#  HIST-LIT 90GZ: Magic and Mythology in Latin America and the Caribbean 

 





 Semester:   Spring 

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 Year offered:  2026 

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 Link: [Course Website](https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/160526) 

 

 

 

**Instructor:** [Cristina Garcia Navas](/people/cristina-garc%C3%ADa-navas)  
**Meeting time:** Wednesday, 12:45-2:45 pm

This course traces the presence of the supernatural in Latin American literature, art, and culture. How has contact between fantasy, magic, and mythology been central to defining and thinking about the contours of social and historical realities in the region? The seminar focuses on the historical meanings of fantasy, myths, and legends and how they relate to memory and identity. What is the relationship between myths and cultural imaginaries with colonial and post-colonial legacies? How has fiction about supernatural beings shaped notions of gender, race, and ethnicity, as well as national and transnational imaginary communities in the region? These are some of the questions we will explore in this course, which studies the social, ecological, and political meanings of popular myths present in the region’s literature and oral tradition. We will analyze stories about Andean Huaca deities, witches, devils, lloronas, ghosts, and other supernatural creatures inhabiting fiction and imaginaries in -and about- Latin America and the Caribbean. Assigned texts include works by Juan Rulfo, Lydia Cabrera, José Guadalupe Posada, Frida Kahlo, Remedios Varo, Leonora Carrington, Jorge Luis Borges, Aimé Césaire, Julio Cortázar, Elena Garro, Gabriel García Márquez, Gloria Anzaldúa, Davi Kopenawa, Mariana Enríquez, and Cristina Rivera Garza. While the course will be conducted in English, Spanish language materials will be available for students who wish to fulfill History & Literature’s language requirement.