Introductory description

Climate breakdown and the prospect of a post-nature world where human beings have irreversibly transformed their environment are correlated to the cultural and economic model of western modernity. So, while we think of progress, development and growth as incremental global processes that continue to expand to other regions and continents, we are called to question their significance: is modernity as we know it reconcilable with the future of the earth? Latin America stands in a unique place in relation to this question: as a region colonised by European powers, its natural resources were exploited to produce the wealth that made Europe the centre of the modern world. After gaining independence, its own modernity has continued to be hindered by the history of exploitation of its nature and people. What does it mean to be modern in Latin America, where development, democracy and social justice are undermined by continued exploitation in the name of global modernity? What can we learn about modernity and its contradictions from Latin America? And how have Latin Americans made sense of and responded to the notion that modernity is based on the domination of nature in the name of progress? This module explores these questions in relation to four main themes: 1) representations of new colonialism and extractivism in contemporary Latin American film; 2) visual reconstructions in twentieth-century visual arts of ideas of gender and race in relation to Latin American nature and its peoples; 3) recent recuperations of indigenous understandings of nature-human relations especially through storytelling in the Amazon; 4) current Latin American alternatives to the idea of modernity as endless development such as the notion of buen vivir, or what it means to live well. Students will be encouraged to use a variety of primary materials: film, visual arts and photography, short story and the essay of ideas. Countries include Cuba, Mexico, Bolivia, Colombia and Brazil. The module will be most suitable to students with an interest in one or more of the following areas: the literature and culture of the Hispanic world, twentieth-century and contemporary Latin America, ecology, post-colonialism and neo-colonialism, environmental history, environmental movements and ideas, global modernity, the politics of nature. All primary texts are also available in English.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

PRIMARY TEXTS:
Films: También la lluvia (Even the rain, Icíar Bollaín, 2010) and Birdwatchers (Marco Bechis, 2008) [available via tutor]
Visual arts: artists include Ana Mendieta (Cuba, 1948-1985), Teresa Margolles (Mexico, 1963- ) and photographer Sebastião Salgado (Brazil, 1944- ) [available via tutor/online]
Short stories: Juan Carlos Galeano, Cuentos amazónicos, 2014 (Folktales of the Amazon) [available via tutor/library]
Essays of ideas: authors include Arturo Escobar (Colombia, 1952- ) and Eduardo Gudynas (Uruguay, 1960- ) [available via tutor]

WEEKLY OUTLINE:
WEEK 2:
Part I: Introduction to the module
Part II: Discussion: Key terms ‘nature’ and ‘modernity’
READING: E. Dussel, ‘Eurocentrism and Modernity (Introduction to the Frankfurt Lectures)’, boundary 2, 20:3, The Postmodernism Debate in Latin America (Autumn 1993), pp. 65-76.
DISCUSSION QUESTION: Is modernity violent?

WEEK 3:
Part I: Lecture 1 “New colonialism and extractivism”
Part II: Discussion
PRIMARY MATERIAL: También la lluvia (Even the rain, Icíar Bollaín, 2010)
SECONDARY MATERIAL: Ania Loomba, Colonialism/Postcolonialism, chapters 1 and 2
DISCUSSION QUESTION: In what ways can we analyse También la lluvia through the categories of ‘post-colonial’, ‘neo-colonial’ and ‘coloniality’?

WEEK 4:
Part I: GROUP 1 presentations: También la lluvia and Birdwatchers
Part II: Discussion
PRIMARY MATERIAL: Birdwatchers (Marco Bechis, 2008)
SECONDARY MATERIAL: J.R. Aparicio and M. Blaser ‘The “Lettered City” and the Insurrection of Subjugated Knowledges in Latin America’, Anthropological Quarterly, 81:1 (Winter, 2008), pp. 59-94.
DISCUSSION QUESTION: What is the relationship between knowledge and modernity?

WEEK 5:
Part I: Lecture 2 “Ecologies of race, gender and violence”
Part II: Discussion
PRIMARY MATERIAL: images provided by tutor
SECONDARY MATERIAL: Ana Mendieta: Decolonized Feminist and Artist, Berkeley Arts + Design (2017): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVk4UBA6HGQ.
DISCUSSION QUESTION: In what ways can we analyse the relationship between notions of ‘nature’ and the ‘body’?

WEEK 6: READING WEEK

WEEK 7:
Part I: GROUP 2 presentations: Ana Mendieta / Teresa Margolles / Alvaro Enciso / Sebastião Salgado (if you are interested in presenting on an artist not listed here, please consult with your tutor)
Part II: Lecture 3 “Nature and indigeneity in the Amazon”
PRIMARY MATERIAL: The Salt of the Earth (Wim Wender & Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, 2014)
SECONDARY MATERIAL: Afro-Colombian Activist Francia Márquez, 2018 Goldman Prize Winner, on Stopping Illegal Gold Mining, Democracy Now! (18 May 2018): https://www.democracynow.org/2018/5/18/afro_colombian_activist_francia_marquez_2018

WEEK 8:
Part I: GROUP 3 presentations: Juan Carlos Galeano
Part II: Discussion
PRIMARY MATERIAL: Juan Carlos Galeano, selected stories (provided by tutor)
SECONDARY MATERIAL: J. Adamson and J.C. Galeano, with illustrations by Solmi Angarita, ‘Why Bears, Yakumama (Mother of All Water Beings), and Other Transformational Beings Are (Still) Good to Think’, in S. Monani and J. Adamson (eds), Ecocriticism and Indigenous Studies: Conversations from Earth to Cosmos (Routledge, 2017), pp. 223-240.
DISCUSSION QUESTION: In what ways does the inclusion of the more-than-human affect the modern discourse?

WEEK 9:
Part I: Lecture 4 “Alternative (to) modernity?”
Part II: GROUP 4 presentations: essay of ideas
PRIMARY MATERIAL: E. Gudynas, ‘Buen Vivir: Today’s tomorrow’, Development, 2011, 54:4, pp. 441–447.
SECONDARY MATERIAL: Rosi Braidotti, ‘Posthuman Knowledge’, lecture at Harvard GSD (13 March 2019): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CewnVzOg5w.

WEEK 10:
Essay-writing workshop and essay consultations

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Engage critically with literary and visual texts (both individually and in a group) and be able to present in written form an essay that examines the context, content, and significance of cultural representations [cognitive/key skills]; Engage critically with secondary literature in English and Spanish, and demonstrate knowledge of the scholarly debates on the ideas and authors studied [cognitive/key skills]; Demonstrate knowledge of the scholarly debates on the ideas and authors studied [key skills]; Indications of independent research and of engagement with secondary literature are taken into account in the award of marks for formative and summative assessment.

Indicative reading list

Reading lists can be found in Talis

Research element

4000-word research essay: students are encouraged to create their own approach to a variety of topics and are allowed to propose their own essay title.

Interdisciplinary

Students read philosophical and sociological essays, short stories, watch films and analyse visual arts. They are encouraged to use tools from different areas of knowledge and epistemic approaches in order to develop their own critical and creative reformulations.

International

Global approach to the study of Latin American modernity from the perspective of resource extraction and the Anthropocene.

Subject specific skills

Critical knowledge and understanding of Latin American modernity and modernisation within the global extractive context; critical knowledge and understanding of the historical, material and symbolic entanglements of the climate crisis in global extractive zones like Latin America; critical and independent reflection on deeper connections between cultural/symbolic understanding and socio-political significance of global modernity.

Transferable skills

Learning to build and present a reasoned argument through group discussion and interaction; developing oral presentation skills through individual or small group presentation; analytical skills through close textual analysis; critical thinking skills through individual and group reflection; digital presentation skills through preparation of visual presentation.