacies, we will begin by exploring how ideas of “América”, “Hispanic”, “Latin America” and “Latinx” emerge and become validated through the literary register. We will complement our discussion with other cultural production that includes film and art. In turn, these conversations will allow us to think critically about the role literature plays in the representation of race, class, gender, culture and identity in relation to the idea of Latin America.

Spring 2021: Latin American Literature

Literature is an adventure, a key to understanding other people, their cultures, societies, and history, etc. In Span. 373.001, a survey of representative Spanish American and some Latino texts, you will explore such topics as: what it means to be Hispanic American or Latino(a/ix); injustice, liberty and poverty; human rights; gender; race; the environment; fantasy and reality; (post)colonialism and more. Such themes will be seen in selected masterworks from the pre-Columbian period to the 20^th century.

The works we will examine were written by male and female authors from different national, socioeconomic, ethnic, and racial backgrounds.  They will be analyzed in their sociohistorical and other contexts; the latter will be seen additionally through videoclips and other types of relevant material culture, like music, art, and so on. The course, taught in Spanish, will also cover how to analyze literary genres and the most important movements that our works exemplify. The required textbook is by Chang Rodríguez and Filer, Voces de Hispanoamérica (2017, 5^th ed. online or in print at www.cengage.com); some texts that are not available in it will be online.

Instructional mode: synchronous remote

Spring 2021: Literature and life: A survey of Latin American Poetry, Prose, and Autobiographical Texts

The intersection between different genres is a key element for understanding the literary phenomenon as a whole and its relationship with the reality from which it emerges. This course will offer a panoramic approach to Latin American prose, poetry, and autobiographical texts, with the purpose of relating the biographical experience with the literary products that materialized from it. It will undertake the analysis and interpretation of a varied corpus of major and representative authors, both canonical and more contemporary, including short stories, novel, poetry, correspondences, diaries, memoirs, and interviews. The discussion will be centered on different aspects concerning the creative process, social and historical contexts, as well as the aesthetics of the literary works.

Instructional mode: synchronous remote

Fall 2020: Contagion, Disease and Literature in Spanish America

The fear of communicable disease is way older than our present COVID-19 fright. This course seeks to study the literature of Spanish America from pre-Columbian times to the present from the perspective of contagion and disease. We will examine the work of representative authors (both canonical and less-studied) from various literary movements in their sociohistorical contexts. Contagion is linked to literature because it is usually presented as a narrative (crisis in medias res, search for cause, characters, setting, plot, conflict, desired resolution). Contagion and disease are also a rich source of knowledge from a literary perspective because of their high allusive power. We will examine texts that present disease as theme, as aesthetic approach, as self-representation, or as metaphor. Disease and illness, or the sick and diseased as represented in literature will serve as vehicles to assess cultural tensions (e.g. coloniality, politics, artistic pursuit, gender, economics, aesthetics). Class discussion and dynamic and continuous engagement is absolutely expected of all participants.

Fall 2020: Latin American Literary and Cultural Traditions

This course will offer a critical study of major Latin American literary movements from the colonial period to the present. Following Edmundo O’Gorman’s seminal work about Latin America’s struggle to define itself against colonial and imperial legacies, we will begin by exploring how ideas of “América”, “Hispanic”, and “Latin America” emerge and are validated in literature and other cultural production that includes film and art. In turn, these conversations will allow us to think critically about the role literature plays in the representation of race, class, gender, culture, and identity.

Spring 2020: Literatura y política en Hispanoamérica

El curso Español 373 ofrece una visión panorámica de la literatura hispanoamericana desde sus orígenes hasta el presente.  A través de la lectura de los textos incluidos en el curso los estudiantes se familiarizarán con los géneros y los movimientos literarios más relevantes de la literatura hispanoamericana, así como con los contextos históricos y sociopolíticos en los cuales se desarrolla esta literatura.  El curso abarca tanto una visión histórica como analítica de la literatura, por lo tanto las clases, las lecturas, las actividades y los exámenes requerirán que el estudiante adquiera y use sus conocimientos en ambos campos.

Texto: R. Chang-Rodríguez y Malva E. Filer, eds. Voces de Hispanoamérica: Antología Literaria. Quinta edición. Boston: Heinle Cengage Learning.

Distribución: examen parcial (50%); examen final (50%). La participación en clase puede ayudar a subir o bajar la nota.

Spring 2020: The Invention of Latin(x) American Literary and Cultural Traditions

This course will offer a critical study of major Latin American and Latinx writers, and literary movements from the colonial period to the present. Following Edmundo O’Gorman’s seminal work about Latin America’s struggle to define itself against colonial and imperial legacies, we will begin by exploring how ideas of “América”, “Hispanic”, “Latin America” and “Latinx” emerge and are validated in literature and other cultural production that includes film and art. In turn, these conversations will allow us to think critically about the role literature plays in the representation of race, class, gender, culture and identity.