What Danny said about Doris’ book: In terms of its announced project, Doris Sommer’s Foundational Fictions turns to the canonical novels of the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth. Through a synthesis of writings about sexuality, nationalism, family history, and allegory, Sommer develops a theory of a nineteenth-century “erotic code” in order to explain … More So twentieth century
My students learned nothing from my Peninsular survey, I discern, but I learned. I should give this course as a course on the leyenda negra and the alleged problem of Spain. The final essay could request discussion of the terms in which Phillips and Phillips, in their book on Spain, seem to suggest that the … More Saldo: a peninsular post
If I have 75 students and I spend 25 hours a week grading, that is 20 minutes per student. A grader would net me 20 hours a week for research and writing. You see why people have things machine graded. You see also why the instructors, who teach up to 7 courses which means over … More Arithmetic
I do not understand this well enough yet to say it comprehensibly, but it appears that the reason I am incomprehensible as a person is that I am not trying to advance against others in the way that is considered natural. The “natural” thing, it seems, is to assume that anything anyone achieves is meant … More Incomprehensible
Mi padre duerme. Su semblante augusto figura un apacible corazón; está ahora tan dulce… si hay algo en él de amargo, seré yo. Hay soledad en el hogar; se reza; y no hay noticias de los hijos hoy. Mi padre se despierta, ausculta la huida a Egipto, el restañante adiós. Está ahora tan cerca; si … More Los pasos lejanos
I am looking for negative reviews of Doris Sommer, Foundational Fictions. If I do not find more by using Web of Knowledge and the MLA Bibliography I will call a reference librarian. I have already found an interesting one by Nancy Vogeley, in Modern Philology 91:3 (February 1994): 390-394. Danny Anderson has a review essay … More Research Wednesday
A person with any kind of authority assumes it means dictatorial power and cannot believe it if anyone stands up to them. That is the South for you, although when there is opposition it is particularly valiant. I am passing my committee role on to someone else and the committee chair is requiring a meeting between … More The South really is different, and not in a good way…
This dictator of Spain from 1923 to 1930 was a count, a marquis and a knight. An interesting Hispanist said he came from “a hard-drinking, whoring, horse-loving aristocracy” that ruled “over the most starved and down-trodden race of agricultural labourers in Europe,” and I got that quotation from Wikipedia. I was reading about Primo de Rivera … More Miguel Primo de Rivera
Look at this. Axé.
For purposes of “touching work” today I am reproducing the kernel of my proto-book proposal. These ideas are to orient the article and proto-chapter I am about to write, “The darker side of mestizaje.” (Yes, I am playing on Mignolo’s classic book title and on the idea of the dark side of the Enlightenment which … More Vision, race, and the state in modern Latin American literature
