martes, mayo 11
Course Description
Spanish 940
Poet's Prose: Blurred Genres in Latin American and Peninsular Literature
The texts studied in this seminar fall between the generic cracks, challenging the traditional boundaries between literary types. Why do major poets like Lezama Lima produce a good portion of their most significant work in prose? Why do works of literary theory by Borges or Cortázar take the form of short-stories or novels? The impulse to blur distinctions between types of texts, I would argue, arises in tandem with a larger questioning of "literature" itself, beginning in the 19th century. Poets like Antonio Gamoneda prefer to speak of a "poetry" freed from all generic constraints, while showing very little interest in the older concept of a "literature" divided into separate genres. At the same time, the concept of literature is also under question in the age of cultural studies. Why distinguish literary works from other modes of cultural production? The course will attempt to relate generic border-crossings to the erasure of the line separating literary and (ostensibly) non-literary discourses. The theoretical readings for the course will be of two types: texts which themselves exemplify the impulse to cross generic boundaries (e.g. Barthes's Fragments of a Lover's Discourse) and texts that reflect on the status and definition of literature itself.
The format of the course will consist of lively and stimulating discussions, led by turns by the professor and the students. Students will complete three to four shorter assignments connected with the readings on the syllabus. The final 20-30 page seminar paper will consist of a study of any relevant author of the twentieth or twenty-first century in light of the theoretical perspectives offered in the course. Since the potential content of the course is wide-open, I anticipate that Doctoral students will be able to use the opportunity to work on one of their Ph.D. examination papers.
Authors and theorists to be studied:
Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortáza (Rayuela), José Lezama Lima, Octavio Paz, Heriberto Yépez
María Zambrano, Antonio Gamoneda, José Angel Valente, Juan Goytisolo
Roland Barthes, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Charles Bernstein, John Beverly, Nick Piombino, Pierre Bourdieu, Susan Howe, Gloria Anzaldúa, Michel Leiris
Poet's Prose: Blurred Genres in Latin American and Peninsular Literature
The texts studied in this seminar fall between the generic cracks, challenging the traditional boundaries between literary types. Why do major poets like Lezama Lima produce a good portion of their most significant work in prose? Why do works of literary theory by Borges or Cortázar take the form of short-stories or novels? The impulse to blur distinctions between types of texts, I would argue, arises in tandem with a larger questioning of "literature" itself, beginning in the 19th century. Poets like Antonio Gamoneda prefer to speak of a "poetry" freed from all generic constraints, while showing very little interest in the older concept of a "literature" divided into separate genres. At the same time, the concept of literature is also under question in the age of cultural studies. Why distinguish literary works from other modes of cultural production? The course will attempt to relate generic border-crossings to the erasure of the line separating literary and (ostensibly) non-literary discourses. The theoretical readings for the course will be of two types: texts which themselves exemplify the impulse to cross generic boundaries (e.g. Barthes's Fragments of a Lover's Discourse) and texts that reflect on the status and definition of literature itself.
The format of the course will consist of lively and stimulating discussions, led by turns by the professor and the students. Students will complete three to four shorter assignments connected with the readings on the syllabus. The final 20-30 page seminar paper will consist of a study of any relevant author of the twentieth or twenty-first century in light of the theoretical perspectives offered in the course. Since the potential content of the course is wide-open, I anticipate that Doctoral students will be able to use the opportunity to work on one of their Ph.D. examination papers.
Authors and theorists to be studied:
Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortáza (Rayuela), José Lezama Lima, Octavio Paz, Heriberto Yépez
María Zambrano, Antonio Gamoneda, José Angel Valente, Juan Goytisolo
Roland Barthes, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Charles Bernstein, John Beverly, Nick Piombino, Pierre Bourdieu, Susan Howe, Gloria Anzaldúa, Michel Leiris
