Michelle Bigenho: Life Stories from Latin America
This course was taught in Spring 2002.
This course explores life stories and what have been called "testimonials" which emerge from Latin American contexts. The testimonial often surfaces through a politically urgent partnership of the person who tells her story and another person who records and edits the story--these two authors often coming, respectively, from third and first world situations. In relation to specific political contexts, the course examines the social implications of these textual productions and draws parallels with the production of ethnographic and anthropological texts. The testimonial of Rigoberta Menchu and the subsequently published debates about this text will form a major focus of the course. Other ethnographic and testimonial cases will be selected from Mexican, Cuban, Bolivian, Peruvian, Argentine, and Brazilian cases.
Depending on the Spanish language capabilities of the students who take this course, part of the course may be conducted in Spanish. Students may choose to read certain texts in Spanish and write their papers in the Spanish language.
This course is taught at the 100-level.