Department of Spanish and Portuguese

Latin American Literary Culture 

• Teaching Schedule
• Detailed Programme
• Learning Resources

This module provides the opportunity to study the work of major Latin American writers and to engage with a number of important topics and debates in Latin American literary culture. A good reading knowledge of Spanish is a prerequisite for the course, since all texts, some of them very complex, are read in Spanish. Students are expected already to have a base in the study of Latin American Literature. Those who have not, but who do have a good reading knowledge of Spanish, may still take the course, but would be expected to attend various lectures and seminars on Latin American Literature to fill gaps in their knowledge. 

The module has a slightly different course structure depending on whether you take it from within the MPhil in Latin American Studies, or from within the MPhil in European Literature. If the former, then seminar will run for the last half of Michaelmas Term and the first six weeks of Lent Term. If the latter, then the Michaelmas Term seminars are optional, as your designated course runs in the Lent Term (January-March); you are welcome to attend some or all the Michaelmas Term seminars and indeed strongly encouraged to do so if you have not previously studied much Latin American literature. If you do choose to attend an optional session, you would of course be expected to undertake all of the set reading and to participate fully in seminar discussion.

Both the first and second terms’ seminars are based around a series of thematic topics which aim to balance coverage of canonical writers with opportunities to explore cutting edge writing or critical approaches. These may include:

• The clash of languages and writing systems in the Americas
• Anarchism and Modernism in the works of Roberto Arlt
• Post-modern ‘cyberfiction’ from Argentina
• The detective novel in Cuba
• Brazilian urban chronicles
• Avant-garde literary experimentation in Chile
• Ghosts, violence and trauma in Colombian fiction
• Globalization and cultural hybridity
• Women’s writing, testimony and subjectivity

Teaching takes the form of open-discussion seminars at which students are expected to present short papers. Students are also encouraged to attend lectures on Latin American culture given by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese (for Latin American Literature and Contemporary Latin American Culture).