latin american history through film
duke university
hst 104.02, spring 1999
tu/ th, 2.15–3.30, carr 136
su, 8-10, carr 103 (screenings)
http://www.duke.edu/~mahealey/film99.htmlmark alan healey
off. hrs: tu, 1-2, trinity café
(919) 929 7372 (h)
mahealey@acpub.duke.edu
readings:The following required texts are available at the Duke Bookstore. Several of these can be purchased more cheaply at the Book Exchange, a used bookstore in downtown Durham (tel 682 4662).
Alicia DUJOVNE ORTIZ, Eva Perón (Saint Martin's Press)
John KING, Magical Reels: A History of Cinema in Latin America (Verso)
Rigoberta MENCHU, I, Rigoberta Menchu (Verso or Routledge)
John REED, Insurgent Mexico (International Publishers Company or Viking Penguin)
Thomas SKIDMORE and Peter SMITH, Modern Latin America (Oxford)
Robert STAM, Tropical Multiculturalism: A Comparative History of Race in Brazilian Cinema
& Culture (Duke University Press)All the films we will be seeing in the course will be on reserve at Lilly Library. Photocopied reserve readings for this class are also available at Lilly, or can be downloaded off the web from the class page above or from http://devil.lib.duke.edu/.
course requirements:Although this is a lecture course, it is essential for you to do ALL the reading before each class and come prepared to participate. Lectures will incorporate discussion, and there will also often be in-class group exercises, all of which will factor into your participation grade. The basis of your participation grade, however, is simple: attendance. I will take attendance: for each three absences, your participation grade will be lowered by a full letter grade. Participation will account for 20% of your final grade.
During the semester you will give one presentation to the class. The presentation may be individual or group, and may be, for instance, a detailed analysis of a film or issue we have covered in passing in class. The presentation should be between twenty and thirty minutes long; you will clear your topic and principal sources with me at least a week before presenting. Possible topics will be discussed in class. Presentations will make up 20% of your final grade.
The class will be divided into four groups (A, B, C, D). Each week, the members of one group will write a reaction paper on the readings (2-3 pages). These papers will be due in my mailbox (or, preferably, in my email inbox) by 5 pm on Monday. You will receive a letter grade on each of the three reaction papers; they will account for 30% of your final grade.
Lastly, there will be a take-home final exam, consisting of essay questions on the larger themes presented in the course. This exam will ask you to draw on reading, discussion and reflection to address major issues of the course, and will be worth 30% of your grade. While you will be rewarded for specificity and clarity in your essays, the objective of this exam -and of the course overall- is not to memorize particular facts or details, but to develop an overall framework for thinking about film and Latin American history.
14 Jan Introduction
17 Jan How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman (Nelson Pereira dos Santos, Brazil, 1971)
19 Jan The Place of Latin America: Conquest, Struggle, Identity
Thomas SKIDMORE and Peter SMITH, Modern Latin America, 3-13
21 Jan The Colonial Order
Thomas SKIDMORE and Peter SMITH, Modern Latin America, 14-26
Susan KELLOGG, "Hegemony Out of Conquest: The First Two Centuries
of Spanish Rule in Mexico"
Robert STAM, Tropical Multiculturalism, 1-5824 Jan The Mission (Roland Joffé, U.S., 1986)
26 Jan Struggles for Belief
A Reaction
James Schofield SAEGER, "The Mission and Historical Missions"
28 Jan Failed Reforms, A Difficult Independence
Thomas SKIDMORE and Peter SMITH, Modern Latin America, 27-3731 Jan Camila (María Luisa Bemberg, Argentina, 1984)
2 Feb New Nations
B Reaction
Thomas SKIDMORE and Peter SMITH, Modern Latin America, 37-42, 68-71
Donald STEVENS, "Passion and Patriarchy in Nineteenth-Century Argentina"
4 Feb Worlds of Liberalism7 Feb The Other Francisco (Sergio Giral, Cuba, 1975)
9 Feb Freedom and Slavery
C Reaction
Thomas SKIDMORE and Peter SMITH, Modern Latin America, 283-290
John MRAZ, "Recasting Cuban Slavery: The Other Francisco and the Last Supper"
11 Feb An Illusory Prosperity?
Thomas SKIDMORE and Peter SMITH, Modern Latin America, 43-62Part II: Myths of National Integration, 1910-1960
14 Feb El compadre Mendoza (Fernando de Fuentes, Mexico, 1933)
16 Feb The Mexican Revolution
D Reaction
John KING, Magical Reels, 6-29
John REED, Insurgent Mexico, TBA
John MRAZ, "How Real is Reel? Fernando de Fuentes' Revolutionary Trilogy"
Margarita de ORELLANA, "The Circular Look: The Incursion of North American Fictional
Cinema into the Mexican Revolution"
18 Feb The Mexican Revolution II
John REED, Insurgent Mexico, TBA21 Feb María Candelaria (Emilio Fernández, Mexico, 1943)
23 Feb A National Culture?
A Reaction
Charles RAMIREZ BERG, "The Cinematic Invention of Mexico"
Ana LOPEZ, "Tears and Desire: Women and Melodrama in the 'Old' Mexican Cinema"
Carlos MONSIVAIS, "Mythologies"
Carlos MONSIVAIS, "All The People Came and They Did Not Fit On The Screen"
25 Feb Hollywood South of the Rio Grande
Seth FEIN, "Hollywood, US-Mexican Relations, and the Devolution of the "Golden Age" of
Mexican Cinema"
John KING, Magical Reels, 31-6328 Feb no film
2 Mar The Rise of Juan and Evita Perón
B Reaction
Alicia DUJOVNE ORTIZ, Eva Perón, 1-129
4 Mar The People in Power?
Alicia DUJOVNE ORTIZ, Eva Perón, 130-2817 Mar Bananas Is My Business (Helena Solberg, Brazil, 1994)
9 Mar "Good Neighbors," Distant Relations
C Reaction
Thomas SKIDMORE and Peter SMITH, Modern Latin America, 153-170
Robert STAM, Tropical Multiculturalism, 79-132
11 Mar Visions of the People: Populism and Culture
Thomas SKIDMORE and Peter SMITH, Modern Latin America, 171-178
Robert STAM, Tropical Multiculturalism, 133-232Spring Break
Part III: Utopias and Disenchantments, 1960-2000
21 Mar Memories of Underdevelopment (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Cuba, 1968)
23 Mar The Cuban Revolution
D Reaction
Julio García ESPINOSA, "For an Imperfect Cinema"
Thomas SKIDMORE and Peter SMITH, Modern Latin America, 254-273
25 Mar The Revolutionary Alternative
Thomas SKIDMORE and Peter SMITH, Modern Latin America, 274-282, 365-37228 Mar Land In Anguish (Glauber Rocha, Brazil, 1967)
30 Mar Re-Discovering the People
A Reaction
John KING, Magical Reels, 64-77
Thomas SKIDMORE and Peter SMITH, Modern Latin America, 179-184
1 Apr The Collapse of Populism
Robert STAM, Tropical Multiculturalism, 233-256
Glauber ROCHA, "An Esthetic of Hunger"
Carlos DIEGUES, "Cinema Novo"4 Apr The Battle For Chile (Patricio Guzmán, Chile/ Canada, 1973-1978)
6 Apr Roads to Revolution
B Reaction
Thomas SKIDMORE and Peter SMITH, Modern Latin America, 112-140
Fernando SOLANAS and Octavio GETINO, "Towards a Third Cinema"
8 Apr
Thomas SKIDMORE and Peter SMITH, Modern Latin America, 140-14311 Apr A Funny, Dirty Little War (Héctor Olivera, Argentina, 1984)
13 Apr Legacies of Peronism
C Reaction
Thomas SKIDMORE and Peter SMITH, Modern Latin America, 91-103
Alicia DUJOVNE ORTIZ, Eva Perón, 282-303
15 Apr Repression and Dictatorship
Thomas SKIDMORE and Peter SMITH, Modern Latin America, 103-11218 Apr Men With Guns (John Sayles, U.S./ Mexico, 1997)
20 Apr Democracy in Guatemala, and After
D Reaction
Thomas SKIDMORE and Peter SMITH, Modern Latin America, 308-320, 337-343
Rigoberta MENCHU, I, Rigoberta Menchu, 1-140
22 Apr Resistance and Hope
Rigoberta MENCHU, I, Rigoberta Menchu, 141-247
David STOLL, "Life Story as Mythopoesis"
Greg GRANDIN, "She Said He Said"25 Apr Obstinate Memory (Patricio Guzmán, Chile/ Canada, 1998)
27 Apr Powers of Memory6 May Take-home final exam due in my mailbox or email, 5 pm.