LALS 283 - The Virtual Barrio: Latin American and Latino Media

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

(Same as HISP 283 and MEDS 283) This course aims to deepen our understanding of the complex media ecologies of Latin American and Latino contexts. Attending to how messages make meanings through a range of media-we study the role media play not only in the molding of ideas and opinions, but also in the constitution of subjectivities, social spheres, and non-human circuits of exchange (images, information, capital). Do theories of media and embodiment mean something different in this context, given the ways in which race, skin/hair color, cultural expectations, and history have inscribed themselves on the Hispanic body? Exploring mediation from the perspective of postcoloniality, transnationalism, and the glocal we thus examine the internet through the lens of recent developments in social movements (Chile, Mexico, Spain); film through the experiments of Third, Imperfect Cinema and Andean indigenous media practices; television through the genre and industry of the Telenovela; graphics through the traditions of murals, graphics and comics and the more recent transnational iconography of Ché Guevara; alternative youth culture through video and online gaming; and convergence through multi-media performances and installations. The course will be taught in English. Ms. Woods.

Prerequisite(s): HISP 216 or HISP 219.

Two 75-minute periods.