This essay examines the Hindi Nayī Kahānī, or New Story, Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, which was influential for the short stories, criticism, and literary history that its writers produced. Incorporating a view toward the larger “metaliterary” corpus in relation to which properly “literary” nayī kahānī texts were written, the essay shows h…[Read more]

Un estudio del impacto de la obra de Alonso de Espina en la acusación de crimen ritual presuntamente ocurrida en La Guardia tal y como se refleja en los documentos del proceso inquisitorial contra Yucé Franco. Este estudio intenta dilucidar cómo los procesos de comunicación escritos, en este caso las acusaciones de asesinato ritual, fomentan la…[Read more]

Germany today is experiencing the strongest upsurge of right-wing populism since the second world war, most notably with the rise of Pegida and Alternative für Deutschland. Yet wealthy global cities like Hamburg continue to present themselves as the gatekeepers of liberal progress and cosmopolitan openness. This article argues that Hamburg’s ur…[Read more]

Because it is all too easy to (accidentally) make assumptions about what first-year students know about language, in 2019-2020 my lit and comp type courses will begin with a segment on language, before moving on to sentences, paragraphs, and essays.

Our exploration of language will start by jumping into a story, to help us identify the 8 parts…[Read more]

In this article I ask what happens if we consider Jewett, who spent most of her adult life at the epicenter of New England intellectual culture, as a pivotal figure in the Western history of theorizing sexuality, and her 1884 novel, A Country Doctor, as a significant document in the history of theorizing sexual and gender deviation, perfectly…[Read more]

This study argues for the importance of competitive discourse in placing the study of the ars dictaminis within the cosmopolitan tradition of humanistic Latin literature in the Middle Ages, particularly as it is expressed in the writing of Boncompagno da Signa and Guido Faba at Bologna in the first decades of the thirteenth century. Examining…[Read more]

Explores ‘information history’, or the study of information and its practices, as a way to arrange investigations of past and present. An invited contribution for the volume, “Information and Power in History: Towards a Global Approach,” edited by Ida Nijenhuis, Marijke van Faassen, Joris Gijsenbergh, Wim de Jong, and Ronald Sluijter (London:…[Read more]

The tale of Óðinn and Rindr is a complex one, but in its version found in the early thirteenth-century Gesta Danorum, we can see how Óðinn’s gender fluidity has become simplified into transvestism. From a being capable of changing gender, Óðinn now simply adopts the disguise of a woman. With this disguise, Óðinn rapes the woman Rindr in order ful…[Read more]

This class asks what sex looked and felt like before the instantiation of modern identity categories such as homosexuality or heterosexuality—before, that is, our desires became an index to our souls. To this end, we’ll examine texts by nineteenth-century American writers that represent the experiences and expressions of what we now call sex…[Read more]

The Iberian Peninsula during the Latin Middle Ages was home to large populations of Muslims and Jews. During the period we like to call the Middle Ages, much of the Iberian Peninsula was under Muslim rule. By the beginning of the sixteenth century, the entire peninsula was under Christian rule, and Judaism and Islam were officially banned.…[Read more]

This is an outline of how the Leys d’amors, a fourteenth-century troubadour treatise of huge influence on post-troubadour poetry, catalogued rhymes according to merit. It is used in my classes of 35399 Medieval Catalan Literature II, degree in Catalan Philology, at the Universitat de València (http://go.uv.es/ozQkp3H).

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