One of my friends points out, in a nonacademic context, that life in limbo is a hard thing to manage. This is a good observation and I think living in limbo is one of the main stressors of academia. Of course you can say that uncertainty is everywhere but I am speaking of the constant … More Limbo
Abstracto La ambigüedad y el misterio, la insistencia en la raíz doble, el yo dividido, la sensación de ser otro, juntos con cierto indigenismo visible en Los heraldos negros y el creciente interés en la cultura autóctona de los años treinta, han motivado lecturas “mestizas” de Vallejo desde Mariátegui (1928) hasta Jorge Guzmán (1991). Al … More Raza y vanguardia. El sujeto “mestizo” en César Vallejo
I do not agree that communicative approaches, those methods referred to as grammar-translation, the direct and natural methods, and so on, are merely teaching “styles” — they have different goals and produce different results. Since we as a group do not have a common approach, the de facto departmental method is that used by those … More I should not say this in real life now, but…
…homologar la tortura y el genocidio a las generalidades de la Neurosis traumática es desconocer su especificidad, la que radica en que es otro humano –un semejante– el que tramita racionalmente nuestro oprobio o destrucción. A partir de allí –y a perpetuidad–, la pregunta de quién es el prójimo se planteará sin cesar con otra … More Marcelo Viñar
I have misplaced this book and I want to see it for nearly fetishistic reasons as Mazzotti’s review is almost enough. Still, I want to see it and fortunately they have it at Tulane, and very fortunately, I am going there Friday. Yes, I just got back from New Orleans last night and I am … More Este fin de semana
…it seemed that if we could only decide who Vallejo was we might know what his poems mean. Was this so and if it was, were we just falling prey to some form of the intentional fallacy? Not necessarily. It was that these poems were coming from a uneven, multi-leveled and multilayered collage of contexts, only some of … More Vallejo, el extranjero
People do not realize that many decades ago at Berkeley they decided freshman composition should also be given by (many) departments other than English. They have it in Rhetoric, Dramatic Art, Comparative Literature, and now all of these departments. This means that English is more immune to being asked to staff these courses with adjuncts, … More On the adjunct crisis
I said I would give a senior/graduate level course called Raza y palabra, on race and writing in Spain and Latin America, 1486-2014. This happened in a flash of inspiration and I do not now remember my concept clearly. The title is entirely too ambitious, and there is entirely too much potential material. I must … More Mon cours
→It is the gaslighting and the undermining, even more than the lack of a research culture. My claustrophobia. I did not say this myself, but someone else said my problem was having to work at too low a level. (He said something much blunter than that, about having to work “seven categories” beneath my capability.) I … More Just to be sure I remember…
It might be that this is where I would have to live, if I get and take Job #1. It is extremely expensive but everything that looks reasonable in that town has hidden costs or if not, is entirely too depressing (as in, I would rather stay here and leave the profession than move there and live … More Housing, and budgeting, and negotiating
coldhearted scientist وداد 