HIST 255 Political Violence and Art-Making in Modern Latin America: History, Memory, and Representation
Where are the borders between memory and history? Between testimony and representation? In this course, we will explore what happens to instances of political violence as artists, writers, and radicals record their stories over time. How do contexts of political violence shape art-making and how does art-making in turn shape contexts of violence? How do different media (poetry, novels, memoirs, paintings, films, music) translate violence and history differently? And what are the ethics of documentary work; can only certain people record certain stories? Each week, we will examine a different case study of political violence in Latin America—from the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to the Guatemalan genocide to the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile—through historical sources and works of art. We will gain access to marginalized historical voices through our analyses of artworks, restoring power, agency, and voice to those harmed by structures of political violence. Students will create their own artistic acts of witness to a case study of violence of their choosing.
Cross Listed Courses
LLAS 255