A Struggle of Literature and Politics: Maoism and Fascism in Latin America

Despite the influence that Maoism and fascism exerted—and still exert—in Latin America, comprehensive effort to depict their effects in today’s literary and cultural fields has not been taken. In this course we will analyze how Latin American literature from the mid-20th century to present appropriates and transforms these two extreme political discourses. It does so according to its own agenda: defense, confrontation, complaint, perception of threats, or prophecies in which the nation’s future is always at stake. Works by Pérez Huarancca, Piglia, Reynoso, Salgado, De Andrade, Saenz, and Bolaño will be analyzed in conjunction with readings by Mao, Nietzsche, and Hitler. 3 hrs. sem.