Department of Spanish and Portuguese

Paper Sp 5

Spanish-American culture and history

This paper has a Learning Support Web Site at www.mml.cam.ac.uk/spanish/SP5/

The countries of Spanish-speaking America are as rich and varied in their culture and historical development as they are in their geography and in the mix of peoples that inhabit them. The course for this second-year paper aims to give you an insight into that rich culture in the context of some of the exciting issues which modern Latin-American texts engage in, from nation building to revolution and dictatorship, and from urban nightmares to metafictional labyrinths. The emphasis of the paper is on culture (including literature, cinema, and visual arts). History is not taught as a separate component, but for many of the topics you are encouraged to set culture within its historical context, and some historical background will be given in lectures. [For those with training in historiography (perhaps at A-level) there will be some questions which can be answered with historical methodology: please consult your supervisor if this is of interest to you.]

The paper is divided into six topic areas which encourage you to study a selection of cultural texts or essays within the broad intellectual (and/or historical) currents out of which they emerged. Work for the paper is comparative, which means that you will usually be asked to compare at least two texts in any given piece of work for a topic. If you are planning to study the paper within the Portfolio of Essays option, it is imperative that all of your essays be written comparatively (otherwise they will not be eligible for submission in the Portfolio). N.B. Further important information on the Portfolio of Essays follows at the end of this page.

You will not have to study every topic for the paper, but during the course of the year you will usually study five of the six topics in overview and four in depth. For examination purposes, you must prepare at least four of the six in order to be adequately prepared. For the Portfolio of Essays, you will usually study four topics initially and come back to three of them in later supervisions. You can glean an idea of the range of teaching offered for the paper from its Learning Support Website.

A separate reading list gives a full set of suggestions for recommended reading on each topic. However, you should not attempt to read everything on that list, since even within the four or five topics you choose to concentrate on you will usually not study more than four texts per topic overall. In preparation for your course over the summer you should read a minimum of six texts, ideally covering a good range of topics, and you will be asked to read a number of others to supplement each topic during the year. You should start with the suggestions for summer reading given below, as these will provide a good basis for further study of the topics.

The course is taught through two weekly lectures and fortnightly supervisions which will run, where possible, in tandem with the topics covered by the lectures; there may also be some seminars in the first term, depending on student numbers, which may replace one of the supervisions. Your supervisor may adopt one of two methods of teaching for this paper. You may be asked to cover three topics in your first term, dealing with two texts per topic at each supervision (or one where a text is lengthy); in the second term, you would study one further topic and then over the remainder of the Lent and Easter terms you would return to your three favourite topics to study them in more depth and in relation to one or two further texts. Alternatively, you may cover each topic that you have enjoyed over two consecutive supervisions (but only having one supervision on topics that you find you do not enjoy so much), so that you would end up studying two or three topics per term and do revision in the final term. You must inform your supervisor if you intend to take the paper via the Portfolio of Essays option, because this will affect the number and type of supervisions you have (for example, all essays for the Portfolio must be comparative, and you cannot repeat a supervision topic without adding at least one new text).

The following is a brief description of each topic together with some recommended reading for preparation over the summer:

Nation and Narration

Latin-American nations only gained independence from Spain from the 1820s onwards, and were immediately plunged into an often violent quest for identity and self-definition. This topic looks at the ways in which Latin-American writers (who have often also been statesmen) address either implicitly or explicitly the issues of nation-building and self-definition that arise from them, and the links that emerge between writing (narrative or essayistic) and the problematic 'inscription' of nationhood. There will also be some chance to look at visual representations of the nation in Latin America (in painting). Over the holidays you should read the following as preparation for this topic:

Esteban Echeverría, El matadero (1841)
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Facundo (1854)
[Octavio Paz, El laberinto de la soledad (1959)]

Nightmares of the Urban

The world's largest city is Ciudad de México with some 20 million inhabitants. During this century many Latin-American countries have undergone huge shifts in population from country to city, and the rise of the 'megalopolis' seems unstoppable. In some countries, notably along the River Plate, the urban centres have always had a disproportionate hold over the rural areas, and cities such as Buenos Aires are as cosmopolitan as Paris or Barcelona. This topic looks at some of the fiction that has been inspired by the 'urban jungle', and its relationship to the experiences of a 'peripheral modernity'. Over the holidays you should read the following as preparation for this topic:

Roberto Arlt, El juguete rabioso (1926)
Ernesto Sábato, Informe sobre ciegos (1961)
[Eliseo Subiela, Últimas imágenes del naufragio (film, 1989)]

Charting Revolution

The Mexican Revolution was the first mass revolution of this century, preceding the Russian Revolution by some eight years. The Revolution, after several years of bloodshed, instituted a political regime which brought nearly six decades (1929-1987) of political, if not social, stability. However, the turmoil of the Revolutionary period itself profoundly affected writers who attempted to 'chart' the massive social changes that were taking place around them, and this influence can be felt right up to the present day. This topic looks at such responses and the innovative fictional techniques which characterize them. There will also be a chance to look at contemporary photography and early newsreel accounts of the Revolution. Over the holidays you should read the following as preparation for this topic:

Mariano Azuela, Los de abajo (1915)
Juan Rulfo, El llano en llamas (1953)
[Carlos Fuentes, Gringo viejo (1981)]

The Racial Other

Latin-American societies are fundamentally hybrid societies. The violence of the colonization of Latin America by Spain forcibly produced a mixing of both the European and the Amerindian races and cultures, almost always to the detriment of the indigenous people, their cultures and languages. Moreover, the massive importation of black slaves from Africa introduced a third racial factor which is of fundamental importance to the Caribbean and a number of other areas. This topic looks at the inscription of the racial 'Other' in Latin American texts, and considers whether such texts can ever 'represent' the Other, or whether they are complicit in the stereotyping and inscription of racial difference. Over the holidays you should read the following as preparation for this topic:

Rosario Castellanos, Balún Canán (1957)
Alejo Carpentier, El reino de este mundo (1949)
[Jorge Icaza, Huasipungo (1936) or Clorinda Matto de Turner, Aves sin nido (1889)]

Penning the Dictator

Latin America has perhaps had more than its fair share of dictatorships, and some of the most brutal ones have occurred in the last two decades (e.g., Pinochet in Chile). However, there is a long tradition of la novela de la dictadura, and dictatorships seem to hold a certain fascination for writers. This topic looks at the relationship between writing and dictatorship. Is the pen mightier than the sword? Is the dictator a kind of 'author' figure, 'dictating' his laws and controlling his subjects? The topic also gives you a chance to look at the response of some recent women writers from the Southern Cone to the brutal 'patriarchal' dictatorships of the 1970s and '80s. Over the holidays you should read the following as preparation for this topic:

Marta Traba, Conversación al sur (1981)
Isabel Allende, La casa de los espíritus (1982)
[Miguel Ángel Asturias, El señor Presidente (1946)]

Labyrinths of Fiction

The fictional experimentation of Latin-American writers is amongst the most exciting and sophisticated in world literature. The image of the labyrinth comes to serve as an image of the fictive world itself, a convoluted construct of twists and turns in which, if you are not careful, you are in danger of losing yourself forever. This topic looks at these dangerous but exciting labyrinths of fiction within fiction and shows how they come to stand as metaphors of human existence itself. Over the holidays you should read the following as preparation for this topic:

Jorge Luis Borges, Ficciones (1944)
Gabriel García Márquez, Crónica de una muerte anunciada (1981)
[Carlos Fuentes, Aura, or Julio Cortázar, Pasajes]

You can purchase most of the set texts from the local bookshops (Heffers, Waterstone's, and Borders are sent copies of our reading lists). All lists are also available online: see the Department's Home Page (spanish), under Reading Lists.

Important information regarding PORTFOLIO OF ESSAYS:

Portfolio of essays must be on subjects that fall within the scope of the paper for which they are substituted, as set out in Part IB Regulations. Of the three essays being presented for examination, candidates are not allowed to present more than one essay on the same author or topic within a paper. The range of topics and types and number of essays in the portfolio is to follow precisely the requirements of the rubric of the written examination paper (e.g. if the exam requires one general topic essay, one essay on a single author and one commentary, the portfolio is to follow this requirement). There should be evidence of reading across the period, texts or topics covered by the paper. Students in doubt as to whether a subject or combination of subjects is appropriate for a portfolio essay should discuss the matter with their supervisor(s) and Director of Studies.

To clarify: The student must present a total of six essays. Three essays are nominated for examination; these must follow the rubric prescribed for the paper. Three further essays are submitted, not for examination, and not necessarily following the rubric of the paper, but demonstrating that the student has studied an appropriate range of the topics prescribed for the paper.

If you intend to submit a portfolio of essays for SP5, please note that portfolios should follow the rubric for the examination paper (that is, each of the 3 essays submitted for examination should be on different topics), and that the portfolio as a whole, including the other 3 essays not submitted for examination, should demonstrate adequate coverage of the course. Specifically, this means:

* Portfolios should demonstrate the coverage of at least four topics over the course.

* Where two essays are submitted on the same topic and the same texts are used to answer both questions, the second essay must show substantial discussion of at least one new text.

Please ask your supervisor if you would like further advice or clarification on this.

Cambridge bookshops (Heffers and Waterstone's) are aware of our reading lists. You may be able to purchase second-hand copies of some of the books from Heffers (tel. 01223 568568). You might also like to try online book-sellers like Amazon, alibris or abebooks.

All lists are also available online: see the Department's Home Page (spanish), under Reading Lists.

A full Reading List for this paper is now available online and the paper has a Learning Support Website