Latin American Urban Interventions

Catalog description

This seminar engages with narratives of modernization and their relation to time and space in Latin America through cultural artifacts that represent urban interventions designed to improve “the human condition.” Is there an informal Latin American mode of modernity? Are urban interventions condemned to reproduce social exclusion? We review literature on Latin American urban complexes and a case study on a massive residential and commercial complex built in downtown Caracas in the 1970s called Parque Central, including original brochures, shorts stories, poems, excerpts from novels, photos, artwork, films, plays, songs, and performances. Readings will be in English and Spanish and the course will be conducted in Spanish.