Hector Dominguez-Ruvalcaba

DESCRIPTION:

This seminar will focus on the study of the main cultural debates in contemporary Spanish America through analyzing some of the most influential essays published from the late 1980s to the present. Questions related to the relationship between politics and cultural production, the local and the global, nationalisms and migrations, the understanding of violence, urban life, gender relations, and sexual and ethnic diversity will be proposed as subjects of enquiry. It is central to this course to define the paradigms through which Spanish American intellectuals interpret social reality in the context of neoliberal economy and the emergence of new forms of oppression, resistance, and cultural expressions.  For this seminar, Spanish American essay production is understood as intellectual intervention in the public sphere, and as theoretical propositions aimed to redefine Spanish America cultural identity in the midst of the post-dictatorial rearrangements, the increasing of organized crime and paramilitarization, the weakening of the state institutions and the growing of ethnic and gender violence. That means that essay will be approached as a discursive field where political contentions are expressed as poetic struggles, a problem of meaning that is also a problem of cultural and social understanding.

Grade criteria

Oral presentation 15%

Class participation 15%

Annotated bibliography 15 %

First draft of term paper 15%

Term paper 40%

Bibliography

Achúgar, Hugo. La biblioteca en ruinas: reflexiones culturales desde la periferia. Montevideo: Trilce, 1994.

Castañeda, Jorge. La utopía desarmada. México: Joaquín Mortiz, 1993.

Cornejo Polar, Antonio. Escribir en el aire. Ensayo sobre la heterogeneidad sociocultural en las literaturas andinas.  Lima: Editorial Horizonte, 1994.

García Canclini, Néstor. Culturas híbridas: estrategias para entrar y salir de la modernidad.  México: Grijalbo, 1989.

Martín Barbero, Jesús. Al sur de la modernidad: comunicación, globalización, y multiculturalidad

Monsiváis, Carlos. Aires de familia: cultura y sociedad en América Latina. Barcelona: Anagrama, 2000.

Piglia, Ricardo. Tres propuestas para el próximo milenio. Buenos Aires: La Nación, 2000.

Quijano, Aníbal.  "Colonialidad del poder y clasificación social." Journal of Worl-System Research. Festschrift for Immanuel Walerstein I.  11:2 (Summer-Fall, 2000), 342-386.

Reguillo, Rosana.  Estrategias del desencanto. La emergencia de culturas juveniles en Latinoamérica. Ed. Norma, Buenos Aires, 2002.

Richard, Nelly.  Masculino/femenino: prácticas de la diferencia y cultura democrática. Santiago : Francisco Zegers Editor, 1993.

-----.  Márgenes e instituciones. Arte en Chile desde 1973. Santiago: Metales Pesados, 2007.

Rojas, Rafael.  Tumbas sin sociego: revolución, disidencia y exilio del intelectual cubano. Barcelona: Anagrama, 2006.

Sarlo, Beatriz.  La ciudad vista: mercancías y cultura urbana. Buenos Aires: Siglo Veintiuno Editores, 2009.

Thayer, Willy.  La crisis no moderna de la universidad moderna. Santigo: Editorial Cuarto Propio, 1996.

Villoro, Juan.  "La alfombra roja del terror del narco" 

This course will be devoted to the study of literary texts, art pieces, and films dealing with violence in Mexico in recent years.  The class will discuss the characteristics of these representations and how they can lead us to understand social, economic, and political processes that generate violent events. The questions we are going to address are: what are the aesthetic, ethic, and political implications of the representations of violence? How can we understand Mexican society and gender system through the analysis of these narratives? What are the strategies that these works suggest for the solution of such difficult reality?

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This seminar aims to revise Spanish American literary texts and visual art produced between the end of nineteenth century and the two first decades of the twentieth century that are considered part of the modernista aesthetics, from a theoretical perspective that combines queer and postcolonial approaches. Some of the questions we are going to address are:

• How modernista aestheticism articulates neocolonialism with modern national projects?
• What is the role that sexuality and sensuality play in the construction of the modernista imagination?
• What are the intersections of modernista art, poetry, fiction and prose?
• How the intellectual insights of modernistas can be interpreted as gender politics?

Grading criteria:

Presentation: 10%

Participation: 15%

Paper draft: 15%

Final paper: 50%

Bibliography:

Arévalo Martínez, Rafael.  El hombre que parecía un caballo y otros cuentos. México: CONACULTA, 1997.

Barba Jacob, Porfirio.  Guirnaldas de la noche.  Xalapa: Gobierno del Estado de Veracruz, 2004.

Bhabha, Homi K.  The Location of Culture.  London-New York: Routledge, 1994.

Casal, Julián del.  Crónicas habaneras.  La Habana: Universidad Cemtral de Villas, 1963.

Darío Rubén. Azul, El salmo de la pluma. Canto de vida y esperanza. Otros poemas. México: Porrúa, 2002.

-----. "Catulle Mendes". Obras completas.  Madrid: Afrodisio Aguado, 1950.

D'Halmar, Augusto.  Obras escogidas.  Santiago: Ed. Andrés Bello, 1970.

Gutiérrez Nájera, Manuel. "Crónica de color bitter." En José Olivio Jiménez y Antonio R, de la Campa.  Antología crítica de la prosa modernista.  New York: Eliseo Torres and Sons, 1976, 127-132.

-----.  "La mañana de San Juan." En José Olivio Jiménez y Antonio R, de la Campa.  Antología crítica de la prosa modernista.  New York: Eliseo Torres and Sons, 1976, 209-213.

Jiménez, José Olivio.  Antología de la poesía modernista hispanoamericana. Madrid: Hiperión, 1985.

Lugones, Leopoldo.  Las fuerzas extrañas.  Buenos Aires: Ediciones del 80, 1981.

Martí, José. "El terremoto de Charleston." En José Olivio Jiménez y Antonio R, de la Campa.  Antología crítica de la prosa modernista.  New York: Eliseo Torres and Sons, 1976, 104-116.

-----. "Nuestra América".  Obras completas.  La Habana: Lex, 1946.

-----. "Prólogo al poema de 'El Niágara' de J.A. Pérez Bonalde (1982)." En José Olivio Jiménez y Antonio R, de la Campa.  Antología crítica de la prosa modernista.  New York: Eliseo Torres and Sons, 1976, 46-51.

Molloy, Sylvia.  "Too Wilde for Confort: Desire and Ideology In Fin-de-Siecle Spanish America."  Social Text 31-32 (1992), 187-201.

Montaldo, Graciela.  La sensibilidad amenazada.  Caracas: Planeta, 1995.

Montero, Oscar.  Modernismo y homofobia. Darío y Rodó."  En Daniel Balderston y Donna Guy, eds.  Sexo y sexualidades en América Latina.  Buenos Aires-Barcelona-México: Paidós, 1997.

Nervo, Amado.  Obras completas.  Madrid: Aguilar, 1973.

Paz, Octavio.  Cuadrivio: Darío, Lópex velarde, Pessoa, Cernuda.  México: Joaquín Mortiz, 1969.

Prado, Pedro.  Alsino.  Santiago: Editorial Nascimento, 1951.

Rama, Ángel.  Las máscaras democráticas del modernismo.  Montevideo: Fundación Ángel Rama, 1985.

Ramos. Julio.  Desencuentros de la modernidad en América Latina. Litearatura y política en el siglo XIX.  Santiago: Ed, Cuarto Propio, 2000.

Rodó, José Enrique.  Cinco ensayos.  Madrid: Editorial América, 1917.

Sedgwick, Eve Kosofski.  Epistemology of the Closet.  Berkeley: University of California, 1990.

Silva, José Asunción.  Poesía. De sobremesa.  Mdrid: Cátedra, 2006.

Varela, Juan.  "Carta de Juan Varela a Rubén Darío."  En Rubén Darío. Azul, El salmo de la pluma. Canto de vida y esperanza. Otros poemas. México: Porrúa, 2002.

Description:

This course aims to discuss the main topics that constitute the Latin American cultural process, based on the following axes:

1. Aspects of Spanish American cultural expressions and daily life.

2. Gender relationships.

3. The question of coloniality.

These three topics will be discussed by reviewing history, politics, art, literature, and popular expressions of the region. The questions we will address include: How coloniality––i.e. the condition of dependency from imperial countries­––has shaped political culture, gender structure, beliefs, and perceptions? What are the distinctive aspects of Spanish American cultural expressions? What are the most significant political conflicts of the region? What is the significance of popular events and daily life practices in the area?

Texts: A selection of the following texts are included in the reading packet for this class

Rhory Benítez et. al., El silencio que la voz de todas quiebra. Mujeres y víctimas de Ciudad Juárez. Chihuahua: Ediciones Azar- NMSU-UACJ, México, 1999.

Burgos, Elizabeth/ Rigoberta Menchú.  Me llamo Rigoberta Menchú.  México: Siglo XXI, 1985.

Galeano, Eduardo.  Las venas abiertas de América Latina.  México: Siglo XXI, 1979.

Huilca, Saturnino.  Huilca, habla un campesino peruano.  Hugo Neira, ed.  La Habana:  Casa de las Américas, 1979.

Lemebel, Pedro.  De perlas y cicatrices.  Santiago: LOM, 1996.

Martínez, José Luis, ed.  Nezahalcóyotl. México: SEO-Diana, 1975.

Ortiz, Fernando.  Los negros esclavos.  La Habana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1996.

Poniatowska, Elena.  Hasta no verte Jesús mío. México: Era, 1986.

Ramos Smith, Maya.  La danza en México durante la época colonial.  México: CONACULTA-Alianza Editorial Mexicana, 1990 (1979)

Taibo II, Paco Ignacio, Subcomandante Marcos.  Muertos incómodos (falta lo que falta).  México: Joaquín Mortiz, 2005.

Toscano, Salvador.  Cuauhtémoc.  México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1984.

Uslar Pietri, Arturo.  Las nubes.  Caracas: Monte Ávila, 1997.

Salazar, Alonso.  Drogas y narcotráfico en Colombia.  Bogotá: Planeta, 2001.

Grading: 

4 partial tests            40%

Final test                     30%

Quizzes                      15%

Class participation   15%

Main literary trends and principal writers in Spanish America since Modernism. Taught in Spanish.

W 5:00-8:00 PM

MEETS WITH: LAS 392S, 40410

DESCRIPTION:

This course proposes a discussion about the parallel between literary and political reflections that can be found in the most outstanding essayists in Latin America. The relationship between the literature and the construction of the nation leads us to reconsider some contemporary theoretical approaches that point to the imaginary generation of this concept, such us the definitions proposed by Benedict Anderson, Homi Bahbah, Fredric Jameson, Slavoj Zizek, and Doris Sommer, among others. This means that we will analyze the nation as a literary topic, which will be addressed under the following questions: what are the imaginary constituents of the myth of the nation in Latin America? How the relationship between politics, history, ethnography, and aesthetics can be articulated? And, what is the status of essay as genre in Latin America? This class will be divided in three units, focusing on the three historical periods of major production of Latin American essays: a) The formation of the nations after the independence in Nineteenth Century from Bolivar to José Martí; b) The modern prose including the generation of the Centenario, the Ateneo de la Juventud and the projects of social-oriented states; c) and the generation of the Cold War.

 Kind of Course: general

 Grading policy:

Oral presentation on theoretical or critical reading 10%

Class participation 10%

Three partial exams 30 %

Term paper 50%

 Readings:

Bolívar, Simón. Discurso de Angostura

Buarque de Holanda Sérgio Raízes do Brasil

Galvez, Manuel. El solar de la raza

González, Luis.  "El país de cuatro pisos"

Martí, José. "Nuestra América"

Mairátegui, Carlos. Siete ensayos de interpretación de la realidad peruana

Ortiz, Fernando.  Contrapunto cubano del tabaco y el azúcar

Paz, Octavio. El laberinto de la soledad; La estación violenta

Rama, Ángel. La ciudad letrada

Reyes, Alfonso. La experiencia literaria, México en una nuez

Vasconcelos, José.  La raza cósmica