Time Travel in Abya Yala: Decolonising Time

What if we saw time as malleable? In this course, we will examine how indigenous, latinx, and black artists manipulate experiences of time through music, visual art, and storytelling to reclaim their worlds. Understandings of time have been used to control the populations of Abya Yala (the Americas) since the beginning of the colonial period. But through different cultural understandings of time, experimental bookmaking, and other modes of creative expression, time can be experienced anew. We will pay attention to how different formats for storytelling and art alter our experience of the present. We will also identify how different ways of arranging events, visuals, and words reconfigure the relationships between the past, present, and future. The class will include fictional and theoretical works by Gloria Anzaldúa (Chicana), Manuel Tzoc (K'iche'), Patrick Chamoiseau (Martinique), Kency Cornejo (El Salvador/USA), and Dylan Robinson (Xwélmexw), amongst others.