This course studies the role of culture in Argentina's modernity and the social, literary, and artistic traditions it produced from 1810 to the present. The course is divided into 5 units, each of them organized around an artist, a filmmaker, a writer, or an art form. Topics include gaucho culture and national identity, the birth of tango, the artistic avant-gardes, the politics of memory, commodity culture, and gender and environmental politics. In addition to class discussions, the course includes class visits by local scholars and artists.