THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2020/2021

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures : European Languages and Cultures - Hispanic Studies

Undergraduate Course: From Typewriters to Blogs: Latin American Media Studies (ELCH10071)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Literatures, Languages and Cultures CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryWorking with a variety of media objects ranging from typewriters, to video, to blogs, we will explore the complexity of technological and media artifacts, especially as they relate to the political, social and cultural impact of media in Latin American (and diasporic) contexts.
Course description Working with a variety of media objects ranging from typewriters, to video, to blogs, students will explore the complexity of technological and media artifacts, especially as they relate the political, social and cultural impact of media in Latin American (and diasporic) contexts. Students will read seminal theorists on technology and media, and will also explore critics whose work contends with Latin America¿s specificity. These critics will guide students in their approach to the complex media narratives that coexist in Latin America. They will help students approach three main questions: How is media appropriated in different national, social, and economic contexts? How does technology take on new meanings in media ecologies characterised by multiple and competing understandings of modernity? How does the same media¿s social function or ¿trajectory¿ (Appadurai) change over time? This course will be delivered by a mixture of presentations, set readings, media objects to analyse, and class discussion.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Students MUST have passed:
Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements Entry to Spanish Hons required.
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2020/21, Not available to visiting students (SS1) Quota:  15
Course Start Semester 1
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Seminar/Tutorial Hours 28, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 168 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) Coursework 100%:
500-word commentary (40%)
2,000-word comparative essay (45%)
presentation (15%)
Feedback Students will receive detailed written feedback on both presentations and their written work. Optional follow-up sessions will be available for face-to-face consultation to help students understand the implications of this feedback, and to further explore ways in which future work might be enhanced.
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. demonstrate familiarity with a diverse range of Latin American media forms, and the arguments that surround their deployment.
  2. examine the ways in which the analysis of different forms of media contribute to the understanding of broader political struggles and social contexts.
  3. critically explore key concepts and frameworks in Latin American media studies and media studies more broadly in order to substantiate their arguments.
  4. evaluate the way media studies has evolved and/or remain constant in different media ecologies.
  5. critically analyze the diversity of media use or reception within Latin America.
Reading List
Essential Reading:
Barthes, Roland. La cámara lúcida: Nota sobre la fotografía. 1980. Trans. Joaquim Sala-Sanahuja. Barcelona: Paidós, 2010.
Benjamin, Walter. "La obra de arte en la época de la reproductibilidad técnica". 1936.
Discursos Interrumpidos I. Trans. Jesús Aguirre. Buenos Aires: Editorial Taurus,
1989. 15-59.
García Canclini, Néstor. Culturas híbridas: Estrategias para entrar y salir de la
modernidad. México: Grijalbo, 1989.
McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Ed. W. Terrence Gordon. Corte Madera, CA: Gingko Press, 2003.
Prensky, Marc. "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants". On the Horizon 9.5 (2001): 1-6.
Sarlo, Beatriz. Escenas de la vida posmoderna: Intelectuales, arte y videocultura en la
Argentina. Buenos Aires: Ariel, 1994.
Venegas, Cristina. "El ser liberado: la biopolítica de los blogs cubanos". KEPES 9.8
(2012). 37-60.

Recommended
Alarcón, Daniel. "Vivir entre piratas". Trans. Alejandro Tellería. The Barcelona Review
71 (2010): http://www.barcelonareview.com/71/s_da.html
Bellatin, Mario: "Mis últimos cinco libros los escribí en un iPhone; es mi mejor prótesis, pero la odio": https://redaccion.lamula.pe/2015/12/08/mario-bellatin-mis-ultimos-cinco-libros-los-escribi-en-un-iphone-es-mi-mejor-protesis-pero-la-odio/juancarlosfangacio/
Cartoneros. Dir. Ernesto Livón-Grosman, Cristina Banegas, Angélica Allende Brisk.
Watertown, MA: Documentary Educational Resources, 2007.
Chejfec, Sergio. "Lo que viene después". UNIA arteypensamiento. Literatura y después. Reflexiones sobre el futuro de la literatura después del libro (Sevilla, 17-19 de abril, 2012): http://ayp.unia.es/dmdocuments/litydes_doc08.pdf
La ciudad de los fotógrafos. Dir. Sebastián Moreno. Santiago: IDFA/CORFO, 2006.
Coffea Arábiga. Dir. Nicolás Guillén Landrián. Havana: ICAIC, 1968.
Día de organillos. Dir. Sergio Bravo. Santiago, Chile: Centro de Cine Experimental, 1958.
Drucker, Johanna. "El libro de artista como idea y forma". Trans. Jim Lorena:
http://www.milpedras.com/es/noticias/52/el-libro-de-artista-como-idea-y-forma/
"Ediciones Vigía ha cumplido veintitrés años". Mar desnudo: Revista Cubana de Arte y
Literatura 49 (2008): http://www.mardesnudo.atenas.cult.cu/?q=vigia_23_aniv
Eloy Martínez, Tomás. "Las editoriales cartoneras: creadores ante la crisis". La Nación
(2009): http://www.eloisacartonera.com.ar/archivo.html#friera
"Fabiola o la multiplicación silenciosa". Museo de Arte Zapopan:
http://mazmuseo.com/?post_causes=fabiola-i-francis-alys
For the First Time (Por primera vez; 1967). Dir. Octavio Cortázar. Cuban Cinema Classics,
Volume 1: Filmmaking.
How to Read El Pato Pascual: Disney's Latin America and Latin America's Disney. Edited by
Jesse Lerner/Rubén Ortiz-Torres. London: Black Dog Publishing, 2018.
Luna, Violeta. "Réquiem para una tierra perdida" (2013):
http://www.montevidayo.com/mother-death-in-the-narco-war-violeta-lunas-requiem-for-a-lost-land/
La piedra ausente. Dir. Sandra Rozental, and Jesse Lerner. Foprocine: 2013.
Negrón-Muntaner, Frances. Brincando el charco. Portrait of a Puerto Rican. Women
Make Movies, 1994.
Now (1965). Dir. Santiago Álvarez. Cuban Cinema Classics, Volume 2: Protest.
Oroza, Ernesto, "Archivo desobediencia tecnológica": http://www.ernestooroza.com/category/technological-disobedience-project/
Prensky, Marc. "Nativos e inmigrantes digitales". 2001. Cuadernos Sek 2.0 (2010).
Printed Matter. "Artists' Books from Latin America": https://printedmatter.org/tables/26
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. Dir. Kim Bartley and Donnacha O'Briain.
Vitagraph, 2003.
Roots of my Heart (Las raíces de mi corazón; 2001). Dir. Gloria Rolando. AfroCubaWeb.
Sánchez, Yoani. Blog Generación Y: https://generacionyen.wordpress.com/page/6/
TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away From the Keyboard. Dir. Simon Klose. FilmBuff, 2013.
"Tras el mito del Buena Vista Social Club," Letras Libres: http://www.letraslibres.com/blogs/observatorio/tras-el-mito-del-buena-vista-social-club
We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists. Dir. Brian Knappenberger. FilmBuff, 2012:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zwDhoXpk90
Zambra, Alejandro. "Mis documentos." Mis documentos. Barcelona: Anagrama, 2014. 9-28.

Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills As an outcome of having studied this course, students will benefit from having developed a range of professional and personal skills commensurate with the range of SCQF Level 10 characteristics:
Knowledge and understanding: students will have had the opportunity to demonstrate their critical understanding of a range of the principal theories and concepts of media analysis in relation to their reading and discussion of the course material;
Applied Knowledge, Skills and Understanding: in their work for class discussion, presentations and formal assessment tasks, students will have been able to practice the application of these theories and concepts in their construction of arguments about the course material;
Generic Cognitive skills: in completing assessed essays and class presentations, students will have practiced identifying, defining, conceptualizing and analyzing complex problems and issues germane to the discipline;
Communication: through participating in these tasks students will also have demonstrated the ability to communicate ideas and information about specialized topics in the discipline to an informed audience of their peers and subject specialists;
Autonomy and Working with Others: students will also have the opportunity to work autonomously and in small groups on designated tasks, develop new thinking with their peers, and take responsibility for the reporting, analysis and defense of these ideas.
Additional Class Delivery Information 2-hour seminars over 10 weeks
KeywordsLatin America,media
Contacts
Course organiserDr Jessica Gordon-Burroughs
Tel: (0131 6)50 3679
Email: j.gordonburroughs@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Kat Zabecka
Tel: (0131 6)50 4026
Email: K.Zabecka@ed.ac.uk
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