FYS 197F First-Year Seminar

Bodies and Identities: Crime and Literature in Latin (x) America

Prof. Ángel Díaz Miranda Hollins University

diazam@hollins.edu Fall 2019
Turner C-31 W 1pm - 4pm or by Appointment

The course will explore the different conditions in which crime, ambiguity, detective work, and
the search for identity appear in Contemporary Latin American literature. We will focus on short
stories, novels, and poems where dead bodies, murders, the search for truth, and the
unexplainable materialize as symbols of a wider Latin American imaginary / Latinx culture in
the U.S. The course will research how crime becomes a signifier and analogy for politics,
catastrophes, and the act of writing in hispanic literature. Our aim will be to understand the
coincidence of trauma, poetics, and violence in hispanic literature and the extended metaphors
that it produces. All the texts will be read in English translation.

Course Materials

The following texts are required and should be bought as early as possible:

Enriquez, Mariana. Things We Lost in the Fire. New York: Hogarth, 2017.

Herrera, Yuri. Signs Preceding the End of the World. Sheffield, UK, 2015.

Indiana, Rita. Papi: A Novel. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016.

Villalobos, Juan P. Down the Rabbit Hole. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011.

Students will bring all assigned readings to class on the date they are due.

Grade Scale

A = 93-100 B+ = 87-89 C+ = 77-79 D+ = 67-69

A-= 90-92 B = 83-86 C = 73-76 D = 63-69
B- = 80-82 C- = 70-72 F = 0-62

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Course Objectives:

1. To evaluate the student’s skill in short and long written compositions.

2. To instill and reinforce the writing process: by creating an idea or following insights,
choosing a topic, drafting, revising, and editing formal and informal compositions.
3. To have students develop a critical framework and a vocabulary for understanding
literary and cultural texts.
4. To have students articulate ideas clearly both orally and in writing by engaging literary
and cultural texts.
5. To develop an understanding of the interconnectedness of the cultural productions
within Latin America and the United States.
6. To understand Latin American visual, aural, and textual language through fictional
texts, documentaries, and feature films.
7. To familiarize the student with the history and culture of the countries highlighted
within the readings.
8. To believe that learning and “aesthetic enjoyment” are not mutually exclusive.

Course Components

Attendance | Active Class Participation | Quizzes | Meetings with SSL 25%

Response Papers 50%

Thesis Statement and Annotated Bibliography 5%

Drafts 10%

Final Paper 10%

Attendance | Active Class Participation | Quizzes (25%)

Informed class participation, based on the readings and films, is fundamental to achieve a high
mark in the course. The development of an engaging class discussion resides in the commitment
of the students to critically examine and comment all the work assigned. Four quizzes will
examine reading comprehension and general knowledge of the texts.

Response Papers (50%)

Each student will write five short response papers. Each of them will be a double spaced
and written in “Georgia” 12-point font. The required length is one full page for the first three
submissions and 1.5 pages for the last two. The papers should discuss and analyze the readings
assigned in a clear, organized, and meaningful manner. Please remember an analysis is not a

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summary.

Thesis Statement and Annotated Bibliography (5%)

The thesis statement is the sentence that expresses the main idea of your writing assignment
and helps control, build, and guide your thoughts within the paper. It should be direct, precise,
and original.

For the annotated bibliography (5%), eight entries that will combine journal articles and
scholarly books), the student will summarize the most important points from the source,
including its argument, and explain how this source is relevant to your final paper (in other
words, why is it in your bibliography? How did you find your sources?) Another important
question to answer is how you plan to use it in your research (what light does it shed on some of
the questions you hope to address in your final paper?)

Drafts of Final Paper (10%)

Each student will write a rough drafts of their final papers. The first draft (5%) (of about four
pages) is due by December 3, 2018. On that day, the time in class will be devoted to a writing
workshop where students will join small groups, read each other’s drafts, and help improve
them by providing meaningful comments about style, content, and grammar. Rey or Kylo?
Please send me a cool picture or still with your choice to my email address by September 6, 2019
(8pm) with the subject “FYS SW Choice” and please don’t tell your classmates. On December
5, 2019, the second draft (5%) should be submitted accompanied by comments from
classmates. This second version should be longer (about seven pages), show better cohesion, be
clearer in its statements, and display improvements in the coherence of its arguments. You will
present the main points of your final paper in class on December 10, 2019, as part of a round
table discussion.

Final Paper (10%)

Ten pages in length. The final paper should be an extension of the work done after the
submission of the first and second draft. It should be based on the readings for the class but in
no way should this limit student input and the addition of other readings, music, films or
cultural artifacts. The paper should be proofread twice before submission during Finals Week.

Important Course Policies

Honor Code
Students, by their continued attendance to class, pledge to adhere to the provisions of the Honor
Code. All work for this course (including exams, essays, written homework and any other
assignments) is governed by the Honor Code.

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Students with Disabilities

All students with need for accommodations should make this request as soon as
possible by contacting Disability Services. Appropriate documents should be presented
within one (1) week of the beginning of the course.
Sexual harassment complaint notifications

University agents and student representatives who receive a complaint about sexual harassment,
including sexual violence, whether written or oral, must notify a Harassment Grievance Board
officer immediately upon receipt of the complaint. University agents and student representatives
who receive complaints about sexual violence must also notify the Security Department (via
phone at 540-362-6419) immediately upon receipt of the complaint for Clery Act reporting
compliance. The university’s Title IX Coordinator, Alicia Godzwa, is also the Director of Human
Resources. She may be reached at 540-362-6070; agodzwa@hollins.edu. Her office is located on
the main floor of Botetourt Hall, room 4.

Diversity and Inclusivity:

It is expected of every student to abide by Hollins’ community values. These values include:
being intentional, being open-minded, acting with integrity, being kind and respectful, and
valuing diversity and inclusion. You have a tremendous opportunity in this class to learn about
one another and to appreciate one another for your uniqueness. I hope everyone will make a
concerted effort to be welcoming, open, respectful, and kind.

Attendance
1. Students are required to attend all classes. You are allowed a maximum of one unexcused
absence, which you should reserve for short illnesses and emergencies. Unexcused absences
beyond these limits will result in the lowering of your final course grade by one letter grade.
2. Some excused absences are permitted. Your absence on religious holidays will be excused if
you inform the instructor in advance. Your absence may be excused if you suffer a serious
medical emergency, provided you obtain written confirmation from a doctor or dean. Your
absence may also be excused in other extraordinary circumstances, provided you obtain a letter
from the dean.
3. You also have one personal day. You are not allowed to use it during quizzes or exams. Your
personal day will not exempt you from submitting your work on time.

Policy on plagiarism

DO NOT:
• use material created by another student at Hollins University or anywhere else and pass it off
as your own (with or without their consent).
• use paper-writing services or companies which offers written papers for a fee.

• translate (with or without translation software) texts from other languages and submit them as
your own work. Plagiarism is an extremely serious academic offense.

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If you have any questions or doubts about how to document the sources of your ideas, please
consult your professor.

SCHEDULE

September

5 Intro to the course

Detective Stories and Myth

1o “The South” Jorge Luis Borges https://goo.gl/67EYkG |

12 Signs Preceding the End of the World Yuri Herrera (1-3)

17 Signs Preceding the End of the World Yuri Herrera (4-6) | Reaction 1 (to be written in
class)

19 Signs Preceding the End of the World Yuri Herrera (7-9)

Bodily Harm and Unsettledness

24 “The Uncanny” Freud | “Things We Lost in the Fire” Mariana Enríquez from Things We
Lost in the Fire

26 “End of Term” Mariana Enríquez Reaction 2 (to be read in class)

October

1 “The Intoxicated Years” and “No Flesh over Our Bones” Mariana Enríquez

3 “A Lower East Side Poem” Miguel Piñero | “Jesús Papote” Tato Laviera | Reaction 3
(to be read in class)

Children of Excess

8 “The Future is Kid Stuff” in No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive Lee Edelman
https://goo.gl/Bu7m2S

10 City of God Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund (2002)

15 Down the Rabbit Hole: A Novel Juan Pablo Villalobos | Quiz 1 (reliability and
narration)

17 FALL BREAK

22 Down the Rabbit Hole: A Novel Juan Pablo Villalobos | “The Brutality of Fact” and “Who

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 We Are” The Art of Cruelty Maggie Nelson | Reaction 4

24 Papi: A novel Rita Indiana 1-4 |HW: 1. Summarize each chapter 2. Anticipate: Why is it
important that the girl is narrating the novel?

29 Papi: A novel Rita Indiana 9-12 | Quiz 2

31 Papi: A novel Rita Indiana 5-8 | Reaction 5

November

When is crime political?

5 “House Taken Over” Julio Cortázar

https://www.shortstoryproject.com/story/house-taken-over/ | Two possible readings?

7 1. “Still Water” Rodrigo Rey Rosa https://www.shortstoryproject.com/story/still-water/

2. “Detectives” Roberto Bolaño | Quiz 3

12 “To kill a dog” Samanta Schweblin https://goo.gl/u6BJbW

14 Library Workshop with Rebecca Seipp

19 Coherence in writing Dr. Stevens

21 Thesis Statement and Annotated Bibliography Due | Individual Meetings

25-29 THANKSGIVING RECESS

December

Last Leg of the Course

3 Hand in your first draft + Peer Review

5 Individual Meetings

10 Round Table Discussion (Present a summary of your papers + two images) |

Second Draft Due (Including why you accepted or rejected your peer’s
suggestions)

12 Last Day of Class LUNCH

14 Submit Final Paper by 8 PM