• The general topic of this seminar is the unresolved question, in Hispanic cultural studies, and neglected field, in ecocriticism or "literature-and-environment" studies, of the ideas of Nature in Latin American literature's interpretation of the process of modernization. The particular focus on the Romance of the Jungle is due to the fact that this genre tells the story of a failed "return to nature" performed by a modern and colonial subject that, disappointed with Western modernity, turns towards wilderness in search of a national or Latin American identity, of artistic authenticity, and in general of eradicating the lack of nature by which actually this subject defines her/himself.
• This "return to nature" was allegedly successful in other genres at a time when Latin American intellectuals were critically reflecting on the consequences of their integration into the world economy, and seeking alternatives to the alienation created by such modernization in nationalism, the "origins" of language, and of course nature. But unlike, for instance, the Spanish American regional novel of the 1920s and 1930s, in the Romance of the Jungle the protagonists, upon their arrival to the frontier, have to face the consequences of a "savage" capitalism and a brutal colonialism that has preceded them. This unexpected discovery produces the crisis of the effort to achieve oneness by recovering one's origin in nature. This crisis has derivatives of its own: the impossibility of integrating nature and modernization, and the recognition of the mediation of language, but the confirmation of an otherness beyond the symbolic order in which the subject does not or refuses to recognize him/herself. The "return to nature" is not in the journey but in the story that tells its failure.
• The selection of readings include canonical texts in Latin American literature:

• Short stories by Horacio Quiroga (Uruguay, 1878-1937).
• "Los pescadores de vigas" (1913, Cuentos de amor, de locura y de muerte, 1917)
• "Los mensú" (1914, Cuentos de amor, de locura y de muerte).
• "Juan Darién" (1920, El desierto, 1924).
• "El hombre muerto" (1920, Los desterrados, 1926).
• "Anaconda" (1921, Anaconda, 1921).
• "El techo de incienso" (1922, Los desterrados, 1926).
• "El desierto" (1923, El desierto, 1924).
• "El regreso de Anaconda" (1925, Los desterrados, 1926)
• La vorágine (1924, The Vortex) by José Eustasio Rivera (Colombia, 1888-1928).
• Los pasos perdidos (1953, The Lost Steps) by Alejo Carpentier (Cuba, 1904-1979).
• La casa verde (1965, The Green House) by Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru, 1936-).
• La nieve del almirante (1986, The Snow of the Admiral) by Alvaro Mutis (Colombia, 1923-)
• Other recommended readings:

• Green Mansions (1904) by William Henry Hudson (Argentina, 1841-England, 1922)
• Canaima (1935, Canaima) by Rómulo Gallegos (Venezuela, 1884-1969).
• Pantaleón y las visitadoras (1973, Captain Pantoja and the Special Service) by Vargas Llosa.
• El hablador (1987, The Storyteller) by Vargas Llosa.
• Colibrí (1984) by Severo Sarduy (Cuba, 1937-)
• These texts will serve us well for illustrating the "evolution" of Latin American fiction during the first half of the 20^th century: from the so-called Regionalist novel to the revolutionary "Boom" of the 1960s, and beyond into the "Post-Boom". This time frame also covers the rise and fall of the first wave of modernization in Latin America (or the neo-colonial order of 1880-1930), the embracing of development theory in the 1940s and 1950s, and dependency theory's anti-colonial policies of the 1960s and beyond.
• The second focus of this seminar is to explore the relationship of the Romances of the Jungle in Latin America with its counterparts in English. Ms. Jennifer French, Ph.D. Candidate in the Graduate Program in Comparative Literature will lead the discussions at that time. For this purpose, the seminar will also focus on the following texts:

• A selection from Kipling:

• Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1899).
• A selection of movies and videos that includes:

• La muralla verde (1970). Dir. Armando Robles Godoy.
• Fitzcarraldo (1982). Dir. Werner Herzog.
• The Mosquito Coast (1986). Dir. Peter Weir.
• At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991). Dir. Héctor Babenco.
• Amazon Journal (1995). Dir. Geoffrey O'Connor.

• Other recommended movies or videos:

• The Lost World (1925). Dir. Harry Hoyt/Willis O'Brien.
• Macunaima (1969). Dir. Joaquim Pedro de Andrade.
• Emerald Forest (1983). Dir. John Boorman.
• Kuarup (1988). Dir. Rui Guerra.
• Medicine Man (1992) Dir. John McTiernan.
• Savage Capitalism (1993). André Klotzel.
• Anaconda (1998) Dir. Luis Llosa.
• The Burning Season (1994). Dir. John Frankenheimer.

• At a time when national identity, very much like in current times, was not necessarily always thought in opposition to cosmopolitanism and to the integration of Latin America to the world economy, the dependency-theory-based approaches of the recent past on colonial and national literatures need to be at least complemented with current critiques of the notion and history of development.

• At another level, the seminar will review some of the basic issues being discussed in ecocriticism or "literature-and-environment" studies. Besides reading literature as a source of environmentalist thought, this "field" seems to be moving towards engaging in theoretical discussions with poststructuralism and cultural studies regarding the representation of the natural and physical world. The main issues at stake are: (1) the rhetoric of environmentalist discourses as they relate to colonialism, gender, race, and class, (2) a critique of the nature/culture opposition, from evironmental determinism to the "social construction" of space when used in a reductionist way that encourages cultural determinism.

Grading

Oral Presentation 20%
Take-home exam 20%
Term Paper 40%
Class Participation 20%