Undergraduate Course: Latin America: History and Culture Entwined (ELCH10073)
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 | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Students on this course will explore interactions between history and culture in Latin America. Topics will include watershed moments (such as the Cuban Revolution and the dictatorships in the Southern Cone) up to the present day, the representation of history in cultural forms, associated cultural techniques and movements, processes by which historical conditions inform culture and vice versa, erasures and amplifications, and instances where cultural objects enter the public consciousness. You will be invited to reflect on these interconnected issues and the challenges and creative possibilities involved in attempting to untangle, conceptualise and articulate them.
N.B. In this course we will be discussing content that may be traumatising to some students.
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| Course description |
What is Latin America? Who speaks in its name? On this course we will work together to explain the interaction between history and culture at key moments in Latin America. You will scrutinise a dossier of cultural works and historical documents from across the region and then explore them chronologically and thematically with the group.
Assessment has been designed to help students develop skills in analysis, communication and personal reflection. Students will use multimodal digital technologies to represent the issues (with full training and on-going support) and compose an essay that is both analytical and reflective.
Feedback will be provided on both pieces of assessed coursework.
Please note that this course will be conducted in English. Students may choose, if they wish, to read the works in the original Portuguese or Spanish and write their essay in Portuguese or Spanish.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 35 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
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 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Summative assessment: Timeline 40% and Essay 60%
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| Feedback |
Feedback will be provided on both pieces of assessed coursework. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate a detailed understanding of certain relationships between history and culture in Latin America.
- Apply historicist methods of analysis and reception theory to Latin American culture.
- Provide illustrations of the impact of Eurocentric and androcentric modes of thought on understandings of Latin American history and culture and question the validity of 'Latin America' as a unit of analysis.
- Communicate the complex interplay between history and culture in Latin America via digital technology.
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Learning Resources
Essential Materials:
José Teófilo de Jesus, Allegory of the Four Continents: America (1810)
Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait on the Border Between Mexico and the United States of America (1932)
Paulo Freire, Chapter 2, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1968)
Gilberto Gil, That Hug (1969)
Juan Manuel Roca, Landscape with Beggars (2009)
Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, The Adventures of China Iron (2017)
Lastesis Collective, The Rapist is You (2019)
Pope Francis, Beloved Amazon (2020)
Recommended Reading:
The Cambridge History of Latin American Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996) vols. I,
E. Carpenter, Frida Kahlo (Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, 2007)
R. Fregoso and C. Bejarano, Terrorizing Women: Feminicide in the Americas (Durham: Duke University Press, 2010)
L. Gilmore, Tainted Witness: Why we Doubt what Women say about their Lives (New York: Columbia University Press, 2017)
P. Hamilton, Historicism (New York: Routledge, 2002)
B. Harlow, Resistance Literature (New York: Methuen, 1987)
R. C. Holub, Reception Theory: A Critical Introduction (London: Methuen, 1984)
D. K. Lewis, The History of Argentina (New York: Palgrave, 2003)
A. Lifshey, Specters of conquest: Indigenous absence in transatlantic literatures ( New York: Fordham University Press, 2010)
M. Lindauer and F. Kahlo, Devouring Frida The Art History and Popular Celebrity of Frida Kahlo, (Hanover: University Press of New England, 1999)
A. Lyon, C. Gustafson and P. Manuel, Pope Francis as a Global Actor Where Politics and Theology Meet (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018)
A. Melling and R, Paulo Freire and Transformative Education: Changing Lives and Transforming Communities (London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2018)
L. Pankl and K. Blake, K. (2012). 'Made in Her Image: Frida Kahlo as Material Culture', Material Culture, 44(2), 1-20,90.
J. A. Wood. Problems in Modern Latin American History: Sources and Interpretations (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019)
R. Wright, Stolen Continents: Conquest and Resistance in the Americas (London: Phoenix, 2000)
L. P. Zamora, The Usable Past: The Imagination of History in Recent Fiction of the Americas, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997) |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Digital literacy, collaborative learning, global citizenship, intercultural skills, creativity, analysis, critical thinking
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| Keywords | History,Culture,Latin America,Reception,Historicism |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Iona MacIntyre
Tel: (0131 6)50 3641
Email: iona.macintyre@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Hope Hamilton
Tel: (0131 6)50 4167
Email: hope.hamilton@ed.ac.uk |
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