Research team

Expertise

Latin America Caribbean literature and culture Latino writers Food Studies Popular Culture

Finishing two book projects: *Devorando a Cuba* and *Cinco ensayos sobre narrativa dominicana contemporánea*. 01/10/2010 - 30/09/2011

Abstract

In "Devorando a lo cubano"¨a gastrocritical approach, i.e. an interpretation based on culinary references in a dialogue with other approaches, is applied to a series of narrative texts that are dealing with Cuba in the nineteenth century and in the so called Special Period in Cuba (from 1990 on). "Cinco ensayos sobre narrativa dominicana contemporánea" treats issues as the city, diasporaq and the historical trauma caused by Trujillo's dictatorship.

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  • Research Project

Spanish American Canonical Writers in the contemporary narrative prose of the Hispanic Carribean, Argentina and Chili (1990-2010). 01/01/2010 - 31/12/2013

Abstract

The project aims to demonstrate the importance of Spanish American canonical writers in relation to individual poetics and to reveal the constellations and recurrent elements in the way of rewriting canonical texts by men and women. The concept of a Spanish American canon (transnational and national) can be questioned by the comparative approach. At the same time the purpose is to formulate a critical reflection on the formation of the canon and on the mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion. The applicability of sociological-literary theories concerning the formation of the canon (Bourdieu, Casanova) will be checked.

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Project website

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  • Research Project

Culinary contexts in the Mexican and Hispano Caribbean literature from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. 01/01/2006 - 31/12/2009

Abstract

The promotors will focus their research on the diversity of ways in which culinary contexts as defined in the project are present and represented in the Mexican and Hispano-Caribbean literature in a diachronic perspective. They will check a number of hypothesis based on issues that are nowadays very important in literary production (gender, identity, intertextuality, marketing, poetics) in order to define and circumscribe in a scientific way the culinary contexts in literature that are sometimes considered as 'light' by some scholars. At the same time the project contributes to reflect on the 'utility' of a 'gastrocritical' approach. See the website: http://www.ua.ac.be/contextosculinarios

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  • Research Project

Culinary Contexts in Cuban Literature (XIX-XXth century). 01/05/2005 - 31/12/2006

Abstract

Different connotations (historical, social, ethnic, religious, ...) and interpretations of culinary contexts (as coined by Alejo Carpentier) are analysed in a number of Cuban works of the XIXth and XXth century (Cuba and diaspora). In this multisdisciplinary approach the relation of culinary references with gender, identity, intertextuality will be the major issues, besides of the influence on the poetics of the studied authors and the commercial effect.

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  • Research Project

"Imaged words: A Literary Exploration of the Visual Arts in Puerto Rico since 1950" 01/01/2004 - 31/12/2007

Abstract

We propose to study the relationship between word and image in contemporary Puerto Rican literature. Painters, writers and graphic artists have collaborated in the island since 1950, when they were officially associated to produce educational material. This symbiosis has developed until today, fruitfully linking the visual arts with poetry, autobiography and even with urban art. It allows us to study very diverse literary, linguistic, ethnic and cultural traditions. We are interested in examining its ideological evolution through time.

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  • Research Project

Contemporary writers from the Dominican Republic on the move. 01/10/2002 - 31/12/2004

Abstract

Dominican literature has been neglected in comparison with other Hispanic Caribbean Literatures. The aim is to study contemporary Dominican writing (nineties). Concerning those writers on the move (in a literary, geographic, cultural and even linguistic sense), I will focuss more specifically on the issue of racism and migration as reflected in literature, the tendencies in Dominican short stories of the nineties, new approaches by Dominican authors living on the island or in New York.

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  • Research Project

Historiographical Fiction and fictitious Historicity in the Centro-American and Hispanic Caribbean Narrative Prose (second part of twentieth century) 01/01/2001 - 31/12/2004

Abstract

Research about the traditional historical novel (Lukacs) and the testimonial novel (larger than the concept "testimonio") in the Caribbean and Centroamerican narrative prose. An analysis of the personages with special focus on the minorities, research about discursive strategies, reflection about the (meta)historical issues, relation with general tendencies in the genre of the Latin American Literature are some of the issues that will be studied.

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  • Research Project

Convergences and Interferences : newness in intercultural practices. 01/10/2000 - 30/09/2002

Abstract

Redaction of an introduction where issues as postcolonialism, inbetweenness, translation (linguistic and cultural-semiotic) are discussed from a point of view based on Spanish theory and literature. Editing of essays written as a result of a conference organized in april 2000 dealing with those issues, more specifically in relation to the literature of the nineties, with special focus on Caribbean and chicano-literature

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    • Research Project

    Puerto Rican Literature in the crossing of cultures 01/11/1998 - 31/10/2000

    Abstract

    The project consists in a profound analysis of a number of Puerto Rican authors (Rosario Ferré, Luis Rafael Sánchez) in relation to the Puerto Rican literature (diachronically and synchronically), the Latin American context, the Caribbean context and the US context. The intention is to investigate how these authors define themselves in the crossing of all those cultures (diversity) en to underscore their originality and their specificity (identity). In a second stage the project could be amplified by studying the Puerto Rican American writers in de United States.

    Researcher(s)

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      Project type(s)

      • Research Project