Seminar SPAN 5320-7320 El “fenómeno Bolaño”: the manufacture of an author, world markets, and world literatures. Prof. Leila Gómez Tuesdays 3:30-6:00 McKenna 103 Office Hours: Tuesdays 11:00-2:00 [email protected] Tel: 303 492 1952

https://ep01.epimg.net/cultura/imagenes/2016/11/02/actualidad/1478113470_217266_1478114131_noticia_normal.jpg

In this seminar, we will read short stories, novels, poetry and essays by Roberto Bolaño, exploring in them the topics related to the position of the writer in national and international literary markets. We will study the author's displacements between metropolitan and marginal literary systems and circuits, the translation of his work and the reception of it outside the Spanish Language, and the questions that arise in the definitions of world literatures and the globalization of cultural objects.

The goal beyond the analysis of a specific author (Roberto Bolaño) is to discuss the role of Latin American literary studies within the framework of “world literature,”—that is, how to read, write, and study literature from and about Latin America while considering the questions and debates about what the American academy has called “world literature” for several decades. In the words of Claudio Guillén, any literary work belongs to “world literature” “whenever or wherever it is actively present within a literary system beyond that of its original culture.” It suffices to call to mind writers such as the Argentine Jorge Luis Borges, the Colombian Gabriel García Márquez, and the Chilean Roberto Bolaño, who are known worldwide thanks to systems of distribution and consumption outside their national literary markets.

Since the beginnings of Hispanism as a discipline in American universities at the end of the nineteenth century, and after that with the Latin American “boom”, Latin American literature has been the subject of reflection outside its context of production and has adjusted to local interpretative frameworks by undergoing translation and other processes of dislocation. At present in the United States and Europe, Latin American literary studies go through re-articulations in programs and departments of foreign languages and literatures, at both institutional and curricular levels, where Latin American literature is taught in translation. As a result, important questions arise about the future of these re-articulations.

Some of the questions that will guide the debate are: How can we read and study Latin American literature in the tension between specialized knowledge of the culture of origin and foreign interpretative frameworks? If the literary works that enter a system of interpretation in another language are always reframed in their translation and their new cultural contexts, how do we understand these recontextualizations? How do we think of works and authors as not only the heirs of a tradition but also as navigators of multiple transmission and reception networks, dialoguing in diverse ways with works from other cultures? How do we expand the methodology of comparative literature and consider the problems of local translation / transculturation, the linguistic imperialism of languages like English, transnational humanism, and the decentralization of national markets? How can we approach minor literatures and writers who simultaneously belong to various cultures or different diasporas? What kind of de-centralization do studies of the global south bring to the discussion about world literature? What are the new meanings that the theories of transculturation and hybridity (Rama, Canclini, etc.) acquire in the discussion of world literature?

Methodology: 1. Students’ class presentation: Students will prepare one class on any topic or reading of this seminar, and give a mock class for an advance undergraduate course. Duration: 40 minutes. Class must include goals, a detailed and organized plan, one activity for students, and Q&A. Power point presentations and supporting material are strongly recommended. The goal of this assignment is to develop teaching skills on literary topics. 2. Questions for discussion: Each class, 2 students will be assigned to answer two different questions (one question each student). Professor will write the questions and post them on D2L in advance. Answers should be at least one double-spaced page length, and brought to class (hard copies for classmates and professor). The goal of this assignment is to promote further analysis and group discussion. 3. Students’ paper presentation: at the end of the seminar, students will write and read a paper as if in a conference presentation. Duration: 20 minutes, a maximum of 8 double- spaced pages, followed by Q&A by professor and classmates. Feedback from professor and classmates is important to turn papers into articles for publication, which is highly recommended although optional in this seminar. The goal of this assignment is to prepare students for conference and job talks. Attendance is mandatory *************************************************************************

Calendario de lecturas y discusión 16 de enero. Los poetas, la literatura “Dentista”, “Enrique Martín”, “Henri Simon Leprince”, “Una aventura literaria”, “Vida de Anne Moore”, “Literatura + enfermedad = enfermedad” 23 de enero. Los poetas, la literatura “Sevilla me mata”. Los detectives salvajes (primera parte) Texto teórico: Sarah Pollack “Latin America Translated (Again): Roberto Bolaño’s The Savage Detectives in the United States” 30 de enero. Los poetas, la literatura Los detectives salvajes (segunda mitad) Texto teórico: Pascal Casanova, The World Republic of Letters (selección) 6 de febrero: El exilio “Literatura y exilio”, “Fragmentos de un regreso al país natal”, “Detectives”, “El ojo Silva”, “Sensini” Texto teórico: Edward Said, Reflections on Exile 13 de febrero: El exilio Estrella distante Texto teórico: David Damrosch, What is World Literature? (selección) 20 de febrero: México Amuleto Texto teórico: Jorge Luis Borges, “Kafka y sus precursores”, “El escritor argentino y la tradición” 27 de febrero: Clase-Presentación de los estudiantes 6 de marzo: Clase-Presentación de los estudiantes México: selección de La universidad desconocida 13 de marzo México 2666 (La parte de los crímenes) Texto teórico: Emily Apter, Against World Literature (Selección) 3 de abril México 2666 (La parte de los crímenes) Texto teórico: Deleuze, Minor Literatures 10 de abril. Europa Una novelita lumpen. Poesía (selección de La universidad desconocida) Sylvia Molloy, “Latin America in the U.S Imaginary: Postcolonialism, Translation, and the Magic Realist Imperative” 17 de abril. Europa y Latinoamérica La pista de hielo. Teng Wei, “On Depoliticized Politics: Roberto Bolaño’s Reception in China” 24 de abril. Europa y Latinoamérica, la literatura La literatura nazi en América. “Discurso de Caracas”. “Conversación entre Ricardo Piglia y Bolaño” Néstor García Canclini, Imagined Globalization (selección) 1 de mayo. Presentación-conferencia de los estudiantes