LLAS 258 Twentieth Century Mexico

This course seeks to engage you in the fundamental problems of twentieth century Mexican history and introduce analytical frameworks for studying cultural politics. The central theme will be how the state and grassroots society negotiated the course of the nation and its political culture since 1875. We will critically examine the production of the dominant historical narrative and develop alternative ones that can help us understand the differences in the historical experiences of subaltern groups, including women, indigenous people, and campesinos within the Porfirian, revolutionary, and post-revolutionary periods. We will examine what is cultural about politics and what is political about culture through an interdisciplinary format, perspective and organization drawing upon the fields of history, anthropology, literature, and visual studies.