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Latin American Culture and Society in the Sixties: The Last Utopia
SPAN264 SP

Crosslistings: LAST261

Latin America in the nineteen-sixties is a moment of both culmination and emergence in a political and cultural sense. The Cuban Revolution marked the eruption of something exciting and utopian through which existing forces of change were channeled into new configurations of the human condition in political, social, economic, cultural and even erotic terms. The "new man" (woman?) was at the center of an insurrectionary founding myth (personified by Che Guevara) inspiring poetry, song, narrative, visual art, film and subversion. At the same time, the decade witnessed the emergence of a publishing industry which produced new, culture-modeling magazines, new forms of cultural circulation and consumption and the so-called "boom" in Latin American literature , marked emblematically by the best-selling ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE (1967). In this broadly interdisciplinary course we shall combine history, literature, film, music, and political thought to produce our own reconstruction of a dazzling moment whos e legacy is highly problematic.

MAJOR READINGS

Magazines of the sixties (such as PRIMA PLANA and MARCHA)
Guevara, Che, NOTAS DE VIAJE (sel.) and PASAJES DE LA GUERRA REVOLUCIONARIA (sel.)
Castaneda, Jorge, COMPANERO, THE LIFE AND DEATH OF CHE GUEVARA (sel.)
Castro, Fidel, LA HISTORIA ME ABSOLVERA (sel.)
Garcia Marquez, G., CIEN ANOS DE SOLEDAD
Cortazar, Julio, TODOS LOS FUEGOS EL FUEGO (sel.) and other selected stories
Borges, Jorge Luis, EL INFORME DE BRODIE
Peri Rossi, Cristina, LOS MUSEOS ABANDONADOS (sel.) Neruda, Pablo, MEMORIAL DE ISLA NEGRA (sel.)
Paz, Octavio, POSDATA (EL LABERINTO DE LA SOLEDAD) Poniatowska, Elena, LA NOCHE DE TLATELOLCO (sel.) Cabezas, Omar, LA MONTANA ES ALGO MAS QUE UNA IMMENSA ESTEPA VERDE (sel.)
Barrios d e Chungara, D., SI ME PERMITEN HABLAR...(sel.)
Songs by Violeta Parra, Daniel Viglieti, Maria Elena Walsh, Nacha Guevara and others. Selected films.

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Papers, class presentations, final exam.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form to the Registrar's Office. Permission of Instructor. SPAN264 is intended for students who have completed SPAN226 with a B or better. Students who have not done so should consult with the professor before preregistering. Readings, class discussion and written work in Spani sh only.

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: HA RLAN    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: SPAN226

Last Updated on MAR-24-2000

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