This paper is available for the academic year 2025-26.听
This paper gives you the opportunity to study Latin American literature, film, art and photography from the 1970s to the present day.
The paper is organized into a series of topics, authors, film directors and artists aiming to give you in-depth insight into the way culture has responded to profound social and cultural changes throughout the region.
Twelve comparative topics allow for study of issues such as the appeal to the testimonio听genre by subaltern subjects as a means of challenging the elite's hegemony over writing systems since Conquest, the neo-baroque urban chronicles of听queer artists and writers like N茅stor Perlongher and Pedro Lemebel,听the filmic culture of the megacity, the return to the land and rethinking of human-animal relations听in postmodern eco-fiction, the appeal to the听neo-noir听detective fiction format as a means to making sense of听criminal subcultures emergning in a context of neoliberal globalization,听or questions of witnessing听and memory in contemporary art. In the section on individual authors you can look in depth at the听experimental narratives听of Manuel Puig, with their reworking of mass forms, at the hallucinatory prose of Diamela Eltit and Roberto Bola帽o听as they revisit the ongoing effects of Pinochet's military dictatorship in Chile, the meta-testimonios of Laura Restrepo听as they explore new commonalities between subaltern protest and 'escritura femenina', and at the multi-layered installations of internationally renowned Colombian artist Doris Salcedo, among听others.
Although the main focus of the paper is on Spanish-language works, you are welcome to explore Brazilian culture comparatively in answers to the 鈥榯opic鈥� questions.
There are no prerequisites for studying SP13, although it leads on well (without overlap) from Part IB Latin American Culture (SP5), and makes an interesting sister paper for those who wish to take Part II Latin American Culture paper SP12.听
NB not all topics and authors will be lectured on every year. Please see the lecture list for precise coverage. All topics and authors will have exam questions regardless of lectures given, and you may cover any in supervisions.
Topics (Section A):
- La novela de la dictadura
- Latin American Urban Culture
- Rewriting History
- Post-dictatorship Cinema
- Escritura femenina听
- Popular Culture
- Testimonio
- Queer Textualities听
- The Decline and Fall of the Lettered City
- Post-modern Ecologies
- Post-Boom Detective Fiction
- Pathways of Testimony and Memory in Latin American Art
Writers, Film Directors and Artists (Section B):
- Manuel Puig
- Cristina Peri Rossi
- Ricardo Piglia
- Luisa Valenzuela
- Diamela Eltit
- Roberto Bola帽o听
- C茅sar Aira
- Laura Restrepo
- Fernando Solanas
- Patricio Guzm谩n
- Doris Salcedo
- Fernando Vallejo
- Roberto Matta (work post 1968)
- Mariana Enr铆quez
听
- Jean Franco, Cruel Modernity (2014)
- Nelly Richard,听Residuos y met谩foras听- ensayos听de cr铆tica听cultural sobre el Chile de la transici贸n听(1998)听
- Idelber Avelar, The Untimely Present: Post-dictatorial Latin American Fiction and the Task of Mourning (1999)
- Carlos Monsiv谩is, Aires de familia: cultura y sociedad en Am茅rica Latina (2000)
- Francine Masiello, The Art of Transition: Latin American Culture and Neoliberal Crisis (2001).
- George Gugelberger (ed.)听The Real Thing: Testimonial Discourse and Latin America听(1996)
The paper is taught through a standard course of 20 lectures and 8 (3+3+2) supervisions (6-8 for Optional Dissertation students).
The Moodle (see below) is self-registration.
SP13 2025-26:听Please note that this year, the examination reverts to an in-person three-hour format.
PREVIOUS EXAMINATION PAPERS SHOW A DIFFERENT FORMAT.
You are required to answer three questions, at least one from each section.
Candidates for this paper may not draw substantially on material from their dissertations or material which they have used or intend to use in another scheduled paper. Candidates may not draw substantially on the same material in more than one question on the same paper.
Dr Liesbeth Fran莽ois |
