Spanish

The course will explore the politics, emotions and aesthetics of change in the context of modern and contemporary Spanish culture. “Change” will be understood in a broad sense, including conversion, metamorphosis, revolution, exchange, substitution or deviation. Particular attention will be paid to the (subjective and collective) effects of affects. We will also explore how change is encoded, promoted and/ or opposed in selected literary works of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, as well as in political/cultural debates in the news and social media. The theoretical framework for the course...

Buenos Aires. Mexico City. Bogotá. Rio de Janeiro. The Virtual City. How does one “read” the contemporary urban metropolis of Latin America, whether real or imagined? Megacities are ever-present in Latin American cultural production, portrayed either through narratives of progress and modernization, or as alienating spaces and apocalyptic ruins. Building on the work of urban cultural studies and literary/film theory, this course examines cultural representations of five major “megalopolis” (four real and one virtual) in cultural works from 1900 until today.   The course examines...