You say you want a revolution? This course will examine the theory and practice of revolution via a brief revolutionary history of Latin America, stressing the basic concepts of insurrection, and highlighting the intersection of political, literary, and cultural production.

We will discuss general principles: why revolt? Focusing on Mexico, Central America, and the iconic figure of Che Guevara, we will read literary and (auto)biographical accounts of armed uprising, as well as studying visual and other representations.

But we will also investigate the pragmatics: how to start our own revolution?

Set texts:

Mariana Azuela, The Underdogs
Nellie Campobello, Cartucho
Che Guevara, Guerrilla Warfare
Che Guevara, The Bolivian Diary
Omar Cabezas, Fire from the Mountain
Gioconda Belli, The Country under my Skin (selections)

Plus the following films:

Elias Kazan, Viva Zapata!
Steven Soderbergh, Che (parts 1 and 2)

And we will read selected passages from other authors such as Russell Brand, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Edward Abbey, and Noam Chomsky.

Course convenor: Jon Beasley-Murray (jon.beasley-murray@ubc.ca).