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Introduction
Class Times and Location:
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Cleveland State University |
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Description of the Course: This course examines the history of postcolonial Latin America from independence to the present. The course will focus on the recent literature that explore topics related to the emergence of new nations, constructions of citizenship, gender views on the nation, and the role elites played in shaping the discourse of nation-building. The course will be conducted in lecture/seminar form. Chronological Coverage: This course examines the evolution of Latin American civilization from the winning of political independence in the 1820s to the present. As is true with any type of historical periodization, this division is artificial in as much as it rests solely on a narrow definition derived from political criteria and it ignores some Latin American colonies such as Cuba and Puerto Rico which continued after 1820 in their previous colonial statuses. It is, however, the most common and useful periodization. The materials to be covered, therefore, must be very selective in nature. Everything cannot be covered--it never can, what is past is past and impossible to recover in the completeness it was experienced. I will emphasize, as much as possible, the socio-economic and cultural aspects of post-colonial Latin America in the belief that these have been the enduring facets of Latin American civilization. This semester's course will concentrate on the causes and impact of the Wars of Independence, the struggle of nation formation, issues of race, and the role of subaltern sectors in the process of identity formation. The lectures will follow both chronological and topical paths.
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