Jewish Literature under Latin American Dictatorships

This course explores twentieth-century literature that deals with Jewish experience during and after military dictatorships in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, and Uruguay. Focusing specifically on works written by authors whose families were directly impacted by state-sanctioned violence, students will learn about issues of Jewish memory, representation of atrocity, and quest for justice. Students will examine writings about the historical and social-political aspects of Latin American dictatorships, and how these texts intertwine Holocaust memory and Jewish life and culture in Latin America. This course will take an interdisciplinary and comparative approach by examining Jewish responses to dictatorship in relation to those of contemporary black and indigenous writers in Latin America.