Cultures of Spanish-Speaking Countries Ii

"Contemporary Chronicle in Latin America: Margins and Resistance"
Since the beginning of the 21st century, the chronicle has been experiencing a moment of great impact and acceptance in Latin America. Although its earliest antecedents are the chronicles of the 'conquistadores', and in the 20th century it had a remarkable development with figures such as Gabriel García Márquez, Carlos Monsiváis and Elena Poniatowska, in recent decades the chronicle has acquired an important role. But what exactly is the chronicle today: journalism, reportage or literature? The chronicle has been called 'the platypus of prose' (Villoro), as it is a textual space in which different genres overlap: reportage, the short story, the interview, the dialogue, the essay, the testimony, autobiography and first-person narrative, among others. In this sense, through hybrid writing, contemporary reporters have found a way to "make art without the need to invent anything" (Jaramillo Agudelo), immersing themselves in reality without "the urgency to produce news". In this course, we will approach different Latin American realities based on the chronicles of six authors and integrate the readings with other cultural artefacts, such as films, performances, visual arts, songs, etc. In this way, we will be able to observe how these stories, together with the cultural objects, illuminate both the margin and the resistances that take place there, transforming the margin into centrality.
The program is as follows:
1. AIDS, social inequality and marginalization in Chile: Pedro Lemebel.
2. The faces of Central American migration: Balam Rodrigo.
3. Dismantling gender-based violence and feminicide in Mexico: Cristina Rivera Garza.
4. Revisiting Racism, Dispossession, and Colonial Practices in Peru: Gabriela Weiner.
5. State violence and the deconstruction of memory in Argentina: María Moreno and Rodolfo Walsh.