LALS 387 - Latin American Seminar

Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)

(Same as HISP 387) A seminar offering in-depth study of topics related to the literary and cultural history of Latin America. This course may be repeated for credit when the topic changes.

Topic for 2025/26a: Caring for the Land: Poetics and Politics of Crisis and Life in Latin America. Through literature, visual culture, and social movements from Indigenous and non-Indigenous people of Latin America, in this course you have the opportunity to engage with contemporary theoretical and artistic texts that speak of relations to land, waters, and human and non-human kin. During the class, you acquire and practice analytical skills to critically approach cultural texts regarding current issues on pollution, colonialism, racism, feminist movements, and Native and environmental justice. Some of the authors we discuss are the poet and visual artist Kütral Vargas Huaiquimilla (Mapuche trans woman), the writer Liliana Colanzi (white Bolivian woman), and artist Astrid González (Afro-Colombian woman). Montserrat Madariaga-Caro.

Topic for 2025/26b: Science Fiction, Horror, and the Occult in Latin America. This seminar examines the unique origins and evolution of the literature and film of science fiction, horror, and the occult in Latin America. The course focuses on the culturally heterogeneous and politically charged context of notions of nature, futurity, progress, dystopia, desire, the uncanny, anxiety, the repressed, and the unknown that underlie these interrelated genres in Latin America. Michael Aronna.

Prerequisite(s): HISP 216 and one course above 216.

One 2-hour period.

Course Format: CLS