SPRING 2008
CORE COURSES
HIST 361 – Latin America Since Independence
Ondina González
TTH11:30am – 12:45pm
MAX: 40
Fulfills LACS Major/Minor Requirement
DESCRIPTION: This course examines the history of post-independence Latin America with particular attention to economic, social, political, and cultural issues. After gaining a general overview of nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries Latin America, we will read biographies as a means of focusing on specific regions.
TEXTS: Bradford Burns and Julie A. Charlip’s Latin America: A Concise Interpretive History will provide the basic overview of modern Latin America. The biographies we will read include those of Frida Kahlo, Mexican artist; Carolina Maria de Jesus, a São Paulo favela dweller; and Miguel Perdomo Neira, an Andean faith healer. Additional book chapters and articles will also be assigned.
PARTICULARS: Students will be expected to do the readings, to write two papers (one is three to four pages in length; the other is to be eight to ten pages long), to lead class discussion at least once in the semester, to participate actively in all discussions, and to take both a mid-term and a final exam.
SPAN 300WR - Reading in Spanish: Texts and Contexts
Faculty
MWF Multiple Sessions
MAX: 10 per session
Fulfills LACS Major/Minor Requirement
DESCRIPTION: The primary objective of this course is to provide students with the historical, geographic and aesthetic background relevant to the study of Hispanic culture, including that of Spain, Latin America and the United States. Students acquire this broad knowledge as well as strengthen their language and critical thinking skills through extensive reading, frequent short papers, oral presentations, and a final research project.
TEXTS :
Fuentes, Carlos. El espejo enterrado.
Dictionary: El pequeño Larousse ilustrado.
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
PREREQUISITES: SPANISH 212 or 215, OFFICIAL SPANISH PLACEMENT from the Dept of Spanish and Portuguese, or permission of the Director of the Language Program.
LAS COURSES
LAS 190 - Discovering International Atlanta
(Same as ASIA 190, JRNL 190)
Sheila Tefft
W 10:00am – 12:30pm
MAX: LAS 5, ASIAN 5; JOURNL 5
DESCRIPTION: New immigrants are shaping international Atlanta. This seminar explores the city's international character through news coverage, field trips, meetings with journalists, politicians and other newsmakers and volunteer work in diverse neighborhoods. Students examine how the news media shape Atlanta's identity as home to growing immigrant communities and define public opinion and policy on major immigration issues. Students taking this course as LAS 190 would focus on Latin American and/or Caribbean migrant communities.
LAS 270 - Cultures of Latin America
(Same as ANT 150-001)
David Nugent
TTH 2:30am - 3:45pm
MAX: LAS 5; ANT 15
DESCRIPTION: In the popular imagination, Latin America is regarded as a region of grinding poverty, revolutionary extremists and military dictators, of debt-ridden economies, degraded environments and indigenous uprisings, of exuberant, hybrid cultures and religious conservatism. In this course we look critically at these stereotypical understandings. Beginning with the European Conquest,
we trace the historical development of the region's economic, social and political structures, of its social movements and cultural beliefs. Special emphasis is placed on the dynamics of the contemporary period-on the increasing scope and power of the world economy and institutions of global governance (from NGOs to the World Bank to the IMF), and on the emergence of alternative forms of democracy, citizenship and nationhood, and of novel expressions of gender, race and religion.
LAS 270 - Making of Modern Latin America
(Same as HIST 211)
Agnieszka Czeblakow
MWF 9:35am - 10:25am
MAX: LAS 10; HIST 30
DESCRIPTION: This course surveys the history of Latin America since 1820, when most countries of the region obtained the political independence from Spain and Portugal. Using US-and Latin American made films as primary sources, as well as supplementary primary and secondary written sources, we will both critically analyze historical developments in Latin America as well as the assumptions and biases that go into the making of a film on Latin America. Through this process, we will grapple with these interrelated problems of history and historical interpretation: How do motion pictures represent the past, and, specifically, how do they represent the past of Latin America? How do movies affect history? How do historians, filmmakers, and moviegoers approach historical film?
TEXTS: The primary texts are the films we will watch on Latin American history. Some of the films include: The Mission; ; Burn!; Xica da Silva; Viva Zapata!; Memories of Underdevelopment; Bananas; Three Caballeros; Death and the Maiden among others. Written texts may include selections from Elisabeth Burgos-Debray, ed., I Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian Woman in Guatemala; Carolina Maria de Jesus, Child of the Dark: the Diary of Carolina Maria de Jesus; Mariano Azuela, The Underdogs: A Novel of the Mexican Revolution.
PARTICULARS: Students will be expected to do the readings and carefully view the movies, to write film responses papers, to prepare film introductions, lead discussions, and write a short research paper.
LAS 270 - Making of Modern Latin America: Coerced Labor in Latin America: Slavery and Draft Labor
(Same as HIST 211)
Alex Borucki
TTH 1:00pm - 2:15pm
MAX: LAS 10; HIST 30
DESCRIPTION: What did an Aymara-speaking man born in colonial Bolivia and a woman from pre-colonial Nigeria have in common? Systems of coerced labor subjected them to work in Colonial Latin America. This course compares two bodies of literature not usually studied together in order to ask three questions: What were the forces that pull coerced labor from the Americas, Africa, and Europe during the early-modern Atlantic world? How did these systems of labor operate, and how did people from diverse cultural backgrounds respond to them? What were the long standing legacies that these dynamics left in Latin America? The goal of this course is to broaden the perspectives of students interested in the Atlantic World by exposing them to the experience of people from different continents who met in Latin America
TEXTS:
Mark A. Burkholder and Lyman Johnson, Colonial Latin America
George Reid Andrews, Afro-Latin America, 1800-2000
PARTICULARS: No final paper is required. Each student will write seven two-page responses to the topics studied in class during the course. Final grades will result from the participation, short paper-responses, mid- and final-exams. The course is neither intended as a preparation for later Latin American history courses nor presumes pre-existing knowledge of the topic.
LAS 270 - Plantation to Postcolonial
(Same as HIST 285, IDS 385)
Robert Goddard
TTH 10:00am – 11:15am
MAX: LAS 10; HIST 5; IDS 5
DESCRIPTION: “Plantation America”, stretching from the American South, through the Caribbean to northern Brazil, comprises a geographical area that, as its name suggests, was dominated by the economic system of plantation monoculture. This course will attempt two inter-related tasks: it will firstly survey the unity and variety of the plantation as a form of socio-economic organization; secondly it will explicate the unity and variety of the political and cultural forms that have evolved alongside the plantation. We will discuss such things as: can the United States be called “postcolonial”? Why are the French Caribbean islands politically integrated into metropolitan France while neighboring English-speaking islands are independent? What does it mean to say that there are over 130 racial classifications on a Brazilian census form? Why did Cuba become communist while neighboring Puerto Rico considers applying for admission as a US state? The course will be interdisciplinary in nature, using texts from history, literature and anthropology.
LAS 385S - Fear, Political Violence, and Memory
(Same as ANT 385S-001)
Christopher Krupa
TTH 2:30pm - 3:45pm
MAX: LAS 6; ANT 12
DESCRIPTION: This course treats fear and memory as social, rather than psychological, phenomena, and explores how they give shape and meaning to experiences of life under political violence. Looking to various cases from around the world, we will ask how fear, memory, and violence (or its threat) intersect in the production of specific modes of governance, discipline, and subjectivity as well as emancipatory struggles for different futures and new pasts. This will lead us to specifying the ways political fields are reconstructed and divided through fear, how memories become collectivized, and how violence gives rise to new modes of sociality and cultural production. One of our goals will be to think through the kinds of anthropology such a focus enables and, perhaps, makes challenging. Our course readings will thus be primarily ethnographic, but will include selections from testimonial, historical, and literary genres, as well as various forms of popular media and ‘formal’ culture. Case studies will include the contemporary United States, post-Franco era Spain, Pinochet’s Chile, the civil wars of Sierra Leone and Liberia, genocide in Cambodia and Argentina during the “Dirty War”.
LAS 385S - Latin American Revolutions
(Same as POLS 332)
Juan del Aguila
MWF 9:35am – 10:25am
MAX: LAS 10; POLS 25
DESCRIPTION: Survey of major theories of revolution and in-depth analysis of Mexican, Nicaraguan and Cuban cases.
TEXTS:
R. Ruiz, The Great Rebellion
J. Goldstone, ed., Revolutions
E. Selbin, Modern Latin American Revolutions
Particulars:
Examinations: midterm and final
Papers: one 15-17 page research paper
Grading: midterm 30%, final 40%, paper 30%
LAS 385 - Sugar and Rum
(Same as HIST 385, IDS 385)
Robert Goddard
TTH 2:30pm - 3:45pm
MAX: LAS 10; HIST 5, IDS 5
DESCRIPTION: Sugar and rum were for centuries the quintessential Caribbean products, commodities which created fortunes for planters and merchants, while changing the lifestyles of the European working classes. This class will examine not only the development of sugar and rum production and its effect on the Caribbean’s socio-economic organization in the form of the plantation, but also how these commodities have come to define social status in the metropolis through changing patterns of consumption. Students will use materials from a variety of genres and disciplines, from social history to advertising, and from anthropology to popular music and film.
LAS 385 - Writing, Context, and Community
(Same as SPAN 317)
Vialla Hartfield-Méndez
MWF 10:40pm – 11:30pm
MAX: LAS 2; SPAN 10
DESCRIPTION: This course combines advanced writing instruction and language analysis with weekly hands-on experiences in the Atlanta Hispanic community. Students will hone their writing skills through a series of assignments organized around their experience working with members of the Hispanic community within the structures of one of several organizations who have agreed to collaborate with this course. There are opportunities for work in schools and a support group, among others.
TEXTS: A number of reading assignments in Spanish (in photocopy or online) related to the service experience and to issues that affect the Hispanic residents in Atlanta will be part of course. Other required texts are: John Butt and Carmen Benjamin, A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish. NTC Publishing Group, 2004 (fourth edition); and the Harper Collins Spanish Dictionary (Unabridged Edition) or Oxford Spanish Dictionary. Also suggested: the Pequeño Larousse Spanish-to-Spanish dictionary that is required for Spanish 300.
PARTICULARS: The final grade will be based on writing assignments, two term exams, a final portfolio, student performance in the Hispanic community context, and participation in class activities. Students who have received credit for SPAN 318 may not take this course for credit. Registration by permission of the instructor.
LAS 490 - Translating Brazil
(Same as PORT 412)
Ana Santos-Olmsted
MWF 2:30pm - 3:45pm
MAX: LAS 3; PORT 12
DESCRIPTION: In this course, part seminar and part workshop, we will examine the process of translation from Portuguese to English. It will challenge students’ literary reading ability, knowledge of grammar and syntax and compel them to consider cultural nuances in both the source and target languages. Students will also be exposed to the history and some of the theories of translation, learn techniques and problems of translating between English and Portuguese, discuss strategies for dealing with culturally specific items such as slang or popular expressions from Brazil, compare different translations of the same text, and determine the context, audience and the purpose of texts.
PARTICULARS: Class will be taught in Portuguese. Readings are in Portuguese and in English. Students with a reading knowledge of Portuguese who are also able to understand spoken Portuguese may enroll in this course.
TEXTS: Susan Bassnett McGuire Translation Studies (SBM), articles on Blackboard and Reserves Direct, as well as a substantial Portuguese-English dictionary and a thesaurus.
LAS 490S - Kicking Magic to the Curb: Dirty Realism of Latin America's Generation X
(Same as SPAN 460S)
Dierdra Reber
TTH 11:30pm - 12:45pm
MAX: LAS 3; SPAN 12
DESCRIPTION: No more butterflies! This could be the mantra of the young writers hailed as the new vanguard of Latin American bellas letras, only these "bellas" letras have gone bad. This new literary generation--hailing from the Gen X of the South--rejects supernatural gypsies and grandmothers that fly. These authors rewrite García Márquez's generic Latin American town of Macondo as McOndo, a place where there is nothing magical about the mean streets of a globalizing Latin America. We will briefly revisit magical realism as an initial point of reference before exploring this new literary terrain in novels from all over Latin America, as well as some key cinematic counterparts. Poverty, crime, class struggle, materialism, amores "perros," squalor, depression, abandonment, drugs, alcohol, bad vibes: this dystopic terrain may be familiar, but it's not easy. Expect difficult texts and films that are intentionally and unflinchingly tough to stomach in their quest to tell the hard truths of this global life.
TEXTS: May include
Junot Díaz, Drown (1997)
Alberto Fuguet, Mala onda (1996)
Rita Indiana, La estrategia de Chochueca (2003)
FILMS: May include
Alejandro González Iñárritu: Amores perros (2000)
Víctor Gaviria, Rodrigo D: no futuro (1990)
Adrián Caetano and Bruno Stagnaro, Pizza, birra, faso (1999)
PARTICULARS: Active participation in class discussion; daily reading quizzes (35%), midterm and final exams (25%), class presentations (20%), final paper (20%).
LAS 490S – Lost In Translation: Reading Latin American Poetry
(Same as SPAN 460S)
Ricardo Gutiérrez-Mouat
TTH 2:30pm – 3:15pm
MAX: LAS 3; PORT 12
DESCRIPTION: Poetry is a verbal art closely tied to the expressive and rhetorical properties of the mother tongue, which is why translating poetry into another language is often an act of recreation by a translator who -without the authority claimed by and given to the original poet- acts as the poem’s second author. This is not a course in the translation of poetry but one in which the issues raised by translating poetic texts -what can be translated and what gets lost in translation-affords us an analytic perspective on a body of work which is that of modern and contemporary Latin American poetry. The course is therefore meant for students with an interest in literary studies and on the cultural and political role that poetry has played in Latin America since roughly 1900 to the present.
TEXTS:
Fellstiner, John. Translating Neruda
Stephen Tapscott, ed. Twentieth-Century Latin American Poetry
Note: Both books are required and may be obtained from the Emory Bookstore or online.
PARTICULARS: Class presentations (30%), a take-home midterm (30%), and a final paper (40%). The course’s mother tongue is Spanish.
LAS 490S - Popular Culture and Race Relations in Brazil
(Same as PORT 412S)
Katia Santos
TTH 1:00pm – 2:15pm
MAX: LAS 3; PORT 12
DESCRIPTION: This course will examine the intersections of the popular culture scenario and the dynamic of race relations in Brazil. The intention of this course is to put on stage the cultural manifestations where ordinary Brazilian citizens effectively participate in their everyday lives -- popular music, religion, carnival, theater, capoeira, Brazilian Hip-hop culture, or what else is happening in the country as we speak. The very fact that the word “popular” in Brazil can be discussed in the plural – as “levels” of popular culture -- is a very important element of this discussion. Every effort will be made to bring to our debates the voices of those who are essential to the various cultural manifestations that will be examined in this course --– the performers –, since today we can count on several kinds of media to access them and their works (DVDs, documentaries, interviews, etc.) In addition, we will be able to perceive how race relations – a constant of Brazilian history and national discourse since colonial times – shape these cultural manifestations and how important these same cultural events are for a better understanding of whatever is called Brazilian culture.
TEXTS:
Browning, Barbara, 1995. Samba, Resistance in Motion
Vianna, Hermano, 1999. The Mystery of Samba: Popular Music and National Identity in Brazil
Selected articles on Reserves Direct
PARTICULARS: Attendance and class participation, brief reaction papers, one class presentation; a midterm paper and a final research paper.
LAS 490S - You Say You Want a Revolution: “Rocanrol” and Politics in the Río de la Plata Region
(Same as SPAN 460S)
Hernán Feldman
TTH 10:00am - 11:15am
MAX: LAS 3; SPAN
DESCRIPTION: Although Elvis Presley certainly did his part in appropriating African-American music for the benefit of mainstream American popular culture, the date in which Rock-and-Roll-as-we-know-it entered the households of middle-class white America was February 9, 1964. As Ed Sullivan announced “Ladies and Gentleman, The Beatles!,” the song would remain the same for many decades. The same song, however, did not amount to boredom, because rivalries and controversies were not something lacking in the rock scene. As Tom Wolfe would say in 1965, “The Beatles want to hold your hand, but The Stones want to burn your town.” Something less known is that the “British Invasion of (North) America” led by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones had an unparalleled impact on South American countries like Argentina and Uruguay. Indeed, in these two countries rock and roll completely took over the musical preferences of white middle-class youngsters, which in turn caused an immediate proliferation of local bands singing “rocanrol” in Spanish. First, this course intends to explore how these bands intersected with military rule in the Río de la Plata region. Second, we will examine to what extent were bands in the seventies complicit with brutal regimes, and to what extent current pop music could be viewed as yet another device of global economy.
TEXTS: Sergio Pujol, Rock y dictadura; Carlos Polimeni, Bailando en los escombros: historia crítica del rock latinoamericano; Héctor Fernández L’Hoeste, Rockin’ Las Americas: The Global Politics of Rock in Latin/o America.
FILMS: Aníbal Uset, Rock hasta que se ponga el sol; Héctor Olivera, La noche de los lápices; Héctor Olivera, Buenos Aires rock; Marcelo Piñeyro, Tango Feroz.
VIDEOS: Sui Generis, León Gieco, Serú Girán, Riff, Fito Páez, Los Abuelos de la Nada, Andrés Calamaro, Bersuit Vergarabat, Intoxicados, Catupecu Machu, La Tabaré Cachimbanda, La Vela Puerca.
PARTICULARS: This course focuses on rock music in Argentina and Uruguay. Final grade will be the result of active participation in class (20%), a midterm exam (20%), an oral presentation (10%), a five-page response paper (15%), and a video clip (35%).
LAS 495A– Honors Thesis I
LACS Faculty
No set meeting time
Fulfills Emory College Honors Program requirement
DESCRIPTION: First semester of Honors Program thesis writing for those students participating in the College Honors Program
PREREQUISITES: Enrollment limited to program majors who qualify to participate in the Honors Program.
LAS 495BWR – Honors Thesis II
LACS Faculty
No set meeting time
Fulfills Emory College Honors Program requirement
DESCRIPTION: Second semester of Honors Program thesis writing for those students participating in the College Honors Program.
PREREQUISITES: Must have completed LAS 495A.
LAS 497R – Independent Research in Latin American and Caribbean Studies
LACS Faculty
No set meeting time
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