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Home , Carlos Fuentes, Elena Poniatowska, Latin American Boom

Macaulay Honors College The Latin American She-BOOM Spring 2021

During the late sixties and seventies, the global literary world’s attention was captured by a group of relatively young Latin American authors - Colombian Gabriel García Márquez, Peruvian , Argentinian Julio Cortázar and Mexican . Their success was so enormous that it drew other prodigiously talented Latin American authors into their orbit. José Donoso, Cabrera Infante, Severo Sarduy, and Carlos Onetti, among others, also received international visibility and demand. Their was by no means uniform. Each adopted distinctive styles. But their work and lives had sufficient overlaps that they were collectively considered a cultural and political phenomenon. They came to be called the BOOM – the “ writers" – in part for their explosive arrival on the literary scene. And they shared something else, something that was crucial to their work and its reception, though it went all but universally unremarked on. They were all men. But during the same period of time, Latin American women authors were also producing a spectacular range of literary works. , , , María Luisa Bombal, Silvina Ocampo, and other women writers of that calibre, were active in those years. Why, then, were they not considered part of the BOOM? Why were none of them picked up by the same publishers, literary critics, and readers who were eagerly enjoying the male Latin American "wave"? Why weren’t they "in"? In this course, we will begin by exploring the relevance of gender to answering this question – briefly investigating the macho nature of what I will call (as a droll analytic device), the HE-BOOM. But our basic aim is more interesting, which is to explore the wonderful but underappreciated work of the women who composed what I propose to call the SHE-BOOM.

First and second sessions, February 4th and February 11: Introduction. The nature of the MACHO BOOM: their books (the phenomena between 1955, when published Pedro Páramo, to 1982, when Gabriel García Márquez won the Nobel Prize), their "action" (becoming world famous), and the (invisible) SHE-BOOM of those years. The male "orphans" (as they claim), and the mothers of the women authors. We will discard comparisons - if X or W were from a very different political point of view, of X or Y could have been less attractive to an international audience-, and will center on the obvious answer (gender).

Readings:

-- Debra Ann Castillo: Macho, Teaching Literary Histories of the Boom. (See attached document)

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/05/one-hundred- years-of-solitude-50-years-later/527118/

-- - Two short stories: Julio Cortázar: "Meeting" and "Miss Cora", at All Fires The Fire, translation Suzanne Jill Levine, New Directions, https://bookshop.org/books/all- fires-the-fire/9780811229456 In Spanish: "Reunión" y "La señorita Cora": https://www.ingenieria.unam.mx/dcsyhfi/material_didactico/Literatura_Hispanoameric ana_Contemporanea/Autores_C/CORTAZAR/Casa.pdf

3th session, February 18: SHE-BOOM´s mothers: We will visit some literary and artistic predecessors of our women authors: from Nobel Prize winner Gabriela Mistral, to Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Violeta Parra ("La Nueva Canción", and her ), Remedios Varo (surrealist artist, fled from the Nazis to ), Kathy Horna (photographer, fled the Spanish Civil War to Mexico), Lilia Carrillo´s (abstract painter). Readings:

--- Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, poems, and Letter to Sor Filotea, at: Sor Juana´s book trans. , Ed. Stavans, Penguin Books. https://www.amazon.com/Poems-Protest-Dream-Selected- Writings/dp/0140447032 -- Chapters 1, 2, and also 7 on Alfonsina´s Storni´s journalism at: Seminar on Feminism & Culture in . Women, Culture, and Politics in Latin America. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1990 1990. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft7c600832/ AT: https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft7c600832&chunk.id=d 0e33&toc.depth=1&toc.id=&brand=ucpress

4th session: Magical ´s SHE BOOM : Elena Garro. Readings: Elena Garro, Recollection of Things to Come, trans. Ruth L.Simms, University of Texas Press: https://utpress.utexas.edu/books/garrem or Kindle edition: https://www.amazon.com/-/es/Elena-Garro- ebook/dp/B00CBVSLPM/ref=sr_1_2?__mk_es_US=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&dchild=1&keywords=Elena+Garro+ Recollections&qid=1604084321&sr=8-2

5th session: Magical Realism´s canonic , A Hundred Years of Solitud by Gabriel García Márquez. Reading: Gabriel García Márquez: One Hundred Years of Solitud . Trans. Gregory Rabassa. Harpers Perenial. https://www.amazon.com/Hundred-Solitude-Harper-Perennial- Classics/dp/0060883286 -

6th session: Journalism and Fiction: Mexican , and Bolivian Domitila Chungara.

Readings:

Domitila Chungara -- "Let me Speak" - New York : Monthly Review Press, [1978]. - An interview at Latin American Perspectives: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2633768?seq=1

Elena Poniatowska, Lilus Kikus: https://unmpress.com/books/lilus-kikus-and- other-stories-elena-poniatowska/9780826335821

Elena Poniatowska, Massacre in Mexico, fragments.

7th session, Gender, history, childhood, racism, feminism, social justice: Rosario Castellanos Reading:

Rosario Castellanos, The Nine Guardians, trans. Irene Nicholson, https://www.amazon.com/Nine-Guardians-Rosarios- Castellanos/dp/0930523903/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

8th session: March 25, two very different literary universes: on Gender, Mario Vargas Llosa. Fantastic : Silvina Ocampo. Reading:

Mario Vargas Llosa, The Cubs, at https://www.amazon.com/Other-Stories-Mario- Vargas-Llosa/dp/0374521948 (movie version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yclq_N3mAtk )

Four short stories of Silvina Ocampo, from any of these books: Silvina Ocampo -- --- https://bookshop.org/books/thus-were-their-faces-selected-stories/9781590177679 http://www.citylights.com/collections/?Collection_ID=371

9th session, April 8: María Luisa Bombal, Luisa Valenzuela and Julio Ramón Ribeiro. Reading: María Luisa Bombal, The Tree. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27776921?seq=1 http://www.armandfbaker.com/translations/novels/el_arbol Selected stories from: Luisa Valenzuela, The Censors, trans. Carpentier, Castello, Lane, Lelan, Sayers Peden and Unger. Curbstone Press, and from: Julio Ramón Ribeiro, The Word of the Speechless, trans. Katherine Silver, Selected Stories. NYRB (classics), 2019.

10th session, April 10. Josefina Vicens: The Empty Book , trans. David Lauer, University of Texas Press (1992), ISBN 0- 292-72067-X

11th session, April 15, Vlady Kociancich and Norah Lange. Readings: A fragment: People in the Room (trans. Charlotte Whittle) by And Other Stories in 2018, at https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/article/april-2018-argentina-people-in-the-room- norah-lange-charlotte-whittle Vlady Kociancich, The Last Days of William Shakespeare, Heineman,1990. https://www.amazon.com/-/es/Vlady- Kociancich/dp/0434396974/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_es_US=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&dchild=1&keywords=%22vlady +kociancich%22+english&qid=1604426904&s=books&sr=1-1

12th session: April 22, again: Magical Realism? Alicia Yáñez and Rosario Ferré Readings: First Chapter from: Alicia Yáñez, Beyond the Islands, trad. Amalia Gladhart, UNO Press. Rosario Ferre'́ s , “The Youngest Doll.” The Youngest Doll. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1991. 1-6 (at https://www.jstor.org/stable/3177967?seq=1). In Spanish: https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1589982030/sfuhs/vxfasgn6ewz0chu7utsx/Lamunecam enordeRosarioFerre.pdf

WRITTEN PAPERs due today: I want a personal recollection of the readings (twenty lines at least per reading) - it must have quotes from the authors, and a justification of your arguments. Add a "personal digestion" of these readings (also, 20 lines the least).

Sessions 13 and 14: April 29, May 6: The new generation: We will devote the first two of our last three sessions to the newest generation of Latin American women writers (skipping the Post-Boom and others - including mine). Each student will choose one author to introduce one book of hers to the rest of the group. Each participation must be like a book review - explain what´s the book about, describe the way it's written introduce characters, plot, etc.

Since 2017, at least one woman-author from Latin America has been short- or long- listed for the Booker International Prize. In 2017, Samantha Schweblin (, Fever Dream) made it to the shortlist. In 2018, Ariana Harwicz (Argentina, Die, My love, longlist). In 2019, Alia Trabucco Zerán (, The Remainder, shortlist), and again Schweblin (Mouthful of Birds, longlist). In 2020, Schweblin´s novel Little Eyes was longlisted in a year in which two made it to the final round, the terrific Fernanda Melchor (Mexico, Hurricane Season), and also the exceptional Gabriela Cabezón Cámara (Argentina, The Adventures of China Iron). Others, such as Guadalupe Nettel (Mexico), besides being excellent writers, are also first-class editors. Others, like Veronica Gerber (Mexico) are also artists. Argentinian Mariana Enríquez, Chilean Alejandra Costamagna, Uruguayan Josefina Licitra, Ecuadorians Mónica Ojeda and Fernanda Ampuero, Bolivian Giovanna Rivero, Argentinian Selva Almada: each has a strong, unique literary personality, each of them is powerful and original. The Mexican- American Valeria Luiselli, writes in English as well as Spanish, and is one of the major stars of the generation. Others: Laia Jufresa, Lilian Abenshushan and Gabriela Jáuregui, María José Caro and Claudia Ulloa Donoso, Argentinians Lola Copacabana and Luciana Souza, Bolivian Liliana Colanzi.

15th and last session: May 13 Wrap session.

By this day, we will have achieved: a) Appreciation of the , arts, history and geography. b) An understanding of the Latin America specific historical context of the BOOM phenomena. c) Better understanding of the meaningful natures of Fiction and Poetry.

What extra? We´ll adopt the song Sh'BOOM as our course official song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6LaAUGAu4U