Fall 2005

LAS 370S • 5-INTRO TO SPN AM LIT THRU MOD

Course Description

In this course we will examine a broad range of Spanish American literary writings within the cultural-historical circumstances that produced them. The readings, spanning Mexico to Argentina, begin with the Mexica/Aztec migration histories, Mesoamerican (Guatemala) and Andean myth/history (Peru) and accounts of Spanish exploration and Conquest (Colón, Cortés and La Monja Alférez). We will read dramas for the evangelization of the Indian (Motolinía), essays on Inka history (Inca Garcilaso de la Vega), and on the origin of the natural world in the Americas (José de la Acosta). These are followed by important examples of Colonial letters: essay and biography of convent women, (Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz), the cartas of the Liberator, Simón Bolivar, and the Indian leader, Tupac Amaru and, finally, for the Republican era: essays on national identity and culture (Sarmiento), stories of the frontier in regional cultures (Gorriti) and polemics on programs for social change (Prada). The course will also stress reading comprehension, vocabulary building skills, and practice in organizing your thought in writing and orally in discussion. Our readings will be accompanied by study guidelines and/or questions, and for homework, you will be expected to prepare an answer for one or more of the questions or topics for class discussion.

back