Nightmares of the Urban (1)

 

 

Some Tripos questions to consider for this topic:

 

1.      “If Latin American urban writing portrays the cities as physical and ideological prisons, they are at least partly redeemed by language, imagination, and new fictional techniques.” Discuss with reference to TWO OR MORE texts.

 

2.    Give an account of the rôle of TWO of the following in TWO OR THREE Latin American texts (or films) dealing with urban contexts: (i) vampires; (iv) blindness; (ii) nightmares; (v) drugs and crime; (iii) alienation; (vi) sexuality.

 

3.      “En la ciudad latinoamericana coexisten todas las épocas.” Discuss with reference to the portrayal of the city in AT LEAST TWO texts.

 

4.      “In the modern city, nightmare and reality fuse into one.” How applicable is this statement to Latin American urban texts? Your answer should refer to TWO OR THREE texts (of which ONE may be a film)..

 

5.     Give an account of the social effects of urban modernization in ONE OR TWO countries of Latin America in the period 1914–1969. You may refer to the history of the period, OR to cultural texts, OR BOTH.

 

 

 

 

Primary and Secondary Bibliography for Nightmares of the Urban 1

 

Format of Bibliography Articles:Surname, Name. ‘Article Title’. Review [Place] Part.Vol (Date): Pages. Books:    Surname, Name. ‘Part Title’. Title. Place: Publisher, Date. Pages.

 

 

 

 

 

Arlt, Roberto. El juguete rabioso. Ed. Rita Gnutzmann. Letras Hispánicas #222. Madrid: Cátedra, 1985 (1926).

Flint, Jack M. The prose works of Roberto Arlt: a thematic approach. Durham modern languages series HM #4. [Durham]: University of Durham, 1985.

Gálvez Acero, Marina. “La ‘realidad nocturna’ de un héroe de nuestro tiempo”. Rpt in Sábato, Informe sobre ciegos. 179-200.

Gilbert, Alan. The Latin American City. London: the Latin American Bureau, 1994. [A good general sociological study of modern Latin American cities and their development — for background.]

Hayes, Aden W. Roberto Arlt: la estrategia de su ficción. Colección Támesis. Serie A, Monografías #83. London: Tamesis, c1981.

Martin, Gerald. Journeys Through the Labyrinth: Latin American Fiction in the Twentieth Century. Critical Studies in Latin American Culture. London: Verso, 1989. [Contains section on Urban Literature.]

Maturo, Graciela, et al. Ernesto Sábato en la crisis de la modernidad [critical essays]. Colección Estudios latinoamericanos #29. Buenos Aries: García Cambeiro, c1985.

Mayer, Marcos. Ernesto Sábato: Sobre héroes y tumbas. Biblioteca crítica Hachette #5. Buenos Aires: Hachette, 1986.

Montiel, Luis. “Ceguera terrenal, mirada de Perséfone”. Rpt in Sábato, Informe sobre ciegos. 201-28.

Rama, Ángel. La ciudad letrada. Hanover, N.H.: Ediciones del Norte, 1984. [A general study of the relationship between the City and Culture in Latin America.]

Sábato, Ernesto.Informe sobre ciegos [extracted from Sobre héroes y tumbas]. Ed. Marina Gálvez Acero. Colección «Escritores de América». Madrid: Anaya, 1994 (1961).

Sábato, Ernesto. “Informe sobre ciegos”. Sobre héroes y tumbas. Barcelona: Seix Barral, 1991 (1961). 262-403.

Sábato, Ernesto. The writer in the catastrophe of our time [essays]. Trans. Asa Zatz. Fiction & series. Tulsa, Okla: Council Oak Books/Hecate with the University of Tulsa, c1990

Sarlo, Beatriz. Una modernidad periférica: Buenos Aires 1920 y 1930. Colección Cultura y Sociedad. Buenos Aires: Edi­ciones Nueva Visión, 1988. [A complex, influential study of modernity in the 1920s and ’30s in Buenos Aires.]

Zubieta, Ana María. El discurso narrativo arltiano: intertextualidad, grotesco y utopía. Colección Hachette Universidad: Lengua, lingüística, comunicación. Buenos Aires: Hachette, 1987.