Modernity and postmodernity in Hispanic American literature

On 2 December 2019, the Spanish lecturers from the Department of Ancient and Modern Languages and Cultures, organised the public lecture event Modernity and postmodernity in Hispanic American literature which was presented by the guest speaker, Mst. Marilís Bareiro, lecturer and researcher at the Universidad Nacional de Asunción, Paraguay. The event had the honour to have had the presence of Latin American Ambassadors, Embassy representatives, University lecturers and the general public.

Mst. Bareiro spoke about the essential elements that define the modern and postmodern eras which included the philosophical and anthropological meanings, social and histographic contexts, economic development and how these elements manifested within the Hispanic American language and literature through the ages. She also mentioned how certain historical events in Latin America impacted the literature in post modern era, for example dictatorships and political uprisings. This brought about a great opportunity for a round table discussion where each guest could give their opinion and views on their experience of the literature from their representative countries.

Finally, it is also worth mentioning that the way in which this event was organised - in collaboration with the Embassy of Paraguay - encouraged other Latin American embassies to connect their academics to us when they happen to visit South Africa.