MODERN  AND  MEDIEVAL  LANGUAGES  TRIPOS    Part IB

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            2003

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                Paper Sp. 5

 

            TOPICS IN SPANISH-AMERICAN CULTURE AND HISTORY

 

            Answer THREE questions.

 

            DO NOT draw substantially on the same material for more than ONE

            answer.

           

 

  

 

 

You may not start to read the questions printed on the subsequent pages of this question paper until instructed that you may do so by the Invigilator

 

1          Nation and Narration

 

Answer ONE of the following with reference to the work of TWO OR MORE writers, essayists, or artists:

 

 (a)    ‘La construcción de una identidad nacional o colectiva siempre conlleva la represión (a veces violenta) de algún “otro”.’ Discuss.

 

 (b)    Compare and contrast the role played by the principal iconic figures of nationhood (e.g., Facundo, the Unitarian, Ariel/Calibán, La Malinche, Sab) in AT LEAST TWO texts or works of art.

 

 (c)    ‘Y es que en la raíz misma está la confusión, porque descendientes de numerosas comunidades indígenas, africanas, europeas, tenemos, para entendernos, unas pocas lenguas: las de los colonizadores’ (Fernández Retamar). In the light of this quotation, discuss the importance of language in the arguments about Latin American identity in AT LEAST TWO works.

 

 (d)    Compare the roles of Spain and the United States of America, OR of Spain and Britain, in the independence of Latin America. You may refer to historical AND/OR cultural sources, and you may, if you wish, limit your account to a single nation or region.

 

 

2          Nightmares of the Urban

 

Answer ONE of the following with reference to TWO OR MORE texts or films:

 

 (a)    ‘La ciudad moderna se puebla de todo un ejército de excluidos, de desplazados, descamisados, los habitantes de la noche y de los márgenes. Su existencia misma nos obliga a cuestionar los valores establecidos de sociedad y ciudadanía.’  Discuss.

 

 (b)    ‘The city is more like a labyrinth than a prison, full of unexpected passageways, twists and turns in space and in time.’ Discuss.

 

 (c)    ‘Para el escritor o cineasta, la gran urbe latinoamericana plantea urgentemente una problemática de representación: ¿cómo  expresar una realidad sucia y sórdida, que desafía la belleza y el orden del arte?’ Discuss.

 

 (d)    Account for the principal social problems of TWO OR THREE contemporary Latin American cities. You may illustrate your arguments with reference to any appropriate sources of information and analysis.

 

 

3          Charting Revolution

 

Answer ONE of the following with reference to TWO OR MORE texts (which may include visual arts):

 

 (a)    ‘Revolution and social violence radically call into question the established values of society and culture. Writers and artists must also question those values if they are to give a true depiction of such social change.’ Discuss.

 

 (b)    ‘A mitad de camino entre mito e historia real.’ How well does this quotation describe the representation of the Mexican revolution or its aftermath in the works you have studied for this topic?

 

 (c)    Give a comparative account of the stylistic devices used in works on the Mexican Revolution or its aftermath.

 

(d)     Examine the extent to which AT LEAST TWO revolutionary or post-revolutionary governments fulfilled or failed to fulfil some of the ideals and expectations behind the Mexican revolution.

 

 

4          The ‘Racial’ Other

 

Answer ONE of the following with reference to TWO OR MORE texts:

 

(a)     ‘El control y la segregación de las razas implica una fuerte represión de la sexualidad, sobre todo la femenina.’ Discuss the relevance of this idea to novels concerned with ‘race’.

 

(b)     Discuss the emphasis placed on language AND/OR linguistic difference in the texts you have studied for this topic.

 

(c)     ‘These novels, unwittingly or not, display the pathology inherent in wholly racialized societies.’ Discuss.

 

(d)     ‘A pesar de la fuerte segregación de las razas en estas obras, lo que demuestran a fin de cuentas es un profundo proceso de hibridación en las sociedades hispanoamericanas.’ Discuss.

 

 

5          Penning the Dictator

 

Answer ONE of the following with reference to TWO OR MORE texts:

 

            (a)     ‘Military violence is merely the logic of the male extrapolated onto the social and political stage.’ To what extent do works on dictatorship support or contradict this contention?

 

(b)     ‘Lo que más caracteriza a las dictaduras no es el poder de la voz dictatorial, sino el poder del silencio, el poder de callar el diálogo social.’   Discuss.

 

(c)     Examine the function of narrative AND/OR stylistic experimentation in texts you have studied for this topic.

 

(d)     Assess the importance of class struggle AND/OR class interests in the rise of dictatorship in ONE OR TWO Latin American countries. Your answers may draw on historical OR cultural sources OR BOTH.

 

 

6          Labyrinths of Fiction

 

Answer ONE of the following with reference to TWO OR MORE texts or films:

 

            (a)     ‘A fin de cuentas, son juegos textuales sin ninguna relevancia social.’  Discuss this characterization of the texts you have studied for this topic.

 

(b)     Discuss the role of the narrator AND/OR the mode of narration in AT LEAST TWO texts or films.

 

(c)     ‘In these works, the universal “constants” of time and space are convoluted and labyrinthine.’ Discuss.

 

(d)     ‘En sus juegos autorreflexivos, estos textos hacen que el autor y el lector (o espectador) se vuelvan verdaderos protagonistas de la obra.’  Discuss.

 

 

 

END OF PAPER