SPN3780

Women's writing in Latin America today

M Mascitti-Meuter

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), Christina Peri Rossi (Uruguay) Rigoberta Menchú (Guatemala) and Luisa Valenzuela (Argentina) - the subject sets the prescribed reading materials in their historical and cultural context; 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 seeks the sources of the literary techniques used to emphasise these concerns in surrealism, feminism, ideological and psychoanalytic theories.

Assessment One seminar paper (1500 word): 25%
* One essay (1500 words): 25%
* One assignment (3000 words) or one examination (3 hours): 50%

Prescribed texts

Allende I Paula Harper Collins
Belli G La mujer habitada Vanguardia
Women's writing in Latin America today: A Monash anthology (available from the department)
Menchú R Me llamo Rigoberta Menchú y as' me naci-- la conciencia Seix Barral
Peri Rossi C La nave de los locos Seix Barral
Valenzuela L Novela negra con argentinos Plaza and Janés