Prose Fiction and Non-Fiction of the Romance World
Speculative Fiction: Afrofuturism, Gothic Horror, and the Weird
In this course, students will study major works of speculative fiction from France, Argentina, Italy, Mexico, Dominican Republic (in English translation). The course starts with a French example of what has been dubbed “weird fiction”, namely Guy de Maupassant’s short story “The Horla” (1886) in which fact and fiction are difficult to distinguish. Students will then be introduced to Jorge Luis Borges’ reflections on infinity, non-linearity, and the labyrinth in his famous short stories “The Garden of Forking Paths” (1941) and “The Library of Babel” (1941). Turning to the fantastic/horror, we will read some fine examples from Mexico: the short story “Blame the Tlaxcaltecs” (Elena Garro) and Aura (Carlos Fuentes). The course will end with the Dominican Republic’s Rita Indiana and her dystopian/time travel/transhumanist novel Tentacle. Discussion of these masterpieces of speculative fiction will be informed by readings of non-fiction that deal with intertextuality, historiographic metafiction, psychoanalysis, and biopolitics. Language of instruction is English.
Language of instruction: English
Instructor: Dr. Ramón (Arturo) Antonio Victoriano-Martinez
Prerequisites: No prerequisites
Participation: 15 %
Discussions (Canvas): 15 %
In-Class Quizes (4): 20%
In-Class Written Assignments (2): 20%
Final Exam: 30%
Total: 100%
Coming soon!