Literature and Revolution in Latin America (347-0-1)
Instructors
Emily Maguire
847/491-2340
3-125 Crowe
Meeting Info
Fisk Hall 114: Tues, Thurs 11:00AM - 12:20PM
Overview of class
The Cuban Revolution Through the Looking Glass
In 1959, the island nation of Cuba shocked the world when a popular uprising overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista and established a socialist state lead by Fidel Castro. The Cuban Revolution was a divisive event; even as left-leaning political groups around the world heralded it as the dawn of a new world order, thousands of Cubans fled the island, many for the United States. In the more than six decades since 1959, the Revolution and its enigmatic leader(s) have been the subject of inspiration, imitation, and intense debate. And no one has been more involved in these "Cuban Memory Wars," as historian Michael Bustamante has termed them, than Cubans themselves, both those on the island and those in the diaspora. In this course, we will look at how the Cuban Revolution has been portrayed and understood in Cuban literary and cultural production on both sides of the Florida Strait. In this journey, we will read a diverse array of texts produced in both Spanish and English - political speeches, films, short stories, scholarly essays, novels, memoirs and videos - in an attempt to understand how writers and artists in Cuba as well as Cubans and Cuban Americans in the U.S. have addressed questions of political engagement, national identity, the place of art in political revolution, and the challenges Cuba has faced in the post-Soviet era. Prerequisite: SPANISH 250-0, SPANISH 251-0, SPANISH 260-0, or SPANISH 261-0, OR by permission of the instructor.
Registration Requirements
Prerequisite: SPANISH 250-0, SPANISH 251-0, SPANISH 260-0, or SPANISH 261-0 OR by permission of the instructor.
Learning Objectives
This course is in the Foundational Discipline-Literature and Arts category. As such, throughout this course, students will:
• Observe the forms, genres, and styles of literary and artistic expression in Cuban and Cuban American literary and cultural production of the second half of the 20th century and early 21st century through the practices of close reading and the analysis of cultural objects.
• Gain an awareness of the social, political, cultural, and historical factors influencing artistic expression in post-revolutionary Cuba and the Cuban diaspora, the relations between the artist and the public, and the potential of creative art to challenge or to affirm social and cultural norms.
• Gain an appreciation for the ways in which literature and the arts engage with and represent social movements and political change; the treatment of histories (literary and political), and questions of national and regional identity formation, and the relationship of exile and diaspora to these questions.
• Through class participation, an oral presentation, and written assignments, students will produce acts of persuasive interpretation, analysis, and commentary on literature, film, and visual art.
• Students will develop their writing and speaking skills in Spanish and sharpen their powers of interpretation, critique, and aesthetic perception. This will involve summarizing, close reading, contextualizing and synthesizing analyses of course texts in two short essays and a final project.
During the quarter, students will engage with scholarship on a wide range of processes that shaped literary and cultural production in contemporary Cuba and by Cuban writers and artists in the diaspora. They will explore the cultural and historical bases of Cuba's socio-political transformation and its effects on ideas of race, class, and gender.
Class Materials (Required)
• Garcia, Christina. Dreaming in Cuban. 1993. Ballantine Books. ISBN: 0345381432
• Bustamante, Michael. Cuban Memory Wars. University of North Carolina Press, 2021. ISBN: 1469662035.
Class Attributes
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area
Enrollment Requirements
Enrollment Requirements: Prerequisite: 1 course from SPANISH 250-0, SPANISH 251-0, SPANISH 260-0, or SPANISH 261-0