The Latin American Short Story: A History of Violence
Latin American histories and stories have been marked by violence, both physical and discursive. This course has a twofold purpose: to acquaint students with the short story genre, and to explore the theme of violence in the texts, as they reflect on and are born from historically and locally specific sociopolitical and cultural issues. We will see how Quiroga, Roa Bastos, Arguedas, Borges, Cortázar, Rulfo, Campobello, Ferré, Paz Soldán, Valenzuela, and Bolaño use the short story to reflect on such bloody events as the Conquest, the civil wars, the imposition of "civilization" over "barbarism" in the 19th century, the dictatorships of the 1970s, and the urban violence of the 2000s. (SPAN 0220 or equivalent)