Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Spanish
About
My primary research interests are 20th-century Latin American literature, critical theory, comparative literature, and cultural studies. I am particularly interested in the points of contact between Latin American and Spanish literary and cultural traditions. My other research interests include: popular culture, postmodernism, historical fiction, biographical and testimonial narratives, and North and South American literary and cultural relations. After my recent experience as a US Fulbright Scholar at the Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá (2009-2010), Colombia has also become one of my areas of research and teaching.
My forthcoming book Commodifying Violence in Literature and on Screen: The Colombia Condition (Routlegde) explores the transnational and inter-cultural forces that have resulted in the heterogeneity and fluidity characteristic of today’s Latin America. I am interested in exploring Latin America as a cultural and intellectual space that expands beyond the American continent in response to the diminishment of nation-state powers. In this project, I examine mass-marketed media products (i.e., “dirty” best-sellers, film and art about violence, narco-stories) that perpetuate the “gritty side” of Latin America for the benefit of the culture industry and worldwide consumption under globalization.
In addition to my books Narrativas Híbridas (Verbum, 2000), and The Censorship Files: Latin American Writers and Franco' s Spain (SUNY Press, 2007), I have guest edited a special issue for Symposium on "New Latin American Narrative" (2007) and co-edited Market Matters, a special issue of the Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies (2005). More recently, I have published the volumes Teaching the Latin American Boom (MLA, 2015) and Territories of Conflict: Traversing Colombia Through Cultural Studies.
Recent and Selected Publications
“Introduction: Territories of Conflict through Cultural Studies.” Territories of Conflict. Eds. Andrea Fanta, Alejandro Herrero-Olaizola, Chloe Rutter-Jensen. University of Rochester Press, 2017. 1-22.
“Mediating the Boom: Teaching Latin American Literature Through Film and YouTube.” Teaching the Latin American Boom. Eds. Lucille Kerr & Alejandro Herrero-Olaizola. New York: MLA, Options for Teaching, 2015. 219-229.
“El mercado del crimen: ética y justica poética en Nam Le.” Novela negra y otros crímenes. Ed. Gustavo Forero. Bogotá: Planeta, 2013. 253-263.
“Edición local para el nuevo milenio: el best seller sucio y la corporación cultural.” Cuadernos de Literatura 32 (julio-diciembre 2012): 288-305.
“Crimen sin castigo: Narco-dramas para el mercado global.” Crimen y control social. Un análisis desde la literatura. Ed. Gustavo Forero. Medellín: Editorial Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia, 2012. 113-119.
“Gabriel García Márquez Global: literatura latinoamericana e industria cultural.” Literatura y Globalización (Special Issue). Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana Volume 69 (2009): 193-206.
"Introduction: Market Matters" Special Issue (co-edited with Prof. Christine Henseler, Union College), Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies 9 (2005): 1-6.
"Publishing Matters: The Latin American 'Boom' and the Rules of Censorship." Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies 9 (2005): 51-63.
“Sujetos a la censura: Mario Vargas Llosa y el mercado literario de la España franquista.” Journal of Interdisciplinary Literary Studies 9.1-2 (2003): 59-79.
“Publishing Matters: Francoist Censorship and the Latin American Book Market.” Literary Research / Recherche Littéraire 19 (2002): 21-8.
“Writing Lives, Writing Lies: The Pursuit of Apocryphal Biographies.” Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature 35.3 (2002): 73-88.
Recent graduate courses taught:
Globalization, Latin America, and Cultural Consumption
All About Almodóvar: Camp, Melodrama, and Latin America
Reading the Trans-Atlantic
The Politics of Publishing: Censorship, Marketing, and Revolution in Latin American Fiction
The Novel of the “Boom”
Recent undergraduate courses taught:
Colombian Narco-Stories
The Latin American Best-Seller
Autores Super-estrella: Film Adaptations of Latin American Novels
Jorge Luis Borges as Genre
Manuel Puig’s Moviehouse
Almodóvar-manía
Latin America’s Narrativa Breve
Research Areas(s)
- Latin American Literature, Critical Theory, Comparative Literature, Trans-Atlantic Studies, The Politics of Publishing, Censorship and Literary Markets, The Culture Industry
Affiliation(s)
- Romance Languages & Literatures
Award(s)
- 2003-2004, Charles A. Ryskamp Research Fellowship, American Council of Learned Societies
- 2002, National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship
