Culture & Civilization of Argentina

The aim of this course is to analyze the culture of Argentina following a historical, anthropological and semiotic perspective. Similarly, the course has an intercultural component comparing home and host customs, traditions and values. You will study the history of Argentina from the Nineteenth century to modern times as it is expressed in its music, visual arts, literature, comic strips, TV and media products, and films. The focus of the class is to analyze Argentine myths and figures as semiotic devices for the production and reception of cultural products and the construction of social identities. Thus, we will explore the figures of the gaucho and the indio as ideological constructions of the dominant national culture in different periods of Argentine history, and we will contrast them with their reincarnations in the realm of the popular and the media of the present times. We will also address the presence of immigrants in contemporary Argentine, the culture of young people as expressed by rock and cumbia, and the history of militancia and its reformulations in contemporary films, graphic novels, and literary works.

Furthermore, in order to maximize your integration into Argentina's culture, this course guides you to critically analyze what is culture and how you can achieve intercultural strategies so as to more easily understand, adapt and learn local customs. Thus, you are asked to reflect on cultural differences between U.S and Argentina so as to more deeply analyze the host culture and navigate in your new surrounding successfully. By the end of the course, you will understand that a country's customs and traditions are linked to its historical, social, and economic development.