Latin American Poetry and Poetics

Catalog description

This is a graduate survey course of Latin American poetry from the Popol Vuh until today. We will simultaneously study the construction of a poetic canon - major works, figures, and movements - and deconstruct it, examining popular productions, genre-defying works, and poetry in non-European languages. Guiding questions include: How does poetry in Latin America understand itself? How does poetry in Latin America conceive of its role vis-?is society, politics, and literature more broadly? Alongside figures such as Vallejo, Mistral, Sor Juana and Neruda, but also the anonymous author of the Apu Inka Atawallpaman. Mapuche poet Daniels Catrileo and the singers of cielitos in the Southern Cone, we will ultimately ask: what is poetry after the invention of Latin America?