SPAN 657 The New Latin American Historical Novel
The revisitation of Latin American history has become a concern of many Latin American writers. However, their way of fictionalizing history is different from the traditional historical novel in which authors did not deviate from the official or even alternative accounts of history. Characters and historical events are recast in a manner that distorts history by using disturbing and unexpected omissions, deletions and anachronisms, and obliterates the borders between facts and fiction. They are essentially parodic discourses intending to subvert hegemonic versions of history, and recreate playfully as well as seriously important historical figures, such as Christopher Columbus, Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Simón Bolívar, and Fray Cervando de Mier. Some of the novels that will be included in this course are El general en su laberinto by Gabriel García Márquez, Los perros del paraíso by Abel Posse, La campaña by Carlos Fuentes, and La fiesta del Chivo by Mario Vargas Llosa.