Visions of Utopia

Visions of Utopia: Regional Diversity and
Continental Integrity in Latin American Culture
This course serves as an introduction to the rich
traditions and cultures of Latin America, from the
period before the arrival of the Europeans, up to
the present day. We study different modes of
cultural
production from the different regions and periods
of Latin American history, including literary
works,
political manifestos, philosophical essays, and
works of art. In particular, we examine how,
beyond the
multiplicity of languages and cultures it harbors,
Latin America constituted a utopian social and
cultural
project, in which intellectuals, artists, and
activists imagined different futures for its
nations and for the
continent as a whole, after the colonial
experience. In doing so, we explore how the
regions of Latin
America also took part of the integrative attempt
to think of a singular identity and global destiny
for
themselves, across national boundaries.

Some of the questions we shall interrogate
include: the problematic mediations between
Western
and native traditions which defines the continent
since colonial times; the way in which the
emergence
of new literary forms and artistic schools in
Latin America were bound to new visions of the
future for its
embryonic nations after The Independence; the
tensional relations between the pursuit of
intellectual
and practical autonomy, and participation in
global movements transpiring in the arts and
politics; and
the rise of new experimental and transnational
expressive forms in the 21st Century, such as the
Chicano
and Latinx movements in the arts and literature.
By tracing these manifold developments, we will
finally
seek to analyze the impact and place of Latin
American culture in the contemporary geopolitical
and
transcultural horizon