Luis Hernán Castañeda
Office
Voter Hall 209
Tel
(802) 443-5981
Email
lcastaneda@middlebury.edu
Office Hours
On leave

Professor Luis H. Castañeda teaches courses on Spanish language at all levels and on 20th/21st-century Hispanic literature, film and culture. He is a member of the Spanish and Portuguese department and has taught graduate courses for the Spanish Summer School (Summer 2014). A native of Lima, Perú, Professor Castañeda earned a B.A. in Hispanic literature from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (2006). After graduation, he came to the United States to pursue graduate studies in Literature at the University of Colorado, Boulder (M.A. in Spanish, 2008; Ph.D in Spanish, 2012).

Castañeda’s academic specialization is the contemporary novel from Spanish America and Spain, with a focus on the transatlantic circulation of texts, discourses and subjectivities. His main area of inquiry is the fictional representation of authorship, concentrating on the institutional and political role of (neo)avant-garde aesthetic communities. Such communities are studied in his monograph Comunidades efímeras. Grupos de vanguardia y neovanguardia en la novela hispanoamericana del siglo XX (2015). He has published a number of scholarly articles and presented conference papers related to these topics. Castañeda is also interested in Peruvian literature, Colonial Spanish American literature and Valle-Inclán. As a creative writer he is the author of eight books, among them El futuro de mi cuerpo (2010), La noche americana (2011), La fiesta del humo (2016) and Mi madre soñaba en francés (2018).

Courses Taught

Course Description

Senior Thesis
A senior thesis is normally completed over two semesters. During Fall and Winter terms, or Winter and Spring terms, students will write a 35-page (article length) comparative essay, firmly situated in literary analysis. Students are responsible for identifying and arranging to work with their primary language and secondary language readers, and consulting with the program director before completing the CMLT Thesis Declaration form. (Approval required.)

Terms Taught

Winter 2022, Winter 2023, Fall 2023, Winter 2024, Fall 2024, Winter 2025

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Course Description

Latin American Studies Senior Thesis
(Approval Required)

Terms Taught

Winter 2021, Spring 2021, Winter 2022, Spring 2022, Winter 2023, Spring 2023, Winter 2024, Spring 2024, Winter 2025, Spring 2025

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Course Description

Beginning Spanish I
This course is an introduction to the fundamentals of grammar and focuses on the development of four skills in Spanish: comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing. Emphasis will be placed on active communication aimed at the development of oral and comprehension skills. This course is for students who have not previously studied Spanish. Students are expected to continue with SPAN 0104 after successful completion of SPAN 0101. 5 hrs. lect./disc.

Terms Taught

Fall 2023

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Course Description

Beginning Spanish II
This course is a continuation of SPAN 0101. Intensive reading, writing, and oral activities will advance students’ proficiency in Spanish in an academic setting. (SPAN 0101 or placement exam) 6 hrs. lect./disc.

Terms Taught

Spring 2022, Spring 2024

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Course Description

Intermediate Spanish
This accelerated course is designed to review, reinforce, and consolidate the linguistic structures that students need in order to reach the intermediate level of proficiency in Spanish. A grammar review will accompany intensive language acquisition, vocabulary expansion, readings, discussions, and compositions. (SPAN 0103 or SPAN 0105 or SPAN 0104 or placement tests) 3 hrs. lect., 1 hr. drill.

Terms Taught

Fall 2021

Requirements

LNG

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Course Description

Intermediate Spanish II
A course for students seeking to perfect their academic writing skills in Spanish. The course is also an introduction to literary analysis and critical writing and will include reading and oral discussion of literary texts. The course will also include a thorough review of grammar at a fairly advanced level. This course may be used to fulfill the foreign languages distribution requirement. (SPAN 0201, SPAN 0210, or placement) 3 hrs. lect./disc.

Terms Taught

Spring 2024, Spring 2025

Requirements

LNG

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Course Description

Creative Reading & Writing
In this course we will read and write short stories in Spanish. After Borges, Latin American writers understand their task as the creative reading and rewriting of literary tradition. The first module of the course is devoted to developing students’ awareness of how reading and writing are intertwined through intertextuality. The second module offers a workshop in which students will produce their own fiction and comment on their classmates’ work. Through creative reading and writing, students will hone their skills in Spanish. (SPAN 0220 or placement) 3 hrs. lect./disc.

Terms Taught

Spring 2021, Fall 2021

Requirements

AAL, AMR, LIT, LNG

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Course Description

Peru: Identity, Ethnicity, History
In this course we will study Peru’s diverse cultures, races, and ethnicities. Our discussion of Peruvian identity(-ies) will be connected to an exploration of selected topics of history and politics, with an emphasis on contemporary Peru: the Internal Conflict, Fujimori's dictatorship, and the return to democracy (1980-the present). We will read literary works and historical accounts, watch films and documentaries, and look at art and photography in order to extract their key themes and better understand the construction of Peru as a complex, multilingual nation, considering its past, present, and future. Relations with the United States and Latin America will be addressed. (SPAN 0220 or placement) 3 hrs. lect/disc.

Terms Taught

Fall 2020, Spring 2025

Requirements

AAL, AMR, HIS, SOC

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Course Description

The Luso Hispanic Fiction Writer
In this course we will study the representation of the writer of fiction in Luso-Hispanic contemporary narrative. As Julio Premat argues, writers often understand their task not only as the creation of literary works, but also as the fashioning of an authorial self within fiction and through essays, interviews, photographs. We will study how and why such images are crafted, and how they reflect ideas about the aesthetic and political role of the writer, the “truth” of fiction, the interplay between literature and reality, and the relationship between authorship and gender. Portuguese-language texts will be read in Spanish translation. (Two Spanish courses at the 0300-level or above, or waiver) 3 hrs. lect./disc.

Terms Taught

Spring 2021

Requirements

AAL, AMR, LIT, LNG

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Course Description

Catholicism in Latin America
In this course we will study cultural representations of the long history and deep influence of the Roman Catholic Church in Spanish and Portuguese-speaking Latin America. Beginning with the colonization of the Americas in the 15th century, Catholicism has vastly contributed to shape the continent in every respect and is currently the major religion of nearly every Latin American country, with more than 425 million Catholics: almost 40% of the world's total Catholic population. It is impossible to understand Latin America without studying the impact of this world religion. Students will learn about colonial evangelization, new local forms of Catholicism, anticlericalism, liberation theology, the growth of Evangelicals, the papacy of Pope Francis, as well as the artistic footprint of Catholicism through the analysis of historical, cultural, filmic, and literary texts.

Terms Taught

Spring 2024

Requirements

AMR, LNG, PHL

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Course Description

The Latin American ‘novela total’
In this seminar we will read Latin American ‘total novels’: long and complex fictional artifacts that purport to map the whole of reality in all its perspectives. We will analyze the structure of landmark ‘total novels,’ explore the intersection of modernist aesthetics and Cold War politics that made them possible, and probe their current relevance. Texts may include Cien años de soledad (1967) by García Márquez and Conversación en La Catedral (1969) by Vargas Llosa, as well as more recent novels that attempt to renew this tradition. (Two Spanish courses at the 300-level or above, or by waiver.) 3 hrs. sem.

Terms Taught

Fall 2020, Fall 2023

Requirements

AAL, AMR, LIT, LNG

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Course Description

Gabriel García Márquez's Cien años de soledad
Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez is one of the most significant authors of 20th century literature, and Cien años de soledad is often considered the most important Latin American novel ever written. In this course we will delve into this masterpiece from different perspectives. Through close-reading we will focus on its literary aspects - form, style, metaphor - while making connections with García Márquez’s life, Colombian history, Cold War politics, the Latin American Boom, metafiction, magical realism, and issues of race and gender. (Two Spanish courses at the 0300-level or above, or waiver) (formerly SPAN 0378) 3 hrs. lect./disc

Terms Taught

Fall 2021, Spring 2022

Requirements

AAL, AMR, LIT, LNG

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Course Description

Independent Study
The department will consider requests by qualified juniors and senior majors to engage in independent work. (Approval only)

Terms Taught

Fall 2020, Winter 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Winter 2022, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Winter 2023, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Winter 2024, Spring 2024, Winter 2025, Spring 2025

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Course Description

Senior Honors Thesis
The department will award honors, high honors, or highest honors on the basis of a student's work in the department and performance in SPAN 0705. (Approval only)

Terms Taught

Fall 2020, Winter 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Winter 2022, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Winter 2023, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Winter 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Winter 2025, Spring 2025

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Course Description

Intermediate Spanish: Hispanic Societies and Cultures
This course is designed to develop and integrate communicative resources from other courses in the program, in addition to increasing cultural proficiency and knowledge by providing abundant opportunities to students expand on existing knowledge of the cultures of the Spanish-speaking world, and to arrive at a deeper understanding of the Spanish and American cultures. Topics include present, traditions, and artistic manifestations of culture from Hispanic world (mainly Spain and Latin America), as well as a basic outline of the history of these regions. Materials include extensive readings (literary and journalistic texts), social media, and audiovisual sources (films). Class activities include in-class discussion, interviews with native speakers, and compositions. (1 unit)

Terms Taught

Summer 2022 Language Schools, LS 7 Week Session, Summer 2023 Language Schools, LS 7 Week Session

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Course Description

Latin American Short Novel
The short novel or novella is an often misunderstood genre: not brief enough to be considered a short story or cuento, nor long enough to qualify as a full-length novel or novela, this peculiar type of text has nevertheless a substance and personality of its own. Widely practiced throughout the 20th century in Latin America, we continue to find exceptional cases of it in contemporary times. In this course we will read short novels by authors such as Adolfo Bioy Casares (La invención de Morel), María Luisa Bombal (La amortajada), José Donoso (El lugar sin límites), Gabriel García Márquez (El coronel no tiene quien le escriba), Juan Carlos Onetti (Los adioses), Juan Rulfo (Pedro Páramo), Roberto Bolaño (Estrella distante), or others.

Terms Taught

Summer 2024 Language Schools, LS 6 Week Session

Requirements

Literature

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Course Description

Contemporary Latin American Poetry
What are the main strands of modern Latin American poetry and what has been the genre’s role in 20th century Latin America? This course aims to provide students with the tools needed to read and interpret poetry from this region, while fostering appreciation of the huge variety of texts that conform the canon of poetry. Its main focus will be on close reading of individual poems, though making reference to social and political contexts. We will read selections of representative poets from different countries, which may include Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina), Gabriela Mistral (Chile), Pablo Neruda (Chile), Octavio Paz (México), Idea Vilariño (Uruguay), and César Vallejo (Perú), among others.

Terms Taught

Summer 2024 Language Schools, LS 6 Week Session

Requirements

Literature

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Publications

Books:

1. Comunidades efímeras. Grupos de vanguardia y neovanguardia en la novela hispanoamericana del siglo XX. New York: Peter Lang, 2015. Print.

Comunidades efímeras studies a theme present in a corpus of canonical 20th century Spanish American novels from Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, and Chile (1929-1998): the avant-garde or neo-avant-garde group of subversive artists and intellectuals who assemble to transform life into art, conspire against official institutions, and experiment with social-life models. The book offers a critical reading of the fictional representation of such groups in novels by Roberto Arlt, Leopoldo Marechal, Julio Cortázar, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Fernando del Paso, and Roberto Bolaño. The communities that protagonize these works can be described as ephemeral circles of aesthetes engaged in the pursuit of radical collective experiences. Comunidades efímeras argues that the ethos of the historical avant-gardes, and of its neo-avant-garde iterations, is transfigured in the Spanish American context by groups that engage in the aesthetization of communal life and in the production of alternative cultural fields. In these spaces of shared alterity, marginal subjects create their own order while challenging hegemonic discourses of art, culture, politics, and national belonging. The enduring legacy of the avant-garde and its centrality to Spanish American literature is palpable in the texts analyzed here, which range from the 1920s to the 1990s and beyond.

2. Han cambiado de agua tus ojos. Alfonso Cisneros Cox. Poética, poesía, persona. In memoriam. Edited by Luis H. Castañeda, César Lengua, and Patricia Saldarriaga. Lima: Sur, 2016. Print.

3. Alternative Communities in Latin American and Iberian Literature. Edited by Luis H. Castañeda and Javier González. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2016. Print.

4. Un asombro renovado. Vanguardias contemporáneas en América Latina. Edited by Matthew Bush and Luis H. Castañeda. Frankfurt-Madrid: Iberoamericana Vervuert, 2017. Print.

Articles and Chapters:

“La postmemoria de la izquierda latinoamericana en Nuevos juguetes de la Guerra Fría de Juan Manuel Robles.” Romance notes 58.1 (2018): 157-166. Print.

Bush, Matthew and Castañeda, Luis H. “Procedimientos de la nostalgia: Bolaño y Aira frente a la vanguardia.” Co-authored book chapter in Un asombro renovado. Vanguardias contemporáneas en América Latina. Edited by Matthew Bush and Luis H. Castañeda. Madrid and Frankfurt am Main: Iberoamericana Vervuert, 2017. 221-243. Print.

“Cambiar de piel: migración, literatura mundial y ciudadanía posnacional en El síndrome de Ulises de Santiago Gamboa.” Finisterre: en el último lugar del mundo. Migraciones en la cultura y literatura hispanoamericanas. Edited by Wladimir Chávez Vaca and Leonor Taiano. Mexico City: Editorial Grupo Destiempos, 2017. 36-56. Print.

“Two Peruvian Circles of Artists: Artistic Communities and Globalization in the Novels of Iván Thays and Rodrigo Núñez Carvallo.” Alternative Communities in Latin American and Iberian Literature. Edited by Luis H. Castañeda and Javier González. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2016. 215-235. Print.

“Vanguardia y violencia en el Cono Sur: Bolaño relee a Arlt.” Cuadernos de literatura 29.39 (2016): 312- 337. Published by Pontificia Universidad Javierana de Bogotá, Colombia. Print.

Castañeda, Luis H. and Marambio, Victoria ‘14.5 (Middlebury graduate).”Batallas cotidianas en Sueños bárbaros de Rodrigo Núñez Carvallo: cine independiente, performance comunitaria y resistencia ¿democrática? en el Perú de Sendero y Fujimori.” Chasqui. Revista de literatura latinoamericana XLIV.2 (Nov. 2015): 33-49. Print.

“Zonas de penumbra, fisuras profundas, oquedades abismales: escritura autobiográfica, reflexión ensayística y definición de la experiencia en El arte de la fuga de Sergio Pitol.” Revista iberoamericana 250 (Enero-Marzo 2015): 183-200. Print.

“Los signos y las armas en Historia de Mayta de Mario Vargas Llosa. La revolución post-utópica del autor latinoamericano en las décadas finales del siglo XX.” Confluencia. Revista hispánica de cultura y literatura 30.2 (Spring 2015): 25-39. Print.

Castañeda, Luis H. and Lesta García, Laura. “Los romances contragóricos de Valle-Inclán: ironía, idealización y desmitificación del pasado en el cuarteto de las Sonatas.” Cincinnati Romance Review 38 (Fall 2014): 198-215. Web.

“El mito imperial español en Valle-Inclán: una lectura alegórica de la Sonata de estío.“ Hispanófila 171.1 (June 2014): 201-216. Print.

“Luis Loayza y el canon de la literatura peruana: condición colonial, ética literaria y forma ensayística en El sol de Lima.” Revista hispánica moderna 67.1 (June 2014): 1-16. Print.

“En el país de los fantasmas sin nombre: guerra interna, estado totalitario y duelo nacional en Lost City Radio de Daniel Alarcón.” Revista iberoamericana 244-245 (Jul.-Dic. 2013): 1123-1139. Print. (Released Oct. 2014).

“De padres e hijos: la construcción (auto)biográfica del prestigio artístico en Tiempo de vida de Marcos Giralt Torrente.” Revista canadiense de estudios hispánicos 37.3 (Primavera 2013): 459-79. Print.

“El fracaso del mal: Damas chinas de Mario Bellatin.” Salón de anomalías. Diez lecturas críticas acerca de la obra de Mario Bellatin. Ed. Raggio, Salvador. Lima: Ediciones Altazor, 2013. 99-118. Print.

“La boca de la sierpe, la quijada del león: (in)moralidad, verdad intraverbal y diseminación en los Sueños de Quevedo.” Romance Quarterly 60.4 (Sept. 2013): 196-207. Print. 

“Belano, Wieder y Reiter: tres autores malditos en las novelas de Roberto Bolaño.” Libros & Artes, Revista de la Biblioteca Nacional del Perú XI.60-61 (Abril de 2013): 32-35. Print.

“Los lazos de la autoría: las novelas de Edgardo Rivera Martínez.” Libros & Artes, Revista de la Biblioteca Nacional del Perú XI.54-55 (Julio de 2012): 27-29. Print.

“Una dispersa dinastía de solitarios: la sociedad secreta en los cuentos de Borges.” Variaciones Borges 32 (2011): 179-200. Print.

“Personas fidedignas y palabras formales: estrategias de legitimación del narrador historiográfico en la cuarta parte de la Crónica del Perú de Pedro Cieza de León.” Hispanic Review 79.3 (Summer 2011): 399-423. Print.