Key Issues and Texts: Pasts Present, Presents Past: Reflections on Literature and History in Latin American Writing (LT 2026)

The primary texts covered in 2026 will be:

  1. The colonial chronicle: Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Naufragios (1555) and Juan José Saer, El entenado (1983). (Rory O’Bryen and María Elena Martínez-Acacio)  

  2. The slave (auto)biography: Francisco Manzano, Autobiografía de un esclavo (1835/1840), and Miguel Barnet, Biografía de un cimarrón (1966). (Rory O’Bryen and Carlos Fonseca)  

  3. The national romance: Jorge Isaacs, María (1867) and Adelaida Fernández Ochoa, Afuera crece un mundo (2018). (Rory O’Bryen and Liesbeth François) 

  4. Indigenismo: Clorinda Matto de Turner, Aves sin nido (1889), photographs by Martín Chambi, and Lucrecia Martel, La mujer sin cabeza (film) (María Elena Martínez-Acacio and Rory O’Bryen)  

  5. The Diary: excerpts from José María Arguedas, El zorro de arriba y el zorro de abajo (1971), and Ricardo Piglia, Los diarios de Emilio Renzi: Años de formación (2015) (Carlos Fonseca and Rory O’Bryen)  

  6. The urban chronicle: Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera, selected crónicas and Carlos Monsiváis, Los rituales del caos (Liesbeth François/Rory O’Bryen)  

Student papers: please keep these between 10 and 15 minutes if possible, so as to guarantee lots of time for group discussion.  

Preliminary Reading: 

Students must read *all* of the primary texts before attending seminars.  

Good introductory works for those who do not have a foundation in Latin American literature include Jean Franco’s Introduction to Latin American Literature (1969), Angel Rama’s La ciudad letrada (1984), Gerald Martin’s Journeys Through the Labyrinth (1989), and Doris Sommer, Foundational Fictions: The National Romances of Latin America (1991). 

Secondary readings will be provided in advance of the seminars.