SLL 113 Latin American Literature (3) [Literatura hispanoamericana] Brief introduction to five centuries of American literature in the Spanish language. Survey of Latin American literature as a synthesis of three cultures - indigenous, Spanish, and African - from colonialism to contemporary times. The birth of different literary genres through the centuries of colonization. Focuses on contemporary literature beginning with avant-garde poetry and culminating in the mid-century boom.
Before this class, I didn't really have much knowledge about Latin American authors. I mean, I heard of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but other than him, I had absolutely no knowledge whatsoever. This class opened me to learning about some of the most influential authors of Latin America. I fell in love! We learned about all of those authors in chronological order starting from the 1500's. Every class, we would read a texts and write short reflections about what we learned. When we would come to class, we would have discussions about what we learned and understood from those texts. In class, we would have discussions about our own interpretations and then about the authors at those stages of their lives and how that could have potentially influenced their writing. Because we went over so many different authors, styles and eras of writing, sometimes it was challenging to understand the material that we were reading. For example, when I read Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, I had a hard time understanding what she was intending to say. To better understand, I had to re-read passages and I came into class ready to ask many questions to the professor. I had to be a very active student to understand what was going on. That's why the reflections were such a nice addition to this literature class. They gave me the opportunity to reflect on my own understanding and what I learned. This is actually one of the classes that influence me to write about Julio Cortázar for my capstone paper. Now, I also have a large collection of books that I would like to read because I have fallen in love with Latin American literature.
Before this class, I didn't really have much knowledge about Latin American authors. I mean, I heard of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but other than him, I had absolutely no knowledge whatsoever. This class opened me to learning about some of the most influential authors of Latin America. I fell in love! We learned about all of those authors in chronological order starting from the 1500's. Every class, we would read a texts and write short reflections about what we learned. When we would come to class, we would have discussions about what we learned and understood from those texts. In class, we would have discussions about our own interpretations and then about the authors at those stages of their lives and how that could have potentially influenced their writing. Because we went over so many different authors, styles and eras of writing, sometimes it was challenging to understand the material that we were reading. For example, when I read Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, I had a hard time understanding what she was intending to say. To better understand, I had to re-read passages and I came into class ready to ask many questions to the professor. I had to be a very active student to understand what was going on. That's why the reflections were such a nice addition to this literature class. They gave me the opportunity to reflect on my own understanding and what I learned. This is actually one of the classes that influence me to write about Julio Cortázar for my capstone paper. Now, I also have a large collection of books that I would like to read because I have fallen in love with Latin American literature.