Jossianna Arroyo-Martínez

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Caribbean Marxist historians Eric Williams, Raúl Cepero Bonilla, and Manuel Moreno Fraginals have written the most important accounts of colonial slavery in relation to its function in the capital machine, with all its global consequences and implications. Williams was one of the first transatlantic historians in his field. His seminal Capitalism & Slavery (1944) went beyond accounting for peer to peer master-slave relations and addressed the complex connections forged in the global trade on black slaves between sugar plantations and the financing of harbor cities such as Liverpool, which were built on the back of the slave trade. What all these works have in common is that they see the slave system as a machine for the production of global capital. Slaves are the main tools of these forms of instrumentalization of labor and capital production. Their bodies are instrumentalized in the labor process as their humanity disappears, not only by forms of exploitation but also by law. What Orlando Patterson describes as a “dominum or thingness” in the slave condition is in fact inherited from Roman Law and with it the notion of absolute property over a slave.If slaves are things and/or property and their labor power and production belong to their masters, they exist in what Patterson has described as a “living-dead” condition in the world of the living as agents of production, yet in the world of the dead by the rule of law. Patterson’s notion of slaves as liminal figures is a useful hermeneutic device with which to explore the fundamental structure of colonial societies in as much as it describes an entity—neither alive nor dead—who crosses over from the world of the living to the dead and vice-versa. How can we define technologies in relation to colonial slavery? And how are they represented in the Americas of the fin de siglo? This course analyzes the relationship between bodies, machines, nature and technology as they fueled artisan/artistic creation and how they were embodied in the Americas after 1800. The course begins with the definition of technéas the individual way of finishing or understanding labor and art with mastery and how it becomes a political metaphor for the foundation of the new American republics. At the turn of the century these technologies are located in the emergence-control of global slavery, mechanical inventions and new discourses that define freedom and modernity. In the course we will look at plantation economies, technologies, war, revolution and private space, freemasonry and social clubs, as well as journals and literature to see the possible negotiations of subjects in national and diasporic circuits. Some of the themes we will examine are: body-machine, organic bodies, necropolitics, surveillance, nature, political exile, secrecy and writing, the word and the work of art. Technologies appear then to embody agency and the languages of displacement and writing of colonial subjects in the fin de siglo. The class will be taught in Spanish.

Texts:

Simón Rodríguez, Sociedades americanas

Rama Ángel, La ciudad letrada

Mignolo, Walter, Local Histories, Global Designs

Heiddeger, Martin. Selected Writings.

Martí, José. Diario de campaña de Cabo Haitiano a Dos Ríos.

Des Verney, Sinnette. Arturo Schomburg: A Biography.

Significant issues in Iberian or Latin American societies and cultures.

Topic 1: Jewish Voices from Latin America. An introduction to Jewish writers from Brazil and Latin America, with an emphasis on those whose works portray the situation of the Jewish communities in their respective cities and countries.

Topic 2: Mediascapes: Literature and Media in the Caribbean. Analyzes the relationship between literature and media technologies in contemporary Caribbean cultures.

Migration of Afro-Latin Americans and Afro-Caribbeans to the United States was present since colonial times. This seminar focuses on the historical, social and political roles Afro-Latin@s have played in the configuration of contemporary diaspora theories, archives and politics. We will discuss how language, and culture influence their views on race and racial solidarities and their crucial contributions to the political and social languages of the African diaspora.  Our discussions will emphasize the lives and identity negotiations of black Cubans, Dominicans, Haitians, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans and Central Americans born in the United States. We will analyze their negotiations with race, gender and sexuality and their stories of radical activism, from the end of the nineteenth-century to the voices of contemporary authors, performers and Afro-Latin@ activists, and performances of politics.  We will also analyze some videos and documentaries in class. The class will be taught in English. Spanish reading knowledge might be required for some readings.

 

REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS:

Grillo, Evelio. Black Cuban, Black American.

Moreno Vega, Marta. When the Spirits Dance Mambo.

Pérez Loida Maritza. Geographies of Home.

The Afro-Latin@ Reader. History and Culture in the United States. Edited by Miriam Jiménez Román and Juan Flores. (Duke UP, 2010).

 

Additional readings on PDF will be posted online by Prof. Arroyo-Martínez.

 

GRADES:

1 oral presentation in class (of one article in class)-20%

A written review in style of a journalistic/theoretical piece (op.ed) related to contemporary Afro-Latino themes (2-3 pages double space) (20%)

Oral participation in the seminar (20%)

Final essay of 12-15 pages on the topic of your interest (40%)

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100%

 

 ACADEMIC HONESTY IS IMPERATIVE!  I will refer all cases of academic dishonesty (i.e. cheating and plagiarism) to the Dean of Student’s Office.  If you have questions about what constitutes academic dishonesty, visit the University’s official statement.

COURSE DESCRIPTION:  

This seminar examines the relationship between the local and the global in the Caribbean, and the role that media and new media technologies are playing in contemporary Caribbean cultures. If the neoliberal script is defining most of the traditional way we understand and see subjects and objects under capitalism, the Caribbean is also the site to look at the ways these scripts are negotiated, disrupted or challenged. The course addresses the role that contemporary media and new media companies have had in the circulation and marketing of literary and popular culture images, and in the production of cultures and subjects whose participatory connections to global cultures are critical, dissonant or “noisy” at best. Our aim is to put into conversation contemporary theory in Caribbean literary cultural studies, with global new media and visual cultures theory, phenomenological theory and U.S. Latino/a performance theory, among other fields, to analyze the following questions: how do Caribbean writers/performers negotiate the politics of globalization in how they represent themselves in either the digitally enhanced or real worlds?  How does the digital divide, wii-fi connectivity, or self-vlogging are changing notions of community and belonging? And finally how time and subjectivity are reimagined in virtual spaces? We will analyze the articulations of place, temporality, subject formation, language, race, gender, ethnicity and class in relation to specific local, transnational and hemispheric sites of Caribbean production from Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and the United States. By looking at the work of authors such as Eduardo Lalo, Pedro Cabiya, Mayra Santos Febres, Rita Indiana Hernández, Urayoán Noel, Ángel Lozada, Pedro Juan Gutiérrez, Antonio J. Ponte, and Yoss, and the Cuban blogosphere, among many others authors and performers, we will analyze themes such as gaming, play, and temporal dislocations, sci-fiction alien worlds, zombie narratives, racial echo-chambers and sonorities, as well as media and new media performances that make Caribbean contemporary literary cultures and politics. The course will be taught in Spanish. Students will write weekly entries in the course blog.

Lalo, Eduardo. Los países invisibles, donde.

Hernández Rita Indiana. La mucama de Omicunlé.

Noel, Urayoán. Hemispheric Rumor/ Rumor Emisférico (Poetry).

Angel Lozada, No quiero quedarme sola y vacía.

Pedro Juan Gutiérrez, Animal tropical.

Mayra Santos Febres, Sobre piel y papel. (Journalism)

Theory (selected works):

The Spectralities Reader. Ghosts and Haunting in Contemporary Cultural Theory. María del Pilar Blanco and Esther Peren; eds.

Dissensus, Jacques Rànciere.

Poetics of Relation. Edward Glissant

The Visible and the Invisible. Merleau-Ponty

Troubling Vision: Performance, Visuality and Blackness. Nicole Fleetwood

Race and Cyberspace, Lisa Nakamura

Planet Cuba, Rachel Price

radio Benjamin, Walter Benjamin

CLASS ASSIGNMENTS:

Students will deliver TWO oral reports. (One about reading and one on their final projects)

BLOG WITH WEEKLY COMMENTS ABOUT READINGS

Students will write a one page (two paragraphs at least, theoretical commentary on critical and literary readings). We will create a blog for the class where students should post their comments so all student participants and the professor will be able to read and comment on them.

One final essay 20 pages which includes the bibliography discussed in class.

GRADES:

Two ORAL REPORTS-15%- 30%

CLASS COMMENTARIES/ORAL AND BLOG- 30%

FINAL ESSAY- 40%

Study Abroad course

Migration of Afro-Latin Americans and Afro-Caribbeans to the United States was present since colonial times. This course focuses on the historical, social and political roles Afro-Latin@s have played in the configuration of contemporary diaspora theories, archives and politics. We will discuss how language, and culture influence their views on race and racial solidarities and their crucial contributions to the political and social languages of the African diaspora.  Our discussions will emphasize the lives of black Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans and Central Americans and their stories of radical activism, identity negotiation from the end of the nineteenth-century to the role of contemporary Afro-Latin@ activists their cultures, performances and politics.

This course examines themes such as gender, sexuality, and identity politics, socio-political agency, resistance, and negotiation in the islands of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Haiti.

This course analyzes memory as it organizes several themes connected to Spanish Caribbean literatures. Some of these themes, exile, violence and genocide, national and transnational identities, racism, gender and constructions of the sacred and the secular have crossed Caribbean insular histories since the turn of the nineteenth-century. In this course we will analyze specific authors connected to various literary movements, such as Modernismo, the avant-garde, negrista poetry and contemporary authors, to see how the body remembers, and how memory is associated with bodily symptoms or agencies (embodiment, sexuality), the body politic, spirituality (ideology, religion) a recuperation of things lost (exile-past) or anti-utopian longings (the town or contemporary city). The course will include several films and documentaries. Course will be taught in Spanish, papers will be written in Spanish.

Description:

This course focuses on contemporary Caribbean culture and the ways literature and culture in the Spanish Caribbean have incorporated the language of the spectacle to create what I define as “Caribbean mediascapes.” Caribbean mediascapes mixes these uses of media technologies derived from film, television, the Internet and Youtube and the ways they engage, are used and read in the Spanish Caribbean. In this course we will analyze the cultures of production, distribution, exhibition, reception, as well as the texts themselves from several Caribbean authors, from Puerto Rico, Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic and their respective U.S. enclaves in the diaspora (New York, Miami).

 

Some of the questions we will discuss are:  How is race represented in contemporary visual culture in the Caribbean and the U.S? How can new-media balance both the autonomy of Caribbean communities and the ongoing impact of corporate globalization? What about the digital divide in Caribbean communities? Are there possible forms of agency in these Caribbean mediascapes?

 

Texts:

Junot Díaz

Mayra Santos-Febres

Achy Obeja

Marta Moreno Vega

Suite Havana (2003)

Habanastation (2011)

Un arte nuevo de hacer ruinas (2006)

Sugar (2008)

Sanky-Panky (2007)

Doce Horas (2001)

Maldeamores (2007)

For graduate students in other departments seeking to fulfill degree language requirements. No auditors. Purpose: To introduce fundamentals of grammar and lexicon to enable students to read texts in their areas of specialization.

Please check back for updates.

Migration of Afro-Latin Americans and Afro-Caribbeans to the United States was present since colonial times. This course focuses on the historical, social and political roles Afro-Latin@s have played in the configuration of contemporary diaspora theories, archives and politics. We will discuss how language, and culture influence their views on race and racial solidarities and their crucial contributions to the political and social languages of the African diaspora. Our discussions will emphasize the lives of black Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans and Central Americans and their stories of radical activism, identity negotiation from the end of the nineteenth-century to the role of contemporary Afro-Latin@ activists their cultures, performances and politics.

TEXTBOOKS:

Available at University Coop

Grillo, Evelio.

Black Cuban, Black American.

Thomas, Piri.

Down these Mean Streets.

Moreno Vega, Marta.

When the Spirits Dance Mambo.

The Afro-Latin@ Reader. History and Culture in the United States

. Edited by Miriam Jiménez Román and Juan Flores. (Duke UP, 2010).

Additional readings on PDF will be posted in BLACKBOARD*

GRADES:

4 essays (20%)-80%

Class-oral- participation and presence in class 20%

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100%

REQUISITES:

Students will write four essays from 6-7 pages each. Essays themes will be provided by Professor Arroyo (From two essay questions students chose one). Oral participation and presence in class is required. No cell phones in class (

remember that cell phone video?). Laptop use will be restricted only for class notes if you are seen watching a social media site you will not be allowed to bring your laptop back to the classroom. Students who will use laptops for other activities outside of class will be penalized.

ABSENCES:

Students with more than THREE (3) unexcused absences without a proper medical excuse will be penalized in their final class/participation grade by 10 points less of their final grade (so if you are between an A and a B you will get a B, if you have a B you will get a C)

DESCRIPCION: Este curso es una exploración introductoria de la llamada “teoría.” La palabra teoría tiene su origen en el vocablo de origen griego theorein (“observar”). Actualmente se define la teoría de manera general como el pensamiento abstracto que nos posibilita analizar y clasificar la producción cultural y/o simbólica de acuerdo a metodologías específicas. Una teoría implica por lo tanto un sistema lógico establecido a partir de observaciones, axiomas y postulados particulares, adecuados al objeto de estudio. Sin el conocimiento de la teoría cultural y literaria, es actualmente imposible profesionalizarse como académico. Por lo tanto, este curso iniciará el acercamiento a los postulados teóricos que han marcado los estudios literarios y culturales. Leeremos textos teóricos emblemáticos cubriendo la tradición occidental desde la Poética de Aristóteles hasta los estudios decoloniales, los cuales han permeado los debates literario-culturales latinoamericanos de la modernidad. La idea es que los estudiantes se familiaricen con el desarrollo teórico, para luego aplicarlo a su vez a textos concretos.

DIÁSPORAS AFROCARIBEñAS: POLÍTICA, CULTURA Y REPRESENTACIÓN (Cuba, Puerto Rico, República Dominicana, Haití)   Este curso examina  la producción literaria y cultural de la diáspora afrocaribeña de Cuba, Puerto Rico, República Dominicana y Haití con el fin de analizar sus discursos socio-políticos y culturales en nuestro mundo global. El curso comienza con una definición de la diáspora africana en las Américas, para luego situar las especificidades socio-históricas y culturales de la República Dominicana, Haití, Cuba y Puerto Rico. El eje del curso será la relación de la diáspora africana con la modernidad y con los discursos de poder y subordinación colonial o neo-colonial desde la esclavitud hasta la globalización contemporánea. La colonialidad del poder (Aníbal Quijano) como teoría que define la subordinación de los otros (africanos e indígenas) en un contexto de capital global en el que se crean diferencias raciales, sexuales, económicas y de género  organiza el análisis de la diáspora africana en las Américas.  Partiremos de la Revolución Haitiana y de las representaciones de la esclavitud, en particular la dialectica hegeliana amo-esclavo, para luego analizar varios aspectos históricos del “miedo al negro” y la participación de líderes y poblaciones negras y mulatas en la Guerra de Independencia en Cuba. Este análisis de las ideologías fundacionales del discurso de la esclavitud y las sociedades caribeñas nos  ayudará a entrar de lleno en los discursos de ciudadanía, pertenencia a la nación y crítica del imperio estadounidense durante y después de la guerra en Cuba. Ramón E. Betances, José Martí y Rafael Serra y su visión radical de una “nación para todos”, actúan como contrapunto a los discursos positivistas criollos inagurados con la publicación de Los negros brujos (1906) de Fernando Ortiz. Las transformaciones de este discurso positivista a uno de “mestizaje positivo” en los años 20 y 30 y cómo se representa en la producción literaria y cultural de la poesía negrista  pondrá en diálogo visiones sobre la raza y la “racialización” en estos contextos nacionales.  Al mismo tiempo, haremos una crítica de estos discursos criollos al enfocarnos en la producción literaria y cultural de autores negros en las tres islas. Como veremos muchas de estas definiciones de ciudadanía—especialmente en los autores negros— se mueven hacia un contexto globalizado, transnacional y postnacional creando nuevas alianzas sociales, raciales y políticas. En ese sentido, el concepto de “racial knowledges” (subjetividades raciales) se utilizará   para definir estas representaciones que rompen con las visiones canónicas de la nación cubana, haitiana, dominicana, o puertorriqueña.  Algunos de los temas que se analizarán son: la intersección de la raza con el género y la sexualidad, la representación sicológica del mulato(a) y las culturas afrocaribeñas, el genocidio, la prisión política y los derechos humanos;  las religiones afro-diásporicas como la  santería y las subjetividades afrolatinas. El curso incluirá algunos documentales y videos. Las lecturas de la clase serán en español y en inglés.   Books  at Amazon.com Autobiografía de un esclavo/Autobiography of a Slave, Juan F. Manzano Farming of Bones, Edwidge Danticat Sirena Selena vestida de pena, Mayra Santos Encancaranublado, Ana Lydia Vega El rey de La Habana, Pedro Juan Gutiérrez Geographies of Home, Loida Maritza Pérez       Jossianna Arroyo-Martínez, Associate Professor Department of Spanish and Portuguese Department of African and African American Studies 2.116 Benedict Hall The University of Texas, Austin TX 78712 (512) 232-4536 (phone) (512) 471-8073 (fax) Jarroyo@austin.utexas.edu

Millions of Africans from different cultural, religious, and philosophical backgrounds – Nago, Bantu, Ashanti, Male, Fula, Arara, Calabar, and Yoruba – survived the violence and terror of the Atlantic Middle Passage and came to the Americas. This course analyzes the socio-cultural contexts of the African Diaspora in the Americas with a specific focus on the African Diaspora in the islands of the Caribbean, including Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Saint Dominque (the Dominican Republic and Haiti). One of the main goals of this course is to analyze the cultural, social, and philosophical contributions of these diasporic populations and the ways they build social and cultural agency in their specific national or diasporic contexts. The course starts with the Haitian Revoltuion as a historic/social point of departure, an event which influenced Black struggles in the Americas. Later, the course will focus on specific national contexts and cultural representations, moving from specific national white-Creole imaginings of Black and mulatto cultures and populations to contemporary depictions of Afro-diasporic and Afro-Latino identities in the United States. Themes such as gender, sexuality and identity politics, socio-political agency, resistance, and negotiation will be analyzed in a realm of cultural texts such as narrative, ethnography, film, documentary, and contemporary music. The class will be conducted in English and papers will be in English.

Description

¿Cómo se han transformado los discursos sobre el cuerpo y sus economías en el Caribe contemporáneo? ¿Cúal es el rol de los medios de comunicación en esta transformación? ¿Podría afirmarse que los medios de comunicación están ayudando a forjar futuros políticos de igualdad y democracia o por el contrario, que están creando nuevas desigualdades?  El Caribe insular contemporáneo, sus cuerpos en circulación y sus economías son el eje principal en la definición de los discursos sobre migración, diáspora, hibridez, raza y etnicidad en nuestro contexto global. En el Caribe, las desigualdades económicas figuran las definiciones de estos cuerpos en procesos complejos de intercambio y valor. Este curso es un análisis de las definiciones y transformaciones del Caribe contemporáneo a partir del modo en que los cuerpos se insertan, o no, en estos imaginarios de la globalización. Es así como nos concentraremos en el modo en que el discurso de los medios (televisión, cine, internet) está transformando el discurso literario y por consiguiente las visiones del cuerpo y la subjetividad en las culturas caribeñas contemporáneas. Partiendo del importante rol de las telenovelas y los guiones cubanos como “El derecho de nacer” (Caignet) en los años 60, y pasando por el espacio inagural del “Nuyorican Poets Café” y el del slam poético-performativo, y la narrativa contemporánea el curso se ubicará geográficamente en el Caribe insular y los circuitos de Nueva York y Miami. Algunos de los temas que se analizarán en el curso serán: las transformaciones en los discursos de raza, género y sexualidad, el espacio urbano y sus narrativas, el cuerpo marginal y su deshumanización, las economías del turismo sexual, el rol de la música en las culturas jóvenes, y la construcción del cuerpo y la memoria en la diáspora africana.

El curso analizará la producción literaria de autores de Puerto Rico, Cuba y República Dominicana, como Miguel Piñero, Pedro Pietri, Mayra Santos-Febres, Ángel Lozada, Rita Indiana Hernández, Gallego, Urayoán Noel, Eduardo Lalo y Josefina Báez entre otros, así como la producción de la blogosfera cubana, y la producción musical (y de videos) de artistas caribeños como Don Omar, Tego Calderón y Alexis Valdés, entre otros.

Hernández Rita I. Papi, La estrategia de Chochueca

Lozada, Ángel. No quiero quedarme sola y vacía

Santos-Febres, Mayra. Sirena Selena vestida de pena.

Lalo, Eduardo. La isla silente.

Readings: All in PDF posted on Blackboard.

NOTAS:

Dos informes orales-15%- 30%

Comentarios escritos/discusión en clase- 30%

Ensayo final- 40%

Los alumnos van a presentar DOS informes orales durante el semestre y harán comentarios sobre las lecturas y los videos de la clase en la página de la clase en Facebook. Estos comentarios estarán en la parte de “Notes” de Facebook y responderán a los videos, las lecturas críticas y los comentarios discutidos en clase. El (La) estudiante escribirá UN ensayo final de 20-25 páginas. El ensayo debe contener o tratar la teoría discutida en clase.

NO SE ACEPTARÁN INCOMPLETOS EN EL CURSO/ I WON’T ACCEPT INCOMPLETES IN THIS CLASS

PRONTUARIO:

Islas virtuales

Gabriel (Gabi) Sheffer, “Transnationalism and Ethnonational Diasporism.”

Michel de Certeau, “Walking in the City”

Myrna García Calderón, “Current Approaches to Hispanic Caribbean Writing: An Overview”; François Lionnet and Shu-Mei Shih, “Thinking through the Minor, Transnationally” from Minor Transnationalisms Ed. by Lionnet and Shih

Brian Massumi, Parables for the Virtual. Movement, Affect, Sensation (sel).

Structures of feeling: el melodrama de la raza

Globalization: The Key Concepts

José E. Muñoz, Dissidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics (Intro) and “The Melancholia of Race”

Yeidi Rivero, “Caribbean Negritos: Ramón Rivero, Blackface, and Black Voice in Puerto Rico”, Película: El Derecho de Nacer

El Caribe en imágenes— 1976-1985

El Cerro Maravilla- “Dígame si es o no cierto”, Requiem on Cerro Maravilla, Manuel Suárez, Intro;  “El Mariel: los gusanos y la escoria” Reinaldo Arenas, Antes de que anochezca (sel), Scarface (Brian de Palma) (sel.);

 Fort Allen-La diáspora haitiana, Ana Lydia Vega, “La alambrada” (cuento)

Imaginarios urbanos I, Ciudad y margen

Eduardo Lalo La isla silente

Katja Diefenbach, “The Spectral Forms of Value: Ghost Things and Relations of Forces” from Capital (It Fails Us Now)

Mayra Santos, Boat people (poema) Tercer mundo (poema)

Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project (sel.)

Imaginarios urbanos II, Ciudad y sexualidad

Mayra Santos, Sirena Selena vestida de pena

Jorge Duany, La migración dominicana en PR (sel.)

Henri Lefvebre, “On the production of Space”

VIDEOS-Jorge Steven Mercado—(homenaje)

Imaginarios urbanos, La fiesta vigilada

Antonio J. Ponte, La fiesta vigilada (Fragmentos), Un arte de hacer ruinas

Pedro J. Gutiérrez, Nada que hacer (cuentos)

Suite Habana (documental)

Rita y los Misterios (performance y dominicanidad)

 La estrategia de Chochueca, Papi,Videos-Rita Indiana y los Misterios, blog “Blabbeando” (Rita Indiana Hernández),  Juan Duchesne, “Del estado Papá al estado Papi”, Celiany Rivera “On Being Rita Indiana Hernández”

Queer CubaRican Spaces-  No quiero quedarme sola y vacía , Ángel Lozada,Queer Ricans y “De un pájaro las dos alas” Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes, Abel Sierra, La nación sexuada (sel.), Juana Ma. Rodríguez “Confessions of a Latina Cyber-Slut” from Queer Latinidad

Poesía y géneros— POEMS— Miguel Piñero, Pedro Pietri, Guillermo Rebollo-Gil, Tato Laviera,  José Raúl  González, “Gallego”, Urayoán Noel—Raggaetón, Raquel Z. Rivera (Fragmentos), Félix Jiménez, Las prácticas de la carne: construcción y representación de las masculinidades puertorriqueñas (sel.)

Necropolíticas y carnaval

Achille Mmembe, “Necropolis”

Jossianna Arroyo, “Del Chupacabras y otros monstruos interiores”

Robyn Derby “Chupacabras

Roach, Joseph Cities of the Dead (Intro.)

Video-Chupacabras Episode (“X Files”)

Loggin Behind Castro’s back—

*Cristina Venegas, “Shared Dreams and Red Cockcoroaches” “Cubans Log Behind Castro’s Back” “The New Cuban Capitalist”, Capitalism, God and a Good Cigar, Cuba in the XXIst Century

Blogs: Claudia Cadelo, Octavo Cerco, Yoanis Sánchez (Generación Y)

Performances: Tania Bruguera, Nayda Collazo

Transnational Melancholia: Cuban-Latino Media Scapes

Alexis Valdés “Esta noche-Tu-night”, Arlene Dávila,  “Language and Culture in the Media Battle Zone” (Latinos Inc. The Marketing and Making of a People), Niurka Marcos Soy (fragmentos), Videos—Magdalena La Pelúa, Cristinito, Yeyo Vargas.

Guerra, tecnología y nuevas solidaridades

Transborder Immigrant Tool, Ricardo Domínguez, Brett Stalbaum

Manuel Avilés, “Puerto Rican/Latino Soldiers in Irak and Internet”

Presentación de los trabajos finales

ENTREGA DE ENSAYOS FINALES

 

 

 

 

POR 341

Summer 2007, Salvador, Bahia

 

AFRO-BRAZIL AND AFRO-BRAZILIANS: LITERATURES, CULTURE, REPRESENTATION

The purpose of this six week course is to analyze the literary, cultural and social representation of Afro-Brazilians (blacks and mulattoes) from 1800s to contemporary authors. After a brief introduction of the histories of resistance against slavery in colonial times (quilombos), the course will focus on Nineteenth century literatures on and about Afro-Brazilians with an emphasis on Nineteenth century black rebellions (Malês), and the contradictions of abolitionist literature. The first four decades of the twentieth century will focus on modernismo-regionalista literatures, to criticize views of Brazilian racial democracy and the contradictions of Populist depictions of Afro-Brazilians. The last part of the course will focus on contemporary works written by Afro-Brazilian authors, from the social emergence of Abdias do Nascimento “Movimento Negro” to contemporary narratives, music and documentaries which main focus are the cultures of poverty, abandonment, violence in the inner cities, and social discrimination. The course will include cultural tours around main cultural sites in Salvador, Bahia. The course will be taught in Portuguese (readings in English and Portuguese) and will include documentaries and film in Portuguese (or with English subtitles). Students will write a 10 page final paper in Portuguese. The topic will be chosen by the student with the assistance of Prof. Arroyo.

 

The class will meet from Monday to Thursday (10-12) in ACBEU.

Thursdays and Friday afternoons will be used for tours. Please check your calendars. Attendance is mandatory. All materials are required. One 10 page paper will be presented at the end of the six week period. Two themes, students choose one.

 

Books (required):

João J. Reis, Black Rebellions in Brazil. The Muslims uprisings of 1835 in Bahia (Amazon)

 

Luso-Brazilian Books:

Guimãraes Bernardo. A escrava Isaura.

Caminha, Adolfo. Bom crioulo.

Amado, Jorge. Tenda dos milagres.

Rui Gomes. O Pagador de promessas.

 

 

One course pack available at Speedway Copy and Printing (Dobie Mall) (Pquete inclui Leituras críticas e Quarto de despejo, Joanna Carolina de Jesus)

Who are Afro-Latinos? How they have shaped Latin American, Caribbean and U.S. histories? This class focuses on the lives, histories and influences of Afro-Latinos in literary, cultural and social constructions of "diaspora" in the United States. We will analyze the trajectories of Arturo A. Schomburg, Jesus Colón, Evelio Grillo, Pura Belpré, Rómulo Lachatañeré, Julia de Burgos and Marta Moreno Vega among many others and their views of race, memory and Afro-Latino culture. The course will be conducted in English (4 essays).

 

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

Este curso examina  la producción literaria y cultural de la diáspora afrocaribeña de Cuba, Puerto Rico, República Dominicana y Haití con el fin de analizar sus discursos socio-políticos y culturales en nuestro mundo global. El curso comienza con una definición de la diáspora africana en las Américas, para luego situar las especificidades socio-históricas y culturales de la República Dominicana, Haití, Cuba y Puerto Rico. El eje del curso será la relación de la diáspora africana con la modernidad y con los discursos de poder y subordinación colonial o neo-colonial desde la esclavitud hasta la globalización contemporánea. La colonialidad del poder (Aníbal Quijano) como teoría que define la subordinación de los otros (africanos e indígenas) en un contexto de capital global en el que se crean diferencias raciales, sexuales, económicas y de género  organiza el análisis de la diáspora africana en las Américas.  Partiremos de la Revolución Haitiana y de las representaciones de la esclavitud, en particular la dialectica hegeliana amo-esclavo, para luego analizar varios aspectos históricos del ?miedo al negro? y la participación de líderes y poblaciones negras y mulatas en la Guerra de Independencia en Cuba. Este análisis de las ideologías fundacionales del discurso de la esclavitud y las sociedades caribeñas nos  ayudará a entrar de lleno en los discursos de ciudadanía, pertenencia a la nación y crítica del imperio estadounidense durante y después de la guerra en Cuba. Ramón E. Betances, José Martí y Rafael Serra y su visión radical de una ?nación para todos?, actúan como contrapunto a los discursos positivistas criollos inagurados con la publicación de Los negros brujos (1906) de Fernando Ortiz. Las transformaciones de este discurso positivista a uno de ?mestizaje positivo? en los años 20 y 30 y cómo se representa en la producción literaria y cultural de la poesía negrista  pondrá en diálogo visiones sobre la raza y la ?racialización? en estos contextos nacionales.  Al mismo tiempo, haremos una crítica de estos discursos criollos al enfocarnos en la producción literaria y cultural de autores negros en las tres islas. Como veremos muchas de estas definiciones de ciudadanía?especialmente en los autores negros? se mueven hacia un contexto globalizado, transnacional y postnacional creando nuevas alianzas sociales, raciales y políticas. En ese sentido, el concepto de ?racial knowledges? (subjetividades raciales) se utilizará   para definir estas representaciones que rompen con las visiones canónicas de la nación cubana, haitiana, dominicana, o puertorriqueña.  Algunos de los temas que se analizarán son: la intersección de la raza con el género y la sexualidad, la representación sicológica del mulato(a) y las culturas afrocaribeñas, el genocidio, la prisión política y los derechos humanos;  las religiones afro-diásporicas como la  santería y las subjetividades afrolatinas. El curso incluirá algunos documentales y videos. Las lecturas de la clase serán en español y en inglés.

 REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING:

Los estudiantes darán UN informe oral de un artículo o un texto asignado( 20%), escribirán respuestas críticas (2 páginas)  que mezclen teóricamente las lecturas asignadas para cada reunión (30%) y escribirán un trabajo final de 20 páginas sobre un tema relacionado con la clase (30%). La participación en clase es un 20% de la nota final. Favor de reportar ausencias   o tardanzas.

 TEXTBOOKS AND/OR CLASS MATERIALS:

En University Coop:

Autobiografía de un esclavo, Juan F. Manzano

El reino de este mundo, Alejo Carpentier Over, Ramón Marrero-Aristy

Sirena Selena vestida de pena, Mayra Santos

Encancaranublado, Ana Lydia Vega

Brother, I am dying, Edwidge Danticat

Description:

Millions of Africans from different cultural, religious and philosophical backgrounds— Nago, Bantu, Ashanti, Malé, Fula, Arara, Calabar, Yoruba – survived the violence and terror of the Atlantic middle passage and came to the Américas. This course analyzes the socio-cultural contexts of the African Diaspora in the Américas with a specific focus on the African Diaspora in  Brazil and the islands of the Caribbean (Cuba, Puerto Rico and Saint Domingue (Dominican Republic, Haiti). Brazil is the country with the major concentration of African population in the Americas, and it shares with the Caribbean a long tradition of cultural, religious and social struggles for blacks. One of the main goals of the course is to analyze the cultural, social and philosophical contributions of these diasporic populations, and the ways they build social and cultural agency in their specific national or diasporic contexts. The course starts with the Haitian Revolution as a historic/social point of departure which influenced black struggles in the Américas. Later it will focus on specific national contexts  and  cultural representations moving from specific national white-Creòle imaginings of black and mulatto cultures and populations to contemporary depictions of Afro diasporic and Afro-Latino identities in the United States. Themes such as gender, sexualities and identity politics, socio-political agency, resistance and negotiation will be analyzed in a realm of cultural texts such as narrative, ethnography, film, documentary and contemporary music. Course and papers will be in Spanish.

 

Texts:

Course pack at Paradigm 24t Street and Guadalupe

Carpentier, Alejo. El reino de este mundo.

Manzano, Juan F. Autobiografía de un esclavo

Moreno Vega Marta. When the Spirits dance Mambo

 Carolina de Jesus. Child of the Dark. The Diary of Carolina de Jesus.

 

Grading:

ESSAYS- 20% (each)- 80%

CLASS PARTICIPATION-20%

Please check back for updates.

T 9:30 AM - 12:30 PM

MEETS WITH : LAS 392S, 40395

DESCRIPTION:

¿Cómo se han transformado los discursos sobre el cuerpo y sus economías en el Caribe contemporáneo? ¿Cúal es el rol de los medios de comunicación en esta transformación? ¿Podría afirmarse que los medios de comunicación están ayudando a forjar futuros políticos de igualdad y democracia o por el contrario, que están creando nuevas desigualdades?  El Caribe insular contemporáneo, sus cuerpos en circulación y sus economías son el eje principal en la definición de los discursos sobre migración, diáspora, hibridez, raza y etnicidad en nuestro contexto global. En el Caribe, las desigualdades económicas figuran las definiciones de estos cuerpos en procesos complejos de intercambio y valor. Este curso es un análisis de las definiciones y transformaciones del Caribe contemporáneo a partir del modo en que los cuerpos se insertan, o no, en estos imaginarios de la globalización. Es así como nos concentraremos en el modo en que el discurso de los medios (televisión, cine, internet) está transformando el discurso literario y por consiguiente las visiones del cuerpo y la subjetividad en las culturas caribeñas contemporáneas. Partiendo del importante rol de las telenovelas y los guiones cubanos como “El derecho de nacer” (Caignet) en los años 60, y pasando por el espacio inagural del “Nuyorican Poets Café” y el del slam poético-performativo, y la narrativa contemporánea el curso se ubicará geográficamente en el Caribe insular y la ciudad de Nueva York. Algunos de los temas que se analizarán en el curso serán: las transformaciones en los discursos de raza, género y sexualidad, el espacio urbano y sus narrativas, el cuerpo marginal y su deshumanización, las economías del turismo sexual, el rol de la música en las culturas jóvenes, y la construcción del cuerpo y la memoria en la diáspora africana.

El curso analizará la producción literaria de autores de Puerto Rico, Cuba y República Dominicana, como Miguel Piñero, Pedro Pietri, Mayra Santos-Febres, Ángel Lozada, Rita Indiana Hernández, Gallego, Urayoán Noel, Eduardo Lalo y Josefina Báez entre otros, así como la producción de la blogosfera cubana, y la producción musical (y de videos) de artistas caribeños como Don Omar, Tego Calderón y Alexis Valdés, entre otros.

TEXTS: 

Hernández Rita I. Papi, La estrategia de Chochueca

Lozada, Ángel. No quiero quedarme sola y vacía

Santos-Febres, Mayra. Sirena Selena vestida de pena.

Lalo, Eduardo. Los pies de San Juan.

Noel, Urayoán. Las flores del mall (poesía)

Miguel Piñero, Pedro Pietri. Selecciones poesía.

Báez, Josefina. Dominicanish

Dr. Jossianna Arroyo

jarroyo@mail.utexas.edu

Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Office: BEN 3.120

Office Hours: 11-12:30 (T/Thu) (sign up by Blackboard) or by appointment

Spring 2010

Introduction to African American Culture

This course is a survey of African American cultural production in the United States from 1619 to the Obama Era. The purpose of the course is to critically explore the historical, social, political and cultural processes that have built African American political cultures in the United States. The main focus of the course will be African Americans in the United States, their historical and cultural languages, contributions, social struggles and legacies. Though centered on the historical-cultural experiences of African Americans in the U. S. and their struggles with persistent anti-black racism, economic exploitation and sexual-gender oppression our lectures will extend across borders to touch these same dimensions in black diasporic communities in the Americas and the United States. Thus, the course will emphasize what it means to be “African American” vis à vis other cultures in the African Diaspora, both in the Americas and globally. By the end of the course the students will be able to understand African-American cultures through the global and interconnected dimensions of black experience. While some of these Afro-diasporic communities come from different historical-cultural experiences that disavow or deny blackness we will analyze how some of these communities (Afro-Puerto Ricans) have had similar experiences of racialization and oppression not only in their places of origin but also in the United States. The course will include some films and documentaries which will be shown in class. Some theoretical key points that will be discussed will be: 1) race, identity formation and the meaning of blackness, 2) colonialism, diaspora and racial formation theory, 3) whiteness and white priviledge  4) black feminisms, gender, sexuality, knowledge production 5) Black performance, cultural agency and power.

Teaching Assistants:

Ms. Beliza Torres-Nárvaez (Theater and Performance), Email: belizat@gmail.com

Mr. Adam Williams (Radio, Television and Film), Email:awilliamsiii@austin.rr.com

COURSE TEXTS (Required):

Painter, Nell. Creating Black Americans. Oxford UP, 2006.

Thomas, Piri. Down these mean streets. Vintage P, 1997.

Theoretical readings- posted on Blackboard Arroyo-Martínez AFR 301.

COURSEWORK, GRADING, AND EXPECTATIONS

1)       Attendance

This class has a strict attendance policy.  Students are expected to attend all class and discussion meetings and attendance will be taken everyday.  Each time you have 3 absences your final grade will be diminished by a letter grade.  The rule is cumulative, so that your grade will be dropped another letter with the 4^th and 6^th absence.  However, a student missing more than 40% of classes (that is, having 8 or more absences) will automatically fail the course.  Please be aware that I do not make a distinction between “excused” and “unexcused” absences, except under extremely extraneous circumstances, and on a case-by-case basis.

2)       ACTIVE Class Participation (20 points)

While I will devote a part of our class time to lecturing there will be plenty of time for class discussion. Credit will be given to meaningful and critically engaged discussion in class. This means that prior to each class you must do the readings, think critically about them, and be ready to discuss them.

3)       In-Class Exams (40 points)

There will be two in-class exams (one Mid-Term and one Partial Exam); each will be worth 20 points.  Be sure to bring Blue Books to class the day of the exam.

4)       Response Paper (20 points)

Each student will be expected to turn in a response paper for the book, Down these mean streets by Piri Thomas. The question will be provided by Prof. Arroyo. These papers are to be 5 typed pages and should include a brief summary of the storyline and the student’s critical response to the story, particularly how it connects with the theme of the section under discussion and the similarities and differences between the African American and the Afro-Puerto Rican experience.

*All papers are to be single-sided, double-spaced, and typed in 12-point font.  Please make note of the deadline for the paper.  I will not accept e-mailed papers or any sort, late papers, or rewrites.  Under very special circumstances, I will provide extensions, but only with the mutual understanding that I will subtract ½ letter grade for each day that the paper is late.

** PLAGAIRISM AND ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

All students are expected to adhere to the University’s guidelines regarding academic integrity.  This information can be found at: http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs/acint_student.php. Students who violate these rules—including those who plagiarize—are subject disciplinary penalties, including the possibility of failure and/or dismissal from the University.  Please see Prof. Arroyo or the Teaching Assistants if you have further questions regarding plagiarism. 

***ACCOMMODATIONS FOR STUDENTS WITH DISSABILITIES

In compliance with the UT Austin policy and equal access laws, I am available to discuss appropriate academic accommodations that may be required for students with disabilities. If accommodations are necessary, you are encouraged to discuss this with Prof. Arroyo as soon as possible. Requests for academic accommodations are to be made during the first three weeks of the semester, except for unusual circumstances, so appropriate arragements can be made. Students are encouraged to register with Student Disability Services to verify their eligibility for appropriate accommodations.

5)       Blackboard Postings (20 points)

Each week each student is expected to post comments/questions on BLACKBOARD.  THESE POSTINGS ARE TO BE UP ON BLACKBOARD BY 8AM on the morning of class. Students are expected to post every week , except during Springbreak (March 15-21)  The questions/comments could be based on the assigned reading for the day, a film seen the day before, or anything relevant for the day’s lecture or class discussion.  A student may ask whatever question s/he feels important, as long as it is a response to the reading assignment, film, book, and/or the theme under discussion.  Students may respond to each other’s comments/questions/suggestions as well—just as long as the discussion is about the topic being covered in class that day.  Each posting will be worth 1pt, adding up to a total of 20 pts.       

*To access BLACKBOARD, go to: http://www.utexas.edu/academic/blackboard/.  Once you have logged in, all students should be able to access the Discussion Board under AFR 301.   

6) Students should attend at least two events at the Center for African and African American Studies (CAAAS) this Spring 2010 semester. Those of you who attend can comment about these special events in your Blackboard/comments area so we can add it to class discussion. Students who attend these events will get extra credit-points towards their final grade. Prof. Arroyo, Ms. Torres and Mr. Williams will notify class about CAAAS’ events schedule for Spring 2010.                            

? Your final grade will be calculated as follows:

            Participation                              20 points

            In-Class Exams                          40 points

            Down these mean streets  Paper        20 points

            Blackboard Postings                   20 points

                                                                                   

            TOTAL                                   100 points

COURSE RULES:

1)       This is a large-lecture seminar, so students need to be engaged completely in class discussion.  CELL PHONES AND TEXTING IS NOT ALLOWED IN CLASS.  PERSONAL COMPUTERS ARE FOR CLASS USE ONLY. STUDENTS USING PERSONAL COMPUTERS FOR OTHER MATTERS IN THE CLASSROOM WILL BE PENALIZED.

2)     NO FOOD allowed in the classroom. This is a strict University policy that we all need to follow. Be sure to eat before class.

3)     Respectful and courtesy to your peers is mandatory even when you don’t agree with their ideas.

WHO ARE AFRICAN AMERICANS?: RACE, RACIAL FORMATION IN THE U.S, GLOBAL RACIAL FORMATIONS

Week 1

1/19—Introduction to the course.

Reading:  Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States (Intro)

1/21—The Obama Era. A post-racial society?

Week 2- Race?

1/26 “Race the Power of an Illusion” Part I

1/29 “Race the Power of an Illusion” Part II

Reading: “Background readings”on film website, http:/www.pbs.org/race/000 General/000 00-Home.htm (Post a question in Blackboard)

Week 3-Racial Formation, African Americans in the United States

2/2  Race and the Power of an Illusion-Discussion

Reading: Omi and Winant  Racial Formation in the U.S. from the 1960s-1980s (1994)

2/4 Racial Formation Theory

Reading:  “Captives Transported 1619-1850, “A Diasporic People 1630-1850” from Creating Black Americans (CBA)

FROM SLAVERY TO RECONSTRUCTION

Week 4

2/9 QUIZ #1  Africans in the Americas

Reading: “Those who were Enslaved”, “Those who were Free” (CBA)

2/11 Masters and Slaves I

Reading: O. Patterson, Slavery and Social Death

Week 5

2/16 Masters and Slaves II, “Unchained Voices” (part of documentary in class)

Reading: “Civil War and Emancipation”  “The Larger Reconstruction” (CBA)

2/18 African American Politics after the Civil War I

Frederick Douglass: “Lecture on Haiti” (Chicago, 1893) http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/history/1844-1915/douglass.htm

Reading:

Week 6

2/23 African American Politics after the Civil War II

Reading: “Hard Working People in the Depths of Segregation (CBA), Lynching and Spectacle, Amy Wood

2/26 Land and Segregation

Reading: Ida B. Wells, “Southern Horrors”  http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14975/14975-h/14975-h.htm 

Week 7

3/2-Jim Crow, Lynching and Race Riots

Reading: Colin Dayan, “Legal Slaves, Civil Bodies,” Richard Wright “The Man who Lived Underground”

SELF DETERMINATION: CIVIL RIGHTS, BLACK POWER AND PROTEST

Week 8

3/2   QUIZ #2 Slavery, civil death, and the corporate prison system

3/4 MIDTERM-Review in Class

Readings: Arturo A. Schomburg “The Negro Digs Up his Past”, WEB Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk

3/9 Afro-Diasporic histories and double conciousness

3/11 MIDTERM-In class

Week 9-SPRINGBREAK Readings, Read excerpts from The New Negro by Alain Locke and chapters 9-11 from CBA.

Week 10

3/23  Harlem Rennassaince, Culture and Power I

Readings: Langston Hughes, Claude Mc. Kay, Countee Culleen, “Women Poets of the Harlem Rennassaince” Gwendolyn Bennet, Georgia G. Johnson http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19694

3/25 Harlem Rennassaince, Culture and Power II

Readings: CBA, Chapters 12-14, Martin Luther King “Beyond Vietnam”

Week 11

3/29 Black Power and Repression I

Audio Assignment: Listen and reflect critically on Malcom X’s speech: “The Ballot or the Bullet” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRNciryImqg

4/1- Black Power and Repression II Excerpts on “Pa lante siempre pa lante Documentary on the Puerto Rican Young Lords.

Reading: Down these mean streets

Week 12

4/6  Down these mean streets

4/8 Down these mean streets

Week 13

4/13 Down these mean streets

4/15 “Every Man is Born a Poet”-Documentary on Piri Thomas  Prof. Arroyo hands out questions for Response Paper

Reading:  Roderick Ferguson “Towards a Queer of Color Critique”, James Baldwin, “My Dungeon Shook: Letter to my Nephew on the one Hundreth Anniversary of the Emancipation”

LEGACIES OF STRUGGLE:  FEMINISM, BLACK AGENCY AND PERFORMANCE 1980s-2009

Week 14

4/20 Film: Black is Black Ain’t Part I 

4/22- Film: Black is Black Ain’t Part II  RESPONSE PAPER DUE

Reading: CBA Chapter 15, Hill Collins, “On Intersecting Oppressions” Sista II Sista, (2006)

Week 15

4/27-Hip Hop Activism and the Politics of Gender

4/29 – Katrina, Haiti: Race, Racialization and Media Violence

Selection of articles and images from Haiti, When the Leeves Broke, Part II (Selections)

Week 16

5/4  Katrina and Haiti II

5/7 Partial EXAM-In Class

 

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

 SPN 325L Introduction to Spanish American Literature since Modernism (2nd summer session).
 
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course offers a survey of major literary trends and writers of Spanish American literature since Modernism within a cultural context. While the course uses a selection of works that are recognized by critics, specialists, and readers as the most outstanding, it will also include other less-known authors that are equally notable in order to reflect the diversity of Spanish American literature. Most works will be read in their entirety; however, an occasional work may be abridged. The course will include the four genres and will require both textual and thematic analyses of the works so as to prepare students for more advanced courses.
 
COURSE OBJECTIVES
This course is designed to help you
·       read and understand literary texts within an historical and cultural context;
·       foster and develop an individual critical points of view;
·       analyze and compare different literary texts; and
·       write short responses and essays that focus on text and thematic analysis.

Main literary trends and principal writers in Spanish America since Modernism.

Literature in Translation. Conducted in English.

Major writers and works of Spanish and Spanish American literature.

Topic 1: Spain in 1492.

Topic 2: Literature of the Spanish Civil War.

Topic 3: The Latin American Short Story. Examination of the most representative Latin American authors as a course of study in the art of storytelling, literary history, individual poetics, and narrative theories.

Topic 4: Contemporary Caribbean Literature.

 

Main literary trends and principal writers in Spanish America since Modernism.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Main literary trends and principal writers in Spanish America since Modernism.

Literature in Translation. Conducted in English.

Main literary trends and principal writers in Spanish America since Modernism.

Please check back for updates.

Main literary trends and principal writers in Spanish America since Modernism.