SLLC event

donde queda San Juan

JUAN CARLOS QUINTERO-HERENCIA, editor, University of Maryland

Entre las prendidas y los sleep modes de las pantallas, donde queda San Juan es el parco resultado de un ordeño online. Luego de un año de peticiones, acosos y silencios, este dossier es la culminación precaria de una variada meditación en torno a las figuraciones contemporáneas de un área metropolitana, más que de una ciudad en posesión de sus paisajes y avistamientos…. (leer más)

La Habana Elegante.

On Monday, April 19, at 12:00pm (Maryland Room, Marie Mount Hall), Ana María Shua will give a lecture titled, “With all I am: Woman, Jew, Latin American, Writer…”

Ana María Shua has earned a prominent place in contemporary Argentine fiction with the publication of over forty books in nearly every genre: novels, short stories, poetry, children’s fiction, books of humor and Jewish folklore, anthologies, film scripts, journalistic articles, and essays. Her award-winning works have been translated to many languages, including English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Korean, Japanese, Icelandic, Bulgarian, and Serbian, and her stories appear in anthologies throughout the world. Born in Buenos Aires in 1951, Shua began her literary career at the young age of sixteen with the publication of El sol y yo (The Sun and I), a volume of poetry which received two literary prizes in 1967. She went on to study at the Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires and worked as an advertising copywriter and journalist during the early stages of her career. Since then, she has received numerous national and international awards and a Guggenheim Fellowship for her novel El libro de los recuerdos (The Book of Memories, 1994). Her other novels include Soy Paciente (Patient, 1980), Los amores de Laurita (Laurita’s Loves, 1984), which was made into a movie,  La muerte como efecto secundario (Death as a Side Effect, 1997), and  El peso de la tentación (The Weight of Temptation, 2007).  Her four microfiction books have been published in Madrid in one volume: Cazadores de Letras, (Letter’s Hunters, 2009). Her complete short stories have been published as Que tengas una vida interesante in 2009.

Please, find attached the event poster. This event is sponsored by SLLC, SPAP, The Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies, and The Women Studies Department. The presentation will be in English.

8^th Annual SLLC Graduate Student Forum

Space and Transculturality; April 8-9, 2010

Each time I undertake to paint a picture, I have the sensation of leaping into space. I never know whether I shall fall on my feet.” Picasso may have simply been trying to paint a picture, but his statement exemplifies the metaphysical connection between space and the endeavor of expression. Space, as evidenced by its charm over architects, artists, writers, and scientists alike, is a concept that profoundly intrigues us, the examination of which is fundamental to an understanding of ourselves.

Space can be an emptiness, or it can be room to grow. “The space between” can be a communal place where ideas meld, but it can also be a gap, a breach in understanding. This conference seeks to explore the question of space and its representations within the context of transculturality in language and literature. How does space, from its geographical to metaphorical manifestations, affect the flow and transfer of ideas between cultures? What are the differences between physical and mental spaces among cultures? What consequences arise from the imposition of one culture on the space of another? We think of barriers as marking a boundary within a space, but in what ways does space itself create boundaries? How is space compartmentalized by different cultures? Do certain gaps between cultures defy exchange?

The graduate students of the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Maryland cordially invite students from all disciplines to submit papers that analyze possible reflection on and interpretation of “Space and Transculturality.” Topics include but are not limited to:

• The relationship between space and borders (both physical and metaphorical)
• Representations of space in literature
• The conceptualization of space from a linguistic perspective
• Socio-cultural approaches to the question of space
• Colonialism and post-colonialism
• Terrorism in today’s world literature
• Geographical space
• Emptiness
• Visual representations of space
• Borders, boundaries, and walls
• Definitions of space

Abstracts are encouraged from all fields and papers should be in English. Please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words by January 15, 2010 to umdsllcconf2010@gmail.com.