Image from The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) by Walter Salles.

Spanish 0868, Fall 2025. World Society in Literature and Film:

Introduction to Latin America: Film, Media, Culture

This course offers an exciting introduction in English to Latin American film and art from a comparative, inter-American and multimedial context. It endeavors to think the problem of experimental media––movies, texts, and art works––in relationship to politics, history, and society in Latin America. Through classic works, we will examine what is cinema, literature, and art from the perspective of culture, and the concrete functions that have been historically assigned to these institutions and forms of intervention: that is, experimental media’s intimate relation to revolution in all its diverse forms, and particularly, its uneven relation to modernity, race, gender, culture, the subaltern poor, and the nation-state.

After reflecting on the traditional role of the intellectual in Latin America, we will spend the rest of the semester examining experimental cinematic, literary, and artistic works. Examining the subject of experimental media as related to Latin American studies, the course is organized in terms of two questions: 1) an examination of influential Latin American filmmakers, writers, and artists and 2) the politics of experimental cinema, literature, and art.

As we examine a list of canonical filmmakers and artists, we will be asking ourselves: how are films and artworks different from other cultural productions? And what is cinema and art’s relationship to the nation-state, including its subaltern populations? What kind of power do films and artworks have on “reality,” and on our ways of seeing and sensing the world? Do these artistic works open us up to new possibilities of subjectivity and critique, as well as to new modes of sensing, thinking, and relating to life? Finally, what is cinema and art’s relation to other media, such as mass and digital communications and music?

Over the course of the semester we will explore a wide array of aesthetic artifacts, including works by Fernando Meirelles, Alfredo Jaar, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Alfonso Cuarón, Patricio Guzmán, Damián Szifron, and Carlos Reygadas.

Note: Globally focused, this course is open to all.

Course Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

Improve your language and expository skills through readings, discussions, presentations, and written exercises.
Read films, narratives, and articles selected by the professor.
Improve your critical thinking, reading and writing skills.
Develop your language competencies and powers.

Notes About Gen Ed and this course:

Learn about a particular global culture by taking a guided tour of its literature and film. You do not need to speak a foreign language to take one of these exciting courses, and you will gain the fresh, subtle understanding that comes from integrating across different forms of human expression. Some of the issues that will be illuminated by looking at culture through the lens of literature and film: Global and national dynamics, national self-perceptions, pivotal moments in history, economic issues, social change and diversity. This class will provide an overview of a variety of Latin American literary and film topics and styles which include noir tradition, gender and sexualities, processes of memory and reconciliation, the construction of identities, and the presence of the past in present societies. How have filmmakers and writers represented the rich and convoluted history of Latin Ameria? What film and literary techniques and traditions have been used to represent, discuss or critique the societies and cultures of Latin America? What portrayals and perception of Latin America we can find in these films and texts? We will delve into these queries and many other topics. The course is divided into thematic units, each with mostly short literary texts and supplemental readings, and film selections.

NOTE: This course fulfills the World Society (GG) requirement for students under GenEd and International Studies (IS) for students under Core. Students cannot receive credit for this course if they have successfully completed any of the following: Arabic 0868/0968, Asian Studies 0868, Chinese 0868/0968, English 0868/0968, French 0868/0968, German0868/0968, Hebrew 0868, Italian 0868/0968, Japanese 0868/0968, Jewish Studies 0868, Korean 0868, LAS 0868/0968, Political Science 0868/0968, Russian 0868/0968, or Spanish 0868.

What is General Education?: The General Education (Gen Ed) program consists of diverse areas of study and practice in which all undergraduate students must undertake coursework. These courses and the Areas they represent provide the place for students to develop academic and professional skills through the context of the course.

Gen. Ed. Program Goals

Critical Thinking
Contextualized Learning
Interdisciplinary Thinking
Communication Skills
Scientific & Quantitative Reasoning
Civic Engagement
Information Literacy
Lifelong Learning

Global / World Society courses are intended to teach students how to:

Understand the influences (e.g., political, social, historical, cultural, artistic, literary, geographic, economic) on world societies or processes (e.g., globalization) linking world societies;

Access and analyze materials related to world societies and cultures;

Develop observations and conclusions about selected themes in world societies and cultures;

Construct interpretations using evidence and critical analysis; and

Communicate and defend interpretations.

Course goals: Students who successfully complete this course will be able to:

Identify and describe different factors (e.g., political, social, historical, cultural, artistic, literary, geographic, economic) in world societies or processes (e.g. globalization) linking world societies as seen through literature and film

Access, compare and analyze literary, film and academic materials related to world societies and culture within the frameworks established in the course

Develop observations and conclusions about selected themes as presented in literature and film in world societies and cultures

Construct contextualized interpretations using evidence and critical analysis from selected texts and films

Communicate and defend interpretations

Bem-vindos! Bienvenidos!

Professor Information

Adam Joseph Shellhorse_2 (1)-1.jpeg

Professor: Adam Joseph Shellhorse, Ph.D.

Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese

Affiliated Faculty: Latin American Studies and Global Studies

Email: aj.shellhorse@temple.edu
Phone: (215) 204-8285

Office Hours Zoom link: https://temple.zoom.us/j/95335019614

Office Hours: Wednesdays 3:30-5:00 via Zoom or in 440 Mazur Hall

Website: https://liberalarts.temple.edu/academics/faculty/shellhorse-adam-joseph (Links to an external site.)

(Links to an external site.)Book: https://upittpress.org/books/9780822964476/ (Links to an external site.)