SPAN 3355

Oil Fictions

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2023-2024.

In Imagined Communities (1983), Benedict Anderson famously argued that nations are "imagined political communities." Taking Anderson's claim as a point of departure, this course explores the different cultural, political, and social mechanisms at play in the act of imagining a nation, and the ways in which art shapes and challenges how a nation imagines itself. We will focus on Venezuelan literature, film, and historically defined its national identity: oil. As we discuss works of Venezuelan literature, film and performance in dialogue with the vast theoretical corpus that engages with oil's philosophical, economic, and social dimensions, we will ask: How do natural resources shape a nation's identity? How does oil transform nations into "magical states"? What are the challenges of narrating, representing, and living with oil?

When Offered Spring.

Prerequisites/Corequisites Prerequisite: SPAN 2140, SPAN 2150, SPAN 2170, SPAN 2180, or CASE Q++, or permission of instructor.

Distribution Category (ALC-AS, CA-AS)
Language Requirement Satisfies Option 1.

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