Fall 2004

SPN 350 • Studies in Hispanic Life and Culture

Course Description

In this course we will examine from an historical perspective: 1) the role of pre-Hispanic iconographic (textile art) and notational (khipu or knotted cord registry) media in indigenous societies. 2) the emergence of literacy and writing upon the introduction of the book and the Western alphabetic system. 3) the social milieu of writing in provincial towns through the work of the Indian historian, Phelipe Guaman Poma. 4) narrative stylistics originating in local oral traditions (Quechua verse). 5) regional themes (Indigenismo) in the development of Peruvian narrative and national identity. 6) then, through the reading of the fictionalized autobiographies of Clorinda Matto de Turner and José María Arguedas, and a sociological novel also by José María Arguedas, we will learn about the development of modern Andean narrative.

Grading Policy

Class discussion on readings/Homework 30% Mid Term paper 30% Final paper 30% Class presentation on final paper 10%

Texts

Aves sin Nido by Clorinda Matto de Turner Yawar Fiesta and Los Ríos Profundos by José María Arguedas Guaman Poma: Writing and Resistance in Colonial Peru by Rolena Adorno Packet of readings include: Representation in the Sixteenth Century: the Colonial Image of the Inca by Tom Cummins Signs and Their Transmision: The Question of the Book in the New World by Walter G. Mignolo “Images of Indios Ladinos” by Rolena Adorno Clorinda Matto y el nacimiento del indigenismo literario by Nelson Manrique

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