Unit information: Critical Questions in Latin American Historiography in 2010/11

Unit name	Critical Questions in Latin American Historiography
Unit code	HISPM1103
Credit points	20
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Professor. Brown
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of Hispanic, Portuguese and Latin American Studies
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This unit introduces students to key approaches which have shaped and influenced the writing of Latin American histories. The unit will encompass a range of approaches, and will engage with the work and theories of historians and other writers about history. Sources may include the work of Guaman Poma de Ayala, Garcilaso de la Vega, Jos� Manuel Restrepo, Bartolom� Mitre, Gilberto Freyre, Gabriel Garc�a M�rquez, Eduardo Galeano, Walter Mignolo and Florencia Mallon. The unit will therefore provide students with a grounding in the region's many historiographies.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Students will learn to differentiate between the methodological and intellectual approaches of a variety of historians of Latin America. They will be able to assess the reliability of a source and to read ideological orientation in historical texts. Students will be confident in reading and compiling bibliographies on a wide range of chronological periods of Latin American history.

Teaching Information

All teaching will be done through seminar discussions.

Assessment Information

One 5000 word essay

Reading and References

• John Charles Chasteen and James A. Wood, ed. Problems in modern Latin American history: sources and interpretations

• Garcilaso de la Vega, Royal Commentaries

• Jos� Manuel Restrepo, History of the Revolution

• Florencia Mallon, Peasant and nation: the making of postcolonial Mexico and Peru

• Eduardo Galeano, Open veins of Latin America