Latin American Spanish (MA)
A.Y. 2019/2020
Learning objectives
The course offers an in-depth overview of the main literary phenomena in Hispano-American contexts, with particular attention to the relationship between aesthetics and politics, between literary and artistic texts, and historical-political contexts of reference. The aim is to provide highly innovative tools and models for the analysis of the structures and forms of narration, applied in particular to the problems of translation, including intersemiotics, and literature teaching.
Expected learning outcomes
Knowledge and skills: the student acquires specialized skills in the analysis of contemporary Hispanic American texts and contexts, with particular attention to literary phenomena that intertwine the aesthetic and political dimensions. He or she recognizes independently the literary value of the main texts, in their structural, stylistic and gender specificities.
Applied skills: the student is able to use the main critical analysis tools with properties, problematizing them and integrating them with the most current and innovative approaches.
Moreover, he refines the communication and reworking skills of the acquired contents, both in written and oral form, he learns to work in a team also with the use of multimedia technologies, he develops the critical spirit and the ability to question traditional theories and methodologies.
Applied skills: the student is able to use the main critical analysis tools with properties, problematizing them and integrating them with the most current and innovative approaches.
Moreover, he refines the communication and reworking skills of the acquired contents, both in written and oral form, he learns to work in a team also with the use of multimedia technologies, he develops the critical spirit and the ability to question traditional theories and methodologies.
Lesson period: Second semester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course cannot be attended as a single course. Please check our list of single courses to find the ones available for enrolment.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
Second semester
Course syllabus
The course is entitled The European Imaginary in the Construction of Latin American Thought (19th and 20th centuries) and consists of the following three teaching units, which will be addressed in sequence:
A: 1810-1898: Lights and shadows of Latin American independence.
B: The paradigms of crossbreeding, transculturation and cultural heterogeneity
C: Decolonial thinking
The course aims to trace the general coordinates for understanding the complexity of Latin American scenarios, in their relationship with the European heritage, starting from categories such as crossbreeding, transculturation, cultural heterogeneity. After sketching a synthetic geographical mapping of the Continent, the main elements for the understanding of its history will be defined, with particular attention to the experience of colonization, seal of the multiple socio-cultural status inherent in the territory.
In Unit A, an attempt will be made to reflect on the process of construction and negotiation of national identities through the production of essays that emerged at the turn of the first centenary of the beginning of the independence processes (1810), thus exemplifying the main nuclei of problems in the Hispanic American space, between Europeanism and refounding.
In Unit B the theoretical paradigms of transculturation and heterogeneity, central to the interpretation of migratory phenomena and cultural encounters, will be examined in depth.
In Unit C an overview of Latin American decolonial thought will be offered (Enrique Dussel; Walter Mignolo Ramón Grosfoguel; Aníbal Quijano; Catherine Walsh; Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui).
The textual analysis will be conducted through the analysis tools offered by imagology (D.H. Pageaux; J. Leerssen) and semiotics
Students interested in acquiring 6 cfu will stick to the program of teaching units A and B; students interested in acquiring 9 cfu will study the full program.
The course program is valid until September 2021 inclusive.
A: 1810-1898: Lights and shadows of Latin American independence.
B: The paradigms of crossbreeding, transculturation and cultural heterogeneity
C: Decolonial thinking
The course aims to trace the general coordinates for understanding the complexity of Latin American scenarios, in their relationship with the European heritage, starting from categories such as crossbreeding, transculturation, cultural heterogeneity. After sketching a synthetic geographical mapping of the Continent, the main elements for the understanding of its history will be defined, with particular attention to the experience of colonization, seal of the multiple socio-cultural status inherent in the territory.
In Unit A, an attempt will be made to reflect on the process of construction and negotiation of national identities through the production of essays that emerged at the turn of the first centenary of the beginning of the independence processes (1810), thus exemplifying the main nuclei of problems in the Hispanic American space, between Europeanism and refounding.
In Unit B the theoretical paradigms of transculturation and heterogeneity, central to the interpretation of migratory phenomena and cultural encounters, will be examined in depth.
In Unit C an overview of Latin American decolonial thought will be offered (Enrique Dussel; Walter Mignolo Ramón Grosfoguel; Aníbal Quijano; Catherine Walsh; Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui).
The textual analysis will be conducted through the analysis tools offered by imagology (D.H. Pageaux; J. Leerssen) and semiotics
Students interested in acquiring 6 cfu will stick to the program of teaching units A and B; students interested in acquiring 9 cfu will study the full program.
The course program is valid until September 2021 inclusive.
Prerequisites for admission
The course is held in Spanish. The materials and the bibliography of the examination presuppose skills in literary history, use of terminology and critical and textual analysis acquired in previous courses.
Teaching methods
The course adopts the following teaching methods: lectures and seminars. For the students attending, the course includes in itinere tests and written and oral presentations.
Teaching Resources
UNIT A
Models and misunderstandings of Latin American emancipation: emancipation and (re)foundations: the colony syndrome between independence and continuity (Bolívar, Bello, Sarmiento, Bilbao); Ideologies of the crossbreeding and genius loci: arielism and tellurism (Rodó, Vasconcelos).
Bolívar S. (1815 [1965]), "Carta de Jamaica" (The Jamaica Letter. Lettre a un habitant de la Jamaique), Ministerio de Educación, Caracas.
Sarmiento D.F. (1845 [1990]), «Revolución de 1810», in Facundo. Civilización y barbarie. Vida de Juan Facundo Quiroga, Madrid, Cátedra.
Sarmiento D.F. (1845[1948]), "Un día en Francia", Obras, II. Artículos críticos y literarios. 1842-1853. Bs.As, Editorial Luz del Día, pp. 293-307, 1948
Bilbao, F., 1858, "Iniciativas de América. Idea de un congreso federal de las Repúblicas", http://www.filosofia.org/aut/002/fbb1285.htm
Uslar Pietri A., (1925[1996]), «América no fue descubierta», in La invención de América mestiza, compilación y presentación de Gustavo Luis Carrera, Fondo de Cultura Económica, México, pp. 342-47.
Rodó J.E., (1900 [1976]), Ariel (Motivos de Proteo), Ayacucho, Caracas. [selezione di capitoli]
Vasconcelos J., (1948[1989]), La raza cósmica: misión de la raza iberoamericana, Ayacucho, Caracas. [selezione di testi]
UNIT B
Mestizaje and heterogeneity as cultural categories (Mariátegui, Martí, Cornejo Polar); Transculturation and its rewritings (Ortiz, Fernández Retamar)
Martí J., 1891/1995, «Nuestra América», La revista ilustrada, New York 1891, in Ensayos y crónicas, a cura di J.O. Jiménez, Anaya, Madrid, pp. 117-26.
Fernández Retamar R., 1971, «Calibán. Apuntes sobre la cultura en nuestra América», Casa de las Américas, XII, 68, pp. 124-51.
Ortiz F., 1940/1991, «Del fenómeno social de la transculturación y de su importancia en Cuba», in Contrapunteo cubano del tabaco y del azúcar, Ciencias Sociales, La Habana.
Ortiz F., 1940, «Los factores humanos de la cubanidad», Revista Bimestre cubana, Primer Semestre, XLV: pp. 160-168.
Fernández Retamar R., 1976, «Nuestra América y el Occidente», Casa de las Américas, 98, pp. 36-57.
Cornejo Polar A., 1994b, «Mestizaje, transculturación, heterogeneidad», Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana, XX, 40, pp. 368-71.
Cornejo Polar A., 1978, «El indigenismo y las literaturas heterogéneas: su doble estatuto socio-cultural», Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana, IV, 7-8, pp. 7-21.
UNIT C
Esiste il postcolonialismo in America Latina?. Sistema/Mondo moderno/Coloniale: Enrique Dussel; Walter Mignolo; La colonialità del potere: Aníbal Quijano; La geopolitica della conoscenza: Ramón Grosfoguel; Catherine Walsh; Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui
Dussel, Enrique, "Sistema mundo y transmodernidad", in Saurabh Dube, Ishita Banerjee y Walter Mignolo (eds.), Modernidades coloniales, México, El Colegio de México, 2004, pp. 201-226.
Mignolo, Walter, "'Un paradigma otro': colonialidad global, pensamiento fronterizo y cosmopolitismo crítico", in Historias locales-diseños globales: colonialidad, conocimientos subalternos y pensamiento fronterizo, Madrid: Akal, 2003, pp. 19-60.
Quijano, Aníbal,. "Colonialidad del poder y clasificación social", Journal of World-System Research. (2, 2000): 342-386.
Quijano, Aníbal, "Colonialidad del poder, eurocentrismo y América Latina", Edgardo Lander (ed.), La Colonialidad del saber: Eurocentrismo y Ciencias Sociales. Perspectivas Latinoamericanas, Caracas, Clacso, 2000, pp. 201-245.
Walsh, Catherine, "¿Son posibles unas ciencias sociales/culturales otras? Reflexiones en torno a las epistemologías decoloniales", Nomadas (26, 2000): 102-113.
Grosfoguel, Ramón, "La descolonización de la economía política y los estudios postcoloniales. Transmodernidad, pensamiento fronterizo y colonialidad global", Tabula Rasa (4, 2007): 17-48.
Walsh, Catherine. 2005. "(Re)pensamiento crítico y (de)colonialidad", in Catherine Walsh (ed.), Pensamiento crítico y matriz (de)colonial. Reflexiones latinoamericanas, Quito: Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar-Abya-Yala, pp. 13-35.
Walsh, Catherine, "Interculturalidad y (de)colonialidad: diferencia y nación de otro modo", in Desarrollo e interculturalidad, imaginario y diferencia: la nación en el mundo Andino, Quito: Academica de la Latinidad, 2006, pp 27-43..
Dussel, Enrique, "Europa, modernidad y eurocentrismo", in Edgardo Lander (ed.), La colonialidad del saber: eurocentrismo y ciencias sociales. Perspectivas latinoamericanas, Buenos Aires: CLACSO, 2000, pp. 41-43.
Rivera Cusicanqui, Silvia,"Chhixinakax utxiwa. Una reflexión sobre prácticas y discursos descolonizadores" in Mario Yupi (comp.). Modernidad y pensamiento descolonizador. Memoria del Seminario Internacional, La Paz: U-PIEB - IFEA, 2006, pp. 3-16.
CRITICAL TEXTS
Amselle J.L., 1999, Logiche meticce. Antropologia dell'identità in Africa e altrove, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino.
Perassi E./Scarabelli L. (eds.), 2010, Itinerari di Cultura ispanoamericana, Ritorno alle origini, ritorno delle origini, Torino, Utet. [parte quarta].
Rojas Mix, M., 1991, Los cien nombres de América. Eso que descubrió Colón, Lumen, Barcelona (selezione di capitoli).
Moraña M., 2000/2004, «Modernidad arielista y posmodernidad calibanesca», in Crítica impura, Iberoamericana, Madrid.
Sarlo B., 2002, «Cultural studies: Reworking the Nation», Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, XI, 3, pp. 333-42.
Sobrevilla D., 2001, «Transculturación y heterogeneidad: avatares de dos categorías literarias en América Latina», Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana, XXVII, 54, pp. 21-33.
Toro A. de (a cura di), 1997, Postmodernidad y Postcolonialidad. Breves reflexiones sobre Latinoamérica, Vervuert, Francoforte.
PLEASE NOTE:
The program is not intended to be complete and will be integrated with a series of essays, readings and insights that will be indicated at the beginning of the course and during the lessons. We therefore recommend a careful and constant monitoring of the Ariel platform (Hispanic American Literature Course), both by attending and non-attending students. All the supplementary texts uploaded on the course page are to be considered an integral part of the examination program.
Models and misunderstandings of Latin American emancipation: emancipation and (re)foundations: the colony syndrome between independence and continuity (Bolívar, Bello, Sarmiento, Bilbao); Ideologies of the crossbreeding and genius loci: arielism and tellurism (Rodó, Vasconcelos).
Bolívar S. (1815 [1965]), "Carta de Jamaica" (The Jamaica Letter. Lettre a un habitant de la Jamaique), Ministerio de Educación, Caracas.
Sarmiento D.F. (1845 [1990]), «Revolución de 1810», in Facundo. Civilización y barbarie. Vida de Juan Facundo Quiroga, Madrid, Cátedra.
Sarmiento D.F. (1845[1948]), "Un día en Francia", Obras, II. Artículos críticos y literarios. 1842-1853. Bs.As, Editorial Luz del Día, pp. 293-307, 1948
Bilbao, F., 1858, "Iniciativas de América. Idea de un congreso federal de las Repúblicas", http://www.filosofia.org/aut/002/fbb1285.htm
Uslar Pietri A., (1925[1996]), «América no fue descubierta», in La invención de América mestiza, compilación y presentación de Gustavo Luis Carrera, Fondo de Cultura Económica, México, pp. 342-47.
Rodó J.E., (1900 [1976]), Ariel (Motivos de Proteo), Ayacucho, Caracas. [selezione di capitoli]
Vasconcelos J., (1948[1989]), La raza cósmica: misión de la raza iberoamericana, Ayacucho, Caracas. [selezione di testi]
UNIT B
Mestizaje and heterogeneity as cultural categories (Mariátegui, Martí, Cornejo Polar); Transculturation and its rewritings (Ortiz, Fernández Retamar)
Martí J., 1891/1995, «Nuestra América», La revista ilustrada, New York 1891, in Ensayos y crónicas, a cura di J.O. Jiménez, Anaya, Madrid, pp. 117-26.
Fernández Retamar R., 1971, «Calibán. Apuntes sobre la cultura en nuestra América», Casa de las Américas, XII, 68, pp. 124-51.
Ortiz F., 1940/1991, «Del fenómeno social de la transculturación y de su importancia en Cuba», in Contrapunteo cubano del tabaco y del azúcar, Ciencias Sociales, La Habana.
Ortiz F., 1940, «Los factores humanos de la cubanidad», Revista Bimestre cubana, Primer Semestre, XLV: pp. 160-168.
Fernández Retamar R., 1976, «Nuestra América y el Occidente», Casa de las Américas, 98, pp. 36-57.
Cornejo Polar A., 1994b, «Mestizaje, transculturación, heterogeneidad», Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana, XX, 40, pp. 368-71.
Cornejo Polar A., 1978, «El indigenismo y las literaturas heterogéneas: su doble estatuto socio-cultural», Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana, IV, 7-8, pp. 7-21.
UNIT C
Esiste il postcolonialismo in America Latina?. Sistema/Mondo moderno/Coloniale: Enrique Dussel; Walter Mignolo; La colonialità del potere: Aníbal Quijano; La geopolitica della conoscenza: Ramón Grosfoguel; Catherine Walsh; Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui
Dussel, Enrique, "Sistema mundo y transmodernidad", in Saurabh Dube, Ishita Banerjee y Walter Mignolo (eds.), Modernidades coloniales, México, El Colegio de México, 2004, pp. 201-226.
Mignolo, Walter, "'Un paradigma otro': colonialidad global, pensamiento fronterizo y cosmopolitismo crítico", in Historias locales-diseños globales: colonialidad, conocimientos subalternos y pensamiento fronterizo, Madrid: Akal, 2003, pp. 19-60.
Quijano, Aníbal,. "Colonialidad del poder y clasificación social", Journal of World-System Research. (2, 2000): 342-386.
Quijano, Aníbal, "Colonialidad del poder, eurocentrismo y América Latina", Edgardo Lander (ed.), La Colonialidad del saber: Eurocentrismo y Ciencias Sociales. Perspectivas Latinoamericanas, Caracas, Clacso, 2000, pp. 201-245.
Walsh, Catherine, "¿Son posibles unas ciencias sociales/culturales otras? Reflexiones en torno a las epistemologías decoloniales", Nomadas (26, 2000): 102-113.
Grosfoguel, Ramón, "La descolonización de la economía política y los estudios postcoloniales. Transmodernidad, pensamiento fronterizo y colonialidad global", Tabula Rasa (4, 2007): 17-48.
Walsh, Catherine. 2005. "(Re)pensamiento crítico y (de)colonialidad", in Catherine Walsh (ed.), Pensamiento crítico y matriz (de)colonial. Reflexiones latinoamericanas, Quito: Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar-Abya-Yala, pp. 13-35.
Walsh, Catherine, "Interculturalidad y (de)colonialidad: diferencia y nación de otro modo", in Desarrollo e interculturalidad, imaginario y diferencia: la nación en el mundo Andino, Quito: Academica de la Latinidad, 2006, pp 27-43..
Dussel, Enrique, "Europa, modernidad y eurocentrismo", in Edgardo Lander (ed.), La colonialidad del saber: eurocentrismo y ciencias sociales. Perspectivas latinoamericanas, Buenos Aires: CLACSO, 2000, pp. 41-43.
Rivera Cusicanqui, Silvia,"Chhixinakax utxiwa. Una reflexión sobre prácticas y discursos descolonizadores" in Mario Yupi (comp.). Modernidad y pensamiento descolonizador. Memoria del Seminario Internacional, La Paz: U-PIEB - IFEA, 2006, pp. 3-16.
CRITICAL TEXTS
Amselle J.L., 1999, Logiche meticce. Antropologia dell'identità in Africa e altrove, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino.
Perassi E./Scarabelli L. (eds.), 2010, Itinerari di Cultura ispanoamericana, Ritorno alle origini, ritorno delle origini, Torino, Utet. [parte quarta].
Rojas Mix, M., 1991, Los cien nombres de América. Eso que descubrió Colón, Lumen, Barcelona (selezione di capitoli).
Moraña M., 2000/2004, «Modernidad arielista y posmodernidad calibanesca», in Crítica impura, Iberoamericana, Madrid.
Sarlo B., 2002, «Cultural studies: Reworking the Nation», Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, XI, 3, pp. 333-42.
Sobrevilla D., 2001, «Transculturación y heterogeneidad: avatares de dos categorías literarias en América Latina», Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana, XXVII, 54, pp. 21-33.
Toro A. de (a cura di), 1997, Postmodernidad y Postcolonialidad. Breves reflexiones sobre Latinoamérica, Vervuert, Francoforte.
PLEASE NOTE:
The program is not intended to be complete and will be integrated with a series of essays, readings and insights that will be indicated at the beginning of the course and during the lessons. We therefore recommend a careful and constant monitoring of the Ariel platform (Hispanic American Literature Course), both by attending and non-attending students. All the supplementary texts uploaded on the course page are to be considered an integral part of the examination program.
Assessment methods and Criteria
The exam consists of an individual interview, which includes questions asked by the teacher, interactions between teacher and student and the analysis and commentary of one or more passages taken from the works in the program. The interview, in Spanish language, lasts about 20 minutes. The interview aims to verify the knowledge of the texts studied, the ability to contextualize authors and works, the ability to analyze the text, the ability to exposition, the accuracy in the use of specific terminology, the ability to reflect critically and personally on the proposed themes. The final grade is expressed in thirtieths, and the student has the right to reject it (in which case it will be recorded as "withdrawn"). For the students attending, there will be introduced in itinere tests, at the end of the different modules, and presentations of written and oral group work.
Other information:
International students or Erasmus incoming students are invited to contact the teacher of the course in advance.
Examination procedures for students with disabilities and/or DSA must be agreed with the teacher, in agreement with the competent office.
Other information:
International students or Erasmus incoming students are invited to contact the teacher of the course in advance.
Examination procedures for students with disabilities and/or DSA must be agreed with the teacher, in agreement with the competent office.
Unita' didattica A
L-LIN/06 - LATIN AMERICAN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES - University credits: 3
Lessons: 20 hours
Unita' didattica B
L-LIN/06 - LATIN AMERICAN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES - University credits: 3
Lessons: 20 hours
Unita' didattica C
L-LIN/06 - LATIN AMERICAN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES - University credits: 3
Lessons: 20 hours
Professor(s)