Be sure to check out recent works from Faculty at WUSTL! All the titles below are either in the catalog now, or on the way…
Everyday reading : print culture and collective identity in the Río de la Plata, 1780-1910 / William Acree Explores the history of the Rio de la Plata region that--beginning in the 19th century--has enjoyed the highest literacy rates in South America. The area, which contains modern-day Uruguay and Argentina, is explored through its events and culture, and most importantly its print culture, which are permeated with the literary.(Vanderbilt University Press)
Can Islam be French? : pluralism and pragmatism in a secularist state / John R. Bowen "Can Islam become a workable reality for Muslims who wish to live fulfilling social and religious lives in France?" Investigating this question, Bowen interviewed Islamic scholars, educators, and public figures living in France who he argues are trying to configure a set of teachings, norms, and institutions that will provide a positive answer to that question. He describes the deliberations among this population with regards to education, involvement with interest-bearing loans, proprieties of marriage and divorce, the wearing of religious dress, and other issues, while also addressing the more overarching questions of whether norms should differ by region and change over time and the distance scholars may move from specific scriptural injunctions to general principles that can be inferred from scripture. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Cyborgs in Latin America / J. Andrew Brown
Cyborgs in Latin America explores the ways cultural expression in Latin America has grappled with the changing relationships between technology and human identity. The book takes a literary and cultural studies approach in examining narrative, film and advertising campaigns from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Mexico and Uruguay by such artists as Ricardo Piglia, Edmundo Paz Soldán, Carmen Boullosa and Alberto Fuguet among others. Using and criticizing theoretical models developed by Katherine Hayles, Donna Haraway, Gilles Deleuze and Michel Foucault, the book will appeal to specialists and students of Latin American Studies; Posthuman Theory; and Literature, Science, and Technology Studies. (Syndetic Solutions Summary)
The lady anatomist : the life and work of Anna Morandi Manzolini / Rebecca Messbarger
Anna Morandi Manzolini (1714-74), a woman artist and scientist, surmounted meager origins and limited formal education to become one of the most acclaimed anatomical sculptors of the Enlightenment. The Lady Anatomist tells the story of her arresting life and times, in light of the intertwined histories of science, gender, and art that complicated her rise to fame in the eighteenth century. Examining the details of Morandi's remarkable life, Rebecca Messbarger traces her intellectual trajectory from provincial artist to internationally renowned anatomical wax modeler for the University of Bologna's famous medical school. Placing Morandi's work within its cultural and historical context, as well as in line with the Italian tradition of anatomical studies and design, Messbarger uncovers the messages contained within Morandi's wax inscriptions, part complex theories of the body and part poetry. Widely appealing to those with an interest in the tangled histories of art and the body, and including lavish, full-color reproductions of Morandi's work. (Syndetic Solutions Summary)
Rethinking intellectuals in Latin America / Mabel Moraña and Bret Gustafson (eds.)
An interdisciplinary tour de force that examines past and present to consider how new forms of knowledge production, epistemic plurality, and intellectual and political movements are brining sweeping change today.
Naciones intelectuales : las fundaciones de la modernidad literaria mexicana, 1917-1959 / Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado
Naciones Intelectuales explores the processes and works that laid the foundations of a new literary modernity in the wake of the Mexican Revolution. It focuses on the period from the signing of the Constitution in 1917, to the death of Alfonso Reyes in 1959, and analyzes the four elements of Mexican cultural practices: the notion of literature, the figure of the intellectual, the creation of academic institutions, and the definition of national identity that emerged through the various debates held by leading figures of the period. The book analyzes different key moments, controversies, and cultural interventions, which ultimately led the diverse aesthetic spectrum created by the revolution into becoming a highly institutional system of literature. (Purdue University Press)
Marginal subjects : gender and deviance in fin-de-siècle Spain / Akiko Tsuchiya
Late nineteenth-century Spanish fiction is populated by adulteresses, prostitutes, seduced women, and emasculated men - indicating an almost obsessive interest in gender deviance. Focusing on works by major realist authors such as Benito Pérez Galdós, Emilia Pardo Bazán, and Leopoldo Alas (Clarín), as well as popular novelists like Eduardo López Bago, Marginal Subjects argues that these archetypes were used to channel collective anxieties about sexuality, class, race, and nation.
Teaching French women writers of the Renaissance and Reformation / edited by Colette H. Winn
Teaching French Women Writers of the Renaissance and Reformation considers the issues critical to teaching recently rediscovered writers, such as He'lisenne de Crenne, Pernette du Guillet, and Louise Labe?, who have enriched the literary canon by offering alternative perspectives on the social, political, and religious issues of early modern France. Addressing topics from law and medicine to motherhood and aesthetics, these women wrote in nearly every genre, and their works include several literary firsts: the first book of Christian emblems ever published by a woman (Georgette du Montenay), the first published collection of private letters between women in French (the Dames de Roches), and the first full-length memoir by a woman in French (Margaret of Valois). The volume considers techniques for reading women's writing alongside the texts of their male contemporaries and offers guidance on incorporating a range of resources into the classroom.
While at first glance Digi20 seems unrelated to Romance Languages, this German Research Society Project contains a Romance Literature (Romanistik) Subject Area with works in and about French, Spanish, and Portuguese Literature.