This course will critically consider the construction of a new Latin American international cinema from a Cultural Studies approach, investigating how it fulfills or disrupts desires for a borderless world, how it represents local and global conflict, whether it successfully “translates” the cultural particularities of the Luso- Hispanic world, indeed of specific countries within the region, or whether it results in the erasure of difference and regional particularities in order to “sell” itself to a global audience.

SPAN 326 F – CULTURAL STUDIES IN THE AMERICAS II.

FICTION CINEMA IN LATIN AMERICA: Getting Reel: An Introduction to 21st Century Latin American Cinema
SPRING 2018 – CRN: 59548 - MWF 2:00 pm - 2:50 pm – G20 FLB

Since the 1990s Luso-Hispanic cinema has become increasingly globalized, bringing representations of the cultures of Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula to international audiences. This course will critically consider the construction of a new Latin American international cinema from a Cultural Studies approach, investigating how it fulfills or disrupts desires for a borderless world, how it represents local and global conflict, whether it successfully “translates” the cultural particularities of the Luso- Hispanic world, indeed of specific countries within the region, or whether it results in the erasure of difference and regional particularities in order to “sell” itself to a global audience. On a formal level we will study how conventions of classical cinematic language (continuity editing, linear narrative, shot-reverse-shot, etc.) that have become globalized are upheld or disrupted locally, and to what end. In this context, we will examine the interplay between small and large nation cinema, as well as aesthetic and formal responses to geopolitical and historical conditions in Cuba, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Spain, and the United States. By analyzing films from the last half-century (with an emphasis on the last decade), we will explore such questions as dictatorship, gender roles, globalization and neoliberalism, immigration and exile, drugs and political violence, examining how these issues are imagined by filmmakers and critics, while considering the sociological, cultural and political trends that gave rise to the films.

Students will study the films in conjunction with critical readings in order to understand the complex interplay of local and global issues, as represented in the films and as present in their conditions of production. During classroom activities and discussions, students will analyze films in terms of their content, but also cinematic and technical style, socio-historical significance, critical reception, and as part of a filmmakers’ oeuvre, but also in relation to its national, international, and global implications and belonging.