Department of Spanish and Portuguese

The University of Texas at Austin

ILA 387/CL 382/LAS 382S: Unsovereign Custodies: Archival Fashioning in Caribbean
Literature and Media

Spring 2018 Professor César A. Salgado

Unique Number: 45310/33211/40250 [email protected]
TH 1-4 BEN 1.118 Office/Hrs.: Ben 3.140 T 9:30-12:30

DESCRIPTION

What does literature and film have to say about the Caribbean as a field of study and the creation
of archives? Or about how archives contribute to monumentalize or revise Caribbean history and
define its agents? What forms of archiving emerge in relationship to the literary and cinematic
definition of the Caribbean as a colonial and postcolonial region? How have subaltern Caribbean
writers and filmmakers worked as custodians of cultural memory when territorial archives and
their access remain under imperial control?

How has the relationship between literature, culture, and archiving developed during the struggle
for political sovereignty and racial and social equality in the region? How are race, slavery and
post-slave society, class, gender and other subaltern categories implicated in these issues? How
have archival politics determined the relationship between literature, film, and historiography in
the Caribbean? Why is the Caribbean such an important source of historical fictions?

This seminar will address such questions from contemporary archival theory while reviewing
genre forms in Hispanic Caribbean literature that occupy a hybrid space between fiction and
documentation, literature and history, fantasy and fact: historical novels,
memoirs, crónicas, epistolaries, leyendas, and testimonial narratives. We will look into several
"case studies" of archival fashioning--the "archivo del 1898," “archiving” slavery, documenting the
Cuban Revolution in several media formats (including film) -- to investigate epistemological,
esthetic, and hermeneutic issues in the definition of what is Caribbean history and literature from
the sixteenth century to the present.

The course will be organized around the figures and work of "subaltern custodians" or “archivist-
intellectuals”. These are either literary writers, historians, filmmakers or intellectual figures that
have been involved in, have inspired or questioned the production, consolidation, or
theorization of important Caribbean or Caribbean-related libraries, archives, or collections as
part of a struggle for new forms of sovereignty (national, personal, racial, sexual, etc.). In the case
of some intellectuals, these archives in question may be the background for the production of
works of historical fiction that we will discuss in class

Class Materials

Historical Fictions and Testimonies:

Antonio Benitez Rojo, El mar de las lentejas, Mujer en traje de batalla
Alejo Carpentier, El reino de este mundo
Leonora Sansay, Secret History, or the Horrors of Santo Domingo
William Luis, ed. Juan Francisco Manzano: Esclavo y poeta en la isla de Cuba
Anselmo Suárez y Romero, Francisco, el ingenio, o las delicias del campo
Alejandro Tapia y Rivera, La palma del cacique, Mis memorias
Adolfo de Hostos, Tras las huellas de Hostos, Al servicio de Clío
Edgardo Rodríguez Julía, La renuncia del héroe Baltasar
Rosario Ferré, Maldito amor
Julia Alvarez, In the Name of Salomé
Mayra Santos, Fe en disfraz
Rita Indiana, La mucama de Omincunlé

Films and documentaries:

Sergio Giral, El otro Francisco (1975) and film cycle on Caribbean slavery
Tomás Gutierrez Alea, Una pelea cubana contra los demonios (1972)
Francisco Serrano, Seva vive (2008)
Tito Román, El Antillano (2010)

Theory and critical reader:

Selections from works by or about Giorgio Agamben, Jacques Derrida, Antonio Benítez Rojo,
Jossé Luis González, Georg Lukács, Michael-Rolph Trouillot, Jaennette Allis Bastian Diana
Taylor, Hayden White, Andreas Huyssen, Ann Laura Stoler, Michel de Certeau, Pierre Nora,
Paul Ricouer, Arthur A. Schomburg,

REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING:

Oral presentations (20%), short take-home exercise relating fictions and documents (20%),
participation (10%), 15-20 page term paper (50%)

The take-home exercise will consist of one 4-5 page essay questions related to the theories, texts,
and methods discussed in class.

PACKET 1 (at Jenn’s Copies) : R. González Echevarría; Seymour Menton, Linda Hutcheon,
Hayden White, Antonio Benítez Rojo, Eric Williams, Michel-Rolpn Trouillot, C.L.R. James,
Emma Susana Speratti-Piñero, Urbano Martínez Carmenate, Jose María Aguilera Manzano,
Julio Ramos, Sonia Labrador, Sergio Agamben, and others
PACKET 2 (at Jenn’s Copies 2/23): Rafael Rojas, Mario Cancel, Winston James, Jossianna
Arroyo, José Luis González, César A. Salgado, Fernando Picó, Luis López Nieves, Guillermo
Baralt and others

Course Outline

First Unit: Fiction, Documentation, Caribbean Archival Fashioning

Jan 18: Organizational Meeting, Introduction: Colonial Archives, Questions of Custody

Jaennette Allis Bastian, "A Question of Custody: The Colonial Archives of the United States
Virgin Islands"

Jan 23: Capitalism and Chaos as Provenance of the Caribbean according to Antonio Benítez
Rojo
Theory & Criticism:
Jaennette Allis Bastian, "Reading Colonial Records Through an Archival Lens: The Provenance
of Place, Space and Creation" (pdf Canvas)
Michel Foucault, chapter from The Archeology of Knowledge (pdf Canvas)
Eric Williams, from Capitalism and Slavery (pdf Canvas)
Antonio Benítez-Rojo, from La isla que se repite: El Caribe y la perspectiva posmoderna (pdf
Canvas); from Archivo de los pueblos del mar (pdf Canvas)
Narrative
Antonio Benítez-Rojo, El mar de las lentejas (COOP)

Feb 1: The Status of Documents in Revisionary Archival Fiction

Theory & Criticism:
Roberto González-Echevarría, from Myth and Archive: A Theory of Latin American
Narrative (packet #1)
Linda Hutcheon, from A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction (pdf)
Marika Cifor, "Affecting relations: introducing affect theory to archival discourse" (pdf)
Anne J. Gilliland & Michelle Caswell, "Records and their imaginaries: imagining the impossible,
making possible the imagined" (pdf)
Narrative:
Antonio Benítez-Rojo, El mar de las lentejas; selections from Mujer en traje de batalla
Documents:
Fragments from Rumeu de Armas, Los viajes de John Hawkins a América; Doctor
Chanca, Relación del segundo viaje de Colón (1493); Gonzalo Solís de Merás, Memorial de las
jornadas y sucesos de Menéndez de Avilés (1565); Duque de Medina-Sidonia, "Diario"; Fugger
News-letters (1588) (pdfs)

Feb. 8: Archival Silencing and Performance in the Haitian Revolution: Vaudou as Repertoire.
Theory, Historiography & Criticism:
Michel-Rolph Trouillot, from Silencing the Past: Power & the Production of History (pdf
Canvas)
C.L.R. James, from Black Jacobins (pdf Canvas)
Susan Buck-Morss, Hegel, Haiti, and Universal History (pdf Canvas)
Diana Taylor, from The Archive and the Repertoire (pdf Canvas)
Michael J. Drexler, "Imagining Aaron Burr and Haiti in Leonora Sansay's Secret History"
(online) or "Novel History: Leonora Sansay's Secret for America" (online)
Narrative:
Leonor Sansay, Secret History, or the Horrors of St Domingo
Alejo Carpentier, El reino de este mundo
Documents:
Emma Susana Speratti-Piñero, from Pasos hallados en El reino de este mundo (pdf Canvas)
Optional:
Elizabeth Maddock Dillon, "Caribbean Revolution and Print Publics: Leonora Sansay and 'The
Secret History of the Haitian Revolution'" (pdf Canvas)

Unit Two: The Domingo del Monte Circle: Fiction and the Subaltern Archive in the
Cuban/Puerto Rican Nineteenth Century
Feb. 15: Documenting/Fictionalizing Slavery in 19 th Century Cuba: the Domingo del Monte
Literary Circle in Cuba and Puerto Rico
Theory & Criticism:
Sergio Agamben, “The Archive and Testimony,” from Remnants of Auschwitz (Canvas)
Antonio Benítez Rojo, “Cuba: el círculo de Domingo del Monte” (Canvas)
Urbano Martínez Carmenate, from Domingo del Monte y su tiempo (Canvas)
Julio Ramos, “La ley es otra: Literatura y constitución del sujeto jurídico” (Canvas)
Sonia Labrador Rodríguez, “El intelectual negro en Cuba durante el siglo XIX" (Canvas)
Narrative/Documents:
Juan Francisco Manzano, Autobiografía de un esclavo (Canvas)
Alejandro Tapia y Rivera, Mis memorias (Canvas)
Optional
C.A.S., "El periodo cubano de Tapia." http://www.80grados.net/el-periodo-cubano-de-tapia/
--------. "Rememorar, conmemorar, testificar: Cuba esclavista en Mis memorias de Alejandro
Tapia y Rivera." Work in progress.

Feb. 22: Critiquing Del Montian Abolitionism in ICAIC Revisionary Filmic Adaptations: Sergio
Giral's Countervision of Suárez y Romero's Francisco
Essays, Criticism:
Mary Ann Donne, selections from The Emergence of Cinematic Time: Modernity, Continency,
the Archive
Natalie Zenon Davis, selection from Slaves on Screen: Film and Historical Vision
Judylyn S. Ryan, "Dismantling Slavery's Master Narrative Through African Diaspora Cinema"
Frank B. Wilderson III, "Social Death and Narrative Aporia in 12 Years a Slave"
Clara Rosell, "Revisión de mitos en torno a Cecilia y Francisco: de la novela del siglo XIX al
cine"
Narrative Fiction:
Anselmo Suárez y Romero, Francisco, el ingenio y las delicias del campo
http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/francisco-el-ingenio-o-las-delicias-del-campo--0/
Sergio Giral, El otro Francisco
Optional:
Steve MacQueen (dir.), 12 Years a Slave
Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave

March 1: Novela histórica decimónica vs. ficción de archivo pos-soviético en el Caribe hispano
Theory & Criticism:
Domingo del Monte, “La novela histórica” (CANVAS)
Georg Lukács, from The Historical Novel (CANVAS)
Alejandro González Acosta, "Heredia: iniciador de caminos" (CANVAS)
Narrative:
Jose Antonio Echevarría, Antonelli (CANVAS)
Alejandro Tapia y Rivera, La palma del cacique (CANVAS)
Leonardo Padura Fuentes, La novela de mi vida (Amazon Kindle)

UNIT THREE: Writer-Archivists, Writer Archives

March 8: Archiving & Recovering Lola Rodríguez de Tío: the challenge of the epistolario.
Theory & Criticism:
Edna Acosta-Belén, "Lola Rodriguez de Tió and the Puerto Rican Struggle for Freedom"
(CANVAS)
N. La Greca & C. Salgado, "Lola Rodríguez de Tió," Latin American Women Writers
Encyclopedia (CANVAS)
César A. Salgado, http://www.80grados.net/lola-rodriguez-de-tio-y-el-genero-epistolar-en-la-
historiografia-proceratista/ (Links to an external site.)
Mario Cancel Sepúlveda, "Figurar el procerato: el caso de Lola Rodríguez de Tió" (CANVAS)
Mabel Cuesta. "Lola Rodríguez de Tió o el perpetuo viaje." (CANVAS)
Literary Readings:
Lola Rodríguez de Tió and Laura Nazario de Tió, selection of letters (CANVAS on March 3)
Rodríguez de Tió, selection of poems http://ciudadseva.com/autor/lola-rodriguez-de-
tio/poemas/

SPRING BREAK

March 22: The Place of New York-based Journalism in Martí's Cuban Archive
Selections from José Martí, Escenas norteamericanas
Oscar Montero, from José Martí, An Introduction (packet)
Julio Ramos, from Desencuentros de la modernidad (Packet)

March 29: Refashioning the Afrodiaspora Archive: Arthur/Arturo A. Schomburg

On Race and Critical Archival Theory:
Anthony W. Dunbar, "Introducing critical race theory to archival discourse: getting the
conversation started"
Tonia Sutherland, "Archival Amnesty: In search of Black American Transitional and Restorative
Justice"
Scholarship on Schomburg
Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof, "The Migrations of Arturo Schomburg: On Being Antillano, Negro,
and Puerto Rican in New York 1891-1938"
Kevin Meehan & Paul Miller, "La cuestión racial en Martí y Schomburg"
César A. Salgado, "The Archive and Afro-Latina/o Field-Formation: Arturo Alfonso Schomburg
at the Intersection of Puerto Rican and African American Studies and Literatures"
Jossianna Arroyo, "Transculturations of Race, Gender & Ethnicity in Arturo A. Schomburg's
Masonic Writings"
Primary sources:
Selections from Arturo Schomburg's writings (1 & 2)

April 11: The Making of San Juan as Historical Theme Park: Edgardo Rodriguez Juliá's
Critique of Adolfo de Hostos' Urban Archeology
Historiography and Criticism:
César A. Salgado, “Archivos encontrados: Edgardo Rodríguez Juliá y los diablejos de la
historiografía criolla” (Canvas)
Adolfo de Hostos, Al servicio de Clío (Canvas)
Fiction:
Edgardo Rodríguez Juliá, La renuncia del héroe Baltasar (Canvas)
PRESENTATIONS ABOUT TERM PAPER RESEARCH

UNIT IV: GENDER IN CARIBBEAN HISTORIOGRAPHICAL METAFICTIONS BY

WOMEN AUTHORS
Thu April 12: Gender Politics and Hegemonic & Archival Transfers in Puerto Rico After the
Spanish American War (Rosario Ferré counters José Luis González's metanarrative of immanent
independence)
Historiography and Criticism:
José Luis González, El país de cuatro pisos (CANVAS)
César A. Salgado, "El entierro de González: Con(tra)figuraciones de 1898 en la narrativa
ochentista puertorriqueña" (CANVAS)
Fiction:
Rosario Ferré, Maldito amor (CANVAS, required)
Rosario Ferré, The House on the Lagoon/La casa en la laguna (AMAZON, discretionary,
presented by Ashley García)
Optional Fiction:
José Luis González, La llegada (CANVAS)
Luis López Nieves, Seva (CANVAS)

Wed April 18 or Th 19: Dominican Historiographical Metafictions and Female Authorial

Archives and Metafiction Under Dictatorship and in Exile: Henríquez Ureña/Mirabal/Alvarez
Historiography and Criticism:
Short Dossier on Salomé and Camila Henríque Ureña. Short Dossier on the Mirabal Sisters

Fiction:

Julia Alvarez, In the Time of Butterflies (AMAZON, required)
Julia Alvarez, In the Name of Salomé (AMAZON, discretionary, presented and commented by
Nina Sport Cline)
TENTATIVE: Meeting might take place at the Harry Ransom Center on April 18 2-5PM

Wed April 25: De-archiving Race, Feminism, and History in Puerto Rico
Historiography and Criticism:
Selections from Juan Pablo Rivera and Nadia Celis, ed. Lección errante: Mayra Santos Febres y
el Caribe contemporáneo

Fiction:

Mayra Santos, Fe en disfraz (AMAZON, required)
Mayra Santos, Nuestra Señora de la Noche (AMAZON, discretionary, presented and
commented by Mónica Ocasio)

Thu May 3: Imagining Diasporic and Post-Apocalyptic Archives in Hispaniola and the
Caribbean
Historiography and Criticism: TBA
Fiction:
Rita Indiana, La mucama de Omincunlé (AMAZON)
Rita Indiana, La estrategia de Chochueca (CANVAS, discretionary, presented and commented
by Joshua Ortiz)

Grading System
Two book reports (oral/written), one on Caribbean Studies, the other on Archival Theory (20%).
Class participation (20%). One 20-25 page term paper (60%) due on Wed. May 10.

Students are expected to give period short presentations on particular readings assigned and an
oral presentation on a book or substantial theoretical article dealing with the issue of fiction and
historical documentation, fiction and historiography, etc., included in the selected bibliography.
This oral presentation must be regarded as an opportunity to begin developing the topic of the
term paper.

BOOKS FOR REPORT ON ARCHIVAL THEORY

Giorgio Agamben, Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive
Jacques Derrida, Mal d’archive (Archival Fever)
Andres Huyssen, Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory
Carolyn Hamilton et al, eds Refiguring the Archive
Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain: Epistemic Anxities and Colonial Common
Michael-Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History
Diana Taylor, The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas
Hayden White, Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenthy Century Europe,
Tropics of History
The Content of the Form
Figural Realism: Studies in the Mimesis Effect
Michel de Certeaux, Ecrir l’Histoire (The Writing of History)
Paul Ricouer, La mémoire, l'histoire, l'oubli. (Memory, History, Forgetting)
Roger Chartier, Au bord de la falaise : l'histoire entre certitudes et inquiétude (On the edge of
the cliff : history, language, and practices)
Forms and meanings : text, performance, and audience
Inscription and erasure : literature and written culture from the eleventh to the eighteenth
century
Pierre Nora, Les lieux de memoir (Sites of Memory)
Antoinette Burton, ed. Archive Stories: Facts, Fictions, and the Writing of History
Julio Ramos, Desencuentros de la modernidad
Rafael Rojas, José Marti o la invención de Cuba
Islas sin fin
Tumbas sin sosiego
Motivos de Anteo
Pedro San Miguel, La isla imaginada: historia, identidad y utopía en La Española.
José Buscaglia-Salgado, Undoing Empire: Race and Nation in the Mulatto Caribbean
José Quiroga, Cuban Palimpsests