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Literature and History

Questions:

If historians can tell stories, can storytellers write history?

How has the writing of Latin American fiction and history changed since the late twentieth-century?

How is the writing of history and literature connected?

How can literature be used as a source for historical research?

Required Readings:

Patricia Seed, ‘Colonial and Postcolonial Discourse’, Latin American Research Review. 1991, Vol. 26 Issue 3, p181.

Doris Sommer, ‘Foundational Fictions: When History Was Romance in Latin America’ Salmagundi. 82/83, (1989):111-141 , 1989.

Gabriel García Marquéz. One Hundred Years of Solitude. London: Penguin, 2014. (Chapter 1)

Post-Structuralism, Post-Modernism and Colonial Discourse:

Patricia Seed, ‘Colonial and Postcolonial Discourse’, Latin American Research Review. 1991, Vol. 26 Issue 3, p181.

Further Reading:

Rolena Adorno, ‘Reconsidering colonial discourse for sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spanish America.’ Latin

American Research Review. 1993, Vol. 28 Issue 3, p135.

Walter D. Mignolo, ‘Colonial and Postcolonial Discourse’ Latin American Research Review. 1993, Vol. 28 Issue 3, p120.

Patricia Seed, ‘More Colonial and Postcolonial Discourses’, Latin American Research Review. 1993, Vol. 28 Issue 3, p146.

Hernan Vidal, ‘The concept of colonial and postcolonial discourse: A perspective from literary criticism.’ Latin American Research Review. 1993, Vol. 28 Issue 3, p113.

Novel and Nation: The Literary Tradition and Magical Realism:

Doris Sommer, ‘Foundational Fictions: When History Was Romance in Latin America’ Salmagundi. 82/83, (1989):111-141 , 1989.

Further Reading:

Berger, Stephan. Writing the Nation: A Global Perspective. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.

Anderson, Benedict. Imagined communities: Reflections on the origins and spread of nationalism. London: Verso, 1991.

Castro- Klarén and John Charles Chasteen (eds.) Beyond Imagined Communities: Reading and Writing the Nation in Nineteenth-Century Latin America. Baltimore/ London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.

Leslie Williams, Raymond. The Colombian Novel, 1844-1987. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991.

Some Literary Texts: Magical Realism

Isabel Allende. The House of the Spirits. London: Black Swan, 1986.

Carlos Fuentes. The Death of Artemio Cruz. (Any edition)

Gabriel García Marquéz. One Hundred Years of Solitude. London: Penguin, 2014. (Chapter 1) [CORE READING]

Ernesto Sábato. On Heroes and Tombs. Boston, Mass: Godine, 1991.

Further Reading:

Relevant chapters in:

The Cambridge Companion to The Latin American Novel

Some Literary Manifestos: Reactions to Magical Realism and Beyond:

The Crack Manifesto, Mexico, 1996

McOndo, Alberto Fuguet's, I Am Not a Magical Realist, Chile, 1997

The Infrarealist Journalism Manifesto, Mexico, 2011