Debating Cultures: Unveiling the Secrets of Fantasy, Magic, Mystery in Latin America

In this course we will explore a variety of Spanish American discourses (short fiction, essays, films, artwork) built around the unveiling of secrets, mystery, fantasy, and magic through the art of detection, whereby the reader or a viewer becomes engaged in the process of sleuthing, either alone or alongside the fictional figure of a detective. We will explore the creative and versatile ways in which Spanish American writers and artists make use of existing aesthetic paradigms-such as magical realism, literary gothic, fairy tales, science fiction, surrealism, film noir, and detective fiction, among others-as they adapt them to the diverse political, economic and socio-cultural realities of their countries. In many of these discourses, overarching themes of imagination, dreams, madness, criminality, and metaphysical search become intertwined with gendered sensibilities and heterogeneous perspectives profoundly embedded in socio-political realities. Some of the mysteries and crimes that often elude detection and punishment have to do with corruption and state-sanctioned violence, as it happens in the cases of systemic violence in Colombia, of the plight of the "disappeared" persons under the dictatorial regimes of the Southern Cone (Argentina, Chile), or the systemic corruption surrounding narcotrafficking. Authors to be studied include Borges, Ocampo, Cardenal, Casey, Quiroga, Valenzuela, Cortázar, Rulfo, Paz Soldán, Téllez, García Márquez, Schweblin, Dávila, Vega Serova, Benítez Rojo, Bahr, and Enríquez, among others. This course is conducted in Spanish and has a strong, mandatory and graded oral component. Prereq. Spanish 303 or 308D. Students who have taken more than two Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Researching Cultures class.
Course Attributes: BU IS; AS HUM; AS LCD; AS SC; EN H; AS LS; BU BA; FA HUM; AR HUM

Debating Cultures: Unveiling the Secrets of Fantasy, Magic, Mystery in Latin America

AMERICAN CULTURE STUDIES 321E

Section 01