Module description
This module sets out to examine how iconic figures and events from key periods of pre-colonial to postcolonial regional and national history have been re-imagined in C20th and contemporary Latin American fiction. Investigating the concept of 'historiographical metafiction,' the module examines how authors experiment with both form and content, creating heterogenous texts that challenge established historical norms. We examine how these novels challenge regional and national mythologies, and disrupt the idealization of archives as infallible repositories of the past. Additionally, the course seeks to understand the resurgence of the historical novel in late twentieth-century Latin America, exploring the factors that fueled this interest in narrating history from unusual, marginal and decentred perspectives.
Assessment details
1500-word commentary (50%); 2-hour written examination (50%)
Assessment (for study abroad semester 1 only students if taught in semester 1): 1500-word commentary (50%); 1500-word essay (50%)
Reassessment: 1500-word commentary (50%); 1500-word essay (50%)
Teaching pattern
Two hours per week
Suggested reading list
Students are expected to own copies of the core texts and/or of their translations. Texts to be taught may include:
- The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007) Junot Díaz
- Nadie me verá llorar (1999) Cristina Rivera Garza
- El general en su laberinto (1989) Gabriel García Márquez
- Lost Children Archive (2019) Valeria Luiselli
- Santa Evita (1995) Tomás Eloy Martínez