CSP 59 The Jungle in Western Imagination

In this course we will look at the jungle as a space where western civilization's desires and fears come into tension with the imagined "other". Usually represented as primitive and wild, the jungle is imagined as a place outside history, culture and civilization. In the readings, which include chronicles of the Spanish conquest, Latin American works of fiction, excerpts from anthropological and botanical texts, and narco-traffic narratives and film, we will explore the particular relations of power that intersect each narrative, in order to rethink the Latin American jungle as a cultural space with a history of resistance and resilience.