Technology and Identity in the Contemporary Latin American Novel

In this course we will examine the various narrative explorations of human identity as constructed with technologically mediated realities. We will use the cultural theories of Jesús Martín Barbero, Néstor García Canclini, Gilles Deleuze, and Donna Haraway, among others, to create a dialogue with novels by Adolfo Bioy Casares, Ricardo Piglia, Rafael Courtoisie, Eugenia Prado, Alberto Fuguet and Edmundo Paz Soldán. This dialogue will help us grapple with issues of dictatorship and neoliberalism, the formation of televisual culture, posthuman identity, gender, and the urban experience. (1 unit)

Required texts: 1) Adolfo Bioy Casares, La invención de Morel (New York: Penguin, 1996); 2) Rafael Courtoisie, Tajos (Madrid: Lengua de Trapo, 2000); 3) Alberto Fuguet, Por favor, rebobinar (Santiago: Alfaguara, 1999); 4) Edmundo Paz Soldán, Sueños digitales (La Paz: Alfaguara, 2000); 5) Ricardo Piglia, La ciudad ausente (Barcelona: Anagrama, 1992); 6) Eugenia Prado, Lóbulo (Santiago: Cuarto Propio, 1998).