Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature Commons^™

Visual Semiotics And Cultural Hybridity In Orión, El Atlante: Negotiating Global Comic Codes And Mexican Identity, Jaime Cruz-Ortiz

The Coastal Review

This article examines the 1980s Mexican comic series Orión, el Atlante through the lens of visual semiotics and cultural hybridity, drawing on Roland Barthes’s theory of polysemy and Néstor García Canclini’s concept of hybridization. While Mexican historietas have long been understudied, Orión offers a compelling case for understanding how Latin American comics negotiate global superhero tropes and local cultural imaginaries. The analysis foregrounds the historieta’s layered visual codes and narrative strategies, revealing how its retrofuturistic Atlantis blends Greco-Roman aesthetics, advanced technology, and indigenous symbolism to construct a mythic space that evokes both precolonial grandeur and modern aspiration. Orión’s characterization—rooted …

The Rescue Of Wahutedew’Á And The Epistemological Reforestation: An Analysis Of Time In A Terra Dos Mil Povos, By Kaká Werá Jecupé, Ivo Cruz

The Coastal Review

It is estimated that in 1500, the year the Portuguese arrived in America, there was a population of 2,431,000 inhabitants, according to historian John Hemming (1978), who occupied the lands that we now know as Brazil. These peoples had their own culture whose cosmology was destroyed and erased over time by a violent process of colonization. Even though entire groups were decimated, much of their influence is still alive in Brazilian culture. This influence can be found in vocabulary, cuisine, and even religious practices. With the aim of rescuing ancestral narratives and knowledge of various native peoples, Kaká Werá Jecupé …

Light And Darkness For Aesthetic Pleasure: An Exploration Of J.M.G. Le Clézio’S Early Writings And Jun’Ichiro Tanizaki’S In Praise Of Shadows, Kenichiro Otani

The Coastal Review

Building upon comparative principles, this semantic reading of Jun’ichirō Tanizaki’s essay In Praise of Shadows and J.M.G. Le Clézio’s early writings illustrates how both the Franco-Mauritian author and the Japanese writer problematize modern Western perception laden with concepts stifling flexible imagination through the mysterious worldview of light/darkness. They also simultaneously express the hope that another way of life leading to liberation is possible. Delving into the spiritual confinement of the subject, they demonstrate how keeping rich creativity within one’s heart can be an escape from a stagnant society. Albeit in very different mediums, Tanizaki and Le Clézio assert that the …

Teaching Cuba In Georgia Today, Eric Kartchner

The Coastal Review

This essay details a college professor's approach to teaching a course on Cuban history and culture. The professor's pedagogical choices were influenced by Ada Ferrer's book, Cuba: An American History, and José Antonio Bowen's work on fostering independent thinking. The syllabus covered pre-Columbian Cuba, Spanish rule, the wars of independence, the Castro era, and significant cultural aspects like music and religion. The course emphasized multiple perspectives and encouraged student-led research, challenging preconceived notions about Cuba's complex relationship with the United States. The professor aimed to promote critical thinking and understanding through student-driven inquiry.

Leer La Pintura Las Meninas: Niveles B Y C De Español L2, Nydia Jeffers

The Coastal Review

La pintura española Las meninas (1656) de Diego Velázquez ha sido examinada por especialistas de las artes y las ciencias. Esta propuesta didáctica invita a los estudiantes de español de los niveles B y C a practicar la lectura mediante las conexiones curriculares de la obra. Para ilustrar su potencial educativo, se conecta la pintura con más de veinte investigadores de distintas disciplinas. El diseño de las actividades se apoya en teóricos de la adquisición de segundas lenguas y en referentes de artes plásticas del Plan Curricular del Instituto Cervantes (2007) y abarca las competencias lingüísticas del Marco Común Europeo …

Luis Cernuda En El Exilio Y Análisis De Dos Poemas Cernudianos Tardíos, Mary S. Vásquez

The Coastal Review

The Spanish poet Luis Cernuda was viewed by most of his contemporaries in the brilliant generation of poets of 1927 as closed, cold, removed from them and from the explosive issues of that period. Once the tragic Spanish Civil War began in 1936, however, Cernuda was of very few Spanish intellectuals to to fight in the trenches in defense of the Republic. He also worked alongside Lorca and others in the Misiones Pedagógicas, which brought culture to the humble people to whom it belonged. María Teresa León wrote a passionate defense of the solidarity of Cernuda. The poet left Spain …

Learning Chinese Vocabulary: Understanding Students' Perspectives, Austin Gasiecki, Zuotang Zhang

The Coastal Review

This study used a survey to investigate self-study and university-enrolled Chinese learners’ habits in studying Chinese vocabulary in order to determine what study methods influence a.) learners’ confidence in learning Chinese vocabulary and b.) what aspects of Chinese vocabulary they consider easy or difficult. We were particularly interested in seeing what the data had to say about students’ attitudes towards characters and the written language, given that the field of Chinese language pedagogy is known for a stronger focus on the written language as opposed to the spoken language. We found that aspects of Chinese vocabulary associated with the spoken …

Between Pain And Glory: Memory Disputes Of The Brazilian Dictatorship In Retrato Calado And O Que É Isso, Companheiro?, Angela R. Mooney

The Coastal Review

This article analyzes Luiz Roberto Salinas Fortes’ Retrato calado (Silent Portrait) published in 1988, considering the theoretical discussions on testimonio's epistemology—addressing the challenge of narrating trauma and the risk of stylization. It compares Fortes' memoir with Fernando Gabeira's O que é isso, companheiro? (What's This, Comrade?) from 1979, examining diverse approaches to capturing historical trauma through literature and its impact on collective memory about Brazilian Dictatorship (1964-1985).

Horror Stories: Oblivious Women In Luis Puenzo’S La Historia Oficial (1985) And Santiago Mitre’S Argentina 1985 (2022), Stephanie R. Orozco

The Coastal Review

Adriana Cavarero's conceptualization of Medusa serves as a potent metaphor for the subtle redirection of violence of oblivious women who ignored the brutalization of pregnant victims during Argentina’s military dictatorship (1976-83). In Luis Puenzo’s La historia oficial (1985) and Santiago Mitre’s Argentina 1985 (2022), skillfully unveil the ghastly practice of torturing pregnant women, unraveling the vulnerability of both mothers and their infants, evoking a sense of disgust and repugnance that is eventually shared by oblivious women. Beyond mere storytelling, these films challenge prevailing power dynamics and discourses, shedding light on the complicit ignorance of elite women during an era marked …

Ocho Quilates And The Golden Age Of Spanish Software As Authentic Stem Language Lessons In The Spanish Language Classroom, Ransom Gladwin

The Coastal Review

A topic absent from cultural discussions is the Golden Age of Spanish Software (GASS). Known in Spain and Europe, but largely ignored elsewhere, the years 1983-1992 were the Golden Age of Spanish Software, when Spain became Europe’s second largest producer of 8-bit computer games, the dominant video gaming platform at the time. Ocho Quilates, the two-volume series by Jaume Esteve Gutiérrez, meticulously details the biographies and achievements of this unique time is Spanish history. Spanish achievement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) needs to be presented along with the arts of the Spanish-speaking world. The GASS makes an excellent …

Global Communities: The Potential Of Street Art And The Public Space, Elena Picech

The Coastal Review

This paper highlights the significance of physical proximity and the potentiality of socio-spatial situations as tools to enrich study abroad programs. Particular attention is given to street art and the public space. While, studying on-site can be somewhat uncomfortable, it can potentially prompt unique reflections, enhance student’s learning and encourage introspection. Being on-site provides the opportunity to come into contact and to connect with the physical objects and their environment. It enables a multisensory and immersive embodied experience. Leveraging art for communicative educational activities can facilitate a participatory experience, promote critical thinking and enhance cultural understanding.

The Femme-Fatale “Bear’Ing Her Teeth: The Relation Between Women And Animals In Prosper Mérimée’S Lokis, William B. Holley

The Coastal Review

Abstract: Many French fantastic texts from the nineteenth century employ the use of a femme-fatale to highlight and underscore the dangers inherit with the female figure. This can be seen in vampires, ghosts, fairies, and other supernatural phenomena wherein a female character takes on incredible attributes. Propser Mérimée’s Lokis offers readers a tale wherein those same female figures are given traits that resemble the traditional femme-fatale, but in doing so they highlight the deadly nature of the titular half-man/half-bear creature. This paper offers a reading of Lokis which brings together an understanding of the social and political climate in which …

Decolonizing French: Afrophonics In Ken Bugul’S Aller Et Retour (2013), Hapsatou Wane

The Coastal Review

This article explores the innovative language strategies employed by Senegalese writer Ken Bugul in her novel Aller et retour to construct a dynamic and interconnected linguistic landscape that challenges fixed language boundaries. Ken Bugul's "langue fabriquée" combines elements of French, Wolof, and English, reflecting a transglocal dimension that embodies the essence of afrophonics—a poetics of resistance that empowers local cultures in a globalized context. Through a detailed analysis of Ken Bugul's linguistic choices, including the use of quotation marks, footnotes, and arbitrary transcription, the study reveals how she creates a language that defies categorization and decolonizes French without resorting to …

De Médée À La Sorcière : Reconstruction D’Un Mythe Par Michelet, Caroline Strobbe

The Coastal Review

In La Sorcière, Jules Michelet uses the strength and the myth of the Medea character, which had already fascinated Corneille. In the second part of his work, Michelet creates nominative witches after authentic texts. In the first part, he creates an allegoric witch on the Medea model: the Woman, a victim of arbitrariness, injustice and repression, rises up against her oppressors, figuring the march of Humanity towards Enlightenment and Liberty. The analogies between the Witch and Medea are therefore numerous and necessary, since they help to render the defense of the oppressed against the oppressor. Would the somber Medea, …

Fostering Engagement With Voicethread In Online Intermediate Spanish Language Classes, Karen Acosta, Ericka H. Parra Dr

The Coastal Review

It is estimated that more than 1.5 billion students have been affected during the course of the global coronavirus pandemic by school and university closures. As a way to navigate this new instructional landscape, the researchers aimed to find a tool that would allow students to develop and practice communicative language skills in their online Spanish classes. In this research study, participants used VoiceThread over the course of a semester and then reflected on their comfort level using communicative skills in Spanish before and after using the tool, as well as whether they perceived that using the platform in their …

La Radical Imperfección Del Mundo: El Crimen Perfecto De Jean Baudrillard Y El Crimen Ferpecto De Alex De La Iglesia, Maria A. Gomez

The Coastal Review

Le parfait crime (1995) by Jean Baudrillard and Crimen ferpecto (2004) by the Basque director Alex de la Iglesia are two works that not only have in common almost identical titles. They both reflect on how in consumer societies, an imperfect real world is substituted for an illusory hyperreality in which the distinction between subject and object has disappeared. While Baudrillard explains how the denial of a transcendent reality in contemporary society is “a perfect crime” that destroys the real, Alex de la Iglesia uses black humor and a mix of genres (mainly grotesque comedy and thriller) to show the …

Communicating With The Past Via Javier Cercas’ Las Leyes De La Frontera, Bobby D. Nixon

The Coastal Review

Cercas’ protagonist, Gafitas, narrates his memories of being a member of "el Zarco's" youth gang in the barrio chino of Girona during the summer of 1978, from the vantage point of the early 2000s. The novel is simultaneously viewed through the intertextual lens of José Antonio de la Loma’s cycle of quinqui films based on the life of the famous Catalan delinquent, El Vaquilla, Juan José Moreno Cuenca. There is renewed interest in these films from the Transition period of the late 1970s and early 1980s, with the success of this novel and director Daniel Monzón's film based on Cercas’ …

Language Learning Through Interaction: Online And In The Classroom, Andrew J. Demil, Rachel Kozikowski

The Coastal Review

Online language teaching has become a popular alternative to classroom learning (Liu et al; Warschauer and Meskill). This led to research comparing the two learning environments (Young). Regardless of the learning environment, in order to be effective, the second language classroom must be designed to lead learners to acquisition. Studies suggest that collaborative tasks that push learners to negotiate meaning lead to acquisition (Leeser; Loewen and Erlam; Mackey and Philp; Stafford, Bowden, Sanz). Participants in this study were in two environments; a second language classroom in the typical in person classroom format, and a language learning course in an online …

Pensar El Límite: El Símbolo Indígena En Los Proyectos Políticos Cubanos De Principios Del Siglo Xix, Jorge L. Camacho

The Coastal Review

This article investigates the way in which Cuban literature reflected on indigenous people during the early half of the nineteenth century and uses the symbol of the Amerindians to demonstrate a moral disjuncture between them and the colonizer. In this article, I call attention to the way Cuban independentists and Spanish nationalists used this figure to support their views and thus created a split in the Cuban creole imagination. I start by pointing out that these appropriations started at the end of the 18th century when historian José Martín Félix de Arrate, and poets such as Miguel González and Manuel …

La “Border Culture” Del Personaje Mexicoamericano En El Sureste De Estados Unidos En Los Cuentos De Lorraine López Y Mijito Doesn’T Live Here Anymore De Jaime Martínez, Jaime Chavez

The Coastal Review

This paper explores the concepts of "Border Culture" and "Borderlands" by Gloria Anzaldúa in Soy la Avon Lady and Other Stories, Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories, by Lorraine López and the novel Mijito Doesn’t Live Here Anymore by Jaime Martínez. The paper argues that the Mexican American character in the southeast of the United States lives in the "Borderlands" and practices a "Border Culture" because they don't follow the traditional stereotypical role of the Mexican American character within the literary canon of both the dominant culture and Chicana/o literature.

Using A Smart Phone To Learn Spanish: Does It Work And Will Students Use It?, Andrew J. Demil, Alysha Assaf, Ryan Cragun

The Coastal Review

Over time, mobile devices have penetrated the classroom, requiring new and beneficial ways to implement classroom instruction. Research suggests that Short Message Service (SMS) based instruction is an effective tool for acquiring second language (L2) vocabulary and idiom knowledge (Hayati, Jalilifar, & Mashhadi; Lu,). Additionally, studies have found that students believe that mobile learning (m-learning) is beneficial to acquiring a second language (Cavus & Ibrahim; Hayati, Jalilifar, & Mashhadi; Lu, 2008). This study examined whether m-learning can lead to Spanish vocabulary familiarity and if sentence comprehension outperforms reading definitions. Participants were 29 native English speakers studying Spanish as a second …

Performing Militancy In Laura Alcoba’S The Rabbit House (2008), Stephanie R. Orozco

The Coastal Review

Laura Alcoba’s The Rabbit House (2008), belongs to the cannon of post- dictatorship child survivors—who themselves lived under the precarious life of militancy during Argentina’s Dictatorship (1976-1983). This paper exams the image of a young seven-year-old child’s who undergoes serious confrontational mischief's due to her inability to fully acquire militant norms and live by adult rules because of her child-like nature during her stay in la clandestindad. Moreover, rather than assuming the role of an innocent child figure of the 1970s Left-wing revolutionary war, Alcoba’s child protagonist assumes a politically active character that has the ability to perform childhood as …

A Story To Tell… How To Integrate The Three Modes Of Communication Through A Story Time Program In French, Frederique Grim

The Coastal Review

Bilingual story time programs found in local community libraries not only benefit children, they can also serve a need for L2 college students: the development of their communicative skills in an authentic environment. In addition to linguistic benefits, experiential learning has proven to prepare students for real-world skills, such as networking, mock professional experience and a sense of community engagement. This paper recounts how a world language story time program supports L2 learners’ three modes of communication, as articulated by ACTFL, and necessary for language development. Based on students’ perceptions, this study highlights their increase in motivation and confidence in …

Cartografías Afectivas Para Tiempos De Crisis. Emocionalidad Textual En La Poesía Española Reciente, Alberto López Martín

The Coastal Review

This article pays attention to the mobilizing potential of certain poetic productions in the context of the 2008 Spanish financial crisis. From the perspective of Affect and Emotion studies, I use Jonathan Flatley’s notion of affective cartography to illustrate how Antonio Orihuela and Pablo García Casado’s poems extrapolate from personal dimensions of the financial crisis’ drama (unemployment, evictions, etc.) to the socio-political sphere. I argue that, in such context, the poems studied possess the potentiality of arousing an empowering empathy and indignation in a historically-situated reader.

Memory, Metatheater, And Intertextuality In "La Madrugada" By Juan Tovar, Brian T. Chandler

The Coastal Review

This work explores the concepts of temporality, memory and history in the play La madrugada by Juan Tovar presented through the use of metatheatricality and intertextuality with works such as Pedro Páramo and various historical corridos. The processes through which official history is constructed are shown in contrast with collective memory that endures in the corrido, the “authentic” voice of the people, suggesting that the only possibility for redemption is found in memory, a space where one can learn from history to rectify the mistakes of the past whose impact in politics and society is felt to this …

Flora Tristan’S Plural Identities In "Peregrinaciones De Una Paria": Challenging And Reproducing Existing Power Structures, Nancy Tille-Victorica

The Coastal Review

This article analyses the ways in which Franco-Peruvian author Flora Tristan crosses the border of her plural identities in her famous travel book Peregrinaciones de una paria (1837). It especially looks at how she performs as a male in certain situations and how these are generally associated with her French identity. It also considers her identification as a woman and how it is linked to her Peruvian identity. These examinations reveal how Tristan actually redefines herself as a pariah and how her definition differs from that of outcast imposed on her in France prior to her departure for Peru.

Cruzando Fronteras De Género(S): La Dislocación Del "Bildungsroman" Y La Construcción Política Del Sujeto, Silvia Roig

The Coastal Review

This study shows that Aurora Bertrana’s novels subvert the traditional Bildungsroman and uses the techniques of the Novel of Female Development with (auto) biographical characteristics. The core of my analysis is in the friction, the disruption and the confrontation between the subject and the social system represented by the family, the school and the community. Bertrana’s novels underline that men, similarly to women, are under a strong pressure to adopt a specific role according to heterosexual norms. Bertrana’s work demonstrate that women writers, like men, can introduce social, cultural and political innovations and experiment with a new literature genre.

The Construction Of A Transatlantic Subject: Family And Nation In "Sola" By María José De Chopitea, Valeriya F. Fritz

The Coastal Review

This article explores the articulation of exile identity in the novel Sola by María José de Chopitea published in Mexico in 1954. Until now, critics have approached this text as lacking ideological argument. I propose an alternative reading of the novel as an ideologically charged narrative that articulates the nation beyond state borders and in terms of a transatlantic bond between Mexico and the Spanish Republic. Sola creates space in the nation for Catalan female writers who were previously excluded due to both their gender and their status as political exiles and cultural minorities.

Educación, Escritura Y Memoria: Las Armas De La Alteridad Frente Al Discurso Oficial Y La Desmemoria En "Por El Cielo Y Más Allá", Emilio L. Ramon

The Coastal Review

Por el cielo y más allá invites the reader to reflect upon populist discourses paving the way for discrimination and marginalization; especially those aimed at a different gender, ethnic group, national origin or even an academic sub-specialty. Those who were persecuted in the past are now the ones harassing, and use the ambiguity of words as their tool. Words, in turn, enslave but also help set the others free. The memories of those marginalized are perpetuated through education, letters, poems and songs. They oppose the official discourse and invite the reader to avoid monolithic discourses and embrace tolerance and diversity.

La Influencia De "La Brecha" En El Discurso Feminista De Los Setentas Y Ochentas., Carlos M. Coria-Sánchez

The Coastal Review

Chilean writer Mercedes Valdivieso (1924-1993), is well known for the social and subversive content of her works, specifically La Brecha of 1961.

La Brecha is of vital importance in the study of feminist novels within the Latin American context because with her revolutionary narrative at the beginning of the 1960's, the author denounces and destroys the social structures that oppress women and keep her under a state of dependence and subjugation under the patriarchal society.