OVERVIEW.
The selections in this unit offer students the potential to consider religious, generational, and cultural conflicts, as well as the effects of modernization, political struggle, and other themes common to many literary works. Many works in the unit feature magical realism. Students should recognize that not all literary works make explicit political or cultural statements and that they must be approached on their own terms. In order to enrich their understanding, students investigate the historical background for selected works, as well as author biographies.
The selections in this unit offer students the potential to consider religious, generational, and cultural conflicts, as well as the effects of modernization, political struggle, and other themes common to many literary works. Many works in the unit feature magical realism. Students should recognize that not all literary works make explicit political or cultural statements and that they must be approached on their own terms. In order to enrich their understanding, students investigate the historical background for selected works, as well as author biographies.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION.
Read Gabriel Garcia Márquez's Nobel Prize acceptance speech, "The Solitude of Latin America." How is solitude a metaphor? Is it a fitting metaphor? Why or why not?
Read Gabriel Garcia Márquez's Nobel Prize acceptance speech, "The Solitude of Latin America." How is solitude a metaphor? Is it a fitting metaphor? Why or why not?
FOCUS STANDARDS.
- RL.9-10.1: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
- RL.9-10.6: Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature.
- RI.9-10.5: Analyze in detail how an author's ideas or claims are developed and refined by particular sentences, paragraphs, or larger portions of a text (e.g., a section or chapter.)
- RI.9-10.8: Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning.
- W.9-10.4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
- W.9-10.5: Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.
OBJECTIVES
- Explore the role of the magical and fantastic in Latin American literature.
- Explore narrative forms and techniques in Latin American literature.
- Consider how magical realism helps the reader gain a deeper understanding of reality.
- Consider what Gabriel Garcia Márquez means by "solitude" in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, particularly as a distinguishing metaphor for the Latin American experience.
Presencia de América Latina, Jorge González Camarena (1965)
LITERARY TEXTS
Novels
Chile
Online Sources |
Episodes of the Conquest: Massacre of Cholula, Félix Parra (1877)
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INFORMATIOMAL TEXTS
- Hart, Stephen M. “Magical Realism in the Americas: Politicized Ghosts in One Hundred Years of Solitude, The House of the Spirits, and Beloved.” Journal of Iberian & Latin American Studies, vol. 9, no. 2, Dec. 2003, pp. 115–123.
- Isip, J. D. “History and Memory in Almanac of the Dead and One Hundred Years of Solitude.” Atenea, vol. 31, no. 1/2, Jan. 2011, pp. 133–143.
- "The Solitude of Latin America," Gabriel Garcia Márquez, Nobel Lecture (8 Dec 1982)
IMAGE GALLERY
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Click on images to enlarge them.
LINDA LUCIA SANTANA (Mexico)
Santana's work responds to the fading memory of Mexican narrative ballads, called corridos. Inspired by Magical Realism, she accompanies corridos with fictious portraits of their subjects, most of which were never photographed. In her work, Santana plays the role of artist, archivist, and corridista, activating lost histories, living memories, and the imaginative space in between. |
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GUILLERMO DEL TORO (Mexico)
Guillermo del Toro is a Mexican film director, screenwriter, producer, and novelist. In his filmmaking career, del Toro has alternated between Spanish-language dark fantasy pieces, such as the gothic horror film The Devil's Backbone (2001) and Pan's Labyrinth (2006), and more mainstream American action movies, such as the vampire superhero action film Blade II (2002), the supernatural hero film Hellboy (2004), its sequel Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008), the science fiction monster film Pacific Rim (2013), and the gothic romance film Crimson Peak (2015). |
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