This course offers an introduction to modern Spanish American literatures and cultures. It focuses on the complex ways in which cultural and intellectual production anticipates, participates in, and responds to political, social, and economic transformations from the nineteenth century onwards. Through a wide spectrum of sources (essays, fiction, poetry, film, and art), we will study and discuss some of the most relevant issues in Latin American modern history, such as modernity, democracy, identity, memory, and social and economic justice.

This course offers an introduction to modern Spanish American literatures and cultures. It focuses on the complex ways in which cultural and intellectual production anticipates, participates in, and responds to political, social, and economic transformations from the nineteenth century onwards. Through a wide spectrum of sources (essays, fiction, poetry, film, and art), we will study and discuss some of the most relevant issues in Latin American modern history, such as modernity, democracy, identity, memory, and social and economic justice. This course will be divided into five different units: 1- Utopia and National identity; 2- Modernity, Technology, and Culture; 3- Indigenous and Afro Communities; 4- Art, Literature, and the Popular: The Mexican Revolution; 5- The Crisis of the Nation: Dictatorship, Postboom, Postmodernism. We will discuss essays by Simón Bolívar, José Martí, José Enrique Rodó and Jorge Volpi; short stories by José Quiroga, Jorge Luis Borges, and Guillermo Cabrera Infante; films by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Patricio Guzmán and Marco Bechis; poems by Rubén Darío, Oliverio Girondo, Nicolás Guillén and César Vallejo, among others.

SPANISH 25 IS S PREREQUISITE FOR THIS COURSE

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills