Theory and analysis of Spanish-American literary texts

Teacher(s)

Fabry Geneviève;

Language

Spanish

Prerequisites

Notions of hermeneutical tools for literary analysis. B2 level in Spanish.

Main themes

The course will examine first how can be defined the topic we can find in a determined corpus : the work of mourning.
After, we will analyze hispano-american literary works (poetry : Gelman ; novel : Fuentes) and see how they elaborate the selected topic.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	The aim of this course is to help the student acquire a scholarly method to read and analyse literary texts written by one or a few hispano-american author(s) that share a common theme, to analyse their poetics and its context. The theoretical reflexion will be stressed. At the end of the course, the students will be able to read and write essays in the studied field by relying on the literary knowledge they have acquired.

Content

The course is designed to offer a historical overview of Spanish-American literature over the last 100 years, based on a theme chosen according to :
- its link with the current ecological, social and cultural crisis, as seen from the perspective of Latin American epistemologies and experiences ;
- its interest in shedding light on key works from different periods (for example, the question of the plantationcene in both the "novelas de la selva" and contemporary narratives such as those by Schweblin or Rivera Garza).
The main topics of the course:
I. Tradiciones latinoamericanas
I.1. Geórgicas latinoamericanas (1826) - I. 2.  Narrativa de la selva (años 1920) - I.3.  El conflicto de las ontologías en la novela de medio siglo (Asturias, 1949)
II. Escrituras contemporáneas: extractivismo vegetal y enfoques ecofeministas
II.1. Cuerpo femenino y árbol talado en la poesía de Lukin. II.2. Monocultivos tóxicos y representación distorsionada en la novela contemporánea (Schweblin, Rivera Garza)

Teaching methods

The course will work as a seminar and based on a reader incorporating both theoretical reflections literary works. The analytical approach will be a back and forth between classical textual and contextual reading and an interpretation in the light of theoretical sources.

Evaluation methods

The final grade will be based on the results of a continuous assessment (20%) and a final oral exam (80%), which will include an oral presentation of a paper.

Other information

Support  : Course notes and folder of reading material

Online resources

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Bibliography

Anthologie de textes disponibles à la DUC, qui contient les principaux textes théoriques et poétiques.
Bibliografía primaria
- Rivera Garza, Cristina. Autobiografía del algodón. Ciudad de Mexico : Literatura Random House, 2020. FL-21 N77050 3.01
- Bello, Andrés. “Silva a la agricultura de la zona tórrida”  (1826). [PDF]
- Quiroga, Horacio.  “El alambre de púa”,  “Yaguaí”, “Simún”. Todos los cuentos. N.Baccino Ponce de León y J. Lafforgue (ed.). ALLCA XX, 1997. [FL-20 M50 26]
- Rivera, José Eustasio. La vorágine (fragmentos). Madrid: Cátedra, 1990. FL-20 M500 315
- M.A. Asturias, Hombres de maíz. G. Martin (ed.). ALLCA XX, 1997. [FL20 M50 21]
- Lukin L., Teatro de Operaciones : Anatomía y Literatura, Ediciones en Danza, Buenos Aires, 2007.
- Schweblin, Samantha. Distancia de rescate. Randhom House, 2015.
Bibliografía secundaria

- Antón Fernández, Eva. “Claves ecofeministas para el análisis literario”. GenEros 21 (2017). 45-74. - Barbas-Hoden, Laura. Ecological imaginations in Latin American fiction. Gainesville : University Press of Florida, 2011. FL-21 B1 BAR - Barrios-Barrios, Johnny V.. “El trópico americano como vínculo elocuente entre Alexander von Humboldt y Andrés ello (1799-1826): viajes, naturalismo y poesía”. Reforma Agraria. Ambiente y Sociedad. Nº 43, 2017: 103-117. - Coccia, Emanuele. The Life of Plants. A Metaphysics of Mixture. Cambridge: Polity, 2019. - DeGrave, Analisa. “Ecoliterature and Dystopia: Gardens and Topos in Modern Latin American Poetry”, Confluencia 22. 2, 2007, 89-104. - Descola, Philippe. Par-delà nature et culture. Gallimard, 2005. - Gagliano, Monica, Ryan J.C. & Vieira P. (eds). The Language of Plants. Science, Philosophy, Literature, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 2017. - Gagliano, Monica. « Penser comme une plante : perspectives sur l'écologie comportementale et la nature cognitive des plantes ». Cahiers philosophiques 2018/2 (N° 153), pages 42 à 54. - Gibson, Prudence . “The Plant Contract: Art’s Return to Vegetal Life”. Critical Plant Studies, 2018. [e-book in UCLouvain] - Gosson, Renée K. et alii. Caribbean literature and the environment : between nature and culture. Charlottesville : University of Virginia press, 2005. FL01 B4 DEL - Harrison, Robert Pogue, Forêts : essai sur l'imaginaire occidental. Paris : Flammarion, 1994. UL 458/287 - Lewis, Simon L.; Maslin, Mark A. “Defining the Anthropocene”. Nature (London), 03/2015, Volume 519, Numéro 7542. - Oliveira, Gustavo. Hecht, Susanna. “Sacred groves, sacrifice zones and soy production: globalization, intensification and neo neo-nature in South America”. The Journal of peasant studies, 03/2016, Volume 43, Numéro 2. - Ponce de León, Alejandro. (2022) “Latin America and The Botanical Turn”. Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, 31:1, 129-140, DOI:10.1080/13569325.2022.2057456. - Slovic, Scott. Rangarajan, Swarnalatha (eds). Routledge handbook of ecocriticism and environmental communication. Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2019. PN 98 R 259235 [Bibl. ESPO] - Wylie, Lesley. The poetics of plants in Spanish American literature. Pittsburgh : University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020. FL-21 B3.6 WYL.

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