Cuban Literature and Film: Imagination, Revolt, and Melancholia (CLAC 1.0)
CHUM 315
Spring 2024 not offered
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| Crosslisting:
CGST 324, COL 314, LAST 315, SPAN 296 |
| Course Cluster and Certificates: Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory Certificate |
This course surveys the major aesthetic and socio-historical movements in modern and contemporary Cuba. Since the late nineteenth century, the island of Cuba has been at the center of a number of key epochal disputes: between colonialism and independence, racism and racial justice, neocolonialism and revolution, liberalism and socialism, isolationism and globalization. In the arts, the turn of the century launched a period of great imaginative invention. Considering the singular place of Cuba in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the globe, this course addresses some of the most representative works of Cuban literature and film since independence until the present time. Imagination, revolt, and melancholia are the three concepts that will orient our discussion. Imagination refers both to artistic creation and to the collective capacity of projecting new worlds, utopias, or impossible realities. Revolt, as opposed to revolution, is not restrained to politics as usual but relates rather to a deep experience of discontent and a return (from the Latin revolvere) to ancient psycho-social strata. Finally, melancholia serves as a point of view to understand what happens when history does not live up to emancipatory expectations. Special attention will be given to Afrocubanismo, ethnographic literature, the avant-garde aesthetics of the group Orígenes, Marvelous Realism, testimony, revolution, socialist experimental film, diaspora, the Special Period, and post-Soviet life. Reading materials and in-class discussions will be in Spanish. Hence, knowledge of advanced Spanish is required. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA CHUM |
| Course Format: Lecture / Discussion | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: SPAN221 |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (CSCT)(HISP)(HRAD-MN) |
Major Readings:
ALEJO CARPENTIER, EL REINO DE ESTE MUNDO
SAMANTA SCHWEBLIN, DISTANCIA DE RESCATE
FERNANDA MELCHOR, TEMPORADA DE HURACANES
MABEL MORAÑA, THE MONSTER AS WAR MACHINE
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Examinations and Assignments:
Preparation/Participation (20%); Response Paper x2 (10% each); Presentation (20%); Final Paper (40%) |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
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