Undergraduate Course: Cuban and Puerto Rican Cinema: Between Revolution and Colonialism (ELCH10072)
Course Outline
| School | School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course will offer an introduction to a range of Cuban and Puerto Rican films from different periods and styles, focusing on how filmmakers in both Cuba and Puerto Rico (and their diasporas) have (re)negotiated their political conditions and production possibilities. |
| Course description |
While Cuba in the 1960s was the epicenter of the Latin American left, Puerto Rico was the symbolic showcase of Caribbean capitalism. This course will offer an introduction to a range of Cuban and Puerto Rican films from different periods and styles, focusing on how filmmakers in both Cuba and Puerto Rico (and their diasporas) have (re)negotiated their political conditions and production possibilities. Students will examine a selection of films in order to explore issues relating to revolution and colonialism (and neocolonialism). The course will explore related concerns surrounding film aesthetics and language in both documentary and fiction. The material will be discussed in terms of both the aesthetic contributions the films have made and their foregrounding of discourses on politics, gender and race.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | This course is taught in Spanish. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
|
Quota: 18 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
196 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
1 close-analysis of a film (1000 words) (30%)
1 time limited assessment of 3000 words (70%)
Individual Presentation of materials (formative)
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| 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.
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| Exam Information |
| Exam Diet |
Paper Name |
Hours & Minutes |
|
| Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May) | | 2:00 | | | Resit Exam Diet (August) | Batchwise and Semibatch Processing 5 | 2:00 | |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- demonstrate familiarity with a diverse range of films from Cuba and Puerto Rico, and the historical context that surrounds their production and reception.
- examine the ways in which the analysis of different films contributes to the understanding of broader political struggles and social contexts.
- critically explore key concepts and frameworks in Latin American and world cinema and history in order to substantiate their arguments.
- evaluate the way cinema in Cuba and Puerto Rico has evolved in new media ecologies
- critically analyze the diversity of cinema within Cuba and Puerto Rico.
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Reading List
Essential Reading:
See course "Resource List"
Readings may include:
Aguilera Skvirsky, Salomé. "The Postcolonial city symphony film and the 'ruins' of Suite Habana."
Social Identities, 19: 3-4 (2013): 423-439.
Ebrahim, Haseenah. "Afrocuban Religions in Sara Gómez's One Way or Another and Gloria Rolando's
Oggun" The Western Journal of Black Studies 22.4 (1998): 239-251.
López, Iraida. Interview with La Operación's Ana María García, "Not many options for contraception"
Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media 29 (1984): 38-39.
Lord, Susan. "Acts of Affection: Cinema, Citizenship, and Race in the Work of Sara Gómez", Gender
and Sexuality in 1968: Transformative Politics in the Cultural Imagination, eds. Lessie Jo Frazier
and Deborah Cohen. New York: Palgrave, 2009. 173-192.
Lugo-Ortiz, Lourdes. Tropiezos con la memoria: La esterilización femenina puertorriqueña. San Juan:
Plaza Mayor, 2011.
Marsh Kennedy, Catherine. Negociaciones culturales: Los intelectuales y el proyecto pedagógico del
estado muñocista. San Juan: Ediciones Callejón, 2009.
Martínez-Echazábal, Lourdes y Inés María Martiatu, "¡Sara es mucha Sara!" Afro-Hispanic Review 33.1
(2014): 235-260.
Noriega, Chon A. "An Education Through Art, 1960" Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies 41.1 (2016):
1-18.
---. "Sacred Contingencies: The Digital Deconstructions of Raphael Montañez Ortiz." Art
Journal 54.4 (1995): 36-40.
Ramos, Julio. "Otros modos de hacer cine: conversación con Miguel Coyula en La Habana." 80Grados,
2013.
Safa, Helen. Myth of the Male Breadwinner: Women and Industrialization in the Caribbean. New York:
Routledge, 1995.
Recommended Filmography:
De cierta manera. Dir. Sara Gómez. Cuba: ICAIC, 1974.
Manos a la obra: Operación Bootstrap. Dir. Pedro Rivera and Susan Zeig. Cinema Guild, 1983.
Memorias del desarrollo. Dir. Miguel Coyula. Pirámide, 2010.
Memorias del subdesarrollo. Dir. Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. Cuba: ICAIC, 1968.
La Operación. Dir. Ana María García. Latin America Film Project, 1982.
El Puente. Dir. Amílcar Tirado. Divedco, 1954.
Puerto Rico: Paradise Invaded. Dir. Alfonso Beato. Latin America Film Project, 1977.
Santa y Andrés. Dir. Lechuga, Carlos. 5th Avenue Productions, 2016.
Suite Habana. Dir. Fernando Pérez. ICAIC, 2003.
Los Sures. Dir. Diego Echeverria. Union Docs, 1984.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Graduate Attributes
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 shown the capacity 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.
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| Keywords | Film,Caribbean,Latin America,gender,race,politics,documentary,fiction |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Jessica Gordon-Burroughs
Tel: (0131 6)50 3679
Email: j.gordonburroughs@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Hope Hamilton
Tel: (0131 6)50 4167
Email: hope.hamilton@ed.ac.uk |
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