SPAN 374 - Sublime and Strange in Latin American Literature

In this course we will study how modern and contemporary Latin American fiction represents figures of the unknown (e.g., landscape, Other), and the various narrative attitudes of fear, astonishment, and awe that accompany them. Even if this dynamic has been present in the region’s cultural production since colonial-era travel narrative, we will examine how literary texts from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries work within and beyond this paradigm. We will read works from the genres of magical realism, the fantastic, science fiction, gothic, and “new weird,” analyzing how they depict the strange and incomprehensible in ways that challenge, reinforce, or expand dominant worldviews. In addition to theoretical and secondary texts, literary authors may include César Aira, Alejo Carpentier, Liliana Colanzi, Yuri Herrera, Ramiro Sanchiz, and Samanta Schweblin. Course conducted in Spanish, with some readings in English.

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group I
Prerequisite(s): SPAN 321 or equivalent.
Instructional Method: Conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Not offered: 2024-25
Group Distribution Learning Outcome(s):

Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).