SUNY Stony Brook
Department of Hispanic Languages and Literature
Fall10
SPN 435 Topic:
Readings on Civilization and Barbarism
Prof. Paul Firbas
paul.firbas@stonybrook.edu
Office: Melville Library N3019
Office hours:
Course description
This class will explore “civilization and barbarism” as political and rhetorical position
and a long lasting interpretative matrix for Latin America, focusing on essays, novels,
short stories and poetry; but also legal documents, films, urbanism, etc. It will follow a
basic historical approach beginning with a reflection on the origins of concept of
“civilization,” the colonial debates on the legal status of the Indians and the typology of
“barbarians” in the first ethnographic works of Bartolomé de Las Casas and José de
Acosta. Eighteenth century racial categorizations, casta paintings, indigenous upheavals,
and the emergence of new modern states in the nineteenth century will be also studied
through this binary opposition and its critics, as in Sarmiento, Martí, Juan Manuela
Gorriti, González Prada, etc. The second half of the class will be devoted to twentieth
century texts, the avant-gardes and its primitivism, ethnographic fiction (novela
testimonio), texts related to rural migrations to urban areas, popular culture, and the new
forms of “barbarism” and “civilization” in contemporary Latin America. In this section
students will read and discuss the poetry of Palés Matos and Julia de Burgos; short stories
by José Luis González, J. M. Arguedas, Gregorio Martínez and the novel El hablador by
Mario Vargas Llosa and Cimarrón by Miguel Barnet.
Required books to purchase (recommended editions available at the SB Bookstore):
1) D.F. Sarmiento, Facundo (Civilización y Barbarie)
2) Mario Vargas Llosa, El hablador
All other readings will be available on our Blackboard (BB) site or Melville Library
Reserves. Students are required to bring the assigned readings to class.
Grading:
Final paper (8 pages in Spanish)
Class participation and other assignments
Midterm
40%
30%
30%
Requirements
Student will read about 50 pages in Spanish per week, plus some literary criticism either
in Spanish or English. There will be a midterm exam in class and a final paper on one of
the texts or problems discussed during the semester (8 pages). Class participation, brief
reports, oral presentation and short written essays will also be required from the students.
Class discussions and all written work will be in Spanish. Students are expected to
actively participate in class discussions and to use our Blackboard (=BB) website to
access documents and information on the class.
The final paper should be 8 pages in length, not including the bibliography. It must be
typed, doubled-spaced and printed in a standard font, such as Times New Roman 12
points. For all formatting issues please refer to the MLA Style Manual. [See Melville
Library Reference PN147.A28 2008].
The final paper should be the student’s own intellectual work (in the form of textual
analysis, close reading, literary commentary) and must show basic knowledge of the
cultural context and critical concepts discussed in class and appropriate use the Spanish
language and MLA format.
Please, see “Academic integrity” (link below) for any questions regarding the correct use
of other’s ideas in your own work.
Attendance
Regular attendance is expected. More than three unexcused absences will be penalized by
lowering the student final grade. There will be mo make-up tests on unexcused absences.
Academic Integrity
Each student must pursue his or her academic goals honestly and be personally
accountable for all submitted work. Representing another person's work as your own is
always wrong. Any suspected instance of academic dishonesty will be reported to the
Academic Judiciary.
For more comprehensive information on academic integrity, including categories of
academic dishonesty, please refer to the academic judiciary website at
http://www.stonybrook.edu/uaa/academicjudiciary/
Calendar
Note: Students must bring to class the assigned texts posted on Black Board (BB).
♣Week 1
Aug 31
Sept 2
Introducción: miradas de la “barbarie” y “civilización”.
Jorge Luis Borges, “Poema conjetural” (BB)
♣Week 2
Sept 7
Sept 9
Horacio Quiroga, “Juan Darien” (BB)
NO CLASSES (Rosh Hashanah)
♣Week 3
Sept 14
Sept 16
♣Week 4
Sept 21
Sept 23
♣Week 5
Sept 28
Sept 30
♣Week 6
Oct 5
Oct 7
♣Week 7
Oct 12
Oct 14
El concepto de bárbaro en el mundo colonial temprano: selección de
textos de Bartolomé de Las Casas y José de Acosta (BB)
David J. Weber, Introduction to Barbaros. Spaniards and their Savages in
the Age of Enlightenment, pp. 1-18 (BB)
NO CLASSES due to conference in Peru
La frontera y el naufragio como formas de pensar lo “bárbaro” en la
colonia. El “Libro de los Naufragios” de Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y
Valdés (selección de la Historia general de las Indias) y el cuento de
Pedro Serrano en los Comentarios reales del Inca Garcilaso de la Vega
(BB)
El mundo americano: indios, criollos, negros, mestizos, mulatos, etc. y las
teorías sobre la degeneración americana. Texto de Antonelli Gerbi (BB)
Retratos de castas y la tipología racial del siglo XVIII. Ilona Katzew,
Casta Painting (selection on BB)
La ciudad criolla: textos de Manuel Lucena Giraldo y José Luis Romero
(BB)
D. F. Sarmiento “Facundo: Civilización y Barbarie”
D. F. Sarmiento “Facundo: Civilización y Barbarie”
Textos sobre Sarmiento: R. González Echevarría, Mito y archivo, pp. 162176. (BB)
D. F. Sarmiento “Facundo: Civilización y Barbarie”
Examen de medio semestre (en clase)
♣Week 8
Oct 19
Oct 21
♣Week 9
Oct 26
Oct 28
♣Week 10
Nov 2
Nov 4
♣Week 11
Nov 9
Nov 11
♣Week 12
Nov 16
Nov 18
♣Week 13
Nov 23
Nov 25
♣Week 14
Nov 30
Rodó, Ariel (selección BB)
José Vasconcelos, La raza cósmica (BB)
José María Arguedas, “Warma Kuyay (Amor de niño)” (BB)
Poesía y mundo afro en Luis Palés Matos (BB)
James Clifford, “Traveling Cultures” in
Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century (pp. 17-46)
La mirada del antropólogo
Mario Vargas Llosa, El hablador
Mario Vargas Llosa, El hablador
Texto crítico sobre El hablador (BB)
Mario Vargas Llosa, El hablador
Discusión de El hablador e introducción a la “novela testimonio”
Miguel Barnet, Cimarrón (selección en BB)
Miguel Barnet, Cimarrón (selección en BB)
Film en clase y discusión
No classes (Thanksgiving Break)
Dec 2
Los nuevos “bárbaros.”
Textos sobre la frontera (BB)
Textos sobre la frontera (BB)
♣Week 15
Dec 7
Dec 9
Discusión sobre el trabajo final
Discusión sobre el trabajo final
Final paper (5 pages) due on Tuesday Dec. 14, before 4 pm., in Prof. Firbas’s mailbox
(Dept of Hispanic Languages and Literature main office)