Spanish and Portuguese 495
Seminar for Majors and Minors: Octavio Paz
Maarten van Delden Spring 2008
Email: H 2-4:50 pm
Office hours: TH 1-2 pm, or by appointment Room: THH B 9
Office: THH 156NTel: (213) 821-2201
Course description
The Mexican poet and essayist Octavio Paz (1914-1998), winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize in Literature, was almost certainly the most important figure in twentieth-century Mexican culture. His poetry is widely regarded as among the culminating achievements of Latin American literature. In his essays, Paz covered an astonishingly wide range of topics, leaving his mark on key debates on Mexican history and identity, on democracy, socialism, and capitalism, and on poetry, aesthetics, and the visual arts, to name but a few of his interests. As a public intellectual, Paz was an enormously influential—and often controversial—participant in the political life of his country. In this course, we will study individual works by Paz with an eye to situating them in the context of the overall trajectory of his career, and in relation to major debates taking place, in Mexico and elsewhere, in the areas of literature, culture, and politics. We will read prose works such as El laberinto de la soledad (1950), Posdata (1970), Los hijos del limo (1974), Tiempo nublado (1986) and Itinerario (1993), as well as poems from Libertad bajo palabra (1949) and Vuelta (1976). We will also familiarize ourselves with some of the most significant criticisms that were leveled at his work.
The course will be conducted as a seminar. The instructor will occasionally lecture on essential historical background, and will propose reading strategies with which to approach the assigned readings. However, emphasis will be on student participation in classroom discussions.
Course taught in Spanish. Prerequisite: advanced knowledge of Spanish.
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Course Requirements and Grades
–Participation in the seminar (20% of final grade). This part of the grade will be based on: 1) the student’s performance as discussion leader on one occasion during the semester; and 2) the student’s overall contribution to classroom discussions.
–Two five-page papers on topics assigned by the instructor (40% of final grade)
–One research paper on a topic selected by the student, in consultation with the instructor. The recommended length for the paper is 10-12 pages (40% of final grade).
Essays should present a strong argument in clear prose. References to secondary sources are not required for the short papers. The research paper should be based on both primary and secondary sources and should offer either a more in-depth examination of a topic studied in the course of the semester or an examination of a topic not covered in the seminar though related to the subject of the course.
Readings
The following books will need to be purchased by the students in the class:
Octavio Paz,Corriente alterna (Siglo XXI, 1967) (ISBN: 9682316332)
------, Los hijos del limo (Seix Barral, 1974) (ISBN: 8432230413)
------, Itinerario (Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1993) (ISBN: 9681642392)
------,El laberinto de la soledad (Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1959) (ISBN: 9681659708)
------,Libertad bajo palabra (Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1958) (ISBN: 9788437607757)
------, Vuelta (Seix Barral, 1976) (ISBN: 8432202991)
The following texts will be available in a course reader (complete bibliographical information provided in course reader’s table of contents):
By Octavio Paz:
“México y Estados Unidos: posiciones y contraposiciones”
“La democracia imperial”
“El espejo indiscreto”
“La mesa y el lecho”
“América Latina y la democracia”
“La tradición liberal”
“Poesía de soledad y poesía de comunión”
“Poesía, mito, revolución”
“La otra voz”
“La revelación poética”
El mono gramático, pp. 7-87
Vislumbres de la India, pp. 5-43, 87-158
“Tamayo en la pintura mexicana”
“Re/visiones: la pintura mural”
“Transfiguraciones”
By other authors:
Roger Bartra, La jaula de la melancolía (selections)
Carlos Blanco Aguinaga, “El laberinto fabricado por Octavio Paz”
Javier Durán, “Border Crossings: Images of the Pachuco in Mexican Literature”
Néstor García Canclini, “De Paz a Borges: comportamientos ante el televisor”
Yvon Grenier,“El liberalismo escéptico de Octavio Paz: una mirada a la modernidad política,”
Maarten van Delden, “¿Dentro o fuera de la historia? El pensamiento de Octavio Paz en torno a México y los Estados Unidos”
Class sessions
January 17: Introduction to the course
January 24: An Ethnology of the Mexican Character
El laberinto de la soledad, Chapters I-IV
January 31: The Mask and the Fiesta: From Independence to Revolution
El laberinto de la soledad, Chapters V-VIII and “Apéndice”
February 7: The Archaeology of a Massacre
Postdata, pp. 233-318 in El laberinto de la soledad
February 14:On Mexico and the United States
“México y Estados Unidos: posiciones y contraposiciones”
“La democracia imperial”
“El espejo indiscreto”
“La mesa y el lecho”
Maarten van Delden, “¿Dentro o fuera de la historia? El pensamiento de Octavio Paz en torno a México y los Estados Unidos”
February 21: On Democracy and Socialism
Itinerario
“América Latina y la democracia”
“La tradición liberal”
Yvon Grenier, “El liberalismo escéptico de Octavio Paz: una mirada a la modernidad política,”
FIRST PAPER DUE
February 28: Critical Voices
Essays by Carlos Blanco Aguinaga, Roger Bartra, Javier Durán, and Néstor García Canclini.
March 6: What is Poetry?
“Poesía de soledad y poesía de comunión”
“Poesía, mito, revolución”
“La otra voz”
“La revelación poética”
March 13:Poetry and Modernity
Los hijos del limo
March 17-21 SPRING BREAK
March 27: Reading Paz’s Poetry, I
Poems from Libertad bajo palabra
April 3:Reading Paz’s Poetry, II
Poems from Vuelta
April 10: The Countercultural Moment
Corriente alterna
SECOND PAPER DUE
April 17:Writings on the Orient
Selections from Vislumbres de la India and El mono gramático
April 24: Reflections on Mexican Painting
“Tamayo en la pintura mexicana”
“Re/visiones: la pintura mural”
“Transfiguraciones”
May 1: Oral presentations of student research projects
FINAL PAPER DUE: TBA
Statement for Students with Disabilities
Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure the letter is delivered to me as early in the semester as possible. DSP is located in STU 301 and is open 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The phone number for DSP is (213) 740-0776.
Statement on Academic Integrity
USC seeks to maintain an optimal learning environment. General principles of academic honesty include the concept of respect for the intellectual property of others, the expectation that individual work will be submitted unless otherwise allowed by an instructor, and the obligations both to protect one’s own academic work from misuse by others as well as to avoid using another’s work as one’s own. All students are expected to understand and abide by these principles. Scampus, the Student guidebook, contains the Student Conduct Code in Section 11.00, while the recommended sanctions are located in Appendix A:
Students will be referred to the Office of Student Judicial Affairs and Community Standards for further review, should there be any suspicion of academic dishonesty. The Review process can be found at:
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