WRCT 308 – Ancestral Writings: (Re)Tracing AfroCarribean and Indigenous Frameworks for Creative Writing

Coined by Puerto Rican author Mayra Santos-Febres, “ancestral writing” elicits a reconceptualization of creative writing and its techniques from the point of view of our ancestors in Latin America, more particularly, the Afro-diasporic and indigenous. In this course, students will explore theoretical, literary, and cinematic material that encourages decentralizing creativity and writing as a political praxis. Concepts such as the ch’ixi in Aymara culture and biocultural memories from Andean indigenous nations will work as points of departure to develop decolonizing, anti-imperialist, and anti-racist writing techniques. Guest speakers, who include specialists in the Quechua language and Afro-Caribbean folklore, will encourage students to (re)formulate techniques for their creative writing. Students will analyze texts by Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui, Mayra Santos-Febres, Odi Gonzales, Frantz Fanon, Guaman Poma, Elicura Chihuailaf, and Solimar Otero, among others. Students will present a creative writing piece that puts into practice the material studied in class.