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Spanish American Literature to 20th Century

Code: 106352 ECTS Credits: 6
2025/2026
Degree Type Year
Spanish and Chinese Studies: Language, Literature and Culture OB 2
Spanish Language and Literature OB 3
English and Spanish Studies OT 3
English and Spanish Studies OT 4
Catalan and Spanish Studies OT 3
Catalan and Spanish Studies OT 4

Contact

Name:
Alba Saura Clares
Email:
alba.saura@uab.cat

Teachers

Maria Fernanda Bustamante Escalona
Alba Saura Clares

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

 Having satisfactorily completed the credits corresponding to the basic training and compulsory subjects. 

 Having knowledge of the general rules for the presentation of academic work, beyond which the teaching team will specify the stylistic guidelines required for submitting the evaluations of the subject. 


Objectives and Contextualisation

20th Century Hispanic American Literature" is part of the set of subjects on Latin American literature and culture. It is included in the compulsory credits of the Bachelor's Degree in Spanish Language and Literature, which the student takes alongside other subjects in Spanish language and literature, and it also serves as a complement to other language and literature degree programs.

This subject continues the knowledge on the area of Hispanic American Literature in the Bachelor's Degree in Spanish Language and Literature, which begins with "Introduction to Hispanic American Literature" and continues with "Hispanic American Literature: from the Chronicles of the Indies to Modernism," representing its chronological continuation.

Through this subject, the literature and culture of 20th-century Latin America will be explored, aiming to offer a cartography that accounts for the diversity of poetics, voices, formal innovations, and thematic proposals that shape its literary complexity during a key moment in its cultural history. From poetic avant-gardes and socially committed poetry to narrative that constructs a territorial and cultural imaginary, including the formation of the national scene, political theater, or the publishing boom of the 1960s, among other areas covered.

Additionally, through each topic, different critical approaches to Latin American literature and its authors will be offered, combining chronological study with theoretical perspectives and reflection on the events under study. In selecting its study corpus, the course seeks to combine canonical voices with more peripheral ones, experimentation with tradition, continuities and ruptures, various literary genres, and the different decades of the century, as well as providing an overview of most of Latin America's geography and literary history.

Likewise, this subject aims to contribute to the achievement of the following General Competencies of the UAB: G04 –“Act within one’s field of knowledgewhile assessing inequalities based on sex/gender”; and G01-“Introduce changes in methods and processes within the field of knowledge to offer innovative responses to the needs and demands of society.” In this way, the subject follows a gender and post/decolonial perspective and seeks to employ innovative teaching methodologies.


Competences

    Spanish and Chinese Studies: Language, Literature and Culture
  • Apply knowledge of Spanish and Latin American literature to the identification of genes, movements, tendencies and styles.
  • Comment on literary texts in Spanish and in Chinese, situate them historically and relate them to the literary trends to which they belong.
  • Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
    Spanish Language and Literature
  • Act in one's own field of knowledge evaluating inequalities based on sex/gender.
  • Act with ethical responsibility and respect for fundamental rights and duties, diversity and democratic values.
  • Carry out effective written work or oral presentations adapted to the appropriate register in different languages.
  • Identify the most significant periods, traditions, trends, authors and works in Spanish-language literature in their historical and social context.
  • Recognise the main theories, themes and genres of literature in the different Spanish-speaking countries.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
  • Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
  • Use digital tools and specific documentary sources to gather and organise information.
  • Use the methodology and concepts of literary analysis taking into account sources and contexts.
    English and Spanish Studies
  • Carry out effective written work or oral presentations adapted to the appropriate register in different languages.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
  • Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
  • Use digital tools and specific documentary sources to gather and organise information.
    Catalan and Spanish Studies
  • Act with ethical responsibility and respect for fundamental rights and duties, diversity and democratic values.
  • Carry out effective written work or oral presentations adapted to the appropriate register in different languages.
  • Recognise the most significant periods, traditions, tendences, authors and works in Catalan and Spanish literature in their historical and social contexts.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
  • Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
  • Take sex- or gender-based inequalities into consideration when operating within one's own area of knowledge.
  • Use digital tools and specific documentary sources to gather and organise information.
  • Use the methodology and concepts of literary analysis taking into account the sources and the historical and social context.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Analyse inequalities due to sex or gender and gender bias in the field of social-historical knowledge.
  2. Analyse literary texts on the basis of the keys of the genre to which they belong.
  3. Apply the basic principles of literary text analysis.
  4. Assess, through the analysis of literary productions, the prejudices and discriminations that may be included in actions or projects, in the short or long term, in relation to certain people or groups.
  5. Carry out basic bibliographic research.
  6. Comment on Latin American literary texts from Modernism to the contemporary era from a rhetorical perspective.
  7. Comment on literary texts using specific methodologies.
  8. Contextualise the production of Latin American literature from Modernism to the contemporary period.
  9. Identify and analyse the main characteristics of Latin American literature from Modernism to the current day.
  10. Identify primary and secondary sources.
  11. Identify the main gender inequalities present in society through their representation in literary texts.
  12. Identify the main sources of a literary text.
  13. Interpret literary works critically taking into account the relations between the different areas of literature and its relation to human, artistic and social areas.
  14. Link a text with its context of literary production.
  15. Organise content clearly and appropriately for oral presentation.
  16. Point out similarities and differences between texts on the basis of relevant theoretical concepts.
  17. Present work in formats adapted to demands and personal styles, both individual and in small groups.
  18. Recognise the main periods of Western literary history and their general features.
  19. Situate an author's production in a specific literary period.
  20. Use digital tools to obtain, classify, interpret and analyse relevant data related to the study of Spanish language and literature.
  21. Use the adequate terminology in the construction of an academic text.
  22. Use the appropriate resources and methodology for an academic work.
  23. Use traditional sources to obtain, classify, interpret and analyse relevant data related to the study of Spanish language and literature.

Content

Introduction. CriticalPerspectivesfortheStudyofLatin American Literature and Theater 

1.- Shaping New Latin American Spaces through Narrative 

1.1 Between theJungle, the Pampas, the Plains, and the Urban: José Eustasio Rivera, Ricardo Güiraldes, Rómulo Gallegos, and María Teresa de la Parra. 

1.2 TheMexican Revolution: Fictionalizing History. Mariano Azuela and Nellie Campobello. 

2. A Territorial Shift: Latin American Narrative fromthe 1930s tothe 1950s 

2.1 The "Critical Turn": Literature, Geography, Culture, and the Legitimation of Mestizo America 

2.1.1 Miguel Ángel Asturias: FromLegendstotheRecoveryofthe Popol Vuh 

2.1.2 Lo Real Maravilloso and the Work of Alejo Carpentier 

2.1.3 The Neoindigenismo of José María Arguedas 

2.1.4 Rosario Castellanos: The Pre-Hispanic World andFeminist Critique 

2.2 Speaking with the Dead: Perversions and Polyphony from a Violated Land 

2.2.1 La Amortajada by María Luisa Bombal 

2.2.2 Pedro Páramo and the Influence of Juan Rulfo 

3. Enclaves of 20th-Century Latin American Poetry 

3.1 Octavio Paz and Latin American Poetic Cartography 

3.2 "La cueca de los poetas", or How to Be a Poeta chileno

3.2.1 Poetry and Authorial Imageof Gabriela Mistral 

3.2.2 Vicente Huidobro, thePoetic Parachute Journey 

3.2.3 Pablo Neruda, a Torrential Poet 

3.2.4 Nicanor Parra, the Antipoet 

3.3 "Hay, hermanos, muchísimo que hacer” 

3.3.1 Rupture and Commitment in thePoetry of Magda Portal 

3.3.2 Pain and Experimentation in the Voice of César Vallejo 

3.4 Poetry and Blackness: Nicolás Guillén 

4. Scenes of 20th-Century Latin American Theater 

4.1 The Construction of a National Scene 

4.1.1 Roberto Arlt and Argentine Independent Theater 

4.1.2 Theaterof/by/forMexico: Rodolfo Usigli 

4.1.3 A Cuban Scenewith “Choteo”: Virgilio Piñera 

4.1.4 Chilean Dramaturgy Written by Women and the Imprint of Isidora Aguirre  

4.2 Scenic Consolidation and Political Theater 

4.2.1 Scenic Cartography of the Latin American Political Scene 

4.2.2 Representing and Remembering State Terrorism: De a uno by Aída Bortnik and La muerte y la doncella by Ariel Dorfman 

5. The Latin American Novel Boom

5.1 The Publishing Boom of Latin American Literature 

5.2 Cartography of Voices and Works Leadingtothe Boom: Carlos Fuentes, José Donoso, Mario Vargas Llosa, Julio Cortázar, Gabriel García Márquez, and the “Silenced” Voicesofthe Boom 

5.3 Voicesofthe Post-Boom 

 


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
These include lectures and seminars/practical sessions led by the instructors, where theoretical explanations will be combined with discussion of the texts. 50 2 1, 2, 3, 16, 6, 7, 8, 9, 5, 22, 21, 10, 13, 17, 19, 4, 14
Type: Supervised      
These consist of tutorials and scheduled sessions with the instructors, focused on correcting and commenting on issues related to different levels of literary analysis. 15 0.6 1, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 5, 22, 21, 12, 13, 17, 19, 4, 14
Type: Autonomous      
These include both time dedicated to personal study and the preparation of assignments and analytical commentaries. In certain units, challenge-based learning methodologies will be implemented. 20 0.8 1, 2, 3, 16, 6, 7, 8, 9, 5, 22, 21, 20, 23, 10, 12, 11, 13, 15, 17, 18, 19, 4, 14
These include both time dedicated to personal study and the preparation of assignments and analytical commentaries. In certain units, challenge-based learning methodologies will be implemented. 65 2.6 1, 2, 3, 16, 6, 7, 8, 5, 21, 10, 13, 19, 4, 14

Student learning in this subject is distributed as follows:

  • Guided activities. These include lectures and seminars/practical sessions led by the instructors, where theoretical explanations will be combined with discussion of the texts.
  • Supervised activities. These consist of tutorials and scheduled sessions with the instructors, focused on correcting and commenting on issues related to different levels of literary analysis.
  • Autonomous activities. These include both time dedicated to personal study and the preparation of assignments and analytical commentaries. In certain units, challenge-based learning methodologies will be implemented.
  • Assessment activities. The subject includes various types of written assessments, both individual and group-based, which will take place both in and outside of the classroom.

Note: 15 minutes of a class will be reserved, within the timetable established by the centre/title, for the complementation by the students of the assessment surveys of the teaching staff's performance and the assessment of the subject".

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Essay 35% 0 0 1, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 5, 22, 21, 20, 23, 10, 12, 11, 13, 15, 17, 18, 19, 4, 14
Exam 1 30% 0 0 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 21, 23, 12, 11, 13, 18, 19, 4, 14
Exam 2 35% 0 0 1, 2, 3, 16, 6, 7, 8, 9, 21, 12, 13, 19, 4, 14

Continuous Evaluation will consist of:

  • 1 written exam on the novel selected in Topic 1 and on Topic 2: 30%
  • 1 paper based on Topic 3 about Latin American poetry (30%) and participation in the creation of a anthology (5%): 35%
  • Written exam on Topics 4 and 5: 35%

All dates and requirements for each assessment will be announced during the first week of class.

Erasmus students who request to take an exam early must present the instructors with a written document from their home university justifying the request.

Unique Evaluation will consist of:

  • 1 written exam on the novel selected in Unit 1 and Unit 2: 30%
  • 1 paper based on Unit 3 about Latin American poetry: 35%.
  • 1 written exam on Units 4 and 5: 35%

The date and details of the three assessments for the unique evaluation will be provided during the first week of class.

Grade Review Procedure (Continuous and Unique Evaluation):

On carrying out each evaluation activity, lecturers will inform students of the procedures to be followed for reviewing all grades awarded, and the date on which such a review will take place.

Requirements to Approve the Subject:

  • Achieving an overall average score of 5 or higher across all activities.

Conditions for a “Not evaluated”:

  • A student will receive a “Not evaluated” grade if they have completed less than 30% of the assessment activities.
  • Receiving a “Not Assessable” grade means the student will not be eligible to take the resit exam.

Clarifications Regarding retake exams:

  • To be eligible for the subject retake, students must have been assessed in at least 2 of the 3 components of the final grade in the continuos evaluation and all all the prove in the unic evaluation. Additionally, they must have obtainedan average score of at least 3.5 across all assessments.
  • Only failed evaluations may be retaken. Resits will not be allowed for assessments with a passing grade (5 or higher) in an attempt to improve the score.
  • If more than one assessment has been failed, all must be retaken.
  • Plagiarism or Fraudulent Conduct:

If a student commits any type of irregularity that could lead to a significant variation in the grade of an assessment, the grade for that assessment will be zero, regardless of any disciplinary process that may result from it. If multiple irregularities are verified in the assessments of the same subject, the final grade for that subject will be zero.

Total or partial plagiarism will result in failing the entire subject. That is, all work must be original. Copying, whether in whole or in part, of materials already published in any format is not allowed. If non-original material is submitted without indicating its source, the grade for the activity or assignment will automatically be a fail (0).

Persistent spelling and expression errors may lead to a reduction in the score of the respective evaluation.

For the evaluation of the subject, attention will be given to students demonstrating the following abilities:

  • Clarity in exposition and argumentation: appropriate structuring of discourse, with coherence and cohesion, thematic progression, proper justification of statements and explanations, etc.
  • Ability to analyze and synthesize, going beyond mere description and repetition of argumentsfrom the works and historiographic or theoretical topics; as well as a development that is relevant to the proposed topic and statement.
  • Mastery of theoretical-critical sources: in-depth reading and correct use of the fundamental bibliography of the subject.
  • Expressive richness and correctness, especially regarding the use of vocabulary, syntactic structures, and spelling.
  • Participation in the development of the subject.

Students’ work throughout the subject will be taken into account, including their progress, involvement in the learning process, and achievement of the stated competencies. The evaluation is also intended to be formative, that is, integrated and aimed at improving learning.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

This subject allows the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies exclusively for tasks such as bibliographic searches or information retrieval, text correction, or translations, at the discretion of the instructors. In the case of subjects within philological degrees, the use of translations must be authorized by the instructors. Other situations may be considered, always with the agreement of the instructors. The student must (i) identify the parts generated by AI; (ii) specify the tools used; and (iii) include a critical reflection on how these influenced the process and the final outcome of the activity. Lack of transparency regarding the use of AI in assessed activities will be considered academic dishonesty and will result in a grade of zero for the activity with no possibility of recovery, or more severe sanctions in serious cases.

 


Bibliography

All mandatory and supplementary readings will be indicated at the beginning of the course and will be provided by the instructors, either through the Virtual Campus (CV) or other means.

ARACIL, Beatriz, "Sobre el proceso de creación de un imaginario múltiple: América durante el periodo colonial" en Alemany, Carmen y Aracil, Beatriz (eds.), América en el imaginario europeo, Alicante: Publicaciones de la Universidad de Alicante, 2009. 

AYÉN, Xavi, Aquellos años del boom. García Márquez, Vargas Llosa y el grupo de amigos que lo cambiaron todo. Barcelona: Debate, 2019. 

FERNÁNDEZ, Teodosio, Selena Millares y Eduardo Becerra, Historia de la literatura hispanoamericana, Madrid, Universitas S. A., 1995.

FERRARI, Américo, El bosque y sus caminos. Estudios sobre poesía y poética hispanoamericanas, Valencia, Pre-Textos, 1993.

FUENTES, Carlos, La nueva novela hispanoamericana. México D.F.: Joaquín Mortiz, 1969. 

DONOSO, José, Historia personal del boom. Santiago de Chile: Andrés Bello, 1987. 

GÁLVEZ, Marina, La novela hispanoamericana contemporánea, Madrid, Taurus, 1987.

GOIC, Cedomil, ed., Historia y crítica de la literatura hispanoamericana, vol. II, Del romanticismo al modernismo; vol. III, Epoca contemporánea, Barcelona, Crítica, 1988.

GONZÁLEZ ECHEVARRÍA, Roberto y Enrique Pupo-Walker, eds., The Cambridge History of Latin American Literature, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1995.

GULLÓN, Ricardo, dir., Diccionario deliteratura española e hispanoamericana, 2 vols., Madrid, Alianza, 1993.

HENRÍQUEZ UREÑA, Pedro, Historiografía cultural hispanoamericana. Madrid: Verbum, 2007. 

IÑIGO MADRIGAL, Luis (coord.), Historia de la literatura hispanoamericana, 2 vols, Madrid,Cátedra, 1982-1987 (I, Época colonial; II, Delneoclasicismoal modernismo).

LAMUS, Marina, Geografías del teatro en América Latina. Un relato histórico. Bogotá: Luna Libros, 2010. 

LE CORRE, Hervé, Poesía hispanoamericana posmodernista. Historia, teoría, prácticas, Madrid, Gredos, 2001.

MENTON, Seymour, Caminata por la narrativa latinoamericana. México, F.C.E.-Xalapa: Universidad Veracruzana, 2002. 

MIGNOLO, Walter, "El pensamiento des-colonial, desprendimiento y apertura: un manifiesto". Revista Telar, 2008, nº 6, pp. 7-38. 

MUGUERCIA, Magaly, Teatro latinoamericano del siglo XX. Primera modernidad (1900-1950). RIL Editores, 2010. 

MÜLLER-BERGH, Klaus & MENDONÇA TELES, Gilberto. Vanguardia latinoamericana. Historia, crítica y documentos (Vol. I, II, III, IV, V, VI). Madrid, Iberoamericana, 2004/2007.

ORTEGA, Julio, Figuración de la persona, Barcelona, Edhasa, 1971.

__________, La contemplación y la fiesta. Notas sobre la novela latinoamericana actual, Caracas, Monte Ávila, 1979.

OVIEDO, José Miguel, Historia de laliteratura hispanoamericana. 1. De los orígenes a la Emancipación, Madrid, Alianza Universidad, 1995; 2. Del Romanticismo al Modernismo, Madrid, Alianza Universidad, 1997; 3:Postmodernismo, Vanguardia, Regionalismo, 2001; 4. De Borges al presente, 2001.

RAMA, Ángel, Transculturación narrativa en América Latina, México, Siglo XXI, 1982.

RAMA, Ángel, La ciudad letrada. Santiago de Chile, Tajamar Ediciones, 2004. 

ROJAS MIX, Miguel, Los cien nombres de América. Eso que descubrió Colón. Barcelona: Lumen, 1991. 

SÁINZ DE MEDRANO, Luis, Historia de la literatura hispanoamericana (Desde el Modernismo), Madrid, Taurus, 1992.

SAURA-CLARES, Alba. El movimiento argentino Teatro Abierto (1981-1985) a la luz de sus poéticas dramáticas. De la tradición a la contemporaneidad escénicas, Murcia, Editum, 2022. 

SAURA-CLARES, Alba. Teatro Abierto (1981-1985). Resiliencia y utopía de un movimiento escénico. Madrid, Ediciones Complutense, 2023. 

SCHWARTZ, Jorge. Las vanguardias latinoamericanas. Textos programáticos y críticos, Madrid, Cátedra, 1991.

SHAW, Donald, Nueva narrativa hispanoamericana. Boom, posboom y posmodernismo. Madrid, Cátedra, 2005. 

SHIMOSE, Pedro, Historia de la literatura latinoamericana, Madrid, Playor, 1987.

SUCRE, Guillermo, La máscara, la transparencia, Caracas, Monte Ávila, 1975.

TODOROV, Tzvetan, La conquista de América. El problema del otro. Madrid, Siglo XXI Editores, 2010. 

VENEGAS, Socorro y CASAMAYOR, Juan (eds.), Vindictas. Cuentistas latinoamericanas. Madrid, Páginas de Espuma, 2021. 

YURKIEVICH, Saúl. A través de la trama. Sobre vanguardias literarias y otras concomitancias, Madrid, Iberoamericana, 2007.


Software

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Groups and Languages

Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 Spanish second semester morning-mixed
(PAUL) Classroom practices 2 Spanish second semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 1 Spanish second semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 2 Spanish second semester morning-mixed