Topics in Latinx Literature (377-0-1)

Instructors

Mariajose Rodriguez Pliego

Meeting Info

Locy Hall 109: Mon, Wed 9:30AM - 10:50AM

Overview of class

U.S. Latinx and Latin American feminist literatures are often discussed as separate categories with distinct sociopolitical contexts. This course makes the case that it is not only logical but also necessary to embark on comparative readings of feminist cultural production from across the hemisphere. It weaves together feminist language surrounding the Ni Una Menos, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW), and Me Too movements to frame these conversations within a transnational and transhistorical scope. This course considers female and queer writers from the twentieth and twenty first centuries who have sought to reframe women's roles in Latinx and Latin American cultural production. We will read stories about traitors, witches, and madwomen; stories that center language as our main instrument to fabricate and rupture gender roles. Our discussions will pay particular attention to the literary traditions that authors take up to narrate the unsettling reality of gender-based violence: surrealism, horror, realist fiction, and hybrid forms. We will explore how feminist reformulations of horror, surrealism, and realism respond to the male-dominated traditions of magical realism and nationalist movements. We will also study the non-textual mediums through which feminists have historically made themselves heard, namely protest movements, performance work, and visual art.

Teaching Method

Discussion-based course.

Evaluation Method

Midterm and final papers, attendance and participation.

Class Materials (Required)

Short stories, visual art, poetry and essays from Amparo Dávila, Cherríe Moraga, Verónica Gago, Gloria Anzaldúa, Mariana Enríquez, among others.

All materials will be scanned and uploaded to Canvas.

Class Attributes

Advanced Expression
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area
U.S. Perspectives on Power, Justice, and Equity