Ithaca College

 This course, which meets TTh at 10:50am,  explores representations of authoritarianism in Latin American fictional literature, memoir, and film.  Writers, and later film-makers, have addressed the problem of authoritarianism since the early republican period (1808-1821) and have produced works that have criticized and analyzed repressive political systems, but also what I will call “domestic or local authoritarian systems as embodied in  patriarchy, racism, and classism.

Contact Jonathan Ablard at jablard@ithaca.edu for more information

The course will operate around a series of premises. These concepts, I hope, explain why the topic is important for the fields of both Literature and History.

• Dictators and dictatorships hate literature, but paradoxically, dictators and dictatorships are often very compelling literary subjects
• Writers are intrinsically subversive to the established order. I’m not sure why, but they are. We’ll explore this one.
• Dictators are humorless but they are excellent targets of humor. Their lack of a sense of humor makes them even funnier.
• Dictatorships embody and embolden patriarchal values and behaviors. Authoritarian regimes embrace the chain of hierarchy that flows from the male-controlled household to the highest level of executive power. By extension, women and men experience authoritarian regimes in different ways.
• Authoritarian states generally enjoy some level of popular support or acceptance across the social spectrum.
• Dictatorships are always corrupt and corrupting. Abuse of power is the gateway to personal enrichment.
• Stereotypes of the Latin American dictator that we see in the United States are misleading. While these leaders may appear to contradict our most cherished public values, these autocrats often enjoy the explicit support of the United States government as well as sectors of our business and technocratic elite. Latin American dictatorships are intimately connected to the United States.