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The Latin American Short Story

Module description

This module offers a valuable glimpse into modern Spanish American culture and society through a close reading of selected short stories from Argentina, Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia. It introduces students to one of the greatest, more innovative, and characteristic traditions in Spanish American letters. After surveying the salient features of the short story, the module explores how writers from said countries employ and experiment with different styles and influences, such as Modernism, the Fantastic, popular fiction and Neorealism to question notions of personal and social reality, identity, memory, and liminality. By examining how Spanish American writers combine both metropolitan and local traditions to develop an independent and modern artistic language, the module grapples with the political, social, and aesthetic questions these texts pose, whilst also speculating on their intended effects on the reader.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module highlights the recurrent thematic concerns and narrative strategies of the modern Latin American short story. It will develop an understanding of this genre through close, selective readings of chosen texts and cultural contexts. The module will encourage critical thinking about the ways in which Latin American writers employ the short story and other literary forms (e.g. the Fantastic) to raise questions about personal and social reality, identity, memory, and liminality, in a bid to negotiate a divided sense of self, and political and social divisions in their respective countries. It offers a valuable opportunity for independent, critical study of selected texts, themes and genres, preparing you for formative and summative assessments, and for studying Latin American culture and society on other Departmental modules. The module also helps to develop important transferable skills, such as the ability for independent, analytical and critical thinking, clear oral and written communication, and for working collaboratively as part of a team. 

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate a sound general understanding of the development and defining features of the short story, and related genres, such as the Gothic, detective fiction and the Fantastic, in Latin American, and, to an extent, European and North American literature and culture.
• 2. Show a detailed knowledge of the module texts, their recurrent thematic concerns and narrative techniques.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. With some guidance from the course tutor, evaluate and apply a range of critical approaches to the material covered independently.
• 4. Mount a detailed argument in the appropriate register of English, mustering a range of textual or other evidence in its support.
• 5. Analyse selected texts in Spanish, of different genres and styles, showing an awareness of their relation to the cultural contexts in which they were produced, and present critical results orally and in writing where appropriate.
• 6. Following broad guidelines, locate and identify library and electronic resources on a given topic.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Undertake defined learning activities with a measure of autonomy, asking for guidance where necessary.
• 8. Adopt a critical approach to the selection and organisation of a body of material in order to produce, to a deadline, an oral and a written argument, where appropriate, of some complexity.
• 9. Present a cogent and sustained argument orally and in writing, in English, on a topic chosen from a range of options provided, following broad guidelines but selecting and adapting them as required.
• 10. Demonstrate general competence in word-processing and in the use of the Internet in researching and reporting on a topic.

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• The (Latin American) Short Story: Themes, Theories and Narrative Techniques
• ’El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan’ (1941), ‘Funes el memorioso’ (1942), ‘El milagro secreto’ (1943), and ‘El Aleph’ (1945), by Jorge Luis Borges
• , ‘Continuidad de los parques’ (1962), ‘No se culpe a nadie’, ‘La noche boca arriba’ (1956), and ‘Casa tomada’ (1946) by Julio Cortázar
• ‘Nos han dado la tierra’, ‘Es que somos muy pobres’, ‘Macario’, ‘Anacleto Morones’ (1953), by Juan Rulfo.
• ‘Los gallinazos sin plumas’, ‘Interior “L”’ (1951), ‘Alienación’ (1977), ‘Por las azoteas’ (1964), by Julio Ramón
• Ribeyro.
• ‘Matar a un perro’ (2009), ‘Un hombre sin suerte’ (2015), by Samanta Schweblin.
• ‘Meteorito’, ‘La ola’ (2016), by Liliana Colanzi.
• Module Review/Preparation for Summative Assessment

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Primary texts

• Jorge Luis Borges, Ficciones, ed. by G. Brotherston & P. Hulme (Bristol Classical Press, 2013)
• Julio Cortázar, Bestiario (Sudamericana, 1980). Las armas secretas (Cátedra, 2004)
• Juan Rulfo. El llano en llamas. (Cátedra, 1988).
• Julio Ramón Ribeyro. Cuentos. (Cátedra, 1999).
• Samantha Schweblin. Pájaros en la boca y otros cuentos. (Random House, 2017). Siete casas vacías (Páginas de espuma, 2015).
• Liliana Colanzi. Nuestro mundo muerto (Eterna Cadencia 2016).

Secondary texts

• Daniel Balderston, ‘The Twentieth-Century Short Story in Spanish America’, in The Cambridge History of Latin American Literature, ed. by Roberto González Echevarría & Enrique Pupo-Walker, vol. 2 (CUP, 1996)
• Peter Beardsell, ‘Introduction’, in Julio Cortázar: Siete cuentos, ed. by Peter Beardsell (Manchester University Press, 1994)
• Lucy Bell, The Latin American Short Story at Its Limits: Fragmentation, Hybridity, and Intermediality. Routledge, 2020.
• Gene Bell-Villada. Borges and His Fiction: A Guide to His Mind and Art. (University of North Carolina Press, 1981).
• Stephen Boldy. A Companion to Juan Rulfo (Tamesis 2016).
• Pablo Brescia. Modelos y prácticas en el cuento hispanoamericano. (Iberoamericana Vervuert, 2011).
• Jean Franco, An Introduction to Spanish-American Literature (CUP, 2010)
• Stephen M. Hart, A Companion to Spanish-American Literature (Tamesis, 2007)
• Susana Jakfalvi, ‘Introducción’, in Las armas secretas, by Julio Cortázar, ed. By Susana Jakfalvi (Cátedra, 2004)
• Gerald Martin, Journeys Through the Labyrinth: Latin American Fiction in the Twentieth Century (Verso, 1989)
• Sergio Pastormerlo. Borges crítico. (Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2007).
• Françoise Perus. Juan Rulfo, el arte de narrar. (UNAM, 2012).
• Enrique Pupo-Walker, ed., El cuento hispanoamericano (Castalia, 1995)
• Ian Reid, The Short Story (Routledge, 2019)
• William Rowe. Rulfo. El llano en llamas (Tamesis 1987).
• Verity Smith, ed., Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature (Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997)
• Edwin Williamson, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Jorge Luis Borges (CUP, 2013)

A full bibliography of recommended reading will be provided at the start of the module

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE – https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=4159 

Key words search

Latin American literature, the short story, Borges, Cortázar, Rulfo, Ribeyro, Schweblin, Colanzi.