BASC50047 - Dictatorship: Three Latin American Novels

Course Description

What historical and cultural circumstances make political dictatorships possible? What factors contribute to the longevity of a dictatorship? How do dictatorships affect and afflict human societies? What is the psychology of dictatorship (incl. the relation between power and sexuality)? During the recent century, the multifaceted phenomenon of political dictatorship was masterfully elucidated by works of fiction such as the Latin American novels selected for this course: Miguel Angel Asturias’s The President (1947), Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s The Autumn of the Patriarch (1975), and Mario Vargas Llosa’s The Feast of the Goat (2000). All three writers were awarded the Nobel Prize.
            For our first class, please read Chapters 1-6 of Mario Vargas Llosa's novel, The Feast of the Goat (pp. 3-93).

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