Course
Description:
In this class we will read Latin American novels and short-stories, written
during a chronological span that encompasses the transitional period from
dictatorship to the present socioeconomic, political, and cultural emergency—brought
about by late-capitalism’s policies of globalization.
We will work towards
the identification and analysis of the Latin American recent means of
literary representation: the narratives and languages emerged from the
neoliberal crisis. To that effect, we will closely read works by five
writers from five different countries of Latin America’s South Cone,
and theoretical works on, or from, which to anchor our discussion. We
will also watch two (rather good) film-versions of the first two novels
on our list. To take advantage of the opportunities afforded by a comparative
reading and thinking, the texts will be approached through questions that
interrogate them not only from literary and cultural analysis, but also
from ethics and politics (inevitably this practice will open and expose
neoliberal socioeconomic policies).
To
make a coherent mapping of this new literature (“the post-postboom”)
—
representative of Latin America’s inter, trans, and postnational
current realities— the selection will include writers and works
that exemplarily reveal the literary singularities of the period. This
course is not aimed to do a historical sweep, or work in categorizations
by magnitude. Notwithstanding, the five fictions come from countries that
range from South America’s largest, Brazil (which spreads over half
of the continent’s territory and contains roughly half of South
America’s population), to the smallest Spanish-speaking country
in the whole South Cone, Uruguay. The reading order will move from a premodern
agricultural small-town setting (but also, in the next novel, a big urban
center) where rules are set solely by weapon power, going on to the disenchanted
alienation of today’s postmodern big cities. The first two works
are subaltern caustic satires; the following, focus on the mores and “idiolects”
of neoliberalism’s new middle-classes.
IMPORTANT! THIS CLASS WILL BE TAUGHT
IN ENGLISH.
•
Because this course originates in the Comparative Literature department,
I expect that many students will not be able to speak or understand
Spanish (nor Portuguese), I will request that the students keep a monolingual
environment, addressing the class in English.
•
So as not to disenfranchise any student with no reading knowledge of
Spanish, I have put together a syllabus that includes only works that
have been published –and have easily available translations—in
English. Nevertheless, if Spanish and/or Portuguese readers prefer to
do so, I encourage those student to read in the original language. To
select the theoretical readings, when I had to decide on a text that
had no translation, I opted for the originally written in English.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
COURSE
REQUIREMENTS
•
This is a seminar, that means that the students will greatly benefit
from their active participation in it. I recommend that each student
struggle for an informed participation, which can only be such if she
or he has done all the assigned readings for each class, and allowed
her or himself some time to reflect upon them.
• I will offer the willing students the opportunity to open the
discussion with a very short extemporaneous (not detailedly prepared;
this is something simple) introduction to or question about the day’s
theme. This exercise will be useful to rehearse speaking skills toward
the 15 minutes oral presentation each student will give on her/his ideas
for the term paper before the semester’s end.
• The written assignments will consist of two short papers (3
to 5 pages), and the keeping of a “reading diary,” a very
useful learning and analytical tool which design and purpose will be
discussed in class. .
• The final exam will consist of a research paper (about 8-10
pages) on a topic to be previously discussed with the instructor.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
(TENTATIVE)
FICTION
1. Soriano,
Osvaldo. No Habra mas penas ni olvido.
Barcelona : Bruguera, 1983.
A funny dirty little war. Trans. Nick Caistor.
London ; New York : Readers International, 1986. (Argentina)
2. Olivera, Hector, Dir. A Funny Dirty Little War, 1983.
(Argentina)
Film, in Spanish with English subtitles.
3. Vallejo, Fernando. La Virgen de los Sicarios.
Santafé de Bogotá, Colombia : Editorial Santillana,
c1994.
Our Lady of the Assassins. Trans. Paul Hammond.
London : Serpent's Tail, 2001. (Colombia)
4. Schroeder, Barbet, Dir. Our Lady of the Assassins, 2000.
(Spain-France-Colombia)
Film, in Spanish with English subtitles.
5. Chico
Buarque, Estorvo.
São Paulo : Companhia das Letras, c1991.
Turbulence. Trans. Peter Bush.
New York : Pantheon Books, c1992. (Brasil)
6. Benedetti, Mario. Cuentos Completos.
Madrid: Alfaguara, 1994.
Blood pact & other stories. Ed. Claribel Alegría
& Darwin Flakoll; trans. Daniel Balderston ... [et al.].
Willimantic, CT : Curbstone Press, 1997. (Uruguay)
7. Fuguet, Alberto. Mala Onda.
Santiago de Chile: Alfaguara, 2000.
Bad Vibes. Trans. Kristina Cordero.
New York : St. Martin's Press, 1997. (Chile)
_______________________________________________________________________________________
(TENTATIVE)
THEORY
Avelar, Idelber.
The Untimely Present : Postdictatorial Latin American Fiction and
the Task of mourning.
Durham : Duke University Press, 1999 (excerpts).
Klages, Mary. “Postmodernism”
http://www.colorado.edu/English/ENGL2012Klages/pomo.html
Sarlo, Beatriz. Escenas de la vida posmoderna : intelectuales, arte
y videocultura en la Argentina.
Buenos Aires : Ariel, 1994 (excerpts).
Scenes from postmodern life; trans. Jon Beasley-Murray
Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, c2001 (excerpts).
Pratt, Mary
Louise. Why the Virgin of Zapopan Went to Los Angeles: Reflections
on Mobility and Globality (Text provided by the author).
Masiello, Francine. The Art of Transition: Latin American Culture
and Neoliberal Crisis.
Durham & London: Duke UP, 2001 (excerpts).
Sarup, Madan. An Introductory Guide to Post-Structuralism and Postmodernism.
University of Georgia Press, 1993 (excerpts).
Williams, Gareth. The Other Side of the Popular: Neoliberalism and
Subalternity in Latin America.
Durham & London: Duke UP, 2002 (excerpts).
García Canclini, Néstor. Consumers and Citizens: Globalization
and Multicultural Conflicts.
Trans. George Yúdice. Minneapolis, London: Minnesota UP, 2001 (excerpts).
Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities.
London, New York: Verso, 1999 (excerpts).
|