|
|
| Login • Help |
|
Current Issue Article Abstracts June 2010 Vol. 63.1 • • • • • • • • La tradución como acto ético-moral en los territorios fronterizos: o por qué la voz lírica de Demetria Martínez Claudia Aburto Guzmán This article contextualizes the question "why we translate that which we translate" in the tensioned territory shared by México and the United States. Said contextualization establishes a distance between the act of translation as a means for philosophical inquiry and the immediacy that is present in the act of interpretation as well as the inevitable contradictions that emerge from the act of translation. The act of translation that takes place in this article contributes to the tension within the U.S. side of the territory by translating two poems by Demetria Martínez, from English into Spanish, from a post-colonial and feminist perspective. Both poems in their original language and the act of translation shed further light on the inequity of the toposocial order that determines the experience of the subject within the territory as well as the ethical-moral dilemma generated by present border relations. La distancia y la modestia: las 'dos' caras del Atlántico en los versos de Sor Juana a la duquesa de Aveyro Mónica Morales This essay examines an under explored side of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz's "Romance 37": her Creole subjectivity in the representation of space in the transatlantic literature of New Spain. I argue that this seventeenth-century nun uses her praise of Duchess of Aveyro, another intellectual and virtuous woman from Portugal, to advance a protest. By using admiration as the apparent motive of the endeavor, she elaborates a strong criticism of colonialism and the role the Atlantic plays in its consolidation. As she denounces how Europe bleeds dry the mines of Mexico, she presents the Atlantic as a space of economic exchange and historical exploitation, i.e., a gateway to inequity. However, as a baroque poet, her depiction of the Atlantic invites another consideration, that of "cultural" exchanges and tolerance, which she fashions through equality, the antithesis of subordination that this space epitomizes after 1492. As she modestly appears to praise virtue in a transatlantic figure who presents what she recognizes in herself, Sor Juana aligns America and her poetry with Neo-Thomism in order to pair center with periphery and re-locate reason in America. I demonstrate that this strategy accommodates a Creole subjectivity that fights difference and oppression. In the latter symbolism, another "facet" of the Atlantic reveals itself. By taking the poetic form of the "romance" in an original direction, as it crosses the Atlantic to and from the periphery of the Old World, she advances a Creole sentiment via the symbolic re-evaluation of the Atlantic as instrument of empire. El discurso de la crueldad: 2666 de Roberto Bolaño Gabriela Muñiz In this article I study the perception of dead bodies and their aesthetic representation in Roberto Bolaño's literature, especially in his last novel 2666 (2004). These corpses express numerous meanings; they are a way to address political violence and, since the novel was written when the artist was approaching death, a way to face the inevitable fate of human existence. Additionally, dead bodies in 2666 represent the missing bodies of the years of repression in the writer's native country; they also refer to the most recent and daily trauma of the ignored cadavers of women found in the Mexican desert. Finally, these bodies crystallize a new treatment of human remains tracing its roots to the dehumanized Nazi period which is a source of motivation to find the causes of evil. Bolaño's final work captivates us by showing the disturbing contradiction between aesthetic and horror. In 2666 both trends are present either in the form of the novel as well as in its content. Bolaño's narrative is inhabited by death and beauty and they run throughout the entire text with a threatening result. Speaking of Race in Don Álvaro Lisa Surwillo "Speaking of Race in Don Álvaro" studies how the Duque de Rivas's 1835 play discursively constructs visual race as a concept of individual identity out of an application of zoological principles of organization onto human beings. The play educates its audience in the elements of modern nationalistic race while also demonstrating the destructive power of race. By speaking of race, the Romantic play celebrates the promise of modernity while representing the tragic consequences of excluding "raced" men from the rewards of political liberty. Memoria de la Guerra Civil y modernidad: el caso de El corazón helado de Almudena Grandes Carmen de Urioste Since the publication of Soldados de Salamina (2001) by Javier Cercas, Spain has seen a significant production of historical texts-focusing mainly on the Civil War-that are written as novels. These novels are based on real facts, but the reader is never certain about what percentage is reality and what percentage corresponds to fiction created by the author. From these pseudo-historical narrations, the Spanish society is recovering and rediscovering a historical past that the democratic transition chose to keep hidden, following the 'pact of silence' between moderate members of the left parties and the more progressive francoist factions. In this essay, I analyze El corazón helado (2007), by Almudena Grandes, mainly focusing in the dialogue established between memory and history. This investigation seeks to demonstrate that this type of novel expresses a demand for ideological values that were silenced for 30 years but begin to emerge in the contemporary Spanish society as a result of the consolidation of democracy and the basic structures of the constitutional monarchy. In my opinion, Grandes' novel has a triple purpose: first, subvert the historical meaning of the Spanish Civil war; second, proclaim the necessity that the Spanish society speak about the war; and finally, eliminate the self-imposed restrictions that hinder the incorporation of this national conversation into the daily dialogue of a normal society. Soberbia derrota: el concepto de imitación en el Apologético de Espinosa Medrano y la construcción de la autoridad letrada criolla Juan Vitulli The essay analyzes Juan de Espinosa Medrano's Apologético en favor de Góngora emphasizing the role of secular writing, education and interpretation of texts as practices that help consolidate the power of educated Creole elites in the Spanish American viceroyalties. In addition to key ideas such as hybridization, counter-hegemony, Creole self-affirmation, and westernization, I explore two concepts that played a decisive role in the Spanish American viceroyalties-imitatio (or poetic imitation) and negotiation. |
| Copyright © 2010 University of Pennsylvania Press. All rights reserved. Site Use and Privacy Policy |
Published by the University of Pennsylvania Press 3905 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104; phone: 215-898-6261 |