Music & Narrative in the Hispanic Caribbean

Music, particularly popular music, is considered the oldest, most significant, and best recognized contribution of the Hispanic Caribbean to world culture. This course will study the development of the narrative genre in the Greater Antilles (Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico) from its origins in the 19th-century until now, focusing on how music is presented and is incorporated in narrative discourse. In selected readings from this period we will examine how writers of the region have dealt in their works with the almost overwhelming presence of melody and rhythm in the daily life of the cultures in and about which they write. This course is for students who are interested in research, or who are considering continuing to the Ph.D. or DML level. (1 unit)

Required text: Juliá Rodríguez Edgardo, El entierro de Cortijo (Río Piedras: Ediciones Huracán, 2006. ISBN: 978-0940238213); other material in electronic form on Segue.