Modern Languages Commons^™

Inverting The Discourse Of Civilization And Barbarism In Mundo Del Fin Del Mundo And Un Viejo Que Leía Novelas De Amor By Luis Sepúlveda, Adrian Taylor Kane

World Languages Faculty Publications and Presentations

American critic Raymond Leslie Williams has convincingly argued that a desire to be modern is a central characteristic of the 20th century Latin American novel. Williams's argument also coincides with Octavio Paz's assertion that modernity has been a topic of interest to Latin American intellectuals since the 19th century. A glimpse of the terminology used by authors and critics to name various Latin American movements over the past 125 years—modernismo, posmodernismo, avant-garde, modern novel, and postmodern fiction—gives us a sense of the persistent desire of Latin American authors to engage in a dialogue on …

Ancient Surgeons: A Characterization Of Mesopotamian Surgical Practices, Alison J. White, Jason Herbeck, Joann Scurlock, John Mayberry

World Languages Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: The Ancient Mesopotamian civilization, the earliest known, emerged in the fourth millennium BCE. While the advent of medicine is established, there is little understanding of surgery's origins. We sought to describe the characteristics and medical acumen of the surgeons of the first civilization.

Methods: Source documents and commentary on Mesopotamian medicine were systematically analyzed for evidence of surgery and physician descriptions.

Results: Early tablets reveal evidence of the incisional drainage of a scalp abscess and empyema, advanced wound care, fracture alignment, and possible caesarians without evidence of wound suturing, emergency procedures, trephination, or circumcision. While the asû and āšipu …

Us Central American Identities In Roberto Quesada’S Big Banana And Nunca Entres Por Miami, Adrian Taylor Kane

World Languages Faculty Publications and Presentations

Following several calls in recent scholarship for increased attention to the study of the Central American diaspora in the United States, this article offers readings of Honduran-born author Roberto Quesada’s novels Big Banana (1999) and Nunca entres por Miami (2003). Written in New York City, where he has resided since 1989, Big Banana highlights issues of Central American identity, migration, and immigrant experiences. Published four years later, Nunca entres por Miami continues to engage with these important topics. My readings of Quesada’s novels focus on the ways in which they construct cultural memory and identity by providing critical historical context …

Basque Studies At Boise State University, Ziortza Gandarias Beldarrain, Nere Lete

World Languages Faculty Publications and Presentations

Boise, the capital of Idaho that we Basques feel so close to and our own despite being far from the Basque Country, is a twinned city with Gernika-Lumo, known to us as the "eighth Basque province". Today, 12-15,000 people of Basque origin live in the state of Idaho. It can be unanimously said that the history of Boise and the history of the Basque diaspora have gone hand in hand since the discovery of gold in the American River in California in 1849. The first Basques arrived in Idaho in 1890, when silver was discovered in De Lamar and Silver …

Lost In Adaptation:The Silencing Of The French Female Concierge, Mariah Devereux Herbeck

World Languages Faculty Publications and Presentations

Fictional representations of the female concierge frequently underscore her negative attributes, above all her meddlesome discourse. The female concierge character in Georges Simenon's 1933 novel, Les fiançailles de M. Hire, however, provides an exception to the rule as local law authorities give credence to her word and base their investigation on her testimony. However, in two filmic adaptations of the novel—Duvivier's Panique (1946) and Patrice Leconte's Monsieur Hire (1989)—the female concierge character is practically absent. This article demonstrates how, from page to screen, the concierge's role is dissected, disembodied, and displaced in Duvivier's and Leconte's films, and finally reflects …

Central American Rivers As Sites Of Colonial Contestation, Adrian Taylor Kane

World Languages Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the introduction to Troubled Waters: Rivers in Latin American Imagination (2013), Elizabeth Pettinaroli and Ana María Mutis have argued that rivers in Latin American literature constitute a “locus for the literary exploration of questions of power, identity, resistance, and discontent.” Many works of testimonial literature and literature of resistance written during and about the Central American civil wars of the 1970s and 1980s as a means of denouncing and resisting various forms of oppression would support their thesis. In the 2004 film Innocent Voices, directed by Luis Mandoki, Mario Bencastro’s 1997 story “Había una vez un río,” and …

Systemic Functional Linguistics And Its Application To The Study Of Academic Conference Presentations, Carolina Viera, Maite Taboada

World Languages Faculty Publications and Presentations

Academic conference presentations (CPs) offer the possibility to study both the linguistic features of academic oral language and social conventions that take place during these events (Ventola, Shalom & Thompson, 2002). Academic conferences have been understudied (Robles Garrote, 2016), especially within the theoretical framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). For this reason, researchers who investigate this topic have insufficient reference literature. This study contributes to the understanding of CPs by discussing theoretical and methodological aspects of the analysis of a corpus of 32 CPs given in Spanish in the United States to determine the generic structure or prototypical text structure …

Basque Women In Exile: Remembering Their Voices And Impact In Literature Through The Cultural Magazine Euzko-Gogoa, Ziortza Gandarias Beldarrain

World Languages Faculty Publications and Presentations

Following the War of 1936, many Basque individuals, families, politicians, artists, and intellectuals left the Basque Country and went into exile. According to José Angel Ascunce, the tragedy suffered by those exiled is revealed by two principles: the geographical breakdown and the breaking of one’s identity. For Basque women specifically, exile brought renewed self-definitions of purpose and identity, as well as expectations imposed upon them by men. This essay will discuss how Basque female writers addressed the tragedy undergone and the roles they took on, from exile, through their participation in the Basque cultural magazine, Euzko-Gogoa (Basque-Will).

L’Histoire Passée Sous Silence?: Pour Un État Des Lieux D’Une Relation (Coloniale) Muette Dans «La Femme Adultère», Jason Herbeck

World Languages Faculty Publications and Presentations

Regardless of whether or not Camus was indeed influenced in his writing by the colonial myth, the general absence of the Arab in his works is nonetheless striking. For Edward Saïd, this perceived shortcoming can be attributed to the fact that, as a quixotic European, Camus could not fathom being separated from the Algerian landscape and thereby allowed himself to deny the Arabs in his works their legitimate, indigenous voice. This article proposes to expose these allegedly “lost voices” in “The Adulterous Woman” (1957, Exile and the Kingdom), in particular in the context of the eve of the Algerian …

Corpus Analysis Of Engagement Discourse Strategies In Academic Presentations, Carolina Viera, Serena A.P. Williams

World Languages Faculty Publications and Presentations

Text analysis informed by Genre Theory (Hyon 1996) and methods in Corpus Linguistics provide the opportunity to describe language patterns that exist not only at the individual level but also in discourse communities. In this study, we investigate the discourse strategies used by novice and expert members of the academic United States (US) Spanishspeaking community to engage their audience, construct interpersonal meaning, and position themselves as expert speakers. We analyze two corpora: a specialized corpus of 32 conference presentations delivered by professors and doctoral students of Hispanic Studies, and a learner corpus of 24 in-class presentations to describe discourse patterning …

History, Humanity, And The Literary Construction Of Haiti In ÉVelyne Trouillot’S Works, Jason Herbeck

World Languages Faculty Publications and Presentations

Évelyne Trouillot’s novels, short stories, poetry, children’s stories, and play—not to mention her interviews, op. ed. pieces, and academic articles—introduce us to chapters of Haiti’s history spanning roughly two hundred and fifty years. From a plantation in the former French colony of Saint-Domingue during the 1750s to present-day, postearthquake Haiti, the experiences, trials, and tragically haunting memories of her characters serve to bring into focus countless rifts in the country’s complex and often conflicted past. Despite the turbulent time periods in which we discover these protagonists, and the resulting adversity to which they are prone, their struggles are not waged …

(Re)Casting The Concierge In Muriel Barbery's L' Élégance Du Hérisson, Mariah Devereux Herbeck

World Languages Faculty Publications and Presentations

«Être maire de Paris, c'est aimer les concierges et les stars, parce que les concierges sont les stars de notre quotidien!" (Greco). Before Anne Hidalgo aligned the commonplace French apartment caretaker with celebrated icons of the stage and screen during her 2014 Paris mayoral campaign, the Parisian concierge had never stood so high upon a pedestal. The closest the French concierge had come to such limelight was perhaps the fictionalized representation of the working-class figure in Muriel Barbery's 2006 novel, L' élégance du hérisson. The newspaper Libération described Barbery' s novel as France's "surprise bestseller of the year" (Lançon) …

Simon Brenner: Wolf Haas (1960—), Heike Henderson

World Languages Faculty Publications and Presentations

Conceived in defiance of a literary establishment that had for fifteen years refused to publish Haas's novels, the quirky ex-policeman turned private investigator Simon Brenner is now celebrated by literary critics and readers alike. Cranky, ambitionless, and often underestimated, Brenner (whose name translates as "Burner") is a reluctant hero who embodies many stereotypical Austrian traits while at the same time undermining traditional images of Austria as an unspoiled tourist destination with a rich cultural heritage, traditional values, and wholesome inhabitants.

Looking For A Needle In A Haystack: Call And Advanced Language Proficiency, Jack Burston, Kelly Arispe

World Languages Faculty Publications and Presentations

The goal of this meta-analysis is to evaluate how instructional technology has impacted advanced second language (AL2) development. Although numerous meta-analyses have been conducted within the CALL literature over the past two decades, they primarily focus upon learning outcomes and related effect sizes. None focus on advanced learning per se. Where AL2 is even mentioned, which is only rarely, little or no attention is paid to critical research parameters within the studies that are analyzed. Most notably, in summarizing learning outcomes, the linguistic competence of learners claimed to be at advanced level is simply taken at face value. So, …

Dying For Foie Gras: Murder, Politics And Ethical Food Production, Heike Henderson

World Languages Faculty Publications and Presentations

In recent years, culinary mysteries have enjoyed immense popularity in Germany. Marketed to both fans of detective fiction and food aficionados, they enjoy a large crossover appeal, which at least partially explains their commercial success. Ella Danz is the author of the Georg Angermüller mystery series (started in 2006, nine books so far) set in the Northern German Lübeck area. While this series, whose main protagonist is a police inspector who likes to cook and eat, did not start out as a culinary mystery series per se, it has developed into one of the most popular manifestations of this subgenre. …

Making It Personal: Performance-Based Assessments, Ubiquitous Technology, And Advanced Learners, Kelly Arispe, Jack Burston

World Languages Faculty Publications and Presentations

This pedagogical implementation study advocates for performance-driven assessments to help learners become aware of and improve upon presentational speaking skills at the advanced level. A social media content creation tool, Adobe Spark Video, enabled learners to practice oral skills outside of class. The task design, implementation, and evaluation met the principle objectives of learner autonomy—namely awareness, choice, reflection, and goal setting. A step-by-step guide with examples and survey results about student perceptions is included. While the case study targeted upper-division Spanish majors, the pedagogical model could be adapted for intermediate and advanced learners of any second or foreign language.

Intertexts Of The Ecological: Literary Space Revisited In Yanick Lahens's Bain De Lune, Jason Herbeck

World Languages Faculty Publications and Presentations

The opening lines of Yanick Lahens’s Bain de lune (2014) find an unidentified narrator lying on a beach not far from the coastal community of Anse Bleue, staring at the worn, muddy boots of the man who has just discovered her lifeless body. As her narrative reveals, a hurricane has devastated the region over the past three days, and, in the wake of the storm, the deceased protagonist tries to piece together the fragmented memories of her life as a means of determining how she has ended up dead on the sand. From the very beginning of Lahens’s novel, however, …

Cerberus At The Gates: The Demonization Of The French Female Concierge, Mariah Devereux Herbeck

World Languages Faculty Publications and Presentations

Located at the threshold of modern Parisian apartment living, the concierge maintains the common spaces, delivers mail and, until 1957, "pulled the cord" to permit dwellers to enter the building at all hours of the night. Neither owner of nor renter in the building that she tends, the concierge occupies the first-floor loge – a liminal space that is neither entirely public nor truly private – where she simultaneously lives and works. In the nineteenth century, the concierge was often poor and uneducated, yet influential thanks in great part to her post at the front door: "She was feared because …

Genre And Register Variation: Academic Conference Presentations In Spanish In The United States, Carolina Viera

World Languages Faculty Publications and Presentations

Conference presentations (CPs) are instrumental in the academic sphere, since they provide a space in which academics disseminate their ongoing research, interact with their colleagues, and position themselves in their professional community (Swales 2004; Ventola, Shalom & Thompson 2002; Rowley-Jolivet & Carter-Thomas 2005). Unique to the academic community of Hispanic studies in the United States is the fact that texts can be produced either in English or Spanish, therefore, both languages are promoted as a viable means of academic communication. Additionally, scholars who deliver presentations in Spanish in the United States speak a wide array of Spanish dialects, come from …

Gdr Residue In Works By Julia Schoch And Antje Rávic Strubel, Beret L. Norman

World Languages Faculty Publications and Presentations

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant –

Success in Circuit lies¹

- Emily Dickinson

Even two decades after unification, current discussions of a lingering division between East and West Germans elicit doubts that Germany’s ongoing economic success provides an elixir against social alienation². This article compares several works by two younger writers, Julia Schoch and Antje Strubel (both b. 1974), who transcribe elements of daily life as it is experienced from within this ongoing social alienation and who reference a feminist critique of power. Their works evidence what I label a residue from the former …

Small Theology / You Here, Heike Henderson

World Languages Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

The Contribution Of Call To Advanced-Level Foreign/Second Language Instruction, Jack Burston, Kelly Arispe

World Languages Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper evaluates the contribution of instructional technology to advanced-level foreign/second language learning (AL2) over the past thirty years. It is shown that the most salient feature of AL2 practice and associated Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) research are their rarity and restricted nature. Based on an analysis of four leading CALL journals (CALICO, CALL, LL&T, ReCALL), less than 3% of all CALL publications deal with AL2. Moreover, within this body of research, the range of languages involved is very restricted. Three languages, English, German and French, account for nearly 87% of the studies. Likewise, in nearly 81% of …

La Escritura Como Lugar Para Vivir En La Obra Del Exilio De Martin Ugalde, Larraitz Ariznabarreta Garabieta

World Languages Faculty Publications and Presentations

Para un hombre sin país,

escribir se convierte en un lugar donde vivir.

Theodor Adorno, Minima moralia

¿Quién soy yo sin exilio?

Mahmoud Darwish, El lecho de una extraña

El carácter excepcional de la «experiencia del exilio» resulta siempre revelador de una exégesis identitaria personal obligada. A través de un análisis crítico del discurso el presente trabajo incide en las huellas discursivas que el exilio dejó impresas en la obra del periodista e intelectual vasco Martin Ugalde, subrayando el carácter metonímico y representativo que a menudo adquieren los textos de los escritores exiliados con respecto a la construcción identitaria propia …

Simmering, Uxue Alberdi, Nere Lete

World Languages Faculty Publications and Presentations

“Su txikian” [“Simmering”] by Uxue Alberdi was published in 2013 as one of the stories in her book Euli Giro [A Sense of Chagrin]. As Alberdi states, “The source of inspiration for this story was an article I had read about an eighty-year-old married couple from Pamplona who had been found in their car parked in the garage after having committed suicide. "Simmering” is a response to the shock the news provoked in me […]. On the one hand, I wanted to hold onto the stereotype of the Basque grandmother. It is not typical to imagine an eighty-year-old Basque woman …

What’S In A Bot? L2 Lexical Development Mediated Through Icall, Kelly Arispe

World Languages Faculty Publications and Presentations

In recent years, the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) has made great strides to refocus its attention on the essential role that vocabulary plays in becoming a proficient L2 learner (Nation, 2001). Moreover, Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) has made advances in providing interactive online tools that help L2 learners strategically engage and work through their vocabulary development. This present study reports on how an Intelligent CALL tool (ICALL), Langbot, helps learners at the beginner and intermediate levels with their lexical acquisition. Modeled after instant messaging systems, which create a synchronous communicative environment, Langbot acts like a pedagogical …

Blood In The Water: Salvadoran Rivers Of Testimony And Resistance, Adrian Taylor Kane

World Languages Faculty Publications and Presentations

From the 1970s to the early 1990s the dominant forms of literary production in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua were testimonial literature and literature of resistance. During this time period, all three of these Central American countries were embroiled in bloody civil wars, and the written word was employed on the cultural front as a means of denouncing and resisting various forms of oppression. For both historical and artistic reasons, rivers frequently play an important role in cultural production from and about this era and have thus become embedded in the complex web of ideological signifiers that comprises the discursive …

Entretien Avec Fabienne Kanor, Jason Herbeck

World Languages Faculty Publications and Presentations

D’origine martiniquaise, Fabienne Kanor est devenue romancière etréalisatrice après une première carrière dans le journalisme. Dans cet entretien, elle parle surtout de son deuxième roman, Humus(2007), qui raconte à voix multiples les récits de quatorze femmes qui se trouvent à bord d’un bateau négrier à destination des Antilles et décident de se jeter à l’eau. Kanor se penche surl’histoire de la traite négrière et surl’acte d’écriture, ainsi que sur sa propre identité en tant qu’écrivain de la “diaspora”, ayant grandi en Métropole dans une famille d’origine antillaise.

I Would Rather Not Lie, Eider Rodriguez, Nere Lete

World Languages Faculty Publications and Presentations

The man shakes her hand. The woman takes a seat in front of him while placing her purse between her legs and leaving her heels exposed in her flat hoes. The man looks at her from over his glasses.