Span 424 - Latin-American Literature and Theory: Reading the State, Culture and Desire

Institution:

Washington University in St Louis

Subject:

Description:

In this course, we pair literary and theoretical texts in order to hone a way of reading in which theory and literature are mutually informative, provocative, and inspiring. The idea of these loose groupings is not to prescribe a particular relationship between given literary and theoretical texts but rather is a way to begin negotiating the necessarily multiple relationships of theory and literature. These pairings come to seem more artificial over the course of the semester as we trace a network of relations that begins to look more and more like the Borgesian map that covered up the entire territory it described. The object of the course is, thus, not to define or prioritize a particular set of relations but rather to practice a way of reading literature theoretically and theory literarily, by which the strengths of both are allowed to come to the forefront in their complexity. Thematically, the course has several nuclei: the triangulation of State, culture, and art (Piglia/Foucault, Burman/Agamben); a psychoanalytic approach to art as desire (Lispector/Lacan/Cixous); and finally, a third nucleus about which the first two commingle completely: "post-State," proliferating desire, libidinal economies wherein the State is anachronism and failure (Arlt/Deleuze; Sorín/Virilio/Sitrin, Sassen; Bolaño/Zizek). Readings may include: Piglia, Foucault, Agamben, Arlt, Deleuze, Virilio, Sassen, Borges, Benjamin, Bolaño, Zizek, Lispector, Lacan, Cixous, as well as the films Garage Olimpo and Historias Mínimas. Prerequisites: Span 307D and Span 308D and at least two 300-level literature courses taught in Spanish. One-hour preceptorial for undergraduates only; in Spanish.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.wustl.edu

Phone Number:

(314) 935-5000

Regional Accreditation:

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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