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Articles 31 - 60 of 129
Full-Text Articles in Modern Languages
Irony In Emmanuel Carrère’S La Moustache, Nina Ekstein
Irony In Emmanuel Carrère’S La Moustache, Nina Ekstein
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
The subject of irony in film is a problematic one, in no small measure because of the assumption of referentiality in what is shown onscreen. I examine a form of irony that is tied to undecidability and use it to analyze La moustache (2005), which is a cinematic exploration of the possibilities for creating undecidability and its attendant tensions, exemplifying how irony may be visually communicated. Carrère's film moves into the domain of irony through a wide-ranging critique worked out through discordance.
Part(Iend)O El Alma: Rebirthing The Self, Rita Urquijo-Ruiz
Part(Iend)O El Alma: Rebirthing The Self, Rita Urquijo-Ruiz
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
No abstract provided.
Glittery Poetics: Joteando En San Antonio, Tejas, Rita Urquijo-Ruiz
Glittery Poetics: Joteando En San Antonio, Tejas, Rita Urquijo-Ruiz
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
No abstract provided.
The Chica Rara As Observer In Concha Alós’S Los Cien Pájaros, Debra J. Ochoa
The Chica Rara As Observer In Concha Alós’S Los Cien Pájaros, Debra J. Ochoa
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
The article focuses on how the protagonist of the book "Los cien pájaros," by Concha Alós can be understood through the concept of chica rara or strange girl given by author Carmen Martín Gaite. Topics discussed include the use of the term chica rara by Martín Gaite in the novel "Nada," by Carmen Laforet, the issues involving prostitution and sexuality in the "Los cienpájaros," and the portrayal of independent woman in the book.
Sex In Rotrou’S Theater: Performance And Disorder, Nina Ekstein
Sex In Rotrou’S Theater: Performance And Disorder, Nina Ekstein
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
Sexual desire is ubiquitous in all theater. It follows that virtually all theatrical traditions struggle with the issue of the representation of that desire onstage. The French stage of the 1630s and Jean Rotrou's theater of that period in particular constitute an unusual moment of relative freedom before the imposition of the bienséances banished sexual activity from the stage. What I propose is a theatrical reading of sex in Rotrou's plays, a tripartite examination of dramatic strategy: how Rotrou foregrounds the scandalous by direct depiction of sexuality onstage; how at other moments he moves to attenuate its prurient force by …
Racializing Queerness, Queering Nationalism, Rita Urquijo-Ruiz
Racializing Queerness, Queering Nationalism, Rita Urquijo-Ruiz
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
Book review of Reading Chican@ Like a Queer: The De-Mastery of Desire by Sandra K. Soto, part of the Chicana Matters Series.
Genesis 31-34 As Spanish Comedia: Lope De Vega’S El Robo De Dina, Matthew D. Stroud
Genesis 31-34 As Spanish Comedia: Lope De Vega’S El Robo De Dina, Matthew D. Stroud
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
Lope de Vega’s El robo de Dina, based upon Genesis 31-34, focuses on the disturbing series of events involving Jacob’s daughter, Dinah, and culminating in the mass slaughter of an entire enemy people who were doing their best to accommodate the demands of the Hebrews. The primary focus of this article is not the Biblical story itself, but rather the techniques that Lope used to adapt his source text for a comedia audience. From the amplification of the scope of the source text by the inclusion of the story of Laban and Jacob to the depiction of women as …
Dirt Theory And Material Ecocriticism, Heather I. Sullivan
Dirt Theory And Material Ecocriticism, Heather I. Sullivan
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
This essay speaks for dirty aesthetics. Although aesthetic landscapes readily inspire environmental thinking, a case can be made for grappling with the truly local dirty matter right at hand. Dirt, soil, earth, and dust surround us at all scales: we find them on our shoes, bodies, and computer screens, in fields and forests, and floating in the air. They are the stuff of geological structures, of the rocky Earth itself, and are mobile like our bodies.
Material Ecocriticism: Dirt, Waste, Bodies, Food, And Other Matter, Dana Phillips, Heather I. Sullivan
Material Ecocriticism: Dirt, Waste, Bodies, Food, And Other Matter, Dana Phillips, Heather I. Sullivan
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
Chunks of walls and flooring crash in mangled heaps as an enormous orange crane smashes apart the science building. Fueled in part by energy funds, Trinity University is updating its campus. Several hundred feet away, purple martins swoop down to feed squawking chicks nestled in white plastic gourds dangling from an angular metallic pole. In the university's community garden, ripe tomatoes are going to waste. Beyond the demolition site, a grackle lands on the neatly mown grass, where he puffs up and struts while other grackles watch him.
The Biblical Ruth As Dama Principal: Tirso’S La Mejor Espigadera, Matthew D. Stroud
The Biblical Ruth As Dama Principal: Tirso’S La Mejor Espigadera, Matthew D. Stroud
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
The comedia mined a variety of source texts for its plots—Italian novelle, Spanish history, Greek and Roman mythology, and, of course, the Bible—but always managed to adapt plot, setting, and characters to the conventions of the Spanish national theater. This process offered great benefits, such as audience familiarity, as well as challenges, including inherent and unavoidable limitations on artistic freedom. One of the more interesting adaptations is Tirso de Molina’s reworking of the Biblical story of Ruth in La mejor espigadera, primarily because of the lack of dramatic potential offered by the original: there are no villains, no obstacles …
Faust’S Mountains: An Ecocritical Reading Of Goethe’S Tragedy And Science, Heather I. Sullivan
Faust’S Mountains: An Ecocritical Reading Of Goethe’S Tragedy And Science, Heather I. Sullivan
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
Ecocriticism's environmental perspective views human beings, bodies, and culture as participants in ecological interactions and exchanges with the rest of the energetic and material world, including both biotic and abiotic forms. This ecocritical essay assesses how Goethe portrays Faust's mountain experiences in both part I and part II (1808, 1832) of the tragedy as engagements with physical matter rather than with spiritual inspiration. Indeed, by using ecocriticism to study Goethe's science as the context for the play, we see that Faust's many mountains are more than a setting; they actively destabilize his — and our — assumptions about “passive matter” …
The Theatrical Lieu De Culture Within Molière’S Theater, Nina Ekstein
The Theatrical Lieu De Culture Within Molière’S Theater, Nina Ekstein
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
Molière’s theater is itself, by definition, a lieu de culture. The performance of one of his plays transforms the space in which it occurs into a lieu de culture by virtue of the presence of two crucial features. First, the performance belongs to a cultural domain, in this case specifically the theater. By ‘culture’ I mean simply that which is tied to the arts, letters, manners, and scholarly pursuits. Second there must be an audience present for that performance. The same basic situation obviously holds true for any playwright whose plays are performed. What makes Molière interesting is the …
La Pratique Ironique De L’Appel À L’Autorité Dans Les Péritextes Du Théâtre De Corneille, Nina Ekstein
La Pratique Ironique De L’Appel À L’Autorité Dans Les Péritextes Du Théâtre De Corneille, Nina Ekstein
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
Corneille a lié un grand nombre de péritextes à son œuvre théâtrale, dont les Préfaces, les avis « Au lecteur », les Arguments, les Épîtres, les Examens de 1660 et les Trois Discours sur le poème dramatique de la même année. Ce sont tous des textes polémiques du fait qu’ils représentent des prises de position dans les débats théâtraux de l’époque. Ce sont aussi des défenses souvent très spécifiques de ses œuvres. Les péritextes constituent un terrain particulièrement riche car c’est là qu’un auteur fait connaître ses intentions au lecteur.
Performing Violence In Rotrou’S Theater, Nina Ekstein
Performing Violence In Rotrou’S Theater, Nina Ekstein
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
Violence has a significant and varied role in the theater of Jean Rotrou. Discord and strife are natural to the stage and violence is one of the ways such conflict may be expressed. The inherently spectacular nature of violence makes it particularly theatrical. At the same time, violence pleasingly tantalizes audiences. In this examination of Rotrou’s entire theatrical corpus, I first consider the use of “real” violence, both on stage and off. More interesting and even more common is potential violence, which includes threats of all sorts, as well as fortuitous interruptions. Potential violence avoids the serious difficulties that staging …
Transnational Transgressions: Multidisciplinary Approaches To Global Mexican Cultural Productions, Rosana Blanco Cano, Rita Urquijo-Ruiz
Transnational Transgressions: Multidisciplinary Approaches To Global Mexican Cultural Productions, Rosana Blanco Cano, Rita Urquijo-Ruiz
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
The city of San Antonio, Texas, historically has maintained close artis-tic, political, social, and economic relations with Mexico. Because it embodies the complexity of transcultural and transnational exchanges in everyday life, in 2008 it became the site of a series of academic and artistic exchanges, out of which this text on global Mexican cultural productions emerges. A variety of artistic and theoretical perspectives were conceptualized to reflect the multiple transcultural dynamics of San Antonio and also other transnational Mexican areas physically and metaphorically located on both sides of the border.
Nature In A Box: Ecocriticism, Goethe’S Ironic Werther, And Unbalanced Nature, Heather I. Sullivan
Nature In A Box: Ecocriticism, Goethe’S Ironic Werther, And Unbalanced Nature, Heather I. Sullivan
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
Ecocriticism emphasizes how our bodily and ecological boundaries are just as porous, inter-penetrable, and open as are our cultural and linguistic realms. As individual bodies and communities, we are fully immersed in our material environment and participating in constant exchanges of matter and energy. In this essay, I nevertheless advocate for a cautious approach to the ecocritical question of contested boundaries. After all, some boundaries and membranes are necessary to maintain living organisms. Regarding Timothy Morton’s assertion that we are “radically open,” I note the need for stable and healthy membranes to sustain life, such as our porous yet enclosed …
Affinity Studies And Open Systems: A Non-Equilibrium, Ecocritical Reading Of Goethe's Faust, Heather I. Sullivan
Affinity Studies And Open Systems: A Non-Equilibrium, Ecocritical Reading Of Goethe's Faust, Heather I. Sullivan
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
Ecocriticism’s contributions to the current rejection of dualistic thinking are noteworthy, particularly when this interdisciplinary field concentrates on hybridity and “relations” that preexist essences. In this mode, ecocriticism participates in a broader development of “affnity studies” that encompass the many efforts across the disciplines toward reconfiguring our “intraactions” with the world in terms that avoid dichotomies and Newtonian linearity and that utilize instead nonlinear, nondualistic forms of “hybridity.” Hybrids, in Steve Hinchliffe’s words, are “more or less durable bodies made up of similarly hybrid and impermanent relations.
Re-Membering Lesbian Desire In Belle Epoque, Soldados De Salamina, And Las Trece Rosas, Debra J. Ochoa
Re-Membering Lesbian Desire In Belle Epoque, Soldados De Salamina, And Las Trece Rosas, Debra J. Ochoa
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
The presidency of Jose Luis Zapatero Rodriguez has seen significant legisla tion in Spain that includes the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2005 and La ley de la memoria historica in 2007.1 Upon consideration of the changes in Spain during the first decade of the twenty-first century, we as critics must pause to consider how literature and film respond to the topics of homosexuality and history. Since the death of Franco in 1975, writers and directors have created a significant body of films and literature that uncovers previously prohibited topics in order to make, "the once hidden visible" (Creekmur …
De La Biblia Hebrea A La Comedia Española: El Clavo De Jael De Mira De Amescua, Matthew D. Stroud
De La Biblia Hebrea A La Comedia Española: El Clavo De Jael De Mira De Amescua, Matthew D. Stroud
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
Abundan en la comedia española del Siglo de Oro las mujeres protagonistas que no se contentan con las restricciones y limitaciones impuestas sobre ellas por la sociedad patriarcal. De Rosaura en La vida es sueño de Calderón a La monja alférez de Juan Pérez de Montalbán, es frecuentemente la mujer la que promueve la acción y determina los perfiles del drama.
Undocumented And Queer: Carlos Manuel’S La Vida Loca, Rita Urquijo-Ruiz
Undocumented And Queer: Carlos Manuel’S La Vida Loca, Rita Urquijo-Ruiz
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
No abstract provided.
Staging The Self, Staging Empowerment: An Overview Of Latina Theater And Performance, Rita Urquijo-Ruiz
Staging The Self, Staging Empowerment: An Overview Of Latina Theater And Performance, Rita Urquijo-Ruiz
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
The origins of U.S. Latina1 theater and performance can be situated in the Southwest during the time this geographical region was still under Spanish colonial domination.2 Historically, Latinas have contributed to all the creative and technical components of U.S. theater and performance from its incipiency. I begin this chapter with a brief overview starting in the twentieth century and offer an example of an early type of performance, and then I proceed to focus, primarily, on the works created since 1980, briefly analyzing three Latina plays. Anglo American theater has slowly begun to recognize and incorporate theatrical cultural …
Rotrou’S Bélisaire: Hierarchy And Meaning, Nina Ekstein
Rotrou’S Bélisaire: Hierarchy And Meaning, Nina Ekstein
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
Bélisaire (1643) differs significantly from the bulk of Rotrou’s theater, perhaps above all in its array of profoundly disparate features. The notion of hierarchy offers a means of organizing the dissimilar elements and understanding the play as a whole. Like so many of Rotrou’s plays, the subject is not original. Its source is Mira de Amescua’s El ejemplo mayor de la Desdicha.
Ecocriticism, The Elements, And The Ascent/Descent Into Weather In Goethe’S Faust, Heather I. Sullivan
Ecocriticism, The Elements, And The Ascent/Descent Into Weather In Goethe’S Faust, Heather I. Sullivan
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
The ostensibly religious and ethical significance of Faust's final ascension after his death tends to distract, if not blind, readers to other possible implications of that upwards movement and to the idea that he may continue and return "back to earth." The assumption that heavenly powers reward Faust leads to the claim that Goethe's tragedy validates the quest of "land developers" or those who would strive regardless of the consequences. I propose, in contrast, that we read Faust's "final" ascension alongside Goethe's weather essay, "Witterungslehre 1825," and thereby note that this upward motion is not necessarily "final" at all but …
Time, Space, And The Question Of Heroism In Sertorius, Nina Ekstein
Time, Space, And The Question Of Heroism In Sertorius, Nina Ekstein
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
This article examines the exceptional role Corneille gives to the dimensions of time and space in Sertorius, one of the playwright’s later tragedies. In contrast to Corneille’s general dramatic practice, in which the two dimensions are relatively neglected, here they are foregrounded and serve as a framework for Sertorius’s tragedy. His relationship to time—he is essentially a man of the past to whom the future will be denied—and to space—immobilized in Nertobridge while aching to return to Rome—restricts him and prevents forward movement in either realm. Furthermore, time and space provide a vital key for unraveling the thorny issue …
Tomboy, Rita Urquijo-Ruiz
Tomboy, Rita Urquijo-Ruiz
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
No abstract provided.
Supersession, The Comedia Nueva, And Tirso's La Mejor Espigadera, Matthew D. Stroud
Supersession, The Comedia Nueva, And Tirso's La Mejor Espigadera, Matthew D. Stroud
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
Given Spain's self-identification with the Roman Catholic Church under the Hapsburgs, what is one to make of the great number of comedias that take as their protagonists figures from the Hebrew Bible, individuals revered by Jews as righteous ancestors, models of behavior, and illustrious examples of the triumphs of the Hebrew people faced with endless persecution and oppression? Most of these plays focus on the actions of men (e.g., King David in Tirso’s La venganza de Tamar, and Joseph and Jacob in Mira’s El más feliz cautiverio), but a number of them focus on righteous Hebrew women such …
The Conversion Of Polyeucte’S Félix: The Problem Of Religion And Theater, Nina Ekstein
The Conversion Of Polyeucte’S Félix: The Problem Of Religion And Theater, Nina Ekstein
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
The relationship between religion and theater gave rise in seventeenth-century France to much discussion and dissent, commonly referred to as the Querelle de la moralité du théâtre. The 1640s were a rare period during which religious subjects were popular on the French stage; almost all of the major playwrights wrote at least one play that could be thus categorized (Pasquier 201). I propose to examine the friction between the domains of theater and religion through a discussion of the two most enduringly famous religious plays of this period, Pierre Corneille's Polyeucte (1643) and Jean Rotrou's Le Véritable Saint Genest …
Artistic Distance And The Comedia: Lessons From Don Quijote, Matthew D. Stroud
Artistic Distance And The Comedia: Lessons From Don Quijote, Matthew D. Stroud
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
Don Quijote is a novel, perhaps even the first modern novel (Fuentes 15, Bloom 145). Practically from the date of its writing, however, it has been almost irresistibly viewed through the lens of theater—"Como casi es comedia la historia de don Quixote de la Mancha [ ... ]"in the words of Avellaneda (fol.lllr)—and a growing body of scholarship acknowledges the importance of theatricality to both the structure of the work and the way one interprets it. "Theatricality," as it turns out, is a very flexible term in many of these studies and the widely varying definitions of it have given …
The Play Of Means And Ends: Justice In Lope's Fuenteovejuna, Matthew D. Stroud
The Play Of Means And Ends: Justice In Lope's Fuenteovejuna, Matthew D. Stroud
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
Lope’s masterpiece, Fuenteovejuna, is generally considered to be a glowing endorsement of the reign of Fernando and Isabel, who represent not just a glorious and hopeful Spanish history but political acumen, justice, and the triumph of good over evil. A closer examination of several key plot elements, however, reveals that almost every time characters are called upon to make decisions, they choose the option that at best circumvents the requirements for justice and at worst actively works to the detriment of the proper administration of justice and law. This study focuses on four pivotal moments—when Frondoso takes the Comendador’s …
Memory And Exile In María Teresa León’S Las Peregrinaciones De Teresa (1950), Debra J. Ochoa
Memory And Exile In María Teresa León’S Las Peregrinaciones De Teresa (1950), Debra J. Ochoa
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
María Teresa León (1903-1988) is most well known for her autobiography Memoria de la melancolía (1977), written during her last years of exile from her native Spain. The year 2003 marked the centenary of her birth and a reevaluation of her fiction, including a new edition of her short stories edited by Gregorio Torres Nebrera. [1] In the twenty-first century León finally receives much overdue recognition. [2] This article will examine León‘s conception of memory and exile, through a close textual reading of her short stories ―Primera peregrinación de Teresa," ―El noviciado de Teresa," ―Cabeza de ajo," and ―Esplendor de …