SPAN 73.11 Obscene Images: Intro to Visual Studies in Latin America
Violence, death, sex, disability, race, gender, poverty, and politics were regarded as unthinkable, intolerable, offensive, or simply obscene in different times and regions in Latin America. This course will provide a critical and theoretical approach to textual and visual representations from the 19th century to the present, which have generated controversy over their depiction of these cultural topics. Images of destruction, pictures of war, or paintings excluded by the mainstream culture will be used to familiarize the students with the production and consumption of visual and textual culture and the ethics of representation. The goal of the course is first, to introduce students to Visual Culture/Visual Studies in Latin America, second, to problematize the relation between representation and culture, and, finally, to evaluate the implication of these topics (sex, violence, race, gender, disability, etc…) in relation to power, knowledge, and ethics in Latin American culture. Not open to students who have received credit for SPAN 65.02.