SPAN 5800 - Latin American Novel and Short Story

Goals: To expose the student to the development from realism to magical realism in Latin American novels and short stories, to analyze the importance of the historical reality of the Mexican Revolution in literature, and to examine machismo and hembrismo in the culture and how they are reflected in literature.

Content: Through literature, students move north with the troops of Pancho Villa (Los de abajo), experience life in a machodominated pueblo where the dead speak (Pedro Paramo), examine choices that made a revolutionary into a politically powerful cacique in our modern world (La muerte de Artemio Cruz), observe the gender specific “painted woman” and “suffering mother” in relation to the macho male, and understand the impact that Mexican attitudes and customs have had on the United States.

Taught: Alternate years

Recommended prerequisite: SPAN 3900 or 3910, or equivalent

Note: All coursework done in Spanish.

Credits: 4