LAIS 165: ANDEAN LIT & CULTUR

University of California, Santa Barbara

This course focuses on literature, music and culture of certain ethnic grou ps inhabiting the Andean region of South America including, but not limited to, the Aymara and Quechua peoples, their cosmovision and their languages. Through literary texts belonging to different genres, and through films, s pecial attention is placed on expressions of syncretism in seasonal festiva ls in which pre-Hispanic, European, and African music traditions and religi ons were shaped due to forced migration, wars and colonization. A strong em phasis on the ecological regions of the nations that share the Andean mount ain range contextualizes current indigenous movements of resistance against the degradation of its environment and the impact on its culture.