Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature Commons^™

Deconstructing Biopolitical And Performative Modes Of Gender In Spanish Science Fiction, Emma Navarro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis investigates the distinctly Spanish works of science fiction created by Pedro Almodóvar and Elia Barceló through biopolitical and feminist frameworks. Utilizing the theories of feminist philosopher Judith Butler and sociologist Jemima Repo, we uncover associations between the fictional and theoretical that have seldom been studied in conjunction. The paper aims to demonstrate Almodóvar and Barceló’s unique narratives free from the confines of an unwavering gender stratum while simultaneously revealing the deteriorative effects of gender as a control apparatus. Deeply influenced by the post-Franco Madrid Movida movement, these creators exemplify the feminist ideals emerging from that progressive time, rejecting …

A Cinematographic Comparison Of The Representation Of Las Cholitas In Two Bolivian Films: Los Andes No Creen En Dios Directed By Antonio Eguino (2007) And Zona Sur By Juan Carlos Valdivia (2010), Mackenzie Scheer

Honors Program Theses

From its founding on a colonial system to the current socioeconomic class structure in Bolivia, indigenous rights have been improving in the state. Las cholitas are an Aymaran, indigenous group within Bolivia. This essay looks at the portrayal of cholitas in two different Bolivian films: Los Andes no creen en Dios directed by Antonio Eguino (2007) and Zona sur by Juan Carlos Valdivia (2010). The former is set in the 1920s and the latter in 2010, thus showing the change in status of indigenous people over a 90-year gap. This cinematographic analysis focused on the indicators of the separation of …

La Floresta; An Appreciation And Reimagination Of My Barrio, Ana Rodríguez

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis is a love letter to my barrio, La Floresta in Quito, Ecuador. I have divided it into three different sections: a creative writing piece where I walk readers through my barrio and my life in it, a historical section where I analyze its history and the reasons for its uniqueness and current identity, and finally a project proposal for a community center called "Casa La Floresta".

Forum On “Conquest”: Past-Present Politics Of Coloniality In Cinema On Latin America, Stephen Jakob Turner

Theses and Dissertations--Hispanic Studies

My dissertation analyzes the representation of Spanish “Conquest” in film as a critical commentary on the cultural present. Chapter 1, “Directorial Discord: The Cultural Politics of Representation in Apocalypto (USA/Mexico/UK, 2006) and Retorno a Aztlán (Return to Aztlán, Mexico, 1991)” focuses on the representation of the (im)possibility of Indigenous heroic protagonism and futurity in the origins of “Conquest.” Chapter 2, “‘The World is Thus’: Resistance and the Power of Ambivalent Conversion in Gabriel Retes’s Nuevo Mundo (The New World; Mexico, 1976) and Roland Joffé’s The Mission (USA/Paraguay, 1986)” posits that the “Conquest” problematizes the myth of …

“Thinking Across Bodies”: Percepción Woolfiana Y Giro Material En La Cuentística De Rodoreda, Roig, Alós Y Riera, Ana Álvarez Guillén

Theses and Dissertations--Hispanic Studies

Conventional understandings of perception have long undergirded traditional readings of Modernist texts in adopting a predominantly subject-centered perspective that separates subject from object in a vertical and hierarchical relationship. I argue that a consideration of Virginia Woolf’s short stories in dialogue with four generations of twentieth-century Catalan women writers who followed her work closely suggests an entirely different epistemological framework of perception in which subject and object are fluidly and horizontally organized. Mercè Rodoreda, Concha Alós, Montserrat Roig and Carme Riera establish a horizontal fictional dialogue that constitutes a return to matter that decenters the subject, resulting in an alternative …

Ya Llegamos | We Are Here, Audrey Hermila Salgado

Senior Projects Spring 2023

ya llegamos | we are here, a Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College, is piece on gender and migration. It is a play that explores how family dynamics, class issues, education, and gender play a role in why people leave their home country. It explores the journey and relationship of Saturnina and Francisco as they travel across the Mexico/U.S. border.

The Creation Of The Home: A Sociological And Literary Analysis Of Dominicanidad In Public Spaces Of Washington Heights And Within Dominican Literature, Mádoris Isabel Santana Figuereo

Senior Projects Spring 2023

“The Creation of the Home” is a study that puts in conversation theories within sociology of immigration, culture, nationality, urban studies, gentrification, and literature. These realms of study allow us to capture the trajectories of meaning making by Dominican Immigrants in New York City who lived in the homeland for the majority of their childhood. It shows that even when the physical home is endangered by larger structural forces such as economic precarity, gentrification, and displacement, Dominican immigrants continue to center their identity and cultural markers through symbolic recreations of the home. Dominican literature of the Diaspora shows us that …

Cultivating Carrots, Community, And Health-Conscious Children: Investigating The Effects Of Community Garden Implementation On Nutrition Attitudes Of Elementary Students In The Los Angeles Unified School District, Hannah Michele Tiedemann

Scripps Senior Theses

Growing up in an urban food desert can significantly affect children's development, health, and well-being (Jencks et al., 1990; Leventhal et al., 2000). Compared to their more affluent peers, youth living in low-socioeconomic urban neighborhoods are at greater risk of experiencing poor-quality diets, food insecurity, unhealthy body weights, and mental health problems (Duncan et al., 1997; Sampson et al., 1997). Moreover, children living in food-insecure households are more likely to consume calorically dense diets high in trans fat and added sugar, putting them at risk for poor health, childhood obesity, and chronic, diet-related diseases as adults (Nielsen et al., 2002). …

We Can Do This / Juntos Sí Podemos: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Government-Sponsored Covid-19 Public Service Announcements (Psas) In English And Spanish, Katalina R. Peterson

Scripps Senior Theses

Communication inequities are known to negatively impact people from socioeconomically and linguistically disadvantaged backgrounds during public health crises (Gomez-Aguinaga et al., 2021). In the United States, Hispanics—especially those who speak Spanish—have been among the communities most disproportionately affected by COVID-19 (National Center for Health Statistics, 2022). The pandemic has underscored the importance of understanding the linguistic and discursive strategies implemented by institutions entrusted with disseminating public health information to reach diverse audiences, especially the most vulnerable. This paper analyzes the linguistic practices used to create public service announcements (PSA) produced in English and Spanish by health agencies at both the …

Rechazos Del Español: Una Comparación De Mexicanos Monolingües, Hablantes De Herencia Y Aprendices De Español, Maribel Fernández Moctezuma

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Learners of Spanish as a second language can use advanced grammatical structures, vocabulary, idiomatic expressions and have good pronunciation and communication skills. However, the speech act of refusal is not a natural act for them. The aim of this study is to analyze the structure and function of the refusal speech act by comparing three populations: 1) monolingual Mexicans, 2) Spanish heritage speakers and 3) second-language learners of Spanish (3 groups). This research will serve and help heritage speakers and Spanish learners improve their communicative competence to express themselves more clearly and concisely, as well as learn to communicate more …

Análisis De La Mujer: Revista Mensual De Literatura Y Variedades, La Primera Revista Ecuatoriana Escrita Por Mujeres (1905-1906), María Alejandra González Pástor

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The first magazine written by women in Ecuador is a time machine that allows knowing firsthand the thinking of women in the early twentieth century. It is also a catalyst to promote writing and searching for female identity. La Mujer: Revista Mensual de Literatura y Variedades is an unprecedented project conceived by the first Ecuadorian journalist, Zoila Ugarte. She was a multifaceted woman with feminist ideas who encouraged a group of women to express their ideas through literature and journalism.

This research analyzes the literary texts and articles of the magazine from a gender perspective and addresses historical aspects of …

The Beauty And The Beast: Beauty And Misfortune In Maria De Zayas’S Novellas, Clarise Ann Sviatko

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

The age-old question of what beauty is has been a common discussion among artists and philosophers for centuries. Maria de Zayas, a 17th century Spanish novelist mostly known for her novella collections Amorous and Exemplary Novels (1637) and The Disenchantments of Love (1647), describes violence and deception of beautiful women at the hands of men. In this paper, I will explore Zayas’s motives for all the female heroines being beautiful and how this all relates to the connection between beauty and misfortune that is seen throughout her works as well as many other pieces of literature. By comparing Zayas’s novellas …

The Dangerous/Endangered Modern Woman In Four Interwar Spanish Novels (1917-1936), Holly Villines

Doctoral Dissertations

The Modern Woman was a figure perpetually discussed in the early twentieth century, as she embodied the increasingly public role and greater mobility of women in industrialized cities. A century later, historians and literary critics still explore the significance of this female archetype, who was at the center of debates regarding feminism and changing gender dynamics, because the Modern Woman’s defiance of social conventions opened the way for the independent lifestyle and freedoms of women today. Yet, still left unexplored is the image of the Modern Woman as both dangerous and in danger and what this contradictory depiction reveals about …

Total Physical Response Storytelling With Undergraduate Foreign Language Learners: Exploring Vocabulary Growth, Eva M. Jones

Masters Theses

This thesis analyzes the effectiveness of two pedagogical techniques used in foreign language teaching on vocabulary growth in a university setting: Total Physical Response Storytelling (TPRS) and a more traditional approach that does not involve storytelling. Over two sessions taking place a week apart, participants were separated into either the Control group or the Experimental group. Each group learned the same list of vocabulary words in the treatment session. While the Control group learned the target vocabulary through a traditional method, the Experimental group learned the vocabulary through a story. In the introduction, TPRS’s origins are reviewed as well as …

Escribir El Desarrollo, Desplegar La Cultura: Historias De Imaginación Económica En Colombia Y Brasil, Diego Bustos

Spanish and Portuguese ETDs

In this dissertation, we analyze how a group of artists negotiate through their novels and cultural performances a repertoire of meanings on inequality and plurality, formulating a program of socio-cultural transformation via literature. In the first two chapters, we examine the work by Colombian author Augusto Morales Pino (comprised of four volumes), as proponent of a transnational genealogy of economic development, offering a repertoire of meanings and practices for contemporary public policy in which the concept of middle class predominates. I argue that these representations actively shape the possibility and limits of the contemporary models of inclusion and cultural citizenship. …

Examining Variability In Spanish Monolingual And Bilingual Phonotactics: A Look At Sc-Clusters, Katerina A. Tetzloff

Doctoral Dissertations

Current models of generative phonology have failed to address the variability that is observed in bilingual language patterns patterns. This dissertation addresses exactly that issue by examining the perception of Spanish sC-clusters in Spanish monolinguals and English-Spanish bilinguals. Surface sC-clusters in onset position are prohibited in Spanish and are repaired by inserting a prothetic /e/ (sC $\rightarrow$ esC). English differs in that it allows sC-cluster onsets, and the structure of the sC-cluster has been shown to differ based on the sonority profile (i.e., s+stop clusters are bisyllabic, s+liquid clusters are tautosyllabic). A batch version of a Harmonic Grammar Gradual Learning …

Del Ornitorrinco A La Radio Ambulante: La Nueva Crónica Latinoamericana En La Era Neoliberal, Ulises Gonzales

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation explores the presence of neoliberal hegemonic imaginaries in narrative journalism written in Latin America between 1995 and 2021.

There are strong connections between a period of decline in the readership of some of the authors of the so-called “Latin American Boom,” the penetration of neoliberal economic policies in the region (with the privatization of State companies and the expansion of the telecommunications industry), and the renewed interest in non-fiction writing published by a number of print publications in the region during the last decade of the 20th Century and the beginning of the 21st Century, as in magazines …

Manuel González Prada En La Intimidad: Una Mirada A Su Universo Personal A Través De La Correspondencia De Luis Alberto Sánchez, Alfredo González Prada Y Adriana De Verneuil, Odalis Patricia Hidalgo

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the epistolary communication between Alfredo González Prada, Luis Alberto Sánchez and Adriana de Verneuil between the years 1925-1943. The correspondence reveals unfamiliar aspects in the life of the controversial Peruvian writer, Manuel González Prada (1844-1918). I argue that in order to better understand his work and personal life it is necessary to study the voices that were close to him, and in charge of the publication of his posthumous work. The correspondence also opens the discussion of the literary work of Luis Alberto Sánchez in Don Manuel (1930). Sánchez’s book constructs Prada’s heroic character within a …

The International Academy Of Language And Culture: The Global (Pre)K-12 Charter School Network, Dree-El Simmons

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The International Academy of Language and Culture (IALC) is a charter school based on the original concept of charter schools by Ray Budde and Albert Shanker, as an academic environment dedicated and designed to improving the educational outcomes for its students through innovative pedagogy. Committed to American (and global) education reform, the IALC incorporates elements from higher education into the early childhood and adolescent settings. We accomplish this by utilizing an interdisciplinary approach in our language and culture-based program.

The IALC is a multilingual, full-immersion program. Food Studies (including culinary arts), the Arts, the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Martial Arts …

Destination Icaic: Cosmopolitan Intellectuals, Documentary Film And The Image Of The Cuban 1960s, Gabriel Arce-Riocabo Rollins

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study analyzes the interaction between foreign intellectuals and ICAIC (Instituto cubano de artes e industrias cinematográficas) in shaping the image of Cuba in the 1960s. I make the case that the idea of Revolution was a product of cosmopolitan intellectual engagement and that in this process documentary film was a privileged medium. By tracing the development of normative stories of commitment, cosmopolitanism, and aesthetic experimentation embodied both in written texts and travel essay films, I argue that such circulation destabilizes fixed ideas of Cuban, Revolutionary or Intellectual. The archive of Danish filmmaker and ICAIC collaborator Theodor Christensen as well …

Resituando El Cuerpo Femenino A Través De La Memoria Histórica Y La Ficción: Carlota De Bélgica Y Eva Perón En Las Novelas Noticias Del Imperio De Fernando Del Paso Y Santa Evita De Tomás Eloy Martínez, Krysheida Ayub - Unzon

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes the body and the memory of Charlotte of Belgium and Eva Perón in the historical novels Noticias del Imperio (1987) by the Mexican writer Fernando del Paso and Santa Evita (1996), by the Argentine Tomás Eloy Martínez. Through the conformation of these historical characters as literary protagonists, we observe how both are endowed with a new historical meaning from the articulation of fictional narratives that differ from traditional historiographical texts. From the analysis of the corporality and the memory of the female characters, we will attend to the resignification of the historical texts and their fictional ramifications …

Defining Black Masculinities: Intersectional Analyses Of Gender, Race And Sexuality In Caribbean And Latin American Literature, 1955 To Present, Jerry Eugene Scruggs Jr.

Doctoral Dissertations

The objective of my dissertation is to define and construct parameters for analyzing the Afro-descendant male experience in four specific texts: Mi compadre el General Sol [General Sun, My Brother] (1955), Adire y el tiempo roto [Adire and Broken Time] (1967), Sortilégio II: mistério negro de Zumbi redivivo [Sorcery 2: Black Mystery of Resurrected Zumbí] (1979), and Negro: Este color que me queda bonito [Black: This Color Looks Good on Me] (2013). Black masculinities are distinct and this study sets five parameters: 1) Sexual Prowess, 2) Contentious relationship with the White woman, 3) Violence and Toxic Masculinity, 4) Emotive Numbness, …

The Development Of Discourse Markers In Narrations Written By Spanish Heritage Language Learners: A Case For Explicit And Implicit Instruction, Mark Cisneros

Spanish and Portuguese ETDs

This Dissertation attempted to determine the types and number of discourse markers (DMs) used in narrations written by Spanish Heritage Language (SHL) learners and if they benefitted from the following pedagogical intervention (i.e., Explicit Instruction + Input Flood + Textual Enhancement) regarding the use of DMs. It also calculated the syntactic complexity, morphosyntactic accuracy, and fluency of their narrations. For this study, 39 SHL learners served as participants: 19 in an Experimental group and 20 in a Control group. All participants wrote two narrations of two short, silent films: a pre-test narration and an immediate post-test narration. Before completing the …

Espacios En Disputa: Crónica De Desplazamientos Y Reocupación Urbana En El Raval Y El Casc Antic De Barcelona (1964-2014), Elisabet Pallas

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes plays and documentary films that illustrate the forced displacement of urban citizens from Barcelona’s oldest neighborhoods El Raval and El Casc Antic between 1964 and 2014. Grounded on theories from Sociology and Urban and Cultural Studies, the project surveys the various political mechanisms that enforce and legitimize the territorial, cultural, and corporeal expropriations that deploy tactics such as the criminalization of poverty and the passing of local laws restricting the use of public spaces. Through a close analysis of documentaries such as Ciutat Morta (Ortega y Artigas, 2014), El forat (Peña, 2004), En construcción (Guerín, 2001), …

Ephemeral Elsewheres: Locating Narratives Of Resignation, Resistance, And Refusal In The Poetry Of Black Cuban And Black Brazilian Women, Aidan Keys

Comparative Literature M.A. Essays

This essay dissects the language of Latin American revolution and nationalism to locate the body of the black woman and the appropriation of her image. In two seemingly incommensurable radical movements—the Cuban Revolution (1952-1959) and the Brazilian Unified Black Movement (1978-)—the contributions of Black women are unevenly recognized. Reading the poetry of cubanas Nancy Morejón and Georgina Herrera and brasileiras Sônia Fátima and Esmeralda Ribeiro, this essay claims that in both contexts, the Black woman is marginalized to a geographic “elsewhere.” Expanding on this term, coined by scholar Carol Boyce Davies, this essay further identifies temporal and ephemeral “elsewheres.” The …

Historical Memory And Feminist Consciousness In Almudena Grandes’ Episodios De Una Guerra Interminable, Alba Fernández-Fernández

Dissertations

General Francisco Franco’s brutal dictatorship (1939-1975) was one of the darkest periods in Spain’s recent history. During this dictatorial regime, political detractors were mercilessly persecuted, tortured and massacred. In 1975, Franco died leaving the legacy of nearly four decades of repression and over 150,000 victims on his back. Spain then cautiously headed into a process of democratization, with fear and horror still etched on the country’s memory. While politicians promised a smooth transition to democracy, their insistence to look ahead meant Spaniards were asked to neglect the country’s painful past. No legal action was taken against those responsible for mass …

“El Inglés Y El Spánich”: Translating The Heterolingualism Of La Frontera–A Critical Translation Of Luis Humberto Crosthwaite’S Estrella De La Calle Sexta, Nora E. Carr

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation offers an original translation and critical analysis of Crosthwaite’s Estrella de la calle sexta. In so doing it engages with recent work on contemporary Latin American literature, translation theory, and border theory, while also offering a version of Crosthwaite’s text—itself a seminal work in studies of the Tijuanan imaginary—that will be accessible to anglophone readers. The critical chapters, too, will allow scholars of the border to revisit the stories of Estrella through the lenses of language, translation, and heterolingualism. Chapter One offers a reevaluation of the mode of translation theory that posits translation as a textual transfer from …

Crítica Social Y Esperanza Para Las Próximas Generaciones: Representaciones De Seropositivos En Todo Sobre Mi Madre (1999) Y Positivo (2016), Grace Heiting

Honors Theses

This thesis criticizes the progression of the HIV/AIDS pandemic from post-Franco Spain to contemporary Venezuela through the analysis of a domestic film from each country. From Spain, the comedy-drama film Todo sobre mi madre (1999) by Pedro Almodóvar is a reflection of an earlier stage of the epidemic, when the country was challenged to recreate its political and social identities. Almodóvar’s film highlights the struggles of the LGBTQ community to transgress stereotypes (not limited to HIV) and find hope in future generations to solve the lingering social inequalities. From Venezuela, the short film Positivo (2016) from De Tovar Films is …

Los Defectos De La Perfección: Un Análisis De Los Temas Recurrentes De Secretos, Traumas Intergeneracionales E Identidades Biculturales En Yo No Soy Tu Perfecta Hija Mexicana, Tiffany Vembenil

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the social critiques by author Erika L. Sánchez in her debut novel Yo no soy tu perfecta hija mexicana (2017). This is a fictional coming-of-age story of teen Julia Reyes, who is grieving the death of her “perfect” older sister. Sánchez explores intersectional feminism, describing Julia’s struggles with gender roles, power dynamics, race, and socioeconomic status.

Sánchez employs imagery and irony to critique how the judging, silence, and secrecy that younger generations learn from their community permit predatory behavior, sexual assault, and victim-blaming. However, she also shows how keeping secrets can be a necessary evil to protect …

Inocencia Y Memoria: Reconciliando El Trauma De La Guerra Civil Española En “Aquel Abril” Y “La Lengua De Las Mariposas”, Catherine Seaman

Honors Theses

I will analyze the fictional short stories “Aquel abril” by Armando López Salinas (first written and published in 1955) and “La lengua de las mariposas” by Manuel Rivas from his collection ¿Qué me quieres, amor? (1995) in order to understand how individual reflection on the past helps us access a nation’s collective memory in order to process traumatic events and keep them from repeating. I discuss childhood innocence as a form of rebellion and free thought as power to combat violent and oppressive systems that create this trauma. The child protagonists of the two stories represent individual trajectories, but they …