spn 395: introduction to latin american literature …...latin american literature and cultures i...
TRANSCRIPT
Fall 2019
SPN 395: Introduction to
Latin American Literature
and Cultures I
This course satisfies the SBC category
HFA+ and GLO, [DEC category J & 3]
Prof. Paul Firbas
Tu & Th: 1 to 2:20 pm in Frey Hall 226
This 2019 the world will commemorate the 500 years of the Spanish penetration in
Mesoamerica, leading to the conquest of Tenochtitlan in 1521. In this course we will
study the literature and historiography of the Spanish empire and the new Spanish
America societies, beginning with the writings of Columbus and the cartographic
imagination. The students will read texts produced during the conquest and the early
evangelization (i.e. Hernán Cortés, Cabeza de Vaca, Sahagún, etc.), leading to intense
debates on the nature of the Indians and the justice of the European occupation of the
New World (Vitoria, Las Casas, Sepúlveda). In the second part, the focus will be on
narrations of the formation of new forms of indigeneity and the new Criollo culture of the
vice-regal city. Emphasis will be on authors such as Guaman Poma de Ayala, the mestizo
Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, and the Mexican nun Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Contemporary
critical readings will complement class discussion.