Women's writing in Latin America today
J Paredes
8 points
* 2 hours per week
* Second semester
* Clayton
Objectives Students completing this subject should have acquired a broad awareness of the impact of critical and ideological theory on women writers in contemporary Latin America and an understanding of the contemporary issues that concern them.
Synopsis This subject studies the contribution made by women writers to contemporary Latin American culture. Centred on five key literary figures - Isabel Allende (Chile), Giaconda Belli (Nicaragua), Rigoberta Menchú (Guatemala), Cristina Peri Rossi (Uruguay), and Luisa Valenzuela (Argentina) - the subject (a) sets the prescribed reading materials in their historical and cultural context; (b) surveys the changing roles of women in contemporary society, their quest for identity and the causes and consequences of their increasing political and social activism; and (c) seeks the sources of the literary techniques used to emphasise these concerns in surrealism, feminism, ideological and psychoanalytic theories.
Assessment Seminar paper (1500 words): 25%
* Essay (1500 words): 25%
* Assignment (3000 words) or examination (3 hours): 50%
Prescribed texts
Allende I Paula Harper Collins, 1995
Belli G The inhabited woman Warner Books, 1994
Menchú R I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian woman in Guatemala tr. A Wright, Verso, 1984
Women's writing in Latin America today: A Monash anthology (available from the department)
Peri Rossi C The ship of fools Allison and Busby, 1989
Valenzuela L Black novel Simon and Schuster, 1992
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