LITT 334 Latin American Literature

3 credits 45.0 hours
300 level undergraduate course

Throughout history, Latin American writers have had to negotiate aesthetic and stylistic concerns with the historical and social realities surrounding them-bloody colonial conditions, traumatic postcolonial transitions, puppet regimes, warlords, tyrannical governments. This course will look at the forerunners to the so-called “Boom” of Latin American literature on the world stage in the 1960s-70s, at some of the Boom’s central figures, such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Mario Vargas Llosa, and at contemporary reactions to the Boom by writers such as Valeria Luiselli, Samanta Schweblin, and Juan Gabriel Vasquez. We will explore the tensions between magic realism and realism as well as the possibilities of style, the high and low registers, the comic hard on the heels of the tragic, sprawling tableaux, formal inventiveness, and energy.

Prerequisites COMP*102, COMP*102D, COMP*102E, COMP*112, or COMP*112H

This course is not repeatable for credit.
This course can fulfill a critical studies elective or general elective requirement.