HomeMy WebLinkAboutLIT-223Bergen Community College
Division of Arts & Humanities/Department of English
LIT 223: Contemporary Latin American Literature
“No history is mute. No matter how much they own it, break it, and lie about it, human
history refuses to shut its mouth. Despite deafness and ignorance, the time that was
continues to tick inside the time that is”—Eduardo Galeano
Course Description
This course includes representative Latin American literature—poetry, essays, short
prose, and novels—from several Latin American nations including (but not limited to)
Colombia, Peru, Cuba, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and
Chile. Representative texts examine images of Latin America from various critical
perspectives.
LIT223 is a three-credit Humanities course that satisfies the Diversity requirement.
Successful completion of WRT101 is a prerequisite for this course.
Student Learning Objectives:
The students who successfully complete the requirements of this course will be able to:
1. Identify the nations that comprise the political designation “Latin America,” and
be able to recognize and discuss the major literary works, genres, movements, and
ideological components of this category.
2. Recognize and discuss major themes of Latin American literature; and identify
major tropes used by representative authors.
3. Identify the major periods of Latin American literary history—from the
precolonial to the postmodern to the transnational—and discuss the role of the
author in shaping various historic moments.
4. Apply appropriate and culturally relevant critical lenses to respond to, evaluate,
analyze, and understand major works of Latin American literature.
5. Produce a properly formatted written evaluation of selected works of Latin
American literature; and demonstrate competency in both research methodologies
and literary analysis.
Required Texts:
Alarcon, Daniel. City of Clowns. New York: Riverhead, 2015. ISBN: 978-1594633331
Azuela, Mariano. The Underdogs: A Novel of the Mexican Revolution. Trans. Sergio
Weisman. London: Penguin, 2008. ISBN: 978-0-14-310527-5.
Bolaño, Roberto. Amulet. Trans. Chris Andrews. New York: New Directions, 2008. 978-
0811217460.
Diaz, Junot. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. New York: Riverhead, 2008. ISBN:
978-1594483295.
Garcia Marquez, Gabriel. Collected Stories. Trans. Gregory Rabassa. New York: Harper,
2008. ISBN: 978-0060932688
McNees, Pat. Contemporary Latin American Short Stories. Ballantine, 1996. ISBN: 978-
0449912263.
*Please also note that additional materials, announcements and relevant discussion
questions will be posted on our Moodle site.
Course Policies
Evaluation:
Critical Essays: 40%
You will write two short (2-3 page) response papers that will be both analytical—in terms
of text and sociopolitical context—and critical. Questions are listed below; alternative
suggestions welcome.
Midterm Examination: 25%
The midterm examination consists of a series of essays that you will write at home.
Questions will be made available two weeks prior to the due date.
Term Paper/Final Project: 25%
Each student will prepare a traditional literary term paper. We will discuss potential
topics/ideas throughout the term. Alternative project ideas are welcome, but must be
academically rigorous and reflect our work together as a class.
Class participation, including informal written assignments and quizzes: 10%
Students are expected to come to class prepared to discuss all assigned readings.
Formatting written assignments:
Written assignments must be formatted according to MLA standards. You will find
citation guides on our library’s website (www.bergen.edu/library). Please note that you
will also be expected to produce a documented term paper with secondary sources; and
you may find appropriate—relevant—resources in our library. You are encouraged to
schedule an appointment with one of our reference librarians if you did not attend an
instructional seminar in your writing class.
BCC’s Writing Center is located in L125, and you are encouraged to work with our
faculty and professional writing tutors. Please note that the center is indeed a tutoring
center—you are not to drop off your paper for proofreading as this is not a function of
the center.
A note on deadlines: no late papers will be accepted excepting documented
emergencies; and papers may not be submitted electronically—via email.
A note on plagiarism: Please give credit where credit is due! Honesty is expected of you.
It is expected that the work you hand in will always be your own, and that you will never
copy sentences, phrases, paragraphs, or whole essays from any other person's work, for
that is plagiarism. If you are ever unclear about how to cite another person or author's
ideas, come see me or consult your manual. If you do plagiarize, you will receive an F
for the assignment under review. If you plagiarize more than once, you will fail the
course and may be reported to the college’s judiciary committee.
Attendance/Lateness Policy:
BCC Attendance Policy: “All students are expected to attend punctually every scheduled
meeting of each course in which they are registered. Attendance and lateness policies
and sanctions are to be determined by the instructor for each section of each
course. These will be established in writing on the individual course outline. Attendance
will be kept by the instructor for administrative and counseling purposes.”
*You are allowed four absences. Additional absences will negatively affect your grade.
Likewise, two instances of missing significant class time (of ten minutes or more) will
result in one absence.
ADA Policy:
Students with documented disabilities who require accommodations by the Americans
with Disabilities Act (ADA) can request support services from the Office of Specialized
Services of Bergen Community College located in room L 115 of the Pitkin Learning
Center. http://www.bergen.edu/pages1/Pages/5175.aspx
Class schedule: (Class schedule is subject to change depending upon class progress.)
Week 1: From Macondo to McOndo...
Pablo Neruda “United Fruit” (handout)
Martin Espada “Sing Zapatista” (handout)
Cesar Vallejo “The Stones” (handout)
Jorge Luis Borges “Ars Poetica” (handout)
Eduardo Galeano “The History that Might Have Been” (handout)
Weeks 2, 3 & 4:
Mexico
Carlos Fuentes “The Doll Queen” (McNees)
Octavio Paz “Hymn Among the Ruins” (Moodle)
Mariano Azuela The Underdogs: A Novel of the Mexican Revolution
Subcomandante Marcos “Five Hundred Years of Indigenous Resistance” (handout)
Rosario Castellanos, selected poems (handout)
Coral Bracho, selected poems (handout)
Week 5:
Cuba & Agrarian Reform
Alejo Carpienter Prologue: The Kingdom of This World (handout)
Jorge Mañach Robato “America’s Quixotic Character” (handout)
Guillermo Cabrera Infante “Scenes of a World Without Columbus” (handout)
Jose Marti, “Two Countries” (handout) & “Our America” (handout)
Ernesto “Che” Guevara “Song to Fidel” (handout)
Dulce Maria Loynaz, collected poems (handout)
*Response paper due 2/18: 2-3 page essay in which you analyze Neruda’s “United
Fruit” and Paz’ “Hymn Among the Ruins.”
Week 6:
Central America & the Caribbean: “America’s Delicate Waist”
Martín Espada, selected poems (handout)
Ana Istarú, selected poems (handout)
Alaide Foppa, selected poems (handout)
Claribel Alegría, selected poems (handout)
Roberto Sosa, selected poems (handout)
Weeks 7 & 8:
Dominican Republic
Junot Díaz The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
*Additional readings by Díaz and Julia Alvarez are available on our Moodle site.
*MIDTERM EXAMINATION; the midterm examination will consist of a series of essays
that you will complete at home. The exam will be handed in after the spring break.
Week 9: (3/15 & 3/17) SPRING BREAK
*Consider visiting El Museo del Barrio for their Biennial! See elmuso.org for details.
Week 10:
Colombia: Shifting conceptions of magic...
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, selected stories TBD
--One Hundred Years of Solitude (excerpt, handout)
*Midterm examination is due on Thursday 3/24.
Week 11:
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Tuesday (3/29): “Dialogue with the Mirror,” “Monologue of Isabel Watching it Rain in
Macondo,” and “Balthazar’s Marvelous Afternoon”
Thursday (3/31): “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings,” “The Sea of Lost Time,”
and “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World”
Week 12:
Peru & The New Imperialism
Daniel Alarcon War by Candlelight
William Finnegan “Tears of the Sun” (see Moodle)
Amitav Ghosh, “The Great Derangement” (lecture screening in class Thursday 4/7)
*On Tuesday 4/5, the college is closed for a college-wide conference. No classes will
be held.
Week 13:
Fiction & Climate Change
Introduction to Ecocriticism: Alarcón & Ghosh
Weeks 14 & 15:
Chile, Nostalgia, and Dictatorship
Roberto Bolaño Amulet
Pablo Neruda, selected poems (handout)
Isabel Allende “An Act of Vengeance” (handout)
Marjorie Agosin, selected poems (handout)
*Response Paper #2 due: 2-3 page analysis of primary texts for research paper.
(Due Thursday 4/21)
*Term Paper: 7-10 page formal analysis of 2-3 works of fiction, which you support
with 2-3 approved critical articles. You are to pose an original argument (i.e., what
you think about the literary works—their aesthetic qualities, etc.), and you are to
support your reading of the works with your critical sources.
*Some examples:
1) Comparative analysis of Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and Julia
Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies, which are both characterized as “dictator
novels,” but which use very different narrative/aesthetic approaches.
2) Ecocritical analysis of Daniel Alarcon’s City of Clowns in which you look at the actual
literature of the Cerro de Pasco mine. Here you will discuss how Alarcon’s work serves
a social/political function.
3) Comparative analysis of such naturalist works as Mariano Azuela’s The Underdogs
and the poetry of Cesar Vallejo in which you attend specifically to the imagery in the
works.
4) Discussion of representative magical realist texts in which you emphasize the power of
this particular artistic strategy. Here you may use Marquez as one of your sources.
Week 16:
Brazil & the Neoliberal Dream
Jorge Amado “Sweat” (McNees)
Clarice Lispector “The Imitation of the Rose” (McNees)
*Vik Muniz’s Waste Land: screening TBA
Week 16:
Argentina
Jorge Luis Borges “Death and the Compass” (McNees) & “Argumentum
Ornithologicum” (see Moodle)
*Term papers due.