ILAC277

This course explores gossip, rumor, and hearsay in cultures and histories of the Hispanic world. From asserting hegemonic moral values to organizing subversive movements and uprisings; from intrusions in people's private lives to community building, gossip, rumors, and hearsay have helped produce worlds and knowledge in different periods of Spanish and Latin American histories. We will examine plays, novels, short stories, historical documents, telenovelas, and other cultural objects from the seventeenth to the twentieth century in which chisme - or its cousins murmuraci¿n, rumor, and ciza¿a - operates as a device that either helps maintain or destabilize power relations. In doing so, we will consider the role of gossip, rumor, and hearsay in narrative-making; the multiple definitions of chisme and the values associated with it in different historical periods, as well as the relationship between rumors and official or "legitimate" sources of information. Ultimately, we aim to address questions such as the following: How did chisme become such a fundamental feature in different Latin American cultures? What are the tropes and stereotypes associated with gossip, and what are their histories? Are we readers of literature mere chismosos? In addressing these questions, we will also confront matters related to orality, trustworthiness, intimacy, race, and gender. Classes will be a mixture of short lectures, discussions, student presentations, and conversations with invited scholars. Taught in Spanish. Students must have taken SPANLANG 13 or equivalent.