The Last Laugh: Humor in Latin American Literature and Film

3.0 credits · Undergraduate

What can laughter do? Upon reading a funny passage by Jorge Luis Borges, Michel Foucault observed that his ensuing laughter "shattered all the familiar landmarks of my though." The implication is that humor is an analytic: a way of revealing the relationships that underlie society. This course will explore how laughter has been mobilized in Latin American literature and film to probe social hierachies and create community through shared pleasure. We will study the affordances of comedy, satire, and the absurd, in connection with subjects that some might consider "no laughing matter."