SPAN 316 Violence in Latin American Fiction and Film
Violence is a tragic reality in Latin America. This course examines representations of violence in films and narratives in the Americas, including the United States. These films and narratives problematize the representation of key places and spaces in Latin America's histories of violence, such as the Conquest of the Americas, the Colonial period, the emergence of nationalism, and significant contemporary social-political movements, such as dictatorships (e.g. Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico), the Colombian and Mexican drug cartels, the Brazilian favelas (slums), the civil wars in Central America, and migration experiences in the Americas. Emphasis will be placed on studying films and narratives within the socio-historical and cultural contexts of the material they address and on current critical theories of violence to show how these artistic works examine ethical and political issues that impact different communities in the Americas.