So: Sir Walter Scott, the European creator of historical novels saw history as a continuum on which they could trace the roots of their identity, but Latin American writers saw Independence as a break with history, and a moment in which a new identity must be forged This creates historiographical problems for the novel. In … More Lee Skinner 1999 on the historical novel

My error is giving classes that are too intellectually challenging, but I seem not to be able to correct it. My main error was Reeducation. Had I not made that call, I feel, everything would have been different. Maybe this is an illusion, there were other errors, but all of them had to do with … More Errors

Rush, press yourself, give yourself 15-25 minutes only. Write, don’t meditate; writing is thinking, so think by writing. These are instructions for people who have never written anything. Sure, you should start, and sure, something can be done in a short amount of time. But limiting yourself in this way is damaging, and pressing yourself … More Bad writing advice, and bad general advice

Read academic journals, feel excited to be off the terrible campus and back into reality; plan interesting weekends at research libraries, museums, beaches. Exult in being in off the terrible campus, take walks, plan interesting weekends in cultural venues and at beaches, read in field and new field, study. Then: Reeducation, and finally, three more … More What you did coming home in the evening from your assistant professor jobs

One that is used by many people in Florida, and someone else’s individual one. They use good resources and are related to mine, but they do different things too, which is interesting. And there’s a picture of me. Florida. Catherine Ramírez at UCSC. All these people are related to me intellectually somehow, and make me … More Two LAS syllabi

1/ From Soto (I need his other book on choleaje, and I want to finish this one–and reread Clayton, and some of the people they both cite): Años después, Marco Martos y Elsa Villanueva harán un análisis exhaustivo de T I en su libro fundamental «Las palabras de Trilce» (1989). Pero fue Gonzalo Sobejano quien … More Library

Soto’s book costs s/40 but mailing costs are s/230 which is $68 today. I’ll wait to see how I’ll get it, and read his other book in the meantime. Axé.

I think I’ve put my finger on it, it’s those feelings of unworthiness (more than guilt/shame) added to the fact that I gave my work to a Them. So I am never working for me, and never fully placing myself in work. Partly that’s for reasons we have already discussed at length, work became a … More Meanwhile

Definir la especificidad del “enfoque anglosajón” al que te refieres. ¿En qué otros críticos estás pensando? ¿Qué tienen en común? ¿Por qué la identidad nacional impone límites a las posibilidades de interpretación? ¿Cómo se sabe que el trabajo de Clayton es el mejor que podrá jamás elaborar una persona con orígenes en los países del … More That Granados debacle

I must read this book. And I think Spivak’s famous article may have clues to my project. Knowledge. The West sees subalternity as the site of unmediated truth, someone said. That is why people have to have passed through Blackness. Axé.