
- UCAS course code
- RR24
- UCAS institution code
- M20
Course unit details:
Plural Cultures of Latin America and the Caribbean
Unit code | SPLA31121 |
---|---|
Credit rating | 20 |
Unit level | Level 3 |
Teaching period(s) | Semester 1 |
Offered by | Spanish, Portuguese and Latin |
Available as a free choice unit? | Yes |
Overview
One of the most distinctive characteristics of Latin American societies is their high degree of ethnic and cultural diversity. This is the product of the mixing, throughout centuries, of different cultures (mainly indigenous, African, and European) due to colonisation, slavery, and migration. This course will examine some of the ways in which this diversity and mixing have been portrayed in twentieth and twenty-first-century Latin American cultural production, focusing on film, literature, and music. Simultaneously, it will explore how this diversity has been problematised in Latin American thought, by examining such notions as ‘mestizaje’, ‘hybridity’ and ‘transculturation’. By focusing on the multi-ethnic condition of Latin American literature and culture, students will enhance their understanding of Latin American and Caribbean societies, improve their analytical and language skills, and increase their intercultural awareness.
Important: Lectures will be delivered in Spanish. Assessed coursework will be in English. Seminar discussions will be carried out primarily in English but students can use Spanish if they want to.
Pre/co-requisites
Unit title | Unit code | Requirement type | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Spanish Language 5 | SPLA51050 | Pre-Requisite | Compulsory |
Spanish Language 4 | SPLA51040 | Pre-Requisite | Compulsory |
Available as Free Choice (UG) or to other programmes (PG)?
Yes, but knowledge of Spanish is required (this will be assessed by the course convenor)
Aims
- To widen students’ knowledge of Latin American cultures, history and thought
- To improve students’ vocabulary and syntax in Spanish through the analysis of literature and other cultural forms
- To enhance students’ comprehension of Spanish through lectures delivered by the course convenor
- To encourage the development of intercultural skills by exploring Latin American racial and cultural diversity
- To improve students’ structure, coherence, clarity and fluency in written and oral expression through essay-writing and seminar discussion.
- To enhance students’ skills in literary and cultural analysis by engaging critically with a multidisciplinary body of material
Knowledge and understanding
Upon completion of this unit, students will be able to:
- Have an understanding Latin America as one of the most multicultural regions in the world
- Have an understanding of the tensions and mixtures between the main cultural systems and epistemologies in Latin America (Western, indigenous and African)
- Have an understanding of the many ways in which Latin American multiculturalism has shaped and been represented in various forms of cultural production (mainly film, literature and music)
- Have the ability to discuss different Latin American intellectual traditions
Intellectual skills
Upon completion of this unit, students will be able to:
- Engage critically with different cultural products (literature, art, music, cinema)
- Develop arguments related to culture, history and society
- Be able to discuss theoretical material and connect it with the analysis of cultural products
Practical skills
Upon completion of this unit, students will be able to:
- Improve the ability to understand oral and written Spanish
- Improve vocabulary and syntax in Spanish
- Have the ability to work effectively in collaboration with other students, and sustain written and oral arguments coherently
- Have the ability to read and interpret critically
- Have the ability to design and deliver an oral presentation in a formal context
Transferable skills and personal qualities
Upon completion of this unit, students will be able to:
- Demonstrate independent and critical thinking
- Demonstrate an ability to present material and ideas individually and collectively in oral and written form
- Have an ability to participate in group discussions
- Have an ability to understand multicultural/multiracial issues
Employability skills
- Other
Assessment methods
Essay 1 | 40% |
Essay 2 | 60% |
Feedback methods
Feedback method | Formative or Summative |
Comments during seminars on the students’ interventions | Formative |
Written feedback on essays
| Summative and formative (students will be offered the possibility of submitting a draft of the essay for summative assessment) |
Additional one-to-one feedback (during the consultation hour or by making an appointment) | Formative |
Recommended reading
- Coronado, Jorge. The Andes Imagined: Indigenismo, Society, and Modernity (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Pre, 2009).
- Del Sarto, Ana, Alicia Ríos, and Abril Trigo, The Latin American Cultural Studies Reader (Durham; London : Duke University Press, 2004).
- McKee Irwin, Robert, and Mónica Szurmuk, Dictionary of Latin American Cultural Studies (Florida: University of Florida Press, 2015).
- Pacini Hernández, Deborah, ‘Amalgamating Musics: Popular Music and Cultural Hybridity in the Americas’, in Musical Migrations: Transnationalism and Cultural Hybridity in Latin/o America, edited by Frances Aparicio and Candida Jáquez (Basingstoke: Palgrave/MacMillan, 2003), pp.13-32.
- Pratt, Mary Louise, ‘Arts of the Contact Zone’, Profession, 91 (1991), 33-40.
Study hours
Scheduled activity hours | |
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Lectures | 11 |
Seminars | 22 |
Independent study hours | |
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Independent study | 167 |
Teaching staff
Staff member | Role |
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Ignacio Aguilo | Unit coordinator |