31174 - Hispano-American Literature 2

Academic Year 2018/2019

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Foreign Languages and Literature (cod. 0979)

    Also valid for First cycle degree programme (L) in Foreign Languages and Literature (cod. 0979)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student knows in a satisfactory way the general problems and single aspects of the history of literature. He is able to understand and translate texts in the original language, he has acquired the basic theoretical knowledge necessary to face the critical interpretation of their contents and is able to comment and expose texts according to specific methodologies for the analysis of the literary text .

Course contents

Ficción and history in the Spanish-American culture of the twentieth century

The Hispano-American culture, from its origins, has felt the need to define itself and understand itself through its -greated-history. The course presents itself as a panorama of some modalities of this attempt at 'historical understanding' through the work of authors of the twentieth century. Particular attention will be paid to some modalities of this interest in history such as non-fiction (in particular the work of Rodolfo Walsh), the nueva novela histórica (Alejo Carpentier, Ibargüengoitia, Tomás Eloy Martínez) hinting at the forms with which this relationship between storytelling and history has manifested itself in mass culture, referring to the work of the Argentine cartoonist HG Oesterheld (Latinoamérica y el Imperialism, 450 años de guerra) and Eduardo Villacis (El espejo humeante)

Readings/Bibliography

1) Primary sources:
Alejo Carpentier, El arpa y la sombra, Madrid, Siglo XXI, 1998.
Jorge Ibargüengoitia, Los pasos de López, Ciudad de México, Joaquín Mortiz, 1998.
Tomás Eloy Martínez, Santa Evita, Barcelona, Seix Barral, 1995.
Rodolfo Walsh, Operacion Masacre, Buenos Aires, Ediciones de la Flor, 2000.
Oesterheld Héctor G. and Durañona Leopoldo, Latinoamérica y el Imperialism. 450 años de guerra, Buenos Aires, Doeyo and Viniegra Editores, 2004.

Villacis, Eduardo, El espejo humeante, Quito, Xupuy Editorial, 2003.

2) Secondary sources:
A)
Marchese Angelo, The workshop of the story: semiotics of narrativity, Milan, Mondadori, 1990.
B)
White, Hayden, Rhetoric and History, Naples, Guida, 1978.
Certeau, Michel de, The writing of history, Milan, Jaca book, 2006.
Koselleck, Reinhart, Past Future: for a semantics of historical times, Genoa, Marietti, 1986.

C)
Kohut, Karl (ed.), La invención del pasado. La novela histórica en el marco de la posmodernidad.Madrid, Vervuert, 1997.
Magdalena Perkowska. Historias Híbridas. La nueva novela histórica Latin American (1985-2000) before the theoretical posmodernas de la historia, Colección Nexos y Diferencias, Nº 19, Madrid, Iberoamericana-Vervuert, 2008.
Menton, Seymour. La nueva novela histórica de la América Latina, 1979-1992.

The bibliography provided above is to be considered provisional. Larger bibliographic indications will be provided during the course and after its conclusion.

Teaching methods

In addition to the lectures, the course includes seminars on some topics related to the sources studied, as well as the theoretical and methodological tools relevant to their study (further information will be provided during the lessons)

Assessment methods

The exam will be divided into two parts: (a) preparation of a critical essay (essay) of ca. 15 records and (b) oral interview.
(a) Regarding the term paper (which must be delivered to the teacher at least one week before the date on which they intend to take the exam) it will be an analysis of a topic or a text addressed during the course. (Non-attending students are strongly encouraged to contact the teacher for useful information on this aspect).

An essay coherently developed, well written, not without a certain interpretive perspicacity will lead to an evaluation of excellence; the lack of one or more qualities mentioned, will lead to evaluations that will result in discrete or sufficient evaluations; an incoherent essay, insufficiently developed, scarcely or at all relevant to the subjects touched in the course, or manifestly the result of copying and pasting, will not allow to be admitted to the oral exam.

(b) The oral examination will consist of an interview which will cover the topics of the course. As for the first year, the interview will have the purpose of evaluating the critical and methodological skills acquired by the student who will have to demonstrate an appropriate knowledge of the contents of the texts examined and of the proposed bibliography. The student's achievement of an organic vision of the topics dealt with in a joint lesson with their critical use, the demonstration of an expressive mastery and specific language will be evaluated with marks of excellence.
The mostly mnemonic knowledge of the subject, in-depth synthesis and analysis skills and a correct but not always appropriate language will lead to discrete evaluations.
Approximate knowledge, superficial understanding, poor analytical skills and not always appropriate expression will lead to evaluations between sufficiency and little more.
Training gaps, inappropriate language, lack of orientation within the contents and bibliographic materials proposed in the program can only be evaluated negatively.

Teaching tools

We will mainly resort to video projection of images, texts and slides. For a better organization of materials and contents the online platform of the course will be used, the materials made available are INTEGRANT and NECESSARY (but not sufficient) of the exam program.

Office hours

See the website of Edoardo Balletta