Spanish
230-0-20: Margins and Centers in Latin American Literature and Culture

Instructor: Emily A Maguire
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Expected Enrollment: 20

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Much of Latin American cultural production has been consistently concerned with the question of national identity. Latin American writers and artists have sought to define what constitutes national (or regional) culture, and to identify or describe national subjects. At the same time, Latin American literature is rich is its representation of marginalized subjects - indigenous peoples, people of African descent, women, and the poor among them. This course will explore the treatment of these (and other) marginalized subjectivities in twentieth-century Latin American narrative and film. We will examine the roles that race, class, gender, and geography play in articulating alterity, and will ask how the representation of these particular marginalized subjects have helped to configure more centralized notions of Latin American identity.

READING: Course readings will include work by José María Arguedas, Rosario Castellanos, Miguel Barnet, Teresa de la Parra, Aluisio Azevedo, Clarice Lispector, Arturo Islas and Junot Díaz, among others. Evaluation will be based on class participation, quizzes, and three short papers.

[Course Descriptions for Fall 2008] [Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences] [SPANISH Spanish]