Nationalism, Colonialism, and Culture

This seminar is devoted to an investigation of the concept of “South” in the imagination of colonizers, explorers, and creative writers beginning in the 19th century, stretching through the fantasies of high modernists and social realists, and reaching today’s novelists and poets.  To approach the idea of “South,” we’ll focus in particular on the representation of that southernmost frontier known as the Patagonia. . Starting with Darwin’s observations, we will read about the ways in which the South enters the cultural imagination of those who see in the remote geographic outpost the possibility of challenging cosmopolitan sensibilities and rethinking the role of the state. Our work will require a study of the operations of travel discourse, the estheticization of nature, the building of cultural difference (based on race, language, and nation), and the literary representation of social injustice.

In addition to the texts listed below, we will also see a number of films (among them, “La Patagonia Rebelde,” “Caballos Salvajes,” “Sur,” “Mundo Grúa”) and read materials from social historians and creative writers (among them Joyce, James, Poe, Gonzalez Tuñon, Coloane, Mistral, Neruda, Zurita), to be included in a class reader.

Texts

Cesar Aira, La liebre, Buenos Aires: Emecé, 1992

Eduardo Belgrano Rawson, Fuegia, Buenos Aires: Sudamericana, 1991

Diana Bellessi, Sur, Buenos Aires: Tierra Firme, 2000

Leopoldo, Brizuela, Los que llegamos más lejos: relatos, Buenos Aires: Alfaguara, 2002.

Bruce Chatwin, In Patagonia, New York: Penguin

Charles Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle,New York: Penguin

Libertad Demitrópulos, Un piano en Bahía Desolación,Buenos Aires: Braga, 1994

Lobodón Garra, La tierra maldita. Relatos bravíos de la Patagonia salvaje, Buenos Aires: Zagier & Urruty, 2001.

W.H. Hudson, Idle Days in Patagonia, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co.

Sylvia Iparaguirre, La tierra del fuego, Buenos Aires: Alfaguara, 1998

Melville, “Benito Cereno” (any edition)

Manuel Rojas, La ciudad de los Césares, Santiago de Chile, Zig-Zag

David Viñas, Los dueños de la tierra, Madrid : Orígenes, 1978