RLSP 304
Environmental Literature and Film in Latin America
Spring 2024
Division I
Writing Skills Difference, Power, and Equity
Cross-listed
COMP 311 / ENVI 311
This is not the current course catalog
Class Details
What use are aesthetics when the world is (literally) on fire? We will take up this question and others in a critical engagement with Latin American cultural production of the twentieth and twentieth centuries, especially works of literature and film that directly or indirectly engage with environmental crisis. Students can expect to explore a variety of media, forms and genres, including works that range from (more or less) mainstream to cutting edge. Our examinations of literature and film will be supported by theoretical writings produced in the Americas and other places. Writers and directors whose work may be considered include, but are not limited to: Lucrecia Martel, Ciro Guerra, Rafael Barrett, Samanta Schweblin, Ernesto Cardenal, Juan Rulfo, María Luisa Bombal, Eduardo Gudynas, Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, Isabelle Stengers.
The Class:
Format: seminar
Limit: 19
Expected: 12
Class#: 3132
Grading: no pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Limit: 19
Expected: 12
Class#: 3132
Grading: no pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation:
This course will be conducted seminar-style. Students will be expected to prepare thoroughly and be active, engaged participants in class discussions. In addition to day to day preparation and participation, other graded assignments will include discussion-leading, one short (5-7 page) essay and a longer (15-20 page) paper combining research and original analysis.
Prerequisites:
One college literature of film course at the 200-level or above.
Enrollment Preferences:
Envi majors and concentrators, Comp Lit majors, Spanish majors and those working towards the Spanish certificate.
Distributions:
Division I
Writing Skills Difference, Power, and Equity
Notes:
This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
COMP 311 Division I RLSP 304 Division I ENVI 311 Division I
COMP 311 Division I RLSP 304 Division I ENVI 311 Division I
WS Notes:
All students in the course will write (and rewrite) no less than 20 pages. Major writing assignments will be scaffolded, with explicit discussion of the writing process (pre-writing, drafting, revision) and consultation.
DPE Notes:
The works of literature and film that we will be examining challenge North American conceptions of climate change (and environmental crisis more broadly) by making visible (often uncomfortably so) the colonial and neocolonial history of extractivism.
Attributes:
ENVI Humanities, Arts + Social Science Electives
Class Grid
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RLSP 304 - 01 (S) SEM Lat Am Enviro Lit and Film
RLSP 304 - 01 (S) SEM Lat Am Enviro Lit and FilmDivision I Writing Skills Difference, Power, and EquityCancelled3132