31174 - Hispano-American Literature 2

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student knows the general lines of the history of the literature, is able to read, to understand and to translate spanish-american texts and, at the same time, is able to use the methods and the analytical tools, to interpret the works of the principal authors, in relationship to the context of the culture and the historical period of reference.

En acabando el curso el estudiante conoce de manera satisfactoria las problemáticas generales y aspectos particukares de la historia de la literatura. Es capaz de comprender y traducir textos en lengua original; ha adquirido los conocimientos teóricos de base, necesarios para emprender la interpretación crítica de sus contenidos y puede comentar y exponer textos según metodologías específicas, finalizadas al análisis del texto literario.

Course contents

Opposing Readings of the Conquest and Colonization of America.  
Conflicts and Cultural Paralexias, Processes of Assimilation and Resistance

The course seeks to deepen in the conflicting interpretations of the most significant events in the conquest, putting in confrontation the different cultural perspectives, as well as they can be detected starting from the sources, so much indigenous as European.

 

Readings/Bibliography

Sources

           a)      The Discovery of the Other:

Cortés Hernán, Cartas de relación, Madrid, Castalia, 1993;  

Díaz del Castillo Bernal, Historia verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva España, Madrid, Castalia, 2000;

Bernardino de Sahagún, De la conquista mexicana [Injc matlactetl omume amoxtli, itechpa tlatoain quenjn muchiuh iauiotl in njcan ipan altepetl mexico], in Idem, Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España, 4 voll., a cura di Ángel M. Garibay K., México, Porrúa, 1956; 4 vol., L. XII;

b)     Beginning the Knowledge:

Motolinía [fray Toribio de Benavente], Historia de los indios, Madrid, Castalia, 1991;

Bernardino de Sahagún, Colloquios y doctrina christiana;

c)      A History:

Mendieta Gerónimo de, Historia eclesiástica indiana, Madrid, Atlas, 1973;

Studies

Gruzinski Serge, El pensamiento mestizo: cultura amerindia y civilización del Renacimiento, Barcelona, Paidós Ibérica, 2007;

Pagden Anthony, La caduta dell'uomo naturale: l'indiano d'America e le origini dell'etnologia comparata, Torino, Einaudi, 1989;

Phelan John Leddy, The Millennial Kingdom of the Franciscans in the New World, 2. ed. Revised, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1970 ;

Todorov Tzvetan, La conquista dell'America: il problema dell'altro,  18a ed., Torino: Einaudi, 2008;  

The bibliography furnished above is to consider provisional. Ampler bibliographical indications will be furnished during the course and after its conclusion.

Teaching methods

The course essentially it's based on the frontal didactics, without excluding possible close seminarial discussions.

Assessment methods

The students will have called to compile a paper (tesina), whose formalities will be illustrated to proper time. They will sustain, then, an oral test that will move from theirs elaborate.

Teaching tools

We will apply, mainly, to the projection of texts, images and videos, prepared to the computer, with the possible software employement for the textual analysis.

 

Office hours

See the website of Giovanni Gentile Marchetti