SPANSH 141: The Novel after the End of the Novel (Argentina, 1925-2024)

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SPANISH 141 

The Novel after the End of the Novel (Argentina, 1925-2024)

Mondays, 9.45-11.45

Prof. Mariano Siskind (siskind@fas.harvard.edu)

Office hours: By appointment 

Section schedule: TBD

TAs Office hours: TBD

As a literary event, as a narrative artifact bent on capturing the totality of the real, the novel has been at war with its form, its social function, and its reading publics, at least since it emerged as a global, privileged narrative genre. These historical conditions were always particularly intense in the peripheries of the world. In Latin America, the novel was born as a battlefield where writers disputed the meaning of what it meant to be modern (what kind of novels do we need to write to inscribe ourselves in the transnational literary world of modernity where novels rule?). For them, the novel as a cultural monument revered globally was a thing of the past; they felt the need to reinvent it in order to account for their own time and marginal geopolitical situation. This course will interrogate how Argentine writers addressed these cultural dilemmas since the 1920s and, in the process, produced some of the region’s most remarkable experimental novels, non-novels, and anti-novels, as well as insightful reflections on the cultural potential and blindspots of literature as a social institution.

• Language of instruction: English. All readings are available in Spanish and in English translation.
• The course will have separate undergraduate and graduate sections.
• Undergraduate students taking the course for citation/secondary/concentration credit will do a section in Spanish and will write the midterm and final exam in Spanish

 Evaluation

Class participation (20%); an in-class midterm exam (40%), and a final take-home exam (8 pages, 40%). The topics and questions for the final take-home exam will be sent immediately after the last class, and students will have five days to complete and upload their documents. Please, notice the importance of class participation in this course: students need to ask and answer questions, contribute interpretations, and demonstrate their familiarity with each week’s readings. More than two unjustified absences will affect the class participation grade.

Language

The course will be taught in English, but we’ll have a flexible language policy. Students can choose to read texts in Spanish or in English translation (or in any other translation). 

Books and readings

You can choose to read the texts in English or in Spanish.

There are several editions of most of these books; we don’t have a preference.

The following books are available in Harvard Bookstore, The COOP, Amazon.com (new and used), and most online bookstores. All other readings will be posted as PDFs on the course’s website:

• Macedonio Fernández, Museo de la novela de la Eterna / The Museum of Eterna's Novel
• Jorge Luis Borges, Historia universal de la infamia / A Universal History of Infamy.
• Julio Cortázar, Rayuela / Hopscotch
• Manuel Puig, La traición de Rita Hayworth / Betrayed by Rita Hayworth
• Juan José Saer, El limonero real / The Regal Lemon Tree 
• César Aira, Cómo me hice monja / How I Became a Nun
• Selva Almada, Chicas muertas / Dead girls

Contents

Week 1 (9/9) – Introduction. A few hypotheses about the end of history and theories of the novel in the modernist peripheries of the world.

Week 2 (9/16) – Towards a theory of the novel in the margins of global modernity. Course pack with texts by: Hegel, Marx, Lukacs, Bakhtin, Auerbach, Borges, Jameson, Moretti, Piglia, Rama, Kohan, Premat, Laera, Kamenszain.

Week 3 (9/23) – Macedonio Fernández, Museo de la novela de la Eterna / The Museum of Eterna's Novel

Week 4 (9/30) – Jorge Luis Borges, “El acercamiento a Almotásim” (The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim), “Pierre Menard, Autor del Quijote” (Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote), “El jardín de los senderos que se bifurcan” (The Garden of Forking Paths), “El arte narrativo y la magia” (Narrative art and magic), “Nota sobre (hacia) Bernard Shaw” (A Note on (toward) Bernard Shaw).

And: Jorge Luis Borges, Historia universal de la infamia / A Universal History of Infamy.

Week 5 (10/7) - Silvina Ocampo, El impostor / The Impostor (plus additional materials)

Week 6 (10/14) - Holiday, no class

Week 7 (10/21) – Julio Cortázar, Rayuela / Hopscotch

Week 8 (11/4) – Manuel Puig, La traición de Rita Hayworth / Betrayed by Rita Hayworth

Week 9 (11/11) – Juan José Saer, El limonero real / The Regal Lemon Tree 

Week 10 (11/18) – IN CLASS MIDTERM 

Week 11 (11/25) – César Aira, Cómo me hice monja / How I Became a Nun

Week 12 (12/2) – Selva Almada, Chicas muertas / Dead girls

FINAL TAKE-HOME: 12/2 - 12/9 (send over email or upload by 12pm on Monday 12/9)

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Collaboration Policy Statement

Discussion and the exchange of ideas are essential to academic work. For assignments in this course, you are encouraged to consult with your classmates on the choice of paper topics and to share sources. You may find it useful to discuss your chosen topic with your peers, particularly if you are working on the same topic as a classmate. Furthermore, you may work with the RLL Tutoring Center to work on your Spanish language skills. However, you should ensure that any written work you submit for evaluation is the result of your own research and writing and that it reflects your own approach to the topic. You must also adhere to standard citation practices in this discipline and properly cite any books, articles, websites, lectures, etc. that have helped you with your work. If you received any help with your writing (feedback on drafts, etc) or if you used generative AI to produce any assignments, you must also acknowledge this.