SPAN 6110 - [Poetry After the Invention of (Latin) America]

Spring. Not offered: 2023-2024. Next offered: 2024-2025. 3 credits. Student option grading.

Co-meets with SPAN 4110.

V. Gubbins.

Can poetic rhythm be politically radical? Can it be liberating, anticolonial or revolutionary? This advanced undergraduate/graduate course will study theories of poetry in Latin America since the region acquired its name. We will read key works by poets across the region-from Cuba to Brazil and the Southern Cone-who turn to poetry to raise its urgency in the Latin American context. We will examine these texts paying particular attention to how they relate to the region’s colonial history as original scene/original sin of invention as well as respond to their own local contexts. Alongside figures such as Cesar Vallejo, Nicolas Guillen, Gabriela Mistral and the Brazilian Modernists, we will ultimately ask: what is the role of poetry after the invention of (Latin) America?