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Advanced Book Seminar - "Muertos Incómodos"
Course Description: In this advanced book seminar, we will read and discuss the detective novel "Muertos incómodos (falta lo que falta)", written in tandem by the prolific Mexican author Paco Ignacio Taibo II and the leader of the Zapatista movement, Subcomandante Marcos. An extraordinary collaboration between the renowned author and the insurgent leader, the novel was written against the clock, with the authors taking turns each week to publish a chapter in the Mexican newspaper, La Jornada.
Taibo, a social activist and veteran of the 1968 student movement, infuses his writing with astute social and political commentary - his most popular books include a series of 8 detective novels in which independent detective Héctor Belascoarán Shayne solves mysteries that demonstrate the very real corruption and failure of the Mexican state. Subcomandante Marcos has been military leader and spokesperson for the the indigenous zapatista movement in Chiapas since the beginning of their uprising in 1994, and he is also an accomplished writer, who approached Taibo with this idea of writing a book “by four hands”.
In “Muertos incómodos”, Taibo’s protagonist Belascoarán searches for a man named Morales, to whom many atrocities are attributed, in Mexico City, while in the alternating chapters written by Subcomandante Marcos, the same Morales is pursued in the Chiapas jungle by Elías Contreras. A truly unique literary achievement, the two authors excel at portraying details of daily life in Mexico, served with copious amounts of humor and satire, as they lay out their thrilling story and biting social critique.
Designed for students with advanced reading and speaking skills in Spanish, this course will give you the opportunity to deepen your understanding of Mexican culture and politics while expanding your vocabulary and polishing your reading comprehension and speaking skills.
All reading materials will be provided in class.
Special note on the duration of this course: Given the length of this book and in order to have enough time to discuss and talk about each chapter of the novel and relevant historical and cultural information, this course will be spread out over two terms.
Best suited for: Students who have completed or been recommended an Advanced course at Tierra.