Topics in Latin American, Latina & Latino, and Iberian Literatures and Cultures (Taught in English) (397-0-2)
Instructors
Jesse Jordan Rothbard
Meeting Info
Kresge Centennial Hall 2-343: Tues, Thurs 3:30PM - 4:50PM
Overview of class
Based on a Real Story: Latin American True Crime
Crime fascinates. Sociologists, historians, and literary critics have long tried to understand why narratives of crime hold such allure for the multitudes of people who consume them in the form of books, weekly podcasts, Netflix specials, videoessays, feature-length films, as well as contemporary art exhibits. However, if fictional stories of crime fascinate, narratives that purport to tell a true story fascinate even more so. The course will explore the history of True Crime as a genre in Latin America through the analysis of a diverse group of cultural artifacts and literary works from two countries: Brazil and Argentina. In the class we will discuss materials ranging from novels (Piglia, Lins, Almada) and films (Aïnouz, Piñeyro) to photographs, podcasts, sensationalistic tabloid articles, and even digitized archival criminal case files. At the center of our discussions will be the question: What truth do these narratives of crime hold and for whom?
The class will be taught in English and the course materials will be available both in English translation as well as in the original Spanish and Portuguese.
Learning Objectives
1. To expand students' use of close-reading and discourse analysis as tools to analyze not only traditional literary works (books, short stories), but also non-literary works (podcasts, print mass media articles, juridical documents).
2. To identify the ways in which political and social institutions employ stories of true crime to produce a specific affective response on the part of those who consume them.
3. To develop awareness of the ways in which different mediums shape the narratives within which they are told and how those mediusm give rise to differing forms of "truth".
Class Materials (Required)
Almada, Selva. Dead Girls. Translated by Annie McDermott. Charco Press, 2020.
ISBN: 9781916277854
Class Materials (Suggested)
All other course materials will be available on canvas.
Class Attributes
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area