COURSE SYLLABUS: ARGENTINEAN LITERATURE

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Partner Institution: University of Belgrano

Course Title (English): Argentinean Literature

Course Title (Spanish): Literatura Argentina

Sessions Offered: Fall Semester, Spring Semester

Instructional in: Spanish

Classroom Contact Hours: 45 contact hours

College Credit (Semester Credit Hours): 3 credit hours

College Credit (Quarter Units): 4.5 quarter units

Prerequisites: Intermediate II Spanish Level if taught in Spanish

Local Department: Programa de estudios argentinos y latinoamericanos (PEAL)

Course Code: PEAL 322

Course Description

The objective of this course is to learn about Argentinean Literature through the construction of the national identity. In the first place, the student will learn the topics surrounding the gaucho; the conflicts of being captured by the urban culture as a collective subject. The debate will surround the conflict of identity amongst gauchos, Indians and the government. In the second place, selected texts are analyzed from the literary vanguardists from the 1920s and their relation with the city. Buenos Aires as axis of debate. Selection of poems, analysis of rhetorical figures and their origins found in writing. In the third place, the student will study fragments of testimonials from the most recent military coup in Argentina. Testimonials from grandmothers, mothers and children in the genre of the novel. The debate will surround the environment of the limits between fiction and reality as well as the possibility of literature to tell reality. To finalize, the class will introduce the debate of the new circles of literature: blogs, virtual publications, rights of the author in the digital age.

Program Schedule

Week 1

Introducation of the material. Fragments of El Matadero, by Esteban Echeverría.

Week 2

El matadero, by Esteban Echeverría.

Week 3

Fragments of Fausto, by Estanislao del Campo. Fragments of Martín Fierro, by José Hernández.

Week 4

Fragments of the film Martín Fierro, by Fontarrosa.

Week 5

Romanticism, formation of the Argentine nation. Fragments of Facundo, by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento. Discussion: civilization or barbarianism.

Week 6

Literary vanguardists. Buenos Aires: the Boedo group and the Florida group. The concept of ostranenie. Selection of poems from Twenty poems to be read on the tramway, by Oliverio Girondo.

Week 7

Analysis of poems by Oliverio Gironod and Alfonsina Storni: their relation with the city.

Week 8

Selection of short stories by Roberto Arlt and Jorge Luis Borges. La ciudad y sus orillas.

Week 9

Midterm

Week 10

Introduction to the 1970s in Argentina: political and social situation. Discussion about the theoretical/critical articles along with memories of the events. Literary production from these experiences. How to narrate the horror.

Week 11

Los topos, by Felix Bruzzone: testimonial of a son of “desaparecidos” (disappeared)

Week 12

Discussion-debate on Féliz Bruzzone.

Week 13

New circuits for literature: virtual world and its new frontiers, what is literature, the market, the editorials. Debate: blogs, the intimacy of the writer, the imminence of publications.

Week 14

Review of materials

Week 15

Final exam

Course Requirements

The student is expected to read the assigned readings, participate actively in class and perform oral presentations. The student must attend 75% of class to pass the course. The system of control is electronic and the student must pass their card every class to be counted present. The final exam is written and oral. Part of the evaluation is considered: the midterm, presentations and class participation, as well as three research papers.

Course Evaluation

In agreement with the policies of the University of Belgrano the student can only have a 25% absence rate. The percentage of attendance that is required in order to take the final exam is 75%. Any trip or excursion that is not planned in the calendar is part of the 25% absence.

• Participation and attendance 10%
• Oral presentation (1) 10%
• Midterm 25%
• Final written and oral exam 25%
• Research papers (3) 30%

Bibliography (Text and Materials)

• A list of books will be given the first day of class with their ISBN numbers
• Course Reader, ed. Liria Evangelista y Lara Mirkin. Universidad de Belgrano.

Contact Information:

SOL EDUCATION ABROAD

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