The convivencia between the followers of the different religions of the Mediterranean persisted despite the fraught politics of Christianity and Islam. Despite the long arm of the Inquisition the protagonists in the plays of Cervantes and Lope struggle to maintain fraternal ties.

Despite being an army officer Don Fernando is drawn towards the Muslim Princess Arlaxa. He defies army convention to meet her much to the chagrin of fellow Spanish soldiers in the presidio where they are stationed.

This article discusses “politically correct” desire as opposed to the outlaw desire of witches and non Christians. Though the leading couple is shown most favourably yet the portrayal of the Others raises questions in the mind of the reader which is what Cervantes might have intended.

In this article I try to show how the Mexican Revolution was not only national in nature but also helped ordinary individuals break down barriers in their personal lives. The protagonist of Nadie me verá llorar was considered a madwoman in Porfirian society and with the Revolution she comes into her own and finds a space in post revolutionary Mexico D.F.

An analysis of the life and corridos of Jenni Rivera the sole woman narco corridista

The travels and writings of Octavio Paz and Severo Sarduy in India.

The lives of Spanish immigrants during the Mexican Revolution, their participation therein.

El retrato de la Ciudad de México en la literatura.

The reception of Jesuit priests at the the court of Akbar the Mughal emperor of India

A series of derivative verses from the late-third century has pride of place in one of the foundational collections of Chinese poetry. These verses, “Filling out the Missing Odes” by Shu Xi, can be found at the beginning of the lyric-poetry (shi 詩) section of the Wenxuan. This essay seeks to understand why such blatantly imitative pieces may have…[Read more]

In this article I investigate the portrayal role of the Aztecs, indigeneous peoples and movements in the writings of Carlos Fuentes.

In this article I investigate the portrayal role of the Aztecs, indigeneous peoples and movements in the writings of Carlos Fuentes.

The author’s second volume of poetry, composed in Honolulu from 1973-1977, starting with a short story written in Boston in 1970, typeset by hand, “The Parable of the Lion and the Fish.” Mystical selections from the 1977 self-published book have titles like “A Prosem on the Meaning of Religion,” “Wake up God,” “Look Directly at Life,” “We Are the…[Read more]

This article argues that the Gospel of Thomas was written in Alexandria, not in Eastern Syria as is the current consensus. The arguments in favor of a Syrian Gospel of Thomas are not as strong as is often assumed, and a stronger case can be made for Alexandria. The Gospel of Thomas has a number of features that suggest it was a product of the…[Read more]

By way of the autobiographical writings of Bruno Schulz and the “resurrection” paintings of Stanley Spencer, this talk sketches out some of the ways in which literature and the fine arts situate themselves within the division, or series of breaks, that Michel de Certeau argued Western historiography inscribes between past and present, between the…[Read more]

Through an analysis of Tony Kushner’s 2001 play “Homebody/Kabul” and the Old English “Ruin” poem, this essay explores the tension, anxiety, and isolation inherent in the aesthetic and philosophical enterprises of measuring the distance that separates myth from real being (a project that takes place, I would argue, against Levinas, not just o…[Read more]

This essay ruminates the ethics of a co-implicated, bounded dependence between objects (human and otherwise) that are always in some sense withdrawing from each other but also always together in a some-place labeled “here”: the world (where no Absolute or Outside vantage point is possible or habitable). This essay also considers the possibility,…[Read more]

Through a comparative analysis of Chaucer’s “The Clerk’s Tale” and Lars von Trier’s film “Breaking the Waves,” this essay wonders what happens when two texts and one reader happen to each other and open up a singular adventure that is also a moment of ‘futurition’ that opens up new horizons of meaning, both human and inhuman. How can we reckon the…[Read more]

This article examines the conversion to Christianity of the prince Tayco in the comedia de santos Los mártires del Japón by Lope de Vega and the creation of the Dominican missionary Alonso de Navarrete as a dramatic character. Lope portraits Tayco as a young prince who has to learn how to become a king, having Navarrete as a role model. Lope c…[Read more]

Walt Whitman, a world poet and the father of American free verse, has been received by diverse audiences from around the world. Literary and cultural scholars have studied Whitman’s interaction with social, political and literary movements of different countries. Despite his continuing presence in Iran, Whitman’s reception in this country has rem…[Read more]