Course syllabus

Description

The course foregrounds historical, social and cultural memory to challenge the ways in which Latin America as a place and a people has often served as a site of otherness and exoticism, providing economic and symbolic capital for the consumption and pleasure of colonial, neocolonial, and neoliberal powers.

Beginning with indigenous contributions to historical memory, we study how colonialism created cannibals and noble savages that legitimated European doctrines of discovery. While all women were reduced to rigid gender constructs as they contributed to the formation of modern nation-states and national identity, this course deconstructs the icons of La Malinche (colonial Mexico), Frida Kahlo and Evita (modern Mexico and Argentina, respectively) with queer and other gender theories.

Primary resource extraction plays a central role in creating latinidad in imaginary Banana Republics (Carmen Miranda), while rhythms emerging in popular culture contributed to musical forms of othering (rumba, tango, samba, mambo, Cha-cha and salsa) and served as the raw materials that culture industries required to develop new products for international consumption: Valentino, Carlos Gardel and Ricky Martin, participate in the latin lover and macho stereotype.

Cultural movements for decolonisation such as third cinema challenge traditional readings of popular political figures arising out of mass movements. Labelled as banditos, guerrilla fighters, revolutionaries and terrorists, these figures are studied in their political historical context: Montezuma, Pancho Villa, Che Guevara, Sub Comandante Marcos, Hugo Chávez, Evo Morales.

We finish by demonstrating how these decolonising movements relate to grassroots civic movements from 1970s onwards that contest authoritarian regimes –with focus on the figure of the “disappeared’– and set the stage for current anti-neoliberal movements.

Learning objectives:

When you successfully complete this course you will have gained:

• An historical, political and cultural understanding of the context that produced these icons
• A knowledge-based understanding of the role that culture industries and civic activism play in consolidating, reinforcing and/or challenging the formation of specific icons
• A critical understanding of the role that cultural and poltical icons play in establishing and maintaining ideological and cultural agendas
• A set of analytical tools from different disciplines to facilitate reading of other contexts and to understand current social, political and cultural changes taking place in other societies

Assessment - Coursework 100%

Tutorial Tests (4)  40%

Essay 1                 30%

Essay 2                 30%

Note: Classes in this course will not be recorded. The primary mode of delivery in the course is not conducive to the capture and release of the recordings, and provides limited pedagogical benefit for students.

Well-being always comes first

We all go through tough times during the semester, or see our friends struggling. There is lots of help out there - for more information, look at this Canvas page, which has links to various support services in the University and the wider community.