Boom Literature: Language and Creation

Module code: SP3134

In this module we will study the work of four authors: Carlos Fuentes (Mexico), Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina), Rosario Castellanos (Mexico) and Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia). 'Boom' literature refers to an explosion in Latin American writing and international readership in the 1960s and 1970s. The Boom was a continental movement bringing together like-minded writers who wanted to address urgent Latin American issues but were also keen to be read on a world stage. All of the texts studied in this module share a fascination with language: reading, writing and storytelling, and the ways in which these linguistic phenomena shape the world. The aims of this module are primarily for students to come to understand the specific themes and the political and social contexts of the texts, but we will also reflect on the philosophical and aesthetic approaches of the writers, often focussing on the purpose of reading, writing and narrative.

Topics covered:

• Memory and time in Mexico; The gothic ghost story; identity and psychology, gender
• Language in its application to theology and philsophy; identity and nation in Argentina
• Gender and class in 1930s southern Mexico; the relationhip between the Western and the indigenous in Mexico; child narration and bilogrpahy
• History and myth in Colombia; magic realism; memory; the myths of colonialism and modernity in Latin America
• With all the texts we play close attention to the language and style used by the authors in dealing with these topics.