Jewish Literature and Film Under Dictatorship in Latin America

Tuition: $400 | YIVO members: $325**
Students: $215 (Must register with valid university email address)

This is a live, online seminar held weekly on Zoom. Enrollment will be capped at about 15 students. All course details (Zoom link, syllabus, handouts, etc.) will be posted to Canvas. Students will be granted access to the class on Canvas after registering for the class here on the YIVO website. This class will be conducted in English.

Instructor: Sarah Valente

Course Description:
Twentieth century Jewish literature is often marked by the aftermath of the Holocaust. This course will explore how this phenomenon occurs in Latin American Jewish literature by studying Jewish literary works of fiction and nonfiction written during the various Latin American dictatorships of the twentieth century. Through a comparative approach, students will learn about artists, writers, poets, and filmmakers whose works were censored, published in exile, or used as tools of resistance against the military dictatorships. We will also watch films that address the difficulties of those who lost loved ones to dictatorships. We will discuss issues of loss and memory, and explore questions such as: How does Holocaust memory and Jewish memory intersect in the case of the Jewish desaparecidos? Focusing on first-generation Brazilian, Argentine, and Uruguayan Yiddish writers, students will analyze literary and artistic works while learning about the historical and socio-political circumstances that influenced their lives and literary creations.

Who should take this course?
This class is open to anyone interested in the topic as outlined in the course description. The class discussion will be conducted in English, and all course materials will be read in English or in English translation. No previous background knowledge or specific education level is required.

Course Materials:
Students should purchase the following books before class begins:

• K by Bernardo Kucinski (Purchase)
• The Letters That Never Came by Mauricio Rosencof, translated by Louise Popkin (Purchase)
• Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number by Jacobo Timerman, translated by Toby Talbot (Purchase)

The instructor will provide any additional course materials digitally throughout the class on Canvas.

Dr. Sarah Valente is the Marvin & Edward Kaplan Lecturer in Jewish Studies at The City College of New York. Her research is at the intersection of Latin American and Jewish history, literature, and culture, with a focus on migration, human rights, and memory. She holds a master’s degree in Literature and doctorate degree in History of Ideas from The University of Texas at Dallas, where she was a Belofsky Fellow for five years. Drawing from her training at the Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies in Dallas, the Leo Baeck Summer University in Berlin, and the Arquivo Histórico Judaico Brasileiro in São Paulo, Dr. Valente brings an interdisciplinary, multicultural, and multilingual approach to her research and teaching. She has presented at top conferences in the U.S., U.K., and Israel, was a fellow at the 2021 Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University Summer Institute, and an associate fellow at the Auschwitz Memorial and State Museum in Poland in 2016. She teaches courses on Women and the Holocaust, Exile in Literature, and Jewish Literature under Dictatorships. She also teaches at the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences at Baruch College in New York City.

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