{"id":2,"date":"2010-01-04T11:09:12","date_gmt":"2010-01-04T19:09:12","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2010-01-04T12:34:25","modified_gmt":"2010-01-04T20:34:25","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/span365\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"

SPAN365: \u201cMagical Realism Reconsidered: Survey of Spanish-American Literature since the 1820s\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Spring 2010<\/p>\n

Timetable: MWF, 10am-11am<\/p>\n

Buchanan D312<\/p>\n

This course provides the student with a survey of Spanish American literature from the 1820s to the present day.\u00a0 The classes focus not only on specific literary texts and their authors, but also examine the various genres and the historical and political context(s) within which the texts are situated.<\/p>\n

For Spring 2010, we will focus on \u201cmagic\u201d or \u201cmagical\u201d realism.<\/p>\n

Set texts<\/em>: The set texts below are available at the UBC bookstore or (in the case of Fuguet and G\u00f3mez) via photocopies to be purchased from the instructor.\u00a0 You must<\/em> do the reading in advance of the relevant classes, write your blog, and bring a copy of the text to class.<\/p>\n

Miguel Angel Asturias, Leyendas de Guatemala<\/em> (1930)<\/p>\n

Alejo Carpentier, El reino de este mundo<\/em> (1949)<\/p>\n

Gabriel Garc\u00eda M\u00e1rquez, Cien a\u00f1os de soledad<\/em> (1967)<\/p>\n

Alberto Fuguet and Sergio G\u00f3mez, McOndo<\/em> (1996)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Blog: <\/em>You will write nine weekly responses to the reading on a blog (either one you already maintain, or one you set up specifically for the class); your entries are to be labelled \u201cspan365.\u201d\u00a0 You will also comment on at least two other students\u2019 blogs each week. <\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

Assessment<\/em>: One annotated bibliography (20%), a mid-term examination (20%), contributions to a Wikipedia project (20%), and a final essay due at the end of the semester (20%).\u00a0 Your blog entries and comments, plus attendance and participation, will constitute the final 20% of your grade.<\/p>\n

Further reading<\/em>: There is an immense amount written on Latin American literature, history, and culture.\u00a0 The following are starting points for further study.<\/p>\n

Gonz\u00e1lez Echevarr\u00eda, Roberto.\u00a0 Myth and Archive: A Theory of Latin American Narrative<\/em>.\u00a0 Second Edition.\u00a0 Durham: Duke University Press, 1998.<\/p>\n

Franco, Jean. \u00a0An Introduction to Spanish-American Literature<\/em>.\u00a0 Third Edition.\u00a0 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.<\/p>\n

Martin, Gerry.\u00a0 Journeys through the Labyrinth: Latin American Fiction in the Twentieth Century<\/em>.\u00a0 London: Verso, 1989.<\/p>\n

Swanson, Philip, ed.\u00a0 The Companion to Latin American Studies<\/em>.\u00a0 London: Arnold, 2003.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Course convenor<\/em>: Jon Beasley-Murray (jon.beasley-murray@ubc.ca).\u00a0 His office hours are Mondays, 2:30pm-3:30pm, and Wednesdays, 11:30am-12:30am, BuTo 808, or by appointment<\/em>.\u00a0 You should feel free to get in touch with him if you have any queries or problems.\u00a0 It is always better to deal with problems when they arise than to keep quiet and hope they go away!<\/p>\n

My expectations:<\/em><\/p>\n

Above all, in this class you are expected to engage with (that is to think critically and creatively about, and be prepared to discuss) a series of literary texts.\u00a0 The main aim of all the various forms of assessment is to test the extent of your engagement, and to encourage you to articulate the results of that engagement in a variety of formats.\u00a0 Hence, the more effort you put in to reading the texts closely and critically, and to formulating your individual responses and arguments in a manner that can be presented persuasively, the better your final grade is likely to be<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Though knowledge (of historical context and secondary criticism, for instance) and linguistic skills may be useful aids to the formulation of thoughtful argument, this course does not aim directly to test either of these skills.\u00a0 You should not fear if at the start of the semester you feel either that your Spanish is not up to par, or that your background knowledge of Latin American literature and culture is patchy.\u00a0 This course builds on span220 and span364, and assumes no more knowledge or ability than what those two courses impart.<\/p>\n

All I want you to do is read the set texts carefully, think about your reading, and take your own position as a result<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Here, therefore, are my golden rules:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. To engage, you must be present.\u00a0 So attend, attend, attend<\/em>.\u00a0 And turn up on time<\/em>.<\/li>\n
  2. You must also have covered the material.\u00a0 So read the texts<\/em>.\u00a0 But this is not<\/em> a translation class: you are not expected to understand every word, every sentence, or even every paragraph or page.\u00a0 It is much better to have come to class having read 20 pages (and understood 60%) than having read 2 pages (looking up every single unfamiliar word).<\/li>\n
  3. You must also be prepared to articulate your thoughts, questions, uncertainties, opinions, likes, dislikes etc.\u00a0 So write your weekly blog entries<\/em>.\u00a0 These may be in either English or Spanish and should be between 400 and 500 words.\u00a0 Spend no more than half an hour on each response: but be sure to spend that half an hour.\u00a0 Forcing yourself to reflect on your reading will prepare you for class and kick-start revision.<\/li>\n
  4. Finally, you must keep at it.\u00a0 But do not expect to grasp everything immediately.\u00a0 (If you did, there would be no point to the class.)\u00a0 So communicate any questions or problems you may have<\/em>, either in class discussion, or via email, or in my office hours.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The golden rules again: 1) attend, 2) read, 3) write, and 4) communicate.<\/p>\n

    On language:<\/em> the class will be conducted in Spanish (and both small and large group discussion is to take place in Spanish), but it is not a test of your language ability.\u00a0 Do not worry about making errors.<\/p>\n

    Blog entries may be in English or Spanish.\u00a0 Spanish majors should write their examination answers in Spanish; other majors are encouraged, but not required, to do likewise.<\/p>\n

    The timetable<\/em> for each week will ordinarily be as follows:<\/p>\n

    Mondays: general discussion of the week’s reading<\/p>\n

    Wednesdays: examination of specific passages<\/p>\n

    Fridays: conclusion to the week’s discussion; preparation for the following week<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    You must have completed the week’s reading and written your blog post by midnight on Sunday<\/em>.<\/p>\n

    Good luck.\u00a0 And just do it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    SPAN365: \u201cMagical Realism Reconsidered: Survey of Spanish-American Literature since the 1820s\u201d Spring 2010 Timetable: MWF, 10am-11am Buchanan D312 This course provides the student with a survey of Spanish American literature from the 1820s to the present day.\u00a0 The classes focus not only on specific literary texts and their authors, but also examine the various genres […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1532,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/span365\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/span365\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/span365\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/span365\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1532"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/span365\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/span365\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/span365\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions\/4"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/span365\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}