SPAN 3690 - [Animals, Monsters, and Cyborgs]

(LA-AS, ALC-AS, SCD-AS) Satisfies Option 1.

Spring. Not offered: 2021-2022. Next offered: 2022-2023. 4 credits. Student option grading.

Prerequisite: SPAN 2140, SPAN 2150, SPAN 2170, or CASE Q++.

L. Colanzi.

In this course we will explore how Latin American science fiction and fantastic novels, graphic novels, and short stories from the modern and contemporary period have represented the figures of the animal, the monster, and the cyborg. The aim is to reflect on what these representations tell us about the shifting notions of race, gender,and ethnicity in the continent, and to analyze how these “weird” bodies are able to challenge binary constructions such as civilization/barbarism, nature/culture, human/animal, normal/abnormal. and body/mind, while creating spaces for emerging alternative communities. Some of the authors to be read are Horacio Quiroga, Borges, H.G. Oesterheld, Angélica Gorodischer, Mario Bellatin, Giovanna Rivero, Bef, and Martín Felipe Castagnet.