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This course lays the foundation for understanding the literary, cultural, and historical influences behind the work of what has come to be known as the “Latin American Boom” that culminated in Latin America’s premier writer and inventor of “magical realism,” Gabriel García Márquez. Students investigate the literary and cultural antecedents to García Márquez’s texts, including works by Federico García Lorca (Spain), Isabel Allende (Chile), Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina), Juan Rulfo (Mexico), and others. Students will also investigate the relationship between magical realism and the historico-political rhetorics against which Marquez was writing, including but not limited to the role of the United Fruit Company, Simón Bolívar and his aspirations for a “Gran Colombia,” and the corruption and politics associated with so-called Banana Republicanism. Students also analyze and discuss a wide range of cultural artifacts, study a variety of writing models, and practice both individual and collaborative research, writing, and presentation.

This course lays the foundation for understanding the literary, cultural, and historical influences behind the work of what has come to be known as the “Latin American Boom” that culminated in Latin America’s premier writer and inventor of “magical realism,” Gabriel García Márquez. Students investigate the literary and cultural antecedents to García Márquez’s texts, including works by Federico García Lorca (Spain), Isabel Allende (Chile), Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina), Juan Rulfo (Mexico), and others. Students will also investigate the relationship between magical realism and the historico-political rhetorics against which Marquez was writing, including but not limited to the role of the United Fruit Company, Simón Bolívar and his aspirations for a “Gran Colombia,” and the corruption and politics associated with so-called Banana Republicanism. Students also analyze and discuss a wide range of cultural artifacts, study a variety of writing models, and practice both individual and collaborative research, writing, and presentation.