Latin American Literary Theory: From the Foundations of the Rise of Cultural Studies

Catalog description

This course is an introduction to the themes and ideas surrounding the formation of Latin American literary theory, through the reading of essential works. The course focuses on landmark debates, surrounding the question of literary historiography, the development of concepts such as transculturation and heterogeneity, and the development of sociocritical approaches seeking to relate literature to Latin America’s historical and geopolitical conditions. It also engages the ways in which Latin Americans debate theorists from the Frankfurt School, structuralism, poststructuralism and hermeneutics alongside the aesthetic development of the region’s literature. Authors to be discussed include Alfonso Reyes, Pedro Henríquez Ureña, Antonio Cándido, Ángel Rama, Antonio Cornejo Polar, Flora Sussekind and Beatriz Sarlo among others. This course will be taught in Spanish.