The Hispanic American short story from modernism to the present day

Language

Spanish

Prerequisites

Students have reached an A2+ proficiency level in Spanish. 

Main themes

I. The birth of the Spanish-American short story  
II. Horacio Quiroga (1878-1937) and the Bifurcation of the Modern Short Story 
III. The Fantastic Short Story in the Río de la Plata and Mexico 

• Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), 
• Silvina Ocampo (1906-1993),  
• Julio Cortázar (1914-1984),  
• Amparo Dávila (1928-2020) 

IV. Magicorealist Poetics  

• Miguel Ángel Asturias (1899-1974) 
• José María Arguedas (1911-1969)  
• Gabriel García Márquez (1928-2014) 

V. Contemporary writings - the poetics of terror - María Fernanda Ampuero, Mariana Enríquez 

Content

The aim of the course is to give students an overview of Hispano-American narrative, encompassing both the internal processes and the historical factors conditioning literary production between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 21st century. The content of the course is not exhaustive, but focuses on the most significant figures and works, placing them in the context of their production in order to articulate, from the reading itself, the main trends and problems of contemporary literary historiography in Latin America. The thematic thread concerns the problem of the representation of the social and environmental reality and the limits of traditional realism. Hence the interest in fantastic and magic-realist poetics. 
The aim is to provide students with the methodological tools and contextual knowledge they need to carry out an in-depth analysis of a short story. 

Teaching methods

Lectures and/or inverted classes on knowledge of trends and works alternate with short story analysis sessions. 

Evaluation methods

A final written exam accounts for 70% of the final grade. The remaining 30% is allocated to continuous assessment and the final oral examination. 

Faculty or entity

> ELAL