Prof. Jill Levine
Thurs: 3-5:50
Office/hrs: Phelps 4331: w/th 1-2 p.m.

A.The first quarter of the seminar will focus on readings and discussion of  a reasonably broad and representative selection of the most significant narrative and/or authors in Argentina and Uruguay (constituting the "River Plate" region) during the last (XXth) century.   We will do close readings of several texts, novels as well as short fiction, within the context of national literary movements as well as the larger context of production and reception termed as the Latin American Boom.  Introductory scholarly and critical materials will be read and discussed in conjunction with the primary texts.  Useful reference texts, both primary and secondary, can be found on reserve at the library.

B. The second quarter (winter 2001) will be structured around weekly student presentations, based on research interests developed in the first quarter.  The student is not limited to studying texts read closely in the first quarter, e.g. we will be reading several stories of Cortazar, but a student may choose to study Rayuela.  Or,  a student may choose to focus on Argentine or Uruguayan writers not discussed in the first quarter.  Each student will focus her or his research on either one author or a theme involving more than one writer.  Here are examples of research paper themes:
e.g.  i.The short story, theory and practice, in the works of Horacio Quiroga
        ii.The Joycean Novel in Argentina: Leopoldo Marechal's Adan Buenosayres and Julio Cortazar's Rayuela.
       iii. Women writers in Buenos Aires from 1960 to the present day;
       iv. Luisa Valenzuela & Osvaldo Soriano, la novela de la guerra sucia.

In the second quarter, the instructor and the class as a group will work as consultants to each student in her or his project.  Having begun to build up a bibliography folder of references and articles in the first quarter, the student will research and add particular bibliography needed to work on the project at hand.

The final research paper (20-25 pages with MLA style sheet footnote and bibliography) is due the final week of instruction in the winter quarter.  During the first two weeks of winter quarter, students will hand in paper themes and one-page outlines describing the theme, the texts to be studied, with a brief bibliography.

Required Texts (UCEN bookstore; except READER, Alternative Copy, Isla Vista, Pardall Rd.)

1) Xeroxed Reader (texts by Leopoldo Marechal, Macedonio Fernandez, Horacio Quiroga, Jorge Luis Borges, Silvina Ocampo, Jose Bianco, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Julio Cortazar).
2) Juan Carlos Onetti, Los adioses
3) Manuel Puig, La traicion de Rita Hayworth
4) ……………., The Buenos Aires Affair
 

On Reserve in Library

Roberto Arlt, Los siete locos
Jorge Luis Borges, Ficciones; Obras completas
JL Borges, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Silvina Ocampo, ed., Antologia de la literatura fantastica
Luis Harss, Los Nuestros (orig: Into the Mainstream)
Felisberto Hernandez, Las hortensias
Lucille Kerr, Suspended Fictions: Reading the Novels of Manuel Puig
Suzanne Jill Levine, Guia de Bioy Casares;
                                 Manuel Puig and the Spider Woman: His Life and Fictions
Sylvia Molloy, Signs of Borges (orig. Letras de Borges)
Emir Rodriguez Monegal, Jorge Luis Borges: Ficcionario.
 

Schedule:

Week I: October 5: Introduction: Can class meet at either 2 p.m. or 5:30 p.m.
          Prof. Levine, Presentation of literary biography of Manuel Puig, IHC, 4 p.m.

READ (in Reader): Luis Harss, Introduction
  Leopoldo Marechal, Adan Buenosayres (excerpts)
  Also articles by John King and Jose Bianco.

Week II: October 12:  Horacio Quiroga

Reader: Introd; cuentos;
Margo Glantz, Poe en Quiroga

Week III: October 19: Macedonio Fernandez & Jorge Luis Borges

Reader: Macedonio Fernandez, Intro & Una novela que comienza
   Jorge Luis Borges, Cuentos

Week IV: October 26: Borges, Bioy Casares, Silvina Ocampo: la literatura fantastica

   S.J. Levine, "Una discusion internacional"
A. Bioy Casares, La invencion de Morel
S. Ocampo, Autobiografia de Irene

Week V:  November 2: Julio Cortazar

   "Algunos aspectos del cuento"
   'Cuentos"  seleccionados de los libros Final del juego, Armas secretas, Todos los fuegos el fuego

Week VI: November 9: Juan Carlos Onetti: un realista

Introd: Onetti en la literatura
Los adioses: the unreliable narrator

Week VII:  November 16: Manuel Puig: la novela postmoderna

La traicion de Rita Hayworth, or growing up in the pampas
 

Week VIII: November 30:  Argentina in the 70s: a detective novel

The Buenos Aires Affair

Weeks IX-X: December 7-14: Conclusions & discussion of student projects