Latin American Literature

Description
This course is included in the area Hispanic Literature (Specialization in Hispanic Studies and in Literature, Degree in Modern Languages). The course provides basic knowledge regarding Latin American Literature and enables students to understand the culture and style of literary production in Latin America. Furthermore, the course contributes in the acquisition of competences related to the development of methodological strategies that are part of the instruction of students as experts in literature.

Contents
The course covers the following contents of the area Hispanic Literature (mentioned above):
- Literary moments, authors and texts of Latin American Literature.
- Building an own identity in Latin American Literature.
- The great poets and their American commitment.
- The narrative authors: from indigenism to the new novel.
- Boom and postboom of Latin American narrative fiction.
- Female writers in Latin American Literature.

The course approaches the cultural processes that have guided the development of Latin American Literature. The cultural reality of Latin America is understood as a complex process based in multiculturalism. Therefore, the stages in the construction of an identity will be examined: American Indian civilizations, the conquest, colonialism, and post-colonialism after independence.

The study of texts is focused in the most original and complex moments of Latin American Literature during the 20th and 21st centuries through its more relevant genres: poetry and narrative fiction.

Unit 1
Introduction to the great cultural issues in Latin America.
The building of identity, the creation of great myths, multiculturalism.
Pre-Columbian cultures.
The conquest and its texts.
Independence and post-colonial literature. Independent literatures and its trends.

Unit 2
Introduction to 20th century Latin American poetry
Avant-guarde poetry in Latin America.
Postmodernist poetry and women’s poetic voices.
Afro poetry and blackness.
The poets of commitment.

Unit 3
Introduction to 20th century Latin American narrative fiction.
The new novel after 1940.
The magic realism debate.
The first texts after the change.

Unit 4
The boom of Latin American Literature.
The great novel writers.
The short stories.

Unit 5
The Postboom and the latest trends in novel.
Postmodern authors.
Authors in exile.

Unit 6
Women in the novels of 20th and 21st centuries.
Female writers today.
Narrative strategies.

Methodology
The acquisition of competences will take place through an active methodology that allows students to be the center of their own learning through the completion of different assignments inside and outside the classroom.

Within those assignments, the area of Hispanic Literature, and more specifically the course in Latin American Literature, will focus in the student’s reading experience, which will be the starting point for the readings’ study, analysis and assessment with the help of the professor.

The teaching and learning strategies will be based in the following:
1.- Professor’s introduction to the different contents.
2.- Explanations through Power Point, videos, cultural documentaries, interviews to writers, film adaptations, poetry readings, literary events and other academic materials.
3.- Professor’s orientation regarding the use of resources: online platform, bibliography, digital and online libraries, websites, etc.
4.- Professor’s orientation on questions, issues and problems related to the readings.
5.- Autonomous search of sources about contents included in the course.
6.- Active participation in the classroom activities: discussions, debates and presentations.
7.- Fulfillment of readings and text analysis in the classroom.
8.- Reflective and annotated reading of literary texts and film adaptations. 9.- Writing of assignments that put into practice the different text analysis methodologies (individual or group work). First, students will work individually in the assignments. In the classroom the readings and analysis will be shared with the group.

Assessment
The assessment system combines continuous assessment and a final exam.
Generic and specific competences acquired will be assesed through the following:
- STUDENTS’ ACTIVITIES
Active attendance to the class.
Critical reading of texts.
Participation in classroom discussions.
Oral presentations.
Classroom activities.
Written assignments.
- FINAL EXAM