The Truth of the Matter: Modern and Contemporary Spanish American Narrative Nonfiction, Autofiction, and 'Testimonio'



In this seminar, we will discuss and analyze an array of modern and

contemporary texts from Latin America which, in different ways, weave factual events and characters into the very fabric of their composition. Journalism, historiography, ethnography, and ‘narratives of the self’ unsettle and expand the boundaries of literary discourse and, by doing so, reframe our understanding of such crucial categories as authorship, storytelling, and representation. Critical and theoretical essays on relevant topics will be assigned for group discussion. (1 unit)



Required texts: Rodolfo Walsh, Operación masacre (Buenos Aires: Ediciones de La Flor); Gabriel García Márquez, Relato de un náufrago (España: Mondadori); Elena Poniatowska, Hasta no verte Jesús mío (México: Era); Mario Vargas Llosa, La tía Julia y el escribido/r (España: Seix Barral); Tomás Eloy Martínez, /Santa Evita (Argentina: Alfaguara); Fernando Vallejo, El desbarrancadero (Mexico: Alfaguara).