The aim of this course is to establish an approach to Argentine literature by discussing the literary response to complex cultural and historical issues such as nation and identity formation, avant-garde, nationalism and cosmopolitism, populism and authoritarianism. Special attention will be placed on helping students focus on the larger framework of European and Latin American cultural trends, in order to gain a deeper understanding of the Argentine literary system. Major and less canonical authors will be studied: Sarmiento, Hernández, Borges, Arlt, Cortázar, Viñas, Walsh and Piglia, among others. (1 unit)

Required texts: 1) Martín Prieto, Breve historia de la literature argentina (Buenos Aires: Alfaguara/Taurus, 2006); 2) materials in electronic form to be provided upon arrival to Middlebury.