The Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) produced ten years of civil war, a million victims, and the founding moment in the modernization and nationalization of Mexico. A series of conflicts ranging from peasant struggles for the land through to the petty rivalries, fears and factionalism of its different regional leaders, in its aftermath the post-Revolutionary state utilized the conflict to create a modern pantheon of heroes while forging the ideas, images and imaginary capable of establishing a "true" national psyche — a supposedly authentic and modern Mexican national culture.

This class will examine the legacies and problematic fantasies of the Revolution as manifested in art, photography, literature, history, philosophy and film.