Alberto Álvaro Ríos |
The following course listing is in three parts: a required reading list, a secondary reading list, and a song list.
One might assert different seminal texts, but the following form a good, working core aimed at trying to get to the heart of the style while examining its different aspects. The class begins by tracing some of the magical realism writers’ influences, particularly exploring Surrealism and other turn of the 20th century avant-garde movements and texts. Along with books, we also look to other potential influences, particularly music. The song list is similar to the secondary reading list: each student chooses and is in charge of one song, and everything that means. The course will also explore relevant popular culture.—AR |
Course Texts |
1. Primary Reading List
In this approximate order, the required reading list will include, but not be limited to the following titles:
Manifestoes of Surrealism, André Breton The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka Another Republic, ed. by Charles Simic and Mark Strand Magical Realist Fiction, ed. by David Young Labyrinths, Jorge Luis Borges Pedro Páramo, Juan Rulfo Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, Jorge Amado The Eye of the Heart, ed. by Barbara Howes The House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez Like Water for Chocolate, Laura Esquivel
We will use the following book throughout the semester as a general sociological reference tool: The Hispanic Way, Judith Noble & Jaime Lacasa.
2. Secondary Reading List
Students will be responsible for one of these books, to be determined in class:
Secret Weavers: Stories of the Fantastic by Latin American Women, ed. by Marjorie Agosín Mrs. Vargas and the Dead Naturalist, Kathleen Alcala *Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon, Jorge Amado Bless Me Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya The Road to Tamazunchale, Ron Arias Dom Casmurro, Machado de Assis The Psychiatrist, Machado de Assis El Señor Presidente, Miguel Ángel Asturias Men of Corn, Miguel Angel Asturias The War of Don Emmanuel’s Nether Parts, Louis de Bernières Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord, Louis de Bernières The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman, Louis de Bernières Neruda and Vallejo: Selected Poems, ed. Robert Bly Three Trapped Tigers, Guillermo Cabrera Infante The Kingdom of This World, Alejo Carpentier *The Lost Steps, Alejo Carpentier Reasons of State, Alejo Carpentier *So Far From God, Ana Castillo Short Stories by Latin American Women: The Magic and the Real, ed. Celia Correas de Zapata Cronopios y Famas, Julio Cortázar *Hopscotch, Julio Cortázar The Death of Artemio Cruz, Carlos Fuentes *Autumn of the Patriarch, Gabriel García Márquez *Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez *The Tin Drum, Gunter Grass The Rain God: A Desert Tale, Arturo Islas The Complete Stories and Parables, Franz Kafka The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera Beloved, Toni Morrison Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison Sula, Toni Morrison The Heights of Macchu Picchu, Pablo Neruda The Elemental Odes, Pablo Neruda The Milagro Beanfield War, John Nichols *The Labyrinth of Solitude, Octavio Paz Kiss of the Spider Woman, Manuel Puig Barren Lives, Graciliano Ramos Borges: A Reader, ed. Monegal and Reid *The Time of the Doves, Mercé Rodoreda My Christina and Other Stories, Mercé Rodoreda The Burning Plain and other stories, Juan Rulfo Open Door Stories, Luisa Valenzuela Other Weapons, Luisa Valenzuela Strange Things Happen Here, Luisa Valenzuela *The Green House, Mario Vargas Llosa
*Asterisked books are the first priority.
3. The Song Project: Musica/Canciones Clásicas
¡Azúcar y musica! Given the proclivity of these writers to mention music repeatedly in their lives, each student will be in charge of a well-known, generally Latin-American song. I have compiled a database so that each student will be able to hear 15-25 versions—at least—of the song chosen. We’ll discuss why this is important, what the student’s job regarding this song will be, and why another art form is important to understanding writing. These songs will have been written between about the turn of the century and the 1950s, the time during which the writers we’ll be reading would have grown up.
The point of listening to this music is that it helps us as writers in our grand experiment with rhythms, in our grasping of how words make something of themselves inside us, how they enter and stay but—at their best—keep moving, giving us that small, potential reactivity of invisible muscles flexing, these words, in evidence of the real ability thought has to position us as human beings alive in the universe.
The list of songs, generally in the tango, bolero (love ballad), flamenco, and folk traditions, will likely include but not be limited to:
A Media Luz (1924), tango Acércate Mas (1940), bolero Bésame Mucho (1941), bolero Adelita, trad. Mex. Rev. folksong (corrido) Adiós Mariquita Linda, bolero Amapola (1924), bolero Amor (1941), bolero Amor de mis Amores, bolero Andalucía, Spanish flamenco trad. Aquellos Ojos Verdes (1929), bolero Caminito (1926), tango Candilejas (1952), bolero Capullito de Alhelí (1930), bolero Cielito Lindo, trad. folksong Cómo Fue, bolero Corazón, Corazón, bolero Cucurrucucu Paloma, trad. folksong El Choclo (1933), tango El Manisero (1928), folksong El Reloj (1945), bolero Frenesí (1939), bolero Granada (1932), Spanish flamenco trad. La Cucaracha, trad. folksong La Cumparsita, tango La Paloma, bolero La Violetera (1923?), bolero Las Golondrinas, trad. folksong Las Mañanitas, trad. folksong Malagueña, Spanish flamenco bolero Maria Elena, bolero Noche de Ronda (1935), bolero Ojos Verdes, Spanish flamenco bolero Paloma Blanca, bolero Perfidia (1939), bolero Piel Canela (1953), bolero Quien Será, bolero Quiéreme Mucho (1931), bolero Quizás, Quizás, Quizás, bolero Ramona, bolero Sandunga, bolero Se Te Olvida (La Mentira), bolero Siboney, trad. folksong Sin Ti, bolero Solamente Una Vez (1941), bolero Somos Novios (1968), bolero Te Quiero, Dijiste (1944), bolero Volver, Volver, bolero |
Department of English, Box 870302, Arizona State University, Tempe AZ 85287-0302 aarios@asu.edu · 480-965-3800—office · 480-965-3168—department |
©2015, Alberto Ríos. Not for re-use without permission/attribution. |
©2015, Alberto Ríos. Not for re-use without permission/attribution. |