Links:
[1] http://www.iesabroad.org/study-abroad/programs/buenos-aires-advanced-spanish-immersion
[2] http://www.iesabroad.org/study-abroad/programs/buenos-aires-latin-american-societies-and-cultures
[3] http://www.scribd.com/doc/6906268/Guber-Rosana-La-Etnografia
[4] http://www.ceppas.org/gajat/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=90
[5] http://www.hechohistorico.com.ar/Trabajos/Jornadas%20de%20Bariloche%20-%202008/Rodr%C3%ADguez%20
The Making Of Patagonia: An Interdisciplinary Approach
The aim of this course is to explore representations about Patagonia from the 16th Century to the present from an interdisciplinary approach that combines Anthropology and Literature. It is composed of two segments taught by an anthropologist and a writer, linked by a trip to the Province of Chubut. The course’s intention is that students have an immersion in the socio-historical, natural and cultural diversity of the Argentinean Patagonia, opening the possibility for them to develop a comparative perspective that involves their experiences in Buenos Aires, as well as their daily experiences in the U.S.
None
$700(USD) applied to field-study trip to the Patagonia
Students are expected to attend all classes, unless they are ill. Check for attendance policy guidelines in the IES Student Guidebook Absent students are responsible for acquiring relevant class notes and handouts from fellow students. Work assigned in a student’s absence is not to be given a later deadline without prior agreement with the instructor.
By the end of the course, students are able to:
Oriented by an anthropological perspective, the aim of the first section is contrasting representations about territory and indigenous people both from a colonial and a republican perspective (chroniclers and scientists’ reports) with self-representations by indigenous activists (expressed through interviews, writings and newspapers). This section is subdivided into three topics: (a) Forced incorporation of indigenous people to the nation, appropriation of their territories by the national state, and appropriation by the museums (museologización), (b) Discourses about the “extinction” of Tehuelche People (built by a racialist approach) will be contrasted with processes of re- organization and demands of visibilization, (c) Discourses considering Mapuche People as Chilean invaders (“araucanización”) will be contrasted with indigenous people’s rights. During this section, the students will acquire some ethnographic tools (including participant observation, auto-ethnography and a multi-sited location) through a critical reading of the sources included in the syllabus as well as through a short fieldwork in the city.
The second section will be focused on analyzing cultural constructions on the Patagonian territory as they appear in different narrative forms. Among this vast field of constructions, we will concentrate on Patagonia as (1) A territory of political and social tensions, as opposed to the widely spread notion of touristic paradise, (2) A place where recent travel writers have started looking for literary material instead of the factual and strategic information that used to be the goal of traditional travel writers to the region. In parallel, this section will explore different narrative forms -including journalistic reportage, novel, literary essay and travel writing- and depicting their specific strategies and techniques. All authors and works in this section belong to a period spanning from the second half of the twentieth century to the present, and (3) A culture where authors who are nowadays writing fiction and different kinds of essay forms rebuff the long dated and politically functional concepts of Patagonia as a “desert” and as sheer “emptiness”.
Throughout the whole course, students will visit the Museo de Ciencias Naturales (Ciudad de La Plata), the Museo Etnográfico Ambrosetti (Ciudad de Buenos Aires) and, during the trip to Chubut, the Museo de los Galeses (Gaiman) and Centro Cultural de la Memoria (Trelew), among other institutions. We will be visited by three guest lecturers: Filmmaker Martín Subirá, Journalist Leila Guerriero and Geographer Verónica Hollman. During their fieldtrip to Chubut, their program of activities will include a conference delivered by Historian-Anthropologist Fabiana Nahuelquir.
Class Participation: students will have to be prepared to make comments and questions related to the materials assigned. During the second section, students are expected to articulate answers and personal points of view on the topics outlined in the reading guides previously sent to them, regardless of the fact that they are responsible to participate in the group discussion every class. Previous to the visit of journalist Leila Guerriero planned for this second section, they are expected to prepare five or six substantial questions to interview her. Final grade will increase a third of a letter grade, go down, or remain the same depending on your very good, regular, or deficient participation.
Reports: (20%) during the first section, students will write 2 fieldwork reports (3 pages double spaced each, total 6 pages) where they reflect about their own experiences and observations (taking into account particularly the academic excursions to the museums). They will be able to relate them to the topics and concepts treated in class. During the second section, students are expected to write the questions for an interview (8 to 10 questions) that they will later make orally to journalist and writer Leila Guerriero when she comes to the class. Also, they are expected to hand in an essay (3 to 4 pages double spaced) analyzing in which ways travel pieces by foreign writers differ from reportages written by local journalists.
Mid-Term Essay: (35%) essays following the same methodology employed in the fieldwork reports written during the first section (reflections on the narrated experience related to the concepts and information analyzed in class), students should choose one of them (or both) and rewrite it. The new essay (6 to 8 pages double space) should expose the process of being immersed into the topics.
Final Exam: (35%) using as a trigger an object (never of patrimonial value) or photograph that they will have been asked to bring with them from their trip to Patagonia, students are expected to write a text (6 to 8 pages double spaced) expressing a view on the territory that is both personal and aware of the topics discussed in class. The text should be written following the rules of one of the literary genres read and analyzed during the course (with the exception of literary essay): fiction, reportage or travel writing.
Oral Presentations: (10%) there will be two presentations per student. During the first section, it will be a summary of the Mid-Term Essay. Because this oral presentation will be done in Chubut, students will be able to show how their perceptions have changed during the trip. During the second section, each student is expected to make an oral presentation related with the topic treated in the Final Exam Essay.
The Mid-Term and the Final Exam are not cumulative (35% of final grade each; 70% total). Late assignments or exams will not be accepted unless previously authorized and for valid reasons only (illness, etc.). Students in this course will be expected to comply with IES’s Policies on Academic Integrity.
Academic integrity
Students are responsible for familiarizing themselves with IES policy of academic integrity and for adhering to it. Academic dishonesty, including plagiarism, will result in course failure.
Student evaluation
Students will conduct a written evaluation at the end of the semester. They are encouraged to speak early in the semester with faculty about any difficulties they are having in the course. If the difficulties cannot be resolved to the satisfaction of both student and faculty, either is encouraged to meet with the academic director.
Grading Scale
A 93-100%
A- 90-92.9%
B+ 87-89.9%
B 83-86.9%
B- 80-82.9
C+ 77-79.9%
C 73-76.9%
C-70-72.9%
D+67-69.9%
D 63-66.9%
D- 60-62.9%
F below 60%
Week 1
Readings for the Class and Assignments
Syllabus’ presentation. Writing in class a brief text telling why they chose to do this course and which is their view on Patagonia to the day.
TOPIC: Auto-Ethnography
Readings for the Class and Assignments
Guber (pp.11-74), 2001.
Week 2
TOPIC: First “contact” and first hinterland exploration
Readings for the Class and Assignments
Pigaffetta (pp.33-51), 1524-5. Viedma (pp.19-28; 99-114), 1783.
TOPIC: Araucanization” discourse and cartographic appropriation
Readings for the Class and Assignments
Lois (pp.107-135), 2007.; Moreno (pp.17-46; 65-76), 1876.; Andermann (pp. 120-127), 2000.
Week 3
TOPIC: Museologization Human Remains Restitution (Repatriation)
Readings for the Class and Assignments
Grupo Guías (short book of photographs), 2008.
Interview to an indigenous activist
1st Fieldwork Report: Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, La Plata (3).
Week 4
TOPIC: Invisibilization
Readings for the Class and Assignments
Lista (pp.7-20; 23-30; 62-70; 80-89), 1894.
TOPIC: Racial and linguistic classifications
Readings for the Class and Assignments
Imbelloni (pp. 5-58), 1949.
Week 5
TOPIC: Migration to the city
Readings for the Class and Assignments
Camusu Aike (documentary). It should be seen before the class.
Guest: Filmaker Martín Subirá.
TOPIC: Re-communalization process
Readings for the Class and Assignments
Rodríguez (1-18), 2008
2nd Fieldwork Report: Museo Etnográfico, Bs. As. (3 pages).
Week 6
TOPIC: “Araucanization” in the 21st Century
Readings for the Class and Assignments
Lenton (pp.1-22), 1998. News selection.
Indigenous People’s Rights.
TOPIC: Trajectories of aboriginality
Readings for the Class and Assignments
Moyano (pp.21-59), 2008.
Week 7
Readings for the Class and Assignments
Ramos-Delrio (pp.79-95), 2005.
News on Santa Rosa-Benetton’s case.
Guest: Geographer Verónica Hollman.
Week 8
TOPIC: TRIP TO CHUBUT
Readings for the Class and Assignments
Week 9
Readings for the Class and Assignments
Mid-Term Essay due date (6 to 8 pages). Oral presentations on what they saw at Centro Cultural de la Memoria plus what they saw in Trelew, the documentary. Group discussion.
Introduction to La pasión según Trelew.
TOPIC: The reverse of the postcard: Patagonia as a territory of political and social tensions. Analyzing reportage as a narrative form.
Readings for the Class and Assignments
La pasión según Trelew, reportage by Tomás Eloy Martínez.
Group discussion.
Week 10
Readings for the Class and Assignments
La pasión según Trelew.
Los suicidas del fin del mundo, reportage by Leila Guerriero.
Week 11
Readings for the Class and Assignments
Handing in the questions for an interview with Leila Guerriero, which will be analyzed in class.
Los suicidas del fin del mundo, reportage by Leila Guerriero.
Discussing the rules of reportage as a genre.
Interviewing Leila Guerriero.
Week 12
TOPIC: Literary Road: Patagonia as a “spur for the imagination”. The literary turn of the screw of contemporary travel narratives
Readings for the Class and Assignments
In Patagonia. Travel narrative by Bruce Chatwin.
Week 13
Readings for the Class and Assignments
The Old Patagonian Express, travel narrative by Paul Theroux (chapters 1, 19, 20, 21, 22).
Analyzing the rules of travel writing as a genre.
Introducing the concept of “desert” as historically applied to Patagonia.
Handing in an essay (3-4 pages double spaced) analyzing in which ways travel pieces by foreign writers differ from reportage written by local journalists.
Week 14
TOPIC: Rebuffing the desert: Analyzing and discussing the concepts of “desert” and “emptiness” usually applied to Patagonia in the works of literary authors writing in situ
Readings for the Class and Assignments
Daier Chango, novel by Ariel Williams.
Group discussion.
Daier Chango.
Group discussion.
Analyzing the ways in which Patagonia is constructed by fiction
Week 15
Readings for the Class and Assignments
Postales bárbaras, Literary essays by Marcelo Eckhardt.
Group discussion.
Analyzing the rules of literary essay as a genre.
Student’s evaluation.
Final Essay due date (6 to 8 pages) and Oral Presentation of the Final Essay.
Movie: