Literature and the Nation in Latin America (Mexico)

• Credit value: 15 credits at Level 6
• Convenor: Professor John Kraniauskas
• Assessment: a 3500-word essay (100%)

This course will discuss a series of key Mexican novels. The first part of the course will focus on the relationship established between a number of classic literary texts and the Mexican Revolution and its aftermath, up until the end of the 1960s.

The second part of the course will then look at a number of more recent contemporary works written from the 1970s onwards, in which social and cultural transformations associated with contemporary forms of globalisation - which includes a crisis in 'national imaginaries' - are represented and dramatised. This section of the course will look particularly at the portrayal of state corruption and violent forms of narcotráfico and their relation.

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• identify and analyse key moments and spaces of the Spanish-speaking world through cultural artefacts
• demonstrate awareness of the complex relations between culture, history and politics
• recognise the diversity and particularities of different historical moments and geographical spaces
• situate the Spanish-speaking world and cultures in wider contexts
• develop analytical, critical and conceptual skills and demonstrate ability to work with theoretical arguments
• demonstrate ability to understand cultural forms within their socio-historical context
• apply interdisciplinary practices in the study of concepts, works and authors.