And I won’t reproduce it all here. Point 1 was that Sommer says romance makes nation, but the families in the novels she discusses aren’t stable; they’re unhappy, disintegrating, and so on. Family is not peace and conciliation. Examples: Ma.: ella muere y Efraín se va a la nada; C.V.: los personajes mueren y las … More A paper on Sommer and da Silva I had sketched out in longhand
These are notes from very long ago, a LARR issue on race, referring in part to Anthony Marx, “Making race and nation: a comparison of the U.S., S.A., and Brazil.” The modern state played a formative role in the development of racialized societies. It excluded Blacks to gain legitimacy among whites and is a racialized … More Race and the modern state
Here’s Jerome Branche in the Afro-Hispanic Review, 1998. That’s another photocopy I don’t need to keep. But I had great notes and underlining in it. Branche is in part criticizing William Luis’ construction of Sab as an abolitionist text. Del Monte (with whom Gómez de Avallaneda was not affiliated, but with whom Luis associates her), … More Anti-slavery and anti-slave
PRÉFACE DE JEAN-PAUL SARTRE Le Sudiste seul a compétence pour parler de l’esclavage: c’est qu’il connaît le Nègre; les gens du Nord, puritains abstraits, ne connaissent que l’Homme, qui est une entité. Ce beau raisonnement sert encore: à Houston, dans la presse de la Nouvelle-Orléans et puis, comme on est toujours le Nordiste de quelqu’un, … More Sartre sur Memmi
That was the title of a review essay on Postethnic America and other books (W. B. Michaels’ Our America is one) by Eric Lott, almost 28 years ago when all these things were new. I kept my photocopy because I liked my underlinings and notes, and a lot of things, like the Amiri Baraka epigraph. … More The New Cosmopolitanism
Sunday: located the abstract I wrote and didn’t use, to revamp for the MLA. My goal this week is to work on this abstract so now I have done one thing toward that. Also this week I must do more toward that speaker, and work on syllabi and exams. Re syllabi, one is the Bolaño … More Log 18-23 February
I have had a hard time the last couple of days, I wanted to take them off but it seemed I couldn’t get a cat sitter, so I engaged in heavy procrastination. Or did I? I read a lot of news and thought about it, and I enjoyed that, actually, although I felt I should … More Luz Gambás
I won’t list all the books I have in a bag to donate, because it will make me quail. They are books I would keep if I did not have others. Famous anthologies of avant-garde writing, famous editions, Suleiman’s Subversive Intent, still-valid Footprint guides to Central America, Colombia, Jamaica, Mexico, things like this. But the … More Mapas anatómicos de César Vallejo
This journal issue is too old to keep but … people like Leopoldo Zea are good to know. Here is a PDF of the whole thing. Axé.
From the files: a Nation article I had kept, on GW Bush’s use of language. He creates dependency by scaring people and painting himself as the savior, so people will do as he says. “Empty language” is one term the article uses; another is “personalization,” which he uses instead of argumentation. The third is “negative … More 2003
