Advanced Diploma in Central American Studies through its Literature
2th Cohort | Virtual Modality | Starts in June 2025
ACADEMIC COORDINATION
María del Pilar López Martínez (National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico and National Autonomous University of Honduras, Honduras); Yosahandi Navarrete Quan (National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico); Carmen Elena Villacorta (National University of Jujuy, Argentina); Andrés Felipe Escovar (O Istmo, Colombia); and Aleksander Aguilar antunes (O Istmo, Brazil).
Home: 25 / 06 / 2025 | Registration: 28/11/2024 al 24/06/2025
Virtual format | June to September 2025
This Diploma program seeks to approach, from an interdisciplinary perspective, the analysis of diverse aesthetic and literary phenomena in contemporary Central America. Based on the idea that Central America has been in a state of constant (de)construction for several decades and that this evolution is foreshadowed in its narrative and arts—and in dialogue with the isthmian perspective proposed by the O Istmo Articulation—the program aims to construct new analytical methodologies supported by critical perspectives, developed from texts across various disciplines, on the aesthetic expression of processes intrinsic to current realities. The program focuses on the literary aesthetics of a region that, having experienced rapid changes since the end of the last century, participates in the construction of new fundamental concepts and categories.
It comprises five modules in which literary expressions will be reviewed in relation to current discussions such as: citizenship (associated with migration, borders, identities and belongings); State (transformation and functions far removed from its most traditional definitions); gender and new identities; memories; history and atomization (the impossibility of the category and its ontological meaning in narratives for the formation of nation-states); violence (for example, conceiving femicides as genocide, views on the impoverishment and living conditions of inhabitants from the perspective of state violence), among others.
The study of current Central American societies identifies the cultural sphere as a space for questioning and reflecting on their problems and realities. Beyond traditional academic conceptions related to politics, aesthetic practice articulates different debates concerning the transformations in how social actors perceive and relate to one another. This diploma program will address voices that express diverse deconstructive aesthetics about a Central America that cannot be defined by static and disciplinary parameters. We propose that art questions, criticizes, and anticipates the processes that arise from imaginaries, manifest themselves in the geographies of language, the discursive limits, and foster a greater understanding of other categories. This allows for a deeper study and reflection on social realities. As a continuation of the virtual seminar on Revolutions and their current situation in Central America, organized by the Working Group The Central American Isthmus (given in 2018 and 2021 on the CLACSO virtual platform), the diploma course will address narratives from the 90s onwards. That decade marks a break in the region's narrative. The end of armed conflicts and the cessation of the revolutionary dream forces a change in literary discourse and a redefinition of social identities and sociocultural projects based on the new reality. The objective of literature is transformed: it no longer seeks to create political awareness or reveal social problems for collective action. During this transition, novels and testimonials will enhance narratives of social experiences, while short stories and poetry will be vehicles for individual expression. Intellectuals and writers will demand that literature fulfill a dual function: preserving memories and contributing to the definition of new subjectivities, building, from the plausible, the new faces of nations in transformation. Faced with the failure of neoliberal models and the context of complex Central American societies, the questioning will extend to the foundations of everyday life and what is considered true. Thus, literature will be central to redefining the social imaginaries of the post-war period. The two main paths of post-war narrative, from the resurgence of fiction, are: the current known as the aesthetics of disenchantment, composed mostly of critical novels dedicated to the armed processes and the beginning of the democratic transition; and the so-called literature of emergency and representation of diversity, influenced, according to Arturo Arias, by the crisis in the representativeness of Central America and the emergence of new trends and themes at the international level. The reference point is no longer the region, but the rest of the world and its sociocultural expressions: cinema, music, painting, art and the social problems they recreate. The post-war period also heralded transformations in the content and forms of storytelling. The literary representations that societies make of themselves cannot be explained solely by the political changes in Central America. Other aesthetic pursuits and situations drive them. The importance of studying and analyzing these liminal or border texts lies in understanding sociocultural phenomena in the context of armed conflict and the transition after its conclusion; as well as the implications that these representations have on the maintenance or transformation of the social imaginaries of each Central American nation. The challenge posed by the study of Central American literature extends to new epistemological definitions: it opens up to currents of thought and disciplines that take up narrative as a fundamental element for the comprehensive understanding of our present.
General objective:
To contribute to the generation of analytical methodologies that allow addressing the prefiguration and construction of phenomena in transit, in societies with accelerated changes, based on the interdisciplinary study of Central American literature, the aesthetic experience of its reading and its social and cultural repercussions.
Specific objectives:
1. Adopt the “isthmian perspective” to problematize rigid, nationalist or unproductive views for thinking about the complexity of the Central American isthmus and its recent transformations.
2. Analyze the ways in which the literary aesthetic experience participates in the construction (deconstruction, transformation, transgression) of social imaginaries from the narrative in Central America.
3. To propose new interdisciplinary methodologies of analysis that address the literary aesthetic experience, taking into consideration cultural and social phenomena.
4. To propose avenues of reflection to develop studies on literary aesthetics as a critical representation of social problems in Central America.
5. Develop new categories to conceive of open and transitional concepts such as citizenship, nation, State, migration, violence, gender, post-war, from their prefiguration in literature.
The Higher Diploma in Studies on Central America through its Literature is aimed at undergraduate and postgraduate students; teachers at all levels; activists and members of trade union organizations, social movements and political parties; public officials; members and managers of non-governmental organizations and professionals interested in the subject.
The program consists of 5 modules, each with 3 weekly classes, taught consecutively and interconnected. The course combines synchronous and asynchronous learning.
Total workload of 128 hours.
The modules that comprise the advanced diploma are:
Class 1: Central America as a literary region: past reflections and present discussions
Teacher: Yosahandi Navarrete and Pilar López
Conceptual summary of the class
This class will discuss the concept of Central America as a region from an isthmian perspective. It will also provide an overview of Central American literary tradition from the late 19th century to the present.
Class 2: The contemporary Central American literary phenomenon: Local and global cultural and political interconnections
Teacher: Yosahandi Navarrete and Pilar López
Conceptual summary of the class
From an interdisciplinary perspective, taking into account history, culture, and the socio-political context, this discussion will explore the relationship between phenomena such as migration, violence, drug trafficking, and the literature of the isthmus. The aim is to reflect on fiction as a mirror of the social context, its critical perspective, and the questioning of the social, political, and economic problems underlying its narratives.
Class 3: Continuities and ruptures in Central American literature. Main themes and imaginaries
Teacher: Yosahandi Navarrete and Pilar López
Conceptual summary of the class
In this class, we will review the most representative themes of Central American narratives, the stylistic breaks (time, narrative space) as an artifice to create imaginaries and involve the reader in the interpretation of symbols and images about the main problems in the contexts of Central American countries, social actors, spaces of representation.
Class 4: Literature of violence, disenchantment, and cynicism
Teacher: Christy Najarro
Conceptual summary of the class
This class will discuss the most representative critical postulates and theoretical approaches to contemporary Central American literature. It will explore literature as an art form and aesthetics as a critical space for reflection and the construction of imaginaries.
Class 5: Literatures of memory, postnational and in motion
Teacher: Christy Najarro
Conceptual summary of the class
This class will compare literature as testimony with narratives that explore the theme of historical, social, and individual memory. It will examine new ways in which memory is constructed, its representation in literature, and the role of women as shapers of historical memory, as exemplified by the emblematic trial of Sepur Zarco.
Class 6: Generic literatures
Teacher: Amaral Palevi, Fernandes Figueira Institute
Conceptual summary of the class
This class will focus on the gender diversity present in Central American narrative, from queer literature, the feminist stance and the struggles of the LGBT+ community.
Class 7: From the failure of utopia to the aesthetic quest
Teacher: Carmen Elena Villacorta
Conceptual summary of the class
In this class we will talk about the break between the committed narrative of the sixties and seventies, the testimonial literature of the eighties and nineties, and the aesthetic search that characterizes the narrative of the post-war period and the 21st century, whose objective is no longer to denounce or reveal, but to aesthetic experimentation, whose references can be identified in art, film, photography and music.
Class 8: Metamorphosis and Identity
Teacher: Christy Najarro
Conceptual summary of the class
This class will reflect on the reconfiguration of identity in post-war literature, from the metamorphosis of the characters, who must find their role in the new reality, stripped of the hope and utopian dreams that characterize committed literature and the first half of the 20th century.
Class 9: Literature of violence, disenchantment, and cynicism
Teacher: Christy Najarro
Conceptual summary of the class
This class will discuss the most representative critical postulates and theoretical approaches to contemporary Central American literature. It will explore literature as an art form and aesthetics as a critical space for reflection and the construction of imaginaries.
Class 10: The heroic transition: From guerrilla hero to the orphanhood of heroes
Teacher: Andrés Felipe Escóvar
Conceptual summary of the class
In this class, we will focus on the discontinuity between the heroic figure that predominated during armed conflicts and the so-called literature of cynicism and disenchantment, which reflects the disillusionment caused by the failure of revolutionary utopias. We will also explore the themes of characters without goals, identity, or life plans.
Class 11: Social imaginaries in crime literature
Teacher: Andrés Felipe Escóvar
Conceptual summary of the class
In this class we will talk about Central American crime literature, as a mirror of the violence that is not only reflected in criminality, but also in that derived from war, intra-family and social relationships.
Class 12: Figurations of the State in Central American Literature
Teacher: Carmen Elena Villacorta
Conceptual summary of the class
In this class we will reflect on how literature questions concepts such as state, nation, and identity through fiction, discourse, narrative space, and characters.
Class 13: Poverty, representation and imaginaries
Teacher: Amaral Arévalo
Conceptual summary of the class
In this class, we will reflect on the narrative representation whose underlying message reveals state abandonment of marginalized populations, the lack of justice, education, and healthcare. We will examine poverty belts as catalysts for marginalization, crime, forced displacement, and migration.
Class 14: Forced displacement
Teacher: Yosahandi Navarrete
Conceptual summary of the class
This class will offer an introduction to forced displacement in Central America, based on its expression in contemporary literature.
Class 15: The blurring of borders: Central American migration
Teacher: Andrés Felipe Escóvar
Conceptual summary of the class
In this class, we will discuss the narrative representation of the global phenomenon of migration. Social unrest, crime, and poverty are some of the problems that force a large number of Central Americans to embark on the so-called migrant caravans. The experience of displacement, the lack of identity, and social rejection are addressed by writers from the Isthmus from a critical perspective.
- María del Pilar López Martínez (National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico and National Autonomous University of Honduras, Honduras)
- Yosahandi Navarrete Quan (National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico)
- Carmen Elena Villacorta (National University of Jujuy, Argentina)
- Andrés Felipe Escovar (O Istmo, Colombia)
- Aleksander Aguilar antunes (The Isthmus, Brazil)
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In one payment by 30/06 |
In one payment after 30/06 |
Payment in 3 installments |
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Full or Associate Member Center |
$185 |
$240 |
USD 315 (3 x USD 105) |
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No link |
$310 |
$370 |
USD 540 (3 x USD 180) |
* Residents of Argentina will pay the equivalent in Argentine pesos according to the official exchange rate of the Banco de la Nación Argentina (BNA) on the day of payment.
You must be registered in the CLACSO Single Registration System (SUIC) and enter your username and password. If you are not registered, click here. hereTo access the registration form, you must click the "Register" button on the webpage of the Diploma you are interested in.
Upon completion of the registration process, you will receive a confirmation in your email.
Classes will begin on June 25 and will conclude in September 2025.
All registered participants will receive, on the first day of activities, the necessary instructions to access the classes, bibliography, and discussion forums through the CLACSO Virtual Training Space.
Accessing and navigating the Virtual Learning Environment is very simple and user-friendly. In any case, a technical and academic support team will always be available. For inquiries, you can write to [email protected]
You must write an email with the request to [email protected] We will send you the requested certificate as soon as possible.
Exceptional criteria: In exceptional cases and within the first 20 days of starting the Higher Diploma, the student may write to [email protected] Requesting withdrawal and stating the reasons. After the case is evaluated, a response will be sent to the request. If approved, the student may resume the Higher Diploma program if a new cohort is offered the following year. After that period of time has elapsed since the start of the course, no requests will be accepted.
Money paid will only be refunded in cases where the organizing institutions decide to cancel the activity.
Yes, the advanced diploma is certified by CLACSO. The diploma will be sent digitally and is completely free of charge.
Payment can be made in one installment, by credit card or bank transfer. We also offer the option of paying in 3 installments.
Yes. There will be discounts for students belonging to CLACSO Member Centers and CLACSO Associated Centers, for CLACSO Associate Researchers, and for all those who pay within the discount period.
You can check if you belong to a member center here:
The Advanced Diploma program integrates a dynamic of asynchronous and synchronous classes. Classes are primarily asynchronous. The schedule for synchronous sessions will be communicated by the Diploma coordinator at the beginning of the program, and participation in these sessions is not a prerequisite for passing the program.
Queries: WhatsApp: +54 9 11 3880 – 1388
E-mail: [email protected]
