I have just thought of my next seminar topic: Narratives of Hispanism. (A meta-analysis of meta récits?)
We would look at recent collections like Reading Iberia, Spain Beyond Spain, or Ideologies of Hispanism. At other narratives like the Américo Castro paradigm. While Lyotard predicted that grand narratives would cede in importance, they remain as powerfully hegemonic as always, shaping our perceptions of major authors and developments.
We will study these movements along with the thought of writers who develop "poetics of cultural exceptionalism," based on Spain and Latin America.
We will look at how cultural studies puts forward these narratives in other forms, seeming to displace the centrality of literary texts while actually continuing to develop the same master narratives.
I would probably need a smart colleague co-teach this course with me. (My colleagues are smart, but I would need one who was interested in this particular project.)
7 comments:
OK, it is a day of convergences. I read Elena's piece that you put up, said dayum, she is saying of Spain what I say of Latin America, thought about it, and then started thinking along these precise lines, as you will be able to tell if you read my Elena Delgado post.
I am not there, and my students are not as advanced as yours, and I am not as advanced as your Latin Americanist colleagues, so I am not in a position to give exactly the same class, but I was going to give a class on identity and the essay; your idea is a stronger version of the same concept. I can, or more likely will come up with a localized version of this and do it, albeit asymmetrically -- now that I have decided I have to think about these texts anyway for my own reasons.
P.S. I also bet this guy (Schwaller, KU History) could give a good guest lecture at least. http://www.history.ku.edu/faculty/index2.shtml#schwaller
We've been converging in interests for a while now, so it's not surprising. Great minds think alike, as they say.
There is a more general harmonic convergence (sorry, I'm from S.B.) going on and Soufas is involved (and should be on the blogs, it would be good for him). We are all going to get promoted and cause a paradigm shift.
PS: I don't know Schwaller. I suspect because he's relatively new and I've been on sabbatical in the fall. I'm sure I'll meet him soon.
PPS. I like Soufas personally, and his work is excellent, but I am not interested in what he does per se. I usually have to cite him to explain why I don't do what he does.
Schwaller seems to be working on the history of race as a concept in the Hispanic World and this is why he would be interesting for a course like this, esp. as he comes from history so will have all this concrete data. I don't know him but had found out about him because I am always spying around for people doing this work.
Soufas, the reason he is involved in the convergence is that he is serious and people do not know it, and also a good person and people do not know it.
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