30081 - Spanish-American Literature 1 (LM)

Academic Year 2019/2020

Course contents

A slight decline of the real: new Latin American imaginaries between dystopia and ucronia

The course, ideal continuation of the previous one - but totally independent of this - is proposed as a first survey of what appears to be a new way of narration / reflection on the present no longer in terms (as in the previous course) of testimony and journalism literary, but in the form of narratives that take place in an almost common and current present in which, however, elements, stylistic elements and narrative techniques of dystopian and ucronic literature are inserted.

Readings/Bibliography

Primary Sources:

Cárdenas Juan, Ornamento, Periferica, Bogotá, 2015

Rabasa Eduardo, Cinta negra, Pepitas, Logroño, 2017

Rabasa Eduardo, La suma de los ceros, Pepitas, Logroño, 2015

Emilio Gordillo Chroma, Alquimia, Santiago, 2013.

Secondary Sources:

Suvin, D. (2010). Defined by a hollow: Essays on utopia, science fiction and political epistemology (6). Francoforte: Peter Lang.

Moylan, Tom, and Raffaella Baccolini. Dark Horizons: Science Fiction and the Dystopian Imagination. Psychology Press, 2003.

Becerra, Eduardo. “De La Abundancia a La Escasez: Distopías Latinoamericanas Del Siglo Xxi.” Cuadernos de literatura 20.40 (2016): 262-75.

Kurlat Ares, Silvia G. “Entre La Utopía Y La Distopía: Política E Ideología En El Discurso Crítico De La Ciencia Ficción.” Revista Iberoamericana83.259 (2017): 410-18.

BIBLIOGRAPHY IN PROGRESS!

Teaching methods

The course includes, in addition to lectures, the seminar investigation of certain issues relating to the sources studied, as well as the instruments, theoretical and methodological, relevant to their study (more information in this regard will be provided during class).

Assessment methods

Assessment methods

The exam will be divided into two parts: (a) paper (tesina) of approx. 15 pages and (b) oral exam.
(A) The paper (which must be delivered to the teacher at least one week before the date they intend to take the exam), this will be the analysis of a topic or text that has been dealt with during the course. (Non-attendingstudents are strongly invited to contact the teacher for useful guidance on this).

A coherently developed essay, well written, does not have a certain perspicacity interpretative 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 sufficientevaluations; an incoherent, insufficiently developed, scarcely, or entirely related to the themes that are touched in the course, or obviously the result of copy and paste, will not allow the student to be admitted to the oral exam.

(B) The oral examination will consist of an interview about the subjects of the course. As for the first year, the interview will be aimed at evaluating the critical and methodological abilities matured by the student who will have to demonstrate appropriate knowledge of the content of the texts examined and the proposed bibliography. The achievement by the student of an organic vision of the themes dealt with in conjunction with their critical use, the demonstration of expressive and specific language skills will be evaluated with excellence marks.
Mostly mnemonic knowledge of the subject, inadequate 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 inappropriate expression will lead to judging between sufficiency and little more.
Lack of training, inappropriate language, lack of orientation within the content and bibliographic materials proposed in the program will only be evaluated negatively.

Teaching tools

Powerpoint and PDF files 

Office hours

See the website of Edoardo Balletta