Winter 2004

This information effective for Winter 2004. Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.

Spanish Literature

[LTSP-130D]

130D. Latin American Testimonio

(Taught in Spanish)

(Note: this syllabus is for informational purposes only. Although valid as an overview, it will be revised and modified before Winter 2004. Dates have not been corrected yet.)

TTh 4:00-5:45 p.m., Stevenson 152
Instructor: Juan Poblete
E-mail: jpoblete@ucsc.edu
Office hours: 151 Merrill Faculty Annex

Bibliography: (Available at the Literary Guillotine, Downtown Santa Cruz)

• Lazarillo de Tormes, Anónimo.
  
• La Conquista de la Nueva España, Bernal Diaz del Castillo.
  
• Biografía de un cimarrón, Esteban Montejo. edited by Miguel Barnet.
  
• The autobiography of a slave (Autobiografia de un esclavo), Juan Francisco Manzano, Bilingual ed. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, c1996.
  
• Me llamo Rigoberta Menchu, Rigoberta Menchú.
  
• La Montaña es algo más que una inmensa estepa verde, Omar Cabezas.
  
• Carolina Maria de Jesus: Child of the Dark
  
• Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail, Rubén Martinez.
  

Coursepack (CP) (at the Bay Tree Bookstore)

Description:The course will explore three related problematics (authority and literature, writing and subjectivity, and historical and literary discourses of memory) through the genealogical study of a genre: the testimonial narrative in Latin America. First we will see the origins of narrative in the Hispanic tradition in the legal discourse (cartas de relación and picaresque). Here, problems of literacy and literary authority will be dealt with. Secondly, we will discuss two nineteenth-century examples of autobiographical writing (two slaves) in relation to nineteenth-century discourses of national citizenship. Thirdly, we will study twentieth century cases of minority and revolutionary writing (Indians, women, guerrilla movements). Finally, we will analyze a contemporary Latino American migrant text that will bring us back to where we are here today.

Objectives: The class will attempt to provide a historically grounded view of Testimonial Discourse as a genre. It will do so by linking the development of literature with three distinctive stages of Latin American history: colonial, republican, and contemporary. In all three periods a certain relationship of self and writing obtains. They will be studied as challenges to conventional relationships of self and literature, on the one hand, and of fiction and nonfiction, on the other.

Evaluation:

Note: Students with disabilities who may need accommodations, please see me as soon as possible during office hours or make an appointment.

Syllabus

January

Tuesday 5: Introduction

Thursday 7: Introduction. Mignolo, "When Speaking was not good enough," Latin American Subaltern Studies, "Founding Statement," Spivak, "Subaltern Studies"

Tuesday 12: Me llamo Rigoberta Menchu, Lovell, "Surviving Conquest: the Maya of Guatemala in historical perspective"

Thursday 14: Me llamo Rigoberta Menchu, Beverley, "The Margin at the Center" and "Second Thoughts on Testimonio"

Tuesday 19: Lazarillo de Tormes. Foucault, "What is an author," Jameson, "On Literary and Cultural Import-Substitution in the Third World."

Thursday 21: Lazarillo de Tormes. Gusdorf, "Conditions and limits," Friedman, "The Picaresque as Autobiography," Zahareas, "The Historical function of Picaresque"

Tuesday 26: Historia de la conquista de la Nueva Espanã, Bernal Diaz. Burkholder, "The Age of Conquest"

Thursday 28: Historia de la conquista de la Nueva Espanã, Bernal Diaz. Gonzalez Echevarria, excerpts from Myth and Archive. Adorno, "Discourses on Colonialism"

February

Tuesday 2: La Autobiografía de un esclavo, Juan Francisco Manzano. Schulman, "Introduction."

Thursday 4: La Autobiografía de un esclavo, Juan Francisco Manzano. Ramos, "The Law Is Other," Molloy, "The Autobiography of Juan Francisco Manzano"

Tuesday 9: Biografía de un cimarrón, Esteban Montejo

Thursday 11: Biografía de un cimarrón. Esteban Montejo. Gonzalez Echevarria, "Biografia de un cimarron and the novel"; Barnett, "The Documentary Novel"

Tuesday 16: No Classes. Exchange day

Thursday 18: Carolina Maria de Jesus:Child of the Dark

Tuesday 23: Carolina Maria de Jesus: Child of the Dark. Levine, "The Cautionary Tale," Yudice, "Testimonio and Postmodernism"

Thursday 25: La Montaña es algo más que una inmensa estepa verde. Omar Cabezas

March

Tuesday 2: La Montaña es algo más que una inmensa estepa verde. Omar Cabezas
Ross, "Between fiction and history," Scott, "Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis."

Thursday 4: Crossing Over, Rubén Martinez

Tuesday 9: Crossing Over, Rubén Martinez

Thursday 11: Conclusion. Revisiting Rigoberta Menchú.

Coursepack
Table of Contents

Mignolo, "When Speaking was not good enough"
Latin American Subaltern Studies, "Founding Statement"
Spivak, "Subaltern Studies"
Lovell, "Surviving Conquest: the Maya of Guatemala in historical perspective"
Beverley, "The Margin at the Center"
Beverley, "Second Thoughts on Testimonio"
Foucault, "What is an author"
Jameson, "On Literary and Cultural Import-Substitution in the Third World"
Gusdorf, "Conditions and Limits of Autobiography"
Friedman, "The Picaresque as Autobiography"
Zahareas, "The Historical Function of Picaresque"
Burkholder, "The Age of Conquest"
Gonzalez Echevarria, excerpts from Myth and Archive
Adorno, "Discourses on Colonialism"
Ramos, "The Law Is Other"
Molloy, "From Serf to Self: The Autobiography of Juan Francisco Manzano"
Gonzalez Echevarria, "Biografia de un cimarron and the novel"
Barnett, "The Documentary Novel"
Levine, "The Cautionary Tale of Carolina Maria de Jesus"
Yudice, "Testimonio and Postmodernism"
Ross, "Between fiction and history"
Scott, "Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis."
Mignolo, "Linguistic Maps, Literary Geographies, and Cultural Landscapes: Languages, Languaging and (Trans)Nationalism."

Schedule for the oral presentations

January

Tuesday 19: Foucault, "What is an author"
Jameson, "On Literary and Cultural Import—Substitution in the Third World."

Thursday 21: Gusdorf, "Conditions and limits"
Zahareas, "The Historical function of Picaresque"

Thursday 28: Gonzalez Echevarria, excerpts from Myth and Archive.
Adorno, "Discourses on Colonialism"

February

Thursday 4: Ramos, "The Law Is Other"
Molloy, "The Autobiography of Juan Francisco Manzano"

Thursday 11: Gonzalez Echevarria, "Biografia de un cimarron and the novel"
Barnett, "The Documentary Novel"

Tuesday 23: Yudice, "Testimonio and Postmodernism"

March

Tuesday 2: Ross, "Between fiction and history"
Scott, "Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis."

Thursday 4: Open

Tuesday 9: Mignolo, "Linguistic Maps, Literary Geographies, and Cultural Landscapes: Languages, Languaging and (Trans)Nationalism."

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