SPAN 319 Latin(a) American Women Writers: The Struggle for Representation
This course offers an advanced introduction to the literary work of Latina and Latin American women, spanning from the nineteenth century to the present. Looking at the work of renowned and less-known authors, the course focuses on pressing questions of gender difference, equality, and identity. We will ask, among other questions: What social and historical forces have affected women's lives and their writing in different Èpoques? How power relations affect women's writing across time and borders? How does gender complicate the political stakes of writing? Is writing a form of struggle? How women explore through writing the enduring questions of freedom and justice, knowledge and wisdom?
To answer these questions, we will read texts of different kinds - poetry, fiction, essay, testimoniol - written by women from across the Americas: South American, Central American, Mexican, as well as US/Mexican, Nuyorican, and Cuban-American works. To better our understanding of women's struggle for visibility in writing, we will also read excerpts of seminal literary theory penned by authors such as Gloria Anzald˙a, Simone de Beauvoir, HÈlËne Cixous, and Judith Butler. Taught in Spanish.