Latin American Short Story

The Latin American short story is one of the most interesting and varied literary manifestations of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This program situates key representatives of the Latin American short story in their literary, historical and cultural contexts. All program activities, including readings, lectures, seminars, films and writing assignments, will be conducted entirely in Spanish. Students should have substantial prior experience with the language.

We will read 50-150 pages per week in Spanish, including works by Jorge Luis Borges of Argentina, Juan Rulfo of Mexico, Alejo Carpentier of Cuba, Marta Brunet of Chile, Gabriel García Márquez of Colombia, Julio Cortázar of Argentina, Cristina Peri Rossi of Uruguay, Sergio Ramírez of Nicaragua, José Luis González of Puerto Rico, and Clarice Lispector of Brazil (in Spanish translation), among others. We also will explore recent variations on the genre, including politically oriented microcuentos and recent versions of the crónica urbana.

A typical week will include lecture, two seminars, one film session and a writing workshop with advanced grammar review. Students will write four interpretive essays on literary texts. Each student will also choose a topic to explore as a final project, which will culminate in a longer essay and an oral presentation during the last week of the program.