Spanish: LatAm: Colonialism&Resistance

An introductory literature course; students read and analyze Latin American texts from the period before the conquest to the 1898 Spanish American War. Prerequisite: SPAN 3610.

Prereq: SPAN 3610 PACE students by permission and override.

In this course we analyze the roots of many of the problems that confront Latin America and the Global South today. When colonizers arrived from Spain to Latin America, they brought with them an ideology that framed their relation to the world and allowed them to justify the enslavement of indigenous and African peoples as well as the extraction of minerals and other goods from the land. Panoramic in nature, the course analyzes literature and art produced during the period extending from before the arrival of Spanish colonizers in 1492 until the years after the wars of independence in 1810 and prior to 1898. Topics discussed will include, colonialism, the construction of race and gender as a framework through which colonialism was imposed. Among the authors we engage with are the following: anonymous indigenous texts, Aztec poet Netzahuacoyotl, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the slave testimonial by Francisco Manzano among others. The course will include visual and written culture as well as music and maybe even food....

Do the reading or viewing of films etc. come to class ready to discuss them.

Two exams, one short paper (3 pages) one longer paper, periodic reading or attendance quizzes in class.