1.
Introduction to the course
Close reading practice
A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver
The Crafty Reader by Robert Scholes 2.
Poetry in Translation
Why Translation Matters? By Edith Grossman 3
Poetry in Hispanic America
The Bow and the Lyre by Octavio Paz 4
Modernism x Modernism in Latin America
Tradición de la ruptura (Tradition Against Itself) by Octavio Paz
Rubén Darío
José Martí
César Vallejo 5
Avant-garde / Vanguardia
Poetic Manifests
Paris as the capital of Hispanic poets
Vanguardias hispanoamericanas – ultraísmo, creacionismo, estridentismo 6
Chile
Vicente Huidobro
Pablo Neruda
Gabriela Mistral
Enrique Lihn
Violeta Parra
Nicanor Parra 7
Antipoetry and Nicanor Parra / Postmodernism
What is antipoetry?
Visual artefacts, eco poems 8
Women in hispanic poetry / Feminist poetry
Alejandra Pizarnik
Alfonsina Storni
Delmira Agustini 9
Mexico
José Emilio Pacheco
Octavio Paz
Jaime Sabines
Rosario Castellanos 10
Cuba
José Martí – Dos Patrias, Nuestra América
Afro-Cuban poetry
Nicolas Guillén 11
Social poetry
How poetry can become political / Social poetry across Latin America
C.A.D.A. in Chile (Raúl Zurita) 12
Contemporary hispanic poetry
Contemporary Hispanic Poets: Cultural Production in the Global, Digital Age by John Burns
Latino authors across Americas / Insta poetry/ Poetry readings / What is poetry in 2021?
In this course, we will spend the semester close-reading a wide range of poems from various very well-known poets to less known ones from across Spanish-speaking Latin America. We will first look into what translation of poetry means and how important it is as all the poems will be read in English translations from Spanish.
We will cover roughly the whole 20th century. Most importantly, the course will emphasize the pleasure of reading poems and talking about them.
At the end of the course, students will have a better knowledge of Hispanic poetry which is often overlooked in our Central European discourse. They will also understand the basic development of literary and poetic genres in Latin America and their connection to Europe.
Speaking Spanish is not a requirement for this course as its goal is to make the great poets of Latin America more approachable to a wider audience. English is required.