95708 - HISTORY OF RELATIONS BETWEEN EUROPE AND LATIN AMERICA IN CONTEMPORARY AGE

Learning outcomes

Course unit's purpose is to reconstruct the remains in the contemporary history of cultural encounters and clashes following the "Atlantic" conquests and Iberian advance in the (north-central and southern) Americas. A process that somehow produced a complex relationship between Euro-Mediterranean cultures and the multicultural Amerindian and Hispano-American world. After completing the course the student is able to deal with some complex issues, such as the construction of the nation-state relationship after independence and the end of the Spanish monarchy, the reconsideration of the past and the idea of mestizaje, the relations between the Latino-American and Anglo-Saxon worlds, the relations between political, religious, social and cultural institutions, up to the construction of networks of solidarity and of new Euro-American bonds during the Cold War, the great dictatorships, the theory of dependency and international campaigns for the protection of human rights.

Course contents

The course follows a multidisciplinary approach to Latin American Studies, giving preference to historiography, sociology and political theory.

It is intended to introduce the student to debates concerning the social, political and cultural relations between Europe and Latin America in an historical perspective. Particular attention will be given to the academic production of Latin American scholars who have intervened in the debate on the character of modernity in relation with capitalism.

The sequence of lessons does not strictly follow the “traditional” chronological order, it rather focuses upon the relation between past and present as a methodological tool, so as to let emerge the roots of contemporary phenomena and debates.

The first week will be dedicated to the recent political crisis of Mexico, Argentina and Bolivia and to introduce students to the analysis of historical political forces. The premises of this method (state theory and capital theory) will be considered during the second week. Each one of the other three weeks will cover one of the fundamental phases of Latin America political history, combing the analysis of the social, political and cultural context with theoretical debates that have been selected on the basis of their enduring relevance in Latin American Studies.

For a full description of the course contents see the list of themes and readings in the sections below.

Readings/Bibliography

1st week (28th, 29th and 30th of January). Introduction of the course: past and present.

Case Studies

1. Mexico: 2000-2025. Analysis of historical political forces of today’s Mexico. From the neo-oligarchic to the neo-developmentalist state. Which kind of “State form”? Introduction of Mexico’s historical constitutive moments.
   
   
2. Argentina: 2001-2025. Analysis of historical political forces of today’s Argentina. The crisis of the neo-developmentalist state and the “new” right. Which kind of “State form”? Introduction of Argentina’s historical constitutive moments.
   
   
3. Bolivia: 2005-2019 Analysis of historical political forces of today’s Bolivia. The crisis of the neo-developmentalist state and the “old” left.Which kind of “State form”? Introduction of Argentina’s historical constitutive moments.

2nd week (4th, 5th and 6th of February). More on methodology

1. The state as a form.On the concepts of “integral state”, “civil society” and “hegemony” in Gramsci’s “philosophy of praxis”

   Gramsci, A. Quaderni del Carcere, traduced by Hoare, Q. and Nowell Smith, G. (ed.), Selections from the prison notebooks of Antonio Gramsci, International Publishers, 2008 (Selection of notes).

    
2. Capital as a form. The World Economy and the transition to modernity: European and Latin American debates compared.

   Braudel, F. Civilization and capitalism, 15th-18th century, vol. III. The perspective of the world. University of California Press, 1992, pp. 17-89, 386-429.

    
3. Revisiting neo-liberalism. The marxist theory of dependency and the cycle of capital reproduction in Latin America

Marini, R.M. The Dialectics of Dependency, edited by Osorio, J., Monthly Review Press, 2022.

Additional readings

Aricò, J. "Il ruolo degli intellettuali argentini nella diffusione di Gramsci in America Latina" in Kanoussi, Schirru, Vacca (ed.) Studi gramsciani nel mondo. Il Mulino, Milano, 2011

Marx, K. Introduction to a Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, in Grundrisse [1857-1961], Penguin Books, London, 1973.

Portantiero, J.C. "Gli usi di Gramsci", in Kanoussi, Scirru, Vacca (ed.) Studi gramsciani nel mondo. Il Mulino, Milano, 2011

3rd week (11st, 12th and 13th of February). The Colonial Form

1. The legacy of Mariateguy’s: critical differences from post colonial and de-colonial theorists.

   Mariategui, J.M. Sietes ensayos de interpretación de la realidad peruana [1928], Ediciones Era, 2007, pp. 4-35 English translation available at https://www.marxists.org/archive/mariateg/works/7-interpretive-essays/index.htm

2. Latin American modernities: the myth of the “encounter”: when, if and how America became “Latin”.

   Echeverria, B. Modernity and Whiteness, Polity, 2019.

   O' Gorman, E. The Invention of America, Indiana University Press, [1958], pp. 127-145.

3. The concept of internal colonialism.

Gonzalez Casanova, J.P. Democracy in Mexico, Oxford University Press, 1970.

Additional readings

Bagù, S. Economia de la sociedad colonial. El Ateneo. Buenos Aires, 1949

Romero, J. L. Latin America: its cities and ideas. Translated by Inés Azar. Interamer Collection, Cultural Series, 59, 1999.

4th week (18th, 19th, 20th). The oligarchic State form

1. The XIX century and the Latin American state as a narrow state. The different forms of the struggles for and after independence: internal and external relations forces.

   Hale, C. “Political and Social Ideas in Latin America, 1870–1930”, in The Cambridge History of Latin America, vol. IV, c. 1870 to 1930, edited by Bethell, L., Cambridge University Press, 1984.

2. and 3. The roots of “el pueblo”” as a key category in Latin American political theory and the national-popular tradition as political culture.

Zavaleta Mercado, R. Towards a history of the national popular in Bolivia. 1879–1980, Seagull books, 2016.

Tapia, L. The Production of Local Knowledge: history and politics in the work of René Zavaleta Mercado, Seagull Books, 2018

5TH week (18th, 19th and 20th of February) The developmentalist State form

1. The XX century: from the narrow state to the state in its integral sense. From the oligarchic to the developmentalist state. Peronismo (s): the debate on “populism” as a critical category

   Germani, G. Authoritarianism, Fascism and Populism, Transaction Books, New Jersey, 1978.

2. Fascism debated as an interpretive category at times of military turn and neo-liberal adjustment.

   R.M. Marini, R. M. “El estado de contrainsurgencia” [1970] available at https://marini-escritos.unam.mx/?p=1316

   Zavaleta Mercado, René. “El fascismo y la América Latina” (1976) now in Zavaleta Mercado. Ensayos (1975-1984). Obras completas - tomo II, Plural Editores, Bolivia 2011, pp. 413-42.

   Zavaleta René "Notas sobre fascismo, dictadura y coyuntura de disolución" (1979) en Tapia, L. (coord.) now in Tapia (ed.) La autodeterminación de las masas, Mexico, CLACSO, 2015.

   Additional readings

   Frosini, F. "Pueblo y guerra de posición como clave del populismo. Una lectura de los Cuadernos de la cárcel de Antonio Gramsci”, in Cuadernos de ética y filosofia política, año 3, n. 3, Visual Press, 2014.

   Frosini, F. "Subalterns, religion and the philosophy of praxis in Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks", in Rethinking Marxism, XXVIII, n. 3-4, Rutledge, 2016.

   Mc Sharry J. Patrice Predatory States. Operation Condor and Covert War in Latin America, Oxford, 2005, pp. 1-69.

   Rossi, L. Cantoni, F. Operazione Condor. Storia di un sistema criminale in America Latina, Roma, 2018, cap. 1 e 2.

3. The first decades of the XX1st century: past and present, the struggle for the national-popular in the context of crisis of political and cultural mediations.

IN- Contact seminar (international expert on Latin American Studies): time and place still to be defined.

Students are strongly recommended to consult the following volumes on Latin American history:

Halperin Donghi, T. The Contemporary History of Latin America, Duke University Press, 1993.

The Cambridge History of Latin America, edited by Bethell, L., Cambridge University Press, 1984.

Additional readings

Amin, A. Accumulation on a world scale: a critique of the theory of underdevelopment, Monthly review press, 1974.

Arico, J. Mariategui y los origenes del marxismo latinoamericano, Pasado y Presente, 1980.

Aricó, J. La cola del Diablo. El itinerario de Gramsci en América Latina. Puntosur, 1988.

Aricò, J. Marx and Latin America, Brill, 2014.

Carmagnani, M. The Other West. Latin America from invasion to globalization, University of California Press, 2011.

Coutinho, C.N. Gramci’s political thought, Brill, 2012.

Bloch, M. The historian's craft, Manchester University Press, 1954

Coutinho, C. N., “A democracia como valor universal”, in Revista Crítica Marxista, nº 1, Joruês São Paulo1979.

Coutinho, C. N., “Gramsci en Brasil”, in Cuadernos Políticos, n. 46, Ediciones Era, Mexico, abril-junio de 1986.

Dagnino, E., Alvarez, S., Escobar, A. Cultures of politics, politics of cultures: re-visioning Latin American social movements, Boulder, Westview Press, 1998.

Echeverría, B. Vuelta de siglo, Ediciones Era, 2006.

Echeverría, B. La mirada del ángel, Ediciones Era, 2005.

Flores Galindo, A. La agonía de Mariategui, DESCO, 1980

Florescano, E. “De la memoria del poder a la historia como explicación” in Villoro, L. , Pereyra, C. Historia para que?, Siglo XXI Editores, 2005, pp. 91-129.

Gonzalez Casanova, J.P. “The State and Politics in Latin America” in Casanova (ed.) Latin America Today, United Nation University Press, 1993, pp. 54-127.

González Casanova, J. P. De la sociologia del poder a la sociologia de la explotación, CLACSO, 2015.

Gandler S. Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez and Bolivar Echeverria, Koninklijke Brill, 2015.

Hirsch, J. Globalización Capital y Estado, UAM-Xochimilco, 1996.

Kanoussi, G. Schirru, G. Vacca (a cura di), Studi gramsciani nel mondo. Gramsci in America Latina, Bologna, il Mulino, 2011.

Labastida, J. (ed). Hegemonía y alternativas políticas en América Latina, Siglo XXI Editores, 1985.

Labastida, J. (ed). Los nuevos procesos sociales y la teoria política contemporánea, Siglo XXI Editores, 1985.

Latin American Perspectives, Issue 242, Vol. 49, N. 1, 2022.

Liguori, G. (2019). Gramsci e il populismo, Edizioni Unicopli, 2019.

Linera, G. and Tapia, L. (eds) El Estado Campo de lucha, CLACSO, 2010.

Marini, R.M. The Dialectics of Dependency, edited by Osorio, J., Monthly Review Press, 2022.

Martins, E. (ed.) Antologia de Ruy Mauro Marini, CLACSO, Buernos Aires, 2008.

Portantiero, J.C, Ipola, E. “Lo nacional-popular y los populismos realmente existentes”, in Nueva Sociedad, nm 54, May-June 1981.

Portantiero, : “Los usos de Gramsci” In Cuadernos de Pasado y Presente, No. 54. México, D.F., 1977 .

Portantiero, J.C. Estudios sobre los origenes del peronismo, Siglo XXI, 2004.

Portantiero “Gli usi di Gramsci” in Kanoussi, Schirru, Vacca (a cura di) Studi Gramsciani nel mondo. Gramsci in America Latina. Il Mulino, 2011.

Portantiero, J.C. La produccion de un orden: ensayos sobre la democracia entre el estado y la sociedad, Nueva vision, 1988.

Sotelo Valencia, A. Sub-imperialism revisited: dependency theory in the thought of Ruy Mauro Marini, Brill, 2017.

Tapia, L. La invención del nucleo común, La Muela del Diablo editores, 2006.

Thomas, P. The Gramscian Moment, Philosophy, Hegemony and Marxism, Brill, 2009.

Thomas, P. “Refiguring the subaltern” in Political Theory, vol. 46, n. 6, Sage, 2018.

Vanden, H and Becker, M. (eds) José Carlos Mariátegui: an Anthology. New York: Montlhy Review Press, 2011.

Zavaleta, Mercado, R. La autodeterminacion de las masas. Antologia de textos, CLACSO, Buenos Aires, 2009.

 

Teaching methods

 

Lectures will include readings of texts, class discussion and seminars by external experts.

The bibliography for attending students is composed of the books, chapters and essays listed under each class

The materials listed under "additional readings" are for those students who are willing to deepen the topic dealt within class.

The materials listed under each class be slightly amended or supplemented with additional references, provided by the instructor, depending on the number of students and their familiarity with Spanish and Portuguese (please take note that the knowledge of Spanish and/or Portuguese IS NOT compulsory in order to attend the course).

The methodology adopted for the class (class discussion and/or students groups presentation) will be defined at the beginning of the class taking into consideration its size.

The aim of the teaching methodology adopted by the course is to activate the critical analysis and informed discussion of theoretical problems and to facilitate the interaction between the instructor and the students, as well as among the students themselves.

The course will include the participation of one expert from a University and/or research centre of a Latin American country.

The bibliography for non-attending students could be partially different from that to be prepared by the attending ones. For this reason non-attending students are kindly requested to contact the instructor in due time before the exam.

Be informed that the use of generative artificial intelligence is considered a form of plagiarism

 

Assessment methods

Students who have attended classes

The assessment of the acquisition of expected knowledge and abilities by the attending students is based on the following components:

1. Presentation of an academic essay at the end of the course (60% of the final grade).

2. Participation in class discussion (40% of the grade);

(3. Optional oral exam).

Essay

The academic essay is expected to cover one of the topics addressed by the course. The title and abstract will have to be previously agreed with the instructor so as to clarify any concerns regarding its contents.

Essay's minimum length: 10 A4 pages (40mil characters, including spaces).

Essay's editorial rules: Times New Roman or Arial; 12 font size (10 for footnotes); right-left and top-bottom margins of 2.5 cm; spacing of 1.5 cm.

Essay's structure: title, abstract, keywords, introduction, main contents, conclusions.

The aim of this assessment method is to monitor the acquisition of the expected knowledge, and to foster the methodological and critical skills involved in academic research.

Participation in class discussion:

Participation in class discussion will be assessed taking into consideration the student's ability to actively participate in class activities, including:

his/her intervention in class discussions (level of attention and relevance of spontaneous intervention)

The instructor strongly emphasized the importance of reading the assigned texts so as to foster a critical debate during the class.

The (optional) oral exam

The students who would like to upgrade her/his final evaluation will have the option to sustain an oral exam. The oral exam will consist of four/five questions aimed at assessing the student’s level of knowledge of some of the most important topics addressed by the course, as well as her/his ability to critically analyse and verbally articulate them.

Evaluation

The final evaluation will be the weighted average of the score of the written essay and of the participation in class (and of the possible oral exam).

Attending students who miss or fail to present the final essay in due time will undergo an oral exam on the entire syllabus.

The ability of the student to achieve a coherent and comprehensive understanding of the topics addressed by the course, to critically assess them and to use an appropriate language will be evaluated with the highest grades (A = 27-30 con lode).

A predominantly mnemonic acquisition of the course's contents together with gaps and deficiencies in terms of language, critical and/or logical skills will result in grades ranging from good (B = 24-26) to satisfactory (C = 21-23).

A low level of knowledge of the course’s contents together with gaps and deficiencies in terms of language, critical and/or logical skills will be considered as ‘barely passing' (D = 18-20) or result in a fail grading (F)

Students who have not attended classes

Non-attending students will have to deliver an essay of minimum 15 A4 pages (for the guideline see above). Non-attending students are kindly requested to contact the instructor in due time to discuss the topic with the teacher.

The (optional) oral exam

The students who would like to upgrade her/his final evaluation will have the option to sustain an oral exam. The oral exam will consist of four/five questions aimed at assessing the student’s level of knowledge of some of the most important topics addressed by the course, as well as her/his ability to critically analyse and verbally articulate them.

Students who miss or fail to present the final essay in due time will undergo an oral exam on the entire syllabus.

he ability of the student to achieve a coherent and comprehensive understanding of the topics addressed by the course, to critically assess them and to use an appropriate language will be evaluated with the highest grades (A = 27-30 con lode).

A predominantly mnemonic acquisition of the course's contents together with gaps and deficiencies in terms of language, critical and/or logical skills will result in grades ranging from good (B = 24-26) to satisfactory (C = 21-23).

A low level of knowledge of the course’s contents together with gaps and deficiencies in terms of language, critical and/or logical skills will be considered as ‘barely passing' (D = 18-20) or result in a fail grading (F)

 

Teaching tools

Lectures and class discussions/debates will be held with the support of audio-visual tools.

Students with a form of disability or specific learning disabilities (DSA) who are requesting academic adjustments or compensatory tools are invited to communicate their needs to the teaching staff in order to properly address them and agree on the appropriate measures with the competent bodies.

Office hours

See the website of Francesca Savoia