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Art, Literature and Politics in 21st Century Argentina and Uruguay (in English or Spanish)
Buenos Aires and Montevideo present two excellent opportunities to explore the mix of European, indigenous and African traditions that have long inspired artists, writers and other thinkers on life in Latin America. Argentine and Uruguayan writers and artists offer valuable insights into the relationship between art and humanities and the... read more
Buenos Aires and Montevideo present two excellent opportunities to explore the mix of European, indigenous and African traditions that have long inspired artists, writers and other thinkers on life in Latin America. Argentine and Uruguayan writers and artists offer valuable insights into the relationship between art and humanities and the political and social context of contemporary Latin America. Argentina and Uruguay share a history of land concentration and social hierarchies, 19th century caudillismo and liberal reforms, and a 20th century experience of commercial agriculture booms, democratization, the first Latin American welfare states, dictatorship, civil conflict and economic crises.
Painters such as Joaquin Torres Garcia and Antonio Berni and writers such as Julio Cortazar, Silvina Ocampo and Jorge Luis Borges have left lasting marks on world arts and literature through their depictions of life in these nations' capital cities--colonial values in industrialized urban areas, the rule of law and the privileges of class, the tension between tradition and reason, and the inclusive promise of democracy versus the exclusion of contemporary politics. Reading topics and site visits range from the colonial period to the present and connect art and history to difficult social questions faced by all of Latin America in the 21st century.
Short lectures from the principal instructor introduce the topics to be studied, but most class time is devoted to discussion of readings and experiences during site visits. Readings include a variety of genres, with historical works devoted to Argentine and Uruguay culture (Hernandez, Sarmiento, Rodo), short stories from important 20th century fiction writers (Cortazar, Ocampo, Borges, Bioy Casares, Arlt), one short allegorical novel on the Peron years (Bioy Casares), memoirs, poetry and government reports documenting different perspectives on the "Dirty War" of the 1970s (Actis, Gelman, National Commission on the Disappeared), and critical pieces on tango and ethnicity (Corradi, Andrews).
Students submit five analyses (written in class) on assigned readings, and present a short final, oral report on some aspect of contemporary Argentine or Uruguayan life. Classes meet four days a week from 9:30 to 12 noon. Classes are held in the classrooms of a local English-language institute, within easy access of the group apartments on the city's subway and bus systems.
Guided visits in Spanish supplement class time. The group visits the Isaac Fernandez Blanco Museum of Colonial Art, the new Museum of Latin American Art, the studio of contemporary artist Luis Niveiro, the regional office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, and the Espacio Para la Memoria, a former secret detention center recently turned into a museum documenting the thousands of Argentines "disappeared" during the military regime of the 1970s.
In addition, the group spends three days in Montevideo, concentrating on the musical traditions of European immigrants and the African diaspora through a guest lecture and attendance at a comparsa parade or a rehearsal of a murga preparing for Carnaval. The class learns the basics of tango and watches more seasoned dancers in one of the many milongas across Buenos Aires. In addition, the group cruises up the Tigre River delta near Buenos Aires, the site of the short story from Bioy Casares, and spends a day at a ranch, an estancia, outside Buenos Aires, to get a feel for rural life that appears in so much River Plate literature from the gauchesque writers of the nineteenth century to the present. Less
