Lit, Film, Musc of CENT AM

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course explores a variety of cultural texts from Central America. Key questions that will be considered throughout the semester include the following: Does Central America exist in any sense other than geographic? How might a regional identity be defined? Given the different histories and demographics of the various countries, does it make sense to treat local artistic traditions through national frameworks? Or does that move too evade sharper questions about internal and external fault lines? To what extent is Central America not a marginal space but a globally central one? Given the large Salvadoran population in the Washington, D.C., area, to what extent is Central America even in Central America anyway? Given Atlantic coast populations such as the garífuna, how do Central America and the Caribbean interdefine and distinguish from each other? And how can the canon of modern Latin American literature be read from Central America? During the semester, students will develop possible responses to such questions by analyzing a variety of 20th and 21st century Central American literature, music and art. The course will be taught as a seminar, so students are expected arrive to each class prepared to participate with intellectual rigor and creativity. This course, which will be taught entirely in Spanish, is open to undergraduate as well as graduate students.