Literature and the Nation in Latin America (Argentina)

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 6
• Convenor: Professor John Kraniauskas
• Assessment: a 3500-word essay (100%)
  

This course will discuss a series of key Argentine novels from 1975 to the present day. It will focus on the relationship established between a number of key literary texts and the experience of military dictatorship and its aftermath, including more recent re-imaginings of the past in its light. The key question that is addressed in the course is the range of literary responses to the violent reconfiguration of national imaginaries prompted by the military in power. This will also include the issue of the convergence of post-dictatorship, democratic transition and neo-liberalism since the mid-1980s.

Indicative module content

• Introduction: Rodolfo Walsh's 'Carta abierta...'
• Manuel Puig, El beso de la mujer araña
• Ricardo Piglia, Respiración artificial
• Tununa Mercado, En estado de memoria (In a State of Memory)
• Tomás Eloy Martínez, La novela de Perón
• César Aira, La villa (Shantytown)
• Luis Guzmán, Villa
• Pola Oloixarac, Las teorías salvajes

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.