HISTORIA DE LAS CULTURAS HISPANOAMERICANAS

The course is part of the Americas "Comparative International Relations (RIC)" degree course and mutual with the course of study in "European, American and Postcolonial Languages ​​and Literatures (LLEAP)" and with the course in " Language Sciences".
The course aims to deepen knowledges of cultural issues and dynamics characterizing Hispanic American territories, using the supra-national and supra-cultural category of myth as a privileged hermeneutic instrument of investigation.
Objectives of the course are: to deepen the specific knowledge of cultural problems of the Hispanic American subcontinent; provide methodological tools aimed at the analysis of the most significant Hispanic American literary productions of the 20th century intended, on the one hand, as cultural documents and, on the other, as aesthetic creations; develop reflection skills on the literary and filmic texts proposed, recognizing in them the use and construction of mythological languages, as well as the practices of mythifying and demythifying.

The course aims to deepen the study of the most important Hispanic American cultural phenomena of the twentieth century using as a privileged tool of analysis the myth rewritten and recreated within literary and filmic texts:
1. In this sense, the first objective of the course is to offer students the theoretical basis of mythocritics through an overview of the most important studies on myth.
2. The second objective is to develop the technological, terminological and documentation tools to be able to interpret literary texts from a cultural, narratological and mythocritical point of view.
3. The third objective concerns the ability to apply the acquired knowledge. The theoretical tools learned will be applied to texts selected from the most important expressions of Hispanic America of the twentieth century. The texts will be analyzed and commented from a cultural and critical-literary point of view in their original elaboration in Spanish, in order to help students to develop the ability to identify cultural issues and problems.
4. Finally, the course aims to develop the ability to learn issues and tools offered during the course, as well as communication skills.

Students must have an adequate level of written and oral Spanish (level B1), as well as adequate language skills in Italian language.

Hispanic America and its myths: identity and culture between construction and deconstruction.
The course aims to provide an overview of the cultural problems of the Hispanic American continent related to the construction of multiple identity aspects and their deconstruction; these will be investigated by reflecting and analyzing the rewrites of the myth (autochthonous, African and classical) within the literary texts of the twentieth century, as well as considering the elaboration of contemporary cultural myths (nature, mulatta) and the adoption of rhetoric of the myth by political power (the dictatorships of Cono Sur).
The course will be divided into two main parts:
1. At first one students will be provided with general theoretical elements of mythocritics, through the presentation of an archeology of the main studies on myth and an exposition of the main theoretical lines on myth as a cultural product and appropriate element from literature.
2. In the second part we will analyze a selection of twentieth century Hispanic American texts focused on the rewriting of myth (autochthonous, African and classical) as well as on the creation of cultural myths and mythological languages ​​such as strategy of construction and deconstruction of the 'identity. In this phase, students will also be invited to choose one or more of the proposed themes and develop a presentation during the lesson.

MAIN BIBLIOGRAPHY:
An anthology will be furnished during the course. It will contain selected texts written by the authors that will be considered in the course:
-Selezione antologica:
-Horacio Quiroga, “El almoadón de plumas” (1917)
_______________ “A la deriva” (1917)
-Miguel Ángel Asturias, “Leyenda del tesoro del lugar florido” (1930)
____________________ “Hacia una patria mejor” (1927),
____________________ “Posibilidades de un teatro americano” (1932)
____________________ “Tal como somos: América fábula de fábulas” (1968)
- Nicolás Guillén, “Mulata” (1930)
______________ “Sóngoro cosongo”(1930)
______________ “Caña” (1931)
-Lydia Cabrera, “Arere Marekén” (1940)
_____________ “El limo del Almendares” (1940)
-Alejo Carpentier, “De lo real maravilloso americano” ([1949] 1967)
-Jorge Luis Borges, “El sur” (1944)
________________ “La casa de Asterión” (1949)
________________ “El escritor argentino y la tradición” (1932)
-Julio Cortazar, “Circe” (1951)
_____________“Las Ménades” (1956)
_____________ “Acerca de la situación del intelectual latinoamericano” (1967)
- Octavio Paz, “Los hijos de la Malinche”, cap IV. El laberinto de la soledad (1950)
- José Emilio Pacheco, “La sangre de Medusa” (1959)
-Elena Garro, “La culpa es de los Tlazcaltecas” (1964)
- Walsh, Rodolfo, “Esa mujer” (1965)

CRITICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY:
-Campra, Rosalba, America Latina: l’identità e la maschera, Roma, Meltemi, 2013.
-López Baralt, Mercedes, Para decir al Otro: Literatura y antropología en nuestra América, Madrid-Frankfurt am Maim: Iberoamericana-Vervuert, 2005 (Introduzione, capitolo 1).
-Herrero Cecilia, Juan “El mito como intertexto: la reescritura de los mitos en las obras literarias”, en Cédille. Revista de Estudios Franceses, n° 2, Tenerife, Asociación de Profesores de Francés de la Universidad Española, 2006, pp. 58-76.
-Lèvi-Strauss, Claude, Mito e significato, Milano: il Saggiatore, 2010.
-Oviedo, José Miguel, Historia de la literatura hispanoamericana, Madrid: Alianza, 2001 (capitoli riguardanti gli autori trattati).
-Cannavacciuolo, Margherita, “Resemantización del mito como figura de la modernidad: “La sangre de Medusa” de José Emilio Pacheco”, in Anales de Literatura Hispanoamericanas, vol. 39, Madrid, Universidad Complutense, 2010, pp. 429-442.
-Regazzoni, Susanna, “Lydia Cabrera o la transculturación mítica”, in Paola Mildonian y Biagio D'Angelo, Comparaciones en vertical, Venezia: Supernova, 2009.
_________________ “El relato del cadáver de una mujer entre Historia y ficción: Evita”, Verba Hispanica (in corso di stampa).
-Solares-Larrave Francisco, “El discurso del mito: respuesta a la modernidad en Leyendas de Guatemala”, in Miguel Angel Asturias, Cuentos y leyendas, Edited by Mario Roberto Morales. Madrid -París: ALLCA, 2000, pp. 675-705.

RECOMMENDED BIBLIOGRAPHY:
-Barthes, Roland, Miti d’oggi, Torino: Einaudi, 2016.
-Blumemberg, Hans, Elaborazione del mito, Bologna: Il Mulino, 1991.
-Cannavacciuolo, Margherita, Habitar el margen: sobre la narrativa de Lydia Cabrera, Sevilla, Renacimiento, 2010.
-Cassier, Ernst, Simbolo, mito e cultura, Bari: Laterza, 1985.
-Genette, Gérard, Palinsesti, Torino: Einaudi, 1997.
-Palermo, Zulma, “El mito de la modernidad desde las perspectivas críticas de América Latina”, en: Paola Mildonian y Biagio D'Angelo, Comparaciones en vertical, Venezia: Supernova, 2009.

The assessment of the learning will take place through the presentation in class of a topic chosen by the student and an oral final exam. The presentation aims to verify oral skills and the ability to carry out a critical reasoning; while the oral exam aims to verify the knowledge concerning the cultural contexts and the different literary issues of Hispanic America in the period considered, as well as the ability to understand cultural problems. The exam will last about 20 minutes and will consist of three questions.

The lessons will be carried out according to the conventional method (frontal lessons) and will be held in Spanish. Students will also be invited to choose one of the proposed themes and develop a presentation in the classroom using the theoretical tools presented and the proposed bibliography.
Should the covid health emergency affect the course attendance, the lessons will be carried out online in synchronous and asynchronous mode.
The exam will consist of an oral interview in Spanish on the authors, the texts and the issues considered in the classroom.

More critical information will be offer during the classes. Moreover, every student is recommended to follow additional lessons and round-table conferences that may be held between October and December 2020.
Students can also contact the teacher for information regarding how to write the graduation thesis.

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