Time Schedule:
Maria Diaz
SPAN 492
Seattle Campus
Focuses on an individual Latin American author or a special problem in Latin American literature. Prerequisite: either SPAN 303, SPAN 316, or SPAN 330; SPAN 321; SPAN 322; one additional 300-level literature course.
Class description
This course will study the intersection between realism and the fantastic, focusing on the fiction of three major 20th century Latin American authors: Gabriel García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Jorge Luis Borges. We will devote special attention to narrative technique, in particular with an eye to identifying the formal differences between the novel and the short story. Other topics that we will discuss include: ecological conscience, primitivism, North American colonialism in Latin America, postmodernism, the tension between the indigenous/African and the European in Latin American identity.
Readings: García Márquez, Cien años de soledad. Borges, selected short stories. Vargas Llosa, El hablador.
Requirements: two take-home essay exams, reading quizzes, class participation.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Recommended preparation
Class assignments and grading
