Location: Bowdoin / Latin American Studies / Courses / Spring 2010

Latin American Studies

Spring 2010

Courses


205. Advanced Spanish: Elena Cueto-Asin M 11:30 - 12:55
W 11:30 - 12:55Sills-205; The study of a variety of journalistic and literary texts and visual media, together with an advanced grammar review, designed to increase written and oral proficiency, as well as appreciation of the cultural history of the Spanish-speaking world. Foundational course for the major. Three class hours per week and one weekly conversation session with assistant.
209. Introduction to Hispanic Studies: Poetry and Theater: Gustavo Faveron-Patriau T 2:30 - 3:55
TH 2:30 - 3:55Edward Pols House-Conf Room; A chronological introduction to the cultural production of the Spanish-speaking world from Pre-Columbian times to the present, with particular emphasis on the analysis of poetry and theater. Examines major literary works and movements in their historical and cultural context. One weekly workshop with assistant in addition to class time. Conducted in Spanish.
209. Introduction to Hispanic Studies: Poetry and Theater: Enrique Yepes M 1:00 - 2:25
W 1:00 - 2:25Sills-207; A chronological introduction to the cultural production of the Spanish-speaking world from Pre-Columbian times to the present, with particular emphasis on the analysis of poetry and theater. Examines major literary works and movements in their historical and cultural context. One weekly workshop with assistant in addition to class time. Conducted in Spanish.
210. Introduction to Hispanic Studies: Essay and Narrative: Elena Cueto-Asin M 2:30 - 3:55
W 2:30 - 3:55Sills-207; A chronological introduction to the cultural production of the Spanish-speaking world from Pre-Columbian times to the present, with particular emphasis on the analysis of essay and narrative. Examines major literary works and movements in their historical and cultural context.
210. Introduction to Hispanic Studies: Essay and Narrative: Nadia Celis T 10:00 - 11:25
TH 10:00 - 11:25Sills-205; A chronological introduction to the cultural production of the Spanish-speaking world from Pre-Columbian times to the present, with particular emphasis on the analysis of essay and narrative. Examines major literary works and movements in their historical and cultural context.
212. Third World Feminism: Karen Lindo T 1:00 - 2:25
TH 1:00 - 2:25Banister-106; The Third World Woman is characterized as poor, uneducated, tradition-bound, sexually constrained and eternally powerless. This course examines the discursive practices that have produced this monolithic woman and moves beyond the objectification of her person to unfold the multiple faces and places in which Third World Feminism is actually at work. Who is the Third World Woman? What are her problems and needs? Is there room in the economy of her person for desires? Course readings will situate her geographically, socio-historically and politically both within the US and in the developing/developed nations that hinge on the periphery of First World ideologies. Sources will include Le Deuxihme Sexe by Simone de Beauvoir, Feminism Without Borders by Chandra Talpade Mohanty, scholarly articles, fictional works (Gishle Pineau, Buchi Emecheta, Zoi Valdis, Nawal El Saadawi, Edwidge Danticat), visual media and active engagement with a key organization in which Third World Feminism is a First World subject. Taught in English. Students of French are encouraged to read and write assignments in French.
229. Maya Archaeology and Ethnohistory: Leslie Shaw M 11:30 - 12:55
W 11:30 - 12:55Adams-406; Focuses on the Maya civilization of Central America using archaeological data and Spanish accounts of traditional Maya life at the time of conquest. Topics include Maya adaptations to diverse tropical environments, the decipherment of Maya writing, political instability and warfare, and Maya cosmology and the continuation of these beliefs into modern times. Semester projects are used for intensive research into selected issues in Maya archaeology.
257. Gender and Sexuality in Latin America: Marie Gaytan T 2:30 - 3:55
TH 2:30 - 3:55Adams-406; How have economic, political, and cultural influences contributed to the creation and maintenance of gender and sexual identities in Latin America? How are these circumstances challenged by Latin Americans? Examines the relational nature of gender and sexuality, considers questions about the material and discursive dimensions of power, and analyzes how both gender and sexuality articulate with other social categories including class, race, ethnicity, religion, and generation.
258. Latin American Revolutions: Allen Wells T 10:00 - 11:25
TH 10:00 - 11:25Sills-109; Examines revolutionary change in Latin America from a historical perspective, concentrating on four cases of attempted revolutionary change—Cuba, Chile, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. Popular images and orthodox interpretations are challenged and new propositions about these processes are tested. External and internal dimensions of each of these social movements are analyzed and each revolution is discussed in the full context of the country’s historical development.
326. A Body "of One's Own": Latina and Caribbean Women Writers: Nadia Celis T 2:30 - 3:55
TH 2:30 - 3:55Sills-209; What do bodies tell or conceal? What does it mean to live in a female body? How does a body become a Self? These are some of the questions addressed in this study of contemporary literature by women writers from the Hispanic Caribbean and the United States Latina community. Films, popular music, soap operas, and advertising dialogue with literary works to explore the relationship between corporeality, power, and the development of female subjectivity, as well as the representation of female bodies in the construction of Caribbean and Latina identities. Authors include Julia Álvarez, Fanny Buitrago, Magali García Ramis, Judith Ortiz Cofer and Mayra Santos-Febres, among others.
337. Hispanic Short Story: Gustavo Faveron-Patriau T 11:30 - 12:55
TH 11:30 - 12:55HL-311 (third floor); An investigation of the short story as a literary genre, beginning in the nineteenth century, involving discussion of its aesthetics, as well as its political, social, and cultural ramifications in the Spanish-speaking world. Authors include Pardo Bazan, Echevarria, Borges, Cortazar, Garcia Marquez, Ferre, and others.
343. Imaginary Cities/Real Cities in Latin America: Carolyne Wolfenzon Niego M 2:30 - 3:55
W 2:30 - 3:55HL-311 (third floor); Examines the representation of urban spaces in Spanish American literature during the last six decades. While mid-twentieth century fictional towns such as Macondo and Comala tended to emphasize exoticism, marginality and remoteness, more recent narratives have abandoned the “magical” and tend to take place in metropolitan spaces that coincide with contemporary large cities such as Lima and Buenos Aires. The treatment of social class divisions and transgressions, territoriality and the impact of the space on the individual experience, are studied in novels, short stories and film from the 1950s to the present. Authors include Rulfo, García Márquez, Onetti, Donoso, Vargas Llosa, Sábato, Reynoso, Ribeyro, Piñera, Gutiérrez, Bellatín, Caicedo, and Junot Díaz, among others.
349. The Americas as Crossroads: Transnational Histories: Allen Wells W 9:30 - 12:25Edward Pols House-Conf Room; An examination of the transnational history of North and South America over the past five hundred years. Students explore this through readings on specific themes including exploration and imperial conquest, trade, migration, labor, warfare, and biological exchange, culminating in an original research paper, based on primary and secondary source research, to meet the requirements of their major.
356. The Cuban Revolution: Allen Wells TH 1:00 - 3:55Hubbard-22; The Cuban Revolution recently celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. Offers a retrospective of a Revolution entering “middle age” and its prospects for the future. Topics include United States-Cuban relations, economic and social justice versus political liberty, gender and race relations, and literature and film in a socialist society.