After the devastation of the First World War, artists all over the world responded to the new era’s changing political and social geography with rebellious and shocking artistic movements that embraced the idea of “arte por el arte”: art for art’s sake. During this period the arts flourished as a political and social force, and many of Latin America’s most renowned writers and poets—including Vicente Huidobro, César Vallejo, Pablo Neruda, Jorge Luis Borges, and many more—brought and sought inspiration to and from Europe as they contributed to movements that utterly rejected traditional artistic ideals and modes of production. In this course we will study Latin America’s participation in such “avant-garde” movements as Futurism, Expressionism, Dada, and Surrealism, as well as other movements particular to Latin America like Creationism and Ultraism. This course will examine films, works of art, and especially the poetry and political and artistic manifestos of an era that marks the beginning of modern Spanish America’s involvement and influence within the international artistic scene. This class will be conducted entirely in Spanish.