Strange Sightings
Instructor: Ana Chichester
Department: Modern Foreign Languages
Course Number: FSEM 100A2
CRN: 12758 or 12759
Course Description:
What can Science Fiction Literature do for us? Specifically, what can we gain from studying Science Fiction Literature from Latin America? First, Science Fiction Literature contributes substantially to help us gain awareness of the challenges humans must face in an increasingly complex modern world. Second, Latin American Science Fiction literature, whose roots can be traced back to the 18th century, highlights our the excitement of our species, that sense of wonder mingled with apprehension, that characterizes modern man’s psychological framework. What we gain from studying Science Fiction Literature from Latin America is an enhanced perspective of our own human condition.
Latin American Science Fiction has attracted a growing number of readers to sustain itself. The first true flourishing of Latin American sf occurred from the early 1960s to the mid-1970s, but it was not until the mid-1980s that things really took off. Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil are leading the way in science fiction, but there is no Latin American country that does not currently have writers active in the field of speculative fiction and some degree of fan organization. The content of this course is designed to acquaint students with the works of well known contemporary Latin American writers, in translation, and become familiar with the social, political and economic context of the works production.
Texts:
- Cosmos Latinos, ed. by Bell and Molina-Gavilán
- Collected Fictions, Jorge Luis Borges
- Strange Forces, Leopoldo Lugones
- Youngest Doll, Rosario Ferré
- The Eternal Feminine, Rosario Castellanos
In addition, we will be viewing the following films:
- Man Facing Southeast, (1986) directed by Eliseo Subiela (Argentina)
- Don’t Die without Telling Me Where You are Going, (1995) directed by Eliseo Subiela (Argentina)
- Trip to Mars, (2005) directed by Juan Pablo Zaramella (Argentina)