Browsing by Subject "Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures and Linguistics"

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Apreciaciones de las negociaciones de identidad cultural en la dramaturgia latina de los Estados Unidos (1980-1991)
(2009-05) Chavana, Gerardo Paul
This study deals with negotiation in reference to cultural identity formation and maintenance of Latinos / Hispanics as it is presented in five dramatic texts of a period extending from the early 80s to the early 90s in U. S. Latino dramaturgy. As the term culture has been difficult to define by some researchers, the term negotiation has also become problematic not only because of its manifold applications as far as social and cultural issues are concerned, but also due to the paucity of suitable definitions that have been advanced until the present. Through the artistic works and other academic writings, we will elucidate on the concept of negotiation as well as outline some of the relationships and trajectories in regards to such concepts as assimilation, acculturation, transculturation, biculturalism, identity and culture. Since these concepts contain meanings and contents that have been dealt with through different currents of thought in the last two decades of the Twentieth Century, diverse disciplines in the social sciences as well as cultural and literary studies are referred to, in order to explore in depth and attempt to clarify the different conceptions that are attributed to the term and concept of negotiation of cultural identity. In most cases, when the term negotiation appears in the scholarly works, through themes or particular contexts related to certain cultures or ethnic communities, the concept acquires meanings that are frequently taken for granted on the part of the scholars. Some researchers of these disciplines have availed themselves of the term in their studies, by providing, in some cases, ambiguous or deficient definitions, and in other cases, definitions that are not completely explicit. Furthermore, it is inferred that the application of such a term in the research fields calls for the readers, either directly or indirectly, to have in mind an idea of what is understood by negotiation in terms of cultural identity. Later on in this work, several basic premises are proposed based on the scholarly works under consideration in order to formulate a paradigm on the negotiation process of cultural identity that renders possible the multiple readings that are carried out on the artistic pieces as well as the clarification of the concept itself. To initiate this inquiry, it is necessary to undertake some legitimate issues with regard to the term and concept of negotiation. For instance, what brings about the negotiation of cultural identity? In fact, is it possible to negotiate in cultural terms? What happens during the process of negotiation? What takes place before and after such a process? In particular, what about those Latinos and Latinas who do not want to get involved in this process? Is it possible to identify periods in which the person is free from cultural identity negotiations? Are we able to indicate a point in time and space in so far as the initiation and conclusion of the negotiation process? Are we able to identify certain cultural identity negotiations even though the people involved are not aware or consider them as such? The first part of this study attempts to explain and clarify some issues pertaining to the process of cultural identity negotiation and the second part, identifies and pinpoints the process.
Degeneration theory in naturalist novels of Benito Pérez Galdós.
(2011-04) Stannard, Michael Wenley
Degeneration theory was elaborated in the nineteenth century based on the very old belief in human trans-generational decline. After incorporation into social and biological theories in the eighteenth century, it flourished in the fields of medicine and public health in the early nineteenth century and was emphasized, above all, in some fields of psychiatry. Degenerationist beliefs were influential in the professional middle classes of France, England and Spain. The discourse was incorporated by Émile Zola into the aesthetics of his Naturalist novels in the 1870s and 1880s and directly influenced Benito Pérez Galdós in Spain in the 1880s. An analysis of a quartet of Galdós's Naturalist novels shows evidence of degenerationist thinking, under the influence of Spanish and French medicine.
Deslocamento e Subjetividade em João Gilberto Noll, Silviano Santiago e Bernardo Carvalho.
(2010-08) Brasileiro, Marcus Vinícius Câmara
The present dissertation, in the field of contemporary Brazilian Literature, analyzes how three Brazilian writers, João Gilberto Noll (1946-), Bernardo Carvalho (1960-) and Silviano Santiago (1936-), question essentialized and authoritarian positions of national identity through the development of characters traveling to the space of the Other. This questioning is transfigured throughout the metaphor of travel, reflecting a movement that happens in global space, but also in the language that constitutes identities. The work of these Brazilian writers problematizes the dichotomies of self-other, north-south, real-fictional, while attempting to rescue the Modernist consideration of the place of language and discourse as a privileged site to analyze matters related to identity-formation. The dissertation is structured around three movements that correspond to the aesthetic projects of these authors. In João Gilberto Noll's "Berkeley in Bellagio" (2002) and "Lorde" (2004), the metaphor of travel functions as the representation of a traveler moving toward an understanding of his own self. In Bernardo Carvalho's "Nove Noites" (2002) and "Mongólia" (2003), travel functions as a way to contest the truth-value of the essentialized mode of representation of the other carried out by ethnographic discourses, such as travel guides. Finally, in Silviano Santiago's "Stella Manhattan" (1985) and "Viagem ao México" (1995) travel becomes a mechanism that reveals modes of resistance, assimilation, and transformation of the Other, while engaging in a postcolonial debate, within the Latin American context, regarding Western Modernity in the time of global capitalism.
A dynamic approach to social interaction: Synthetic immersive environments & Spanish pragmatics.
(2008-05) Sykes, Julie M.
In an effort to better understand how innovative technologies can be used to enhance second language acquisition, this study investigates the role that online immersive spaces, specifically, synthetic immersive environments (SIEs), can play in enhancing advanced language learners' pragmatic performance (i.e., their ability to perform requests and apologies in Spanish). SIEs are engineered spaces which integrate the many benefits of online gaming to produce explicitly, educationally-related outcomes in simulated, relevant, interactional contexts. The results of this study address two important components of the use of SIEs for L2 pragmatic acquisition. First, utilizing a synthesis of 120 hours of in-game behavior, survey data, and one-on-one participant interviews, this study analyzed how three potentially beneficial attributes of the SIEs were used and perceived by the participants (i.e., individualized experience, varied participant roles, and "low-risk" practice space). The results demonstrate that in-game behavior can be categorized into four distinct types of individualized experiences. Furthermore, there was not a high level of experimentation with participant roles in this study; however, the data revealed an increased importance placed on experimentation upon completion of the unit. Finally, quest completion was viewed as the primary indicator of success with quest resets carrying a connotation of failure for the majority of the students. In addition, results indicate a marked difference between actual learning outcomes (measured by pre/post DCTs) and perceived outcomes on the part of the learners. In terms of both speech acts, the DCT data revealed little change from pre- to posttest, except in the case of perspective for the apologies scenarios. The perception data exhibited an overall perceived benefit for all eight scenarios surveyed, with statistically significant improvements in the scenarios most closely emulating those that were present in the SIE. Implications for future design, implementation, and research projects are also discussed
(Em)bodied exiles in contemporary Cuban literature: Zoé Valdés and Mayra Montero
(2010-06) Boelts, Sarah Anne Miller
This dissertation examines the distinct meanings of exile that embody Cuban women's experiences in the 20th and 21st centuries. This thesis centers on female-exiled subjects within the Cuban Diaspora. The focus is on two Cuban women writers living in exile, Zoé Valdés and Mayra Montero, noting the ways that exile constitutes a physical and emotional topos in their literature. Using exile theory along with feminist theory, this study analyzes the ways that these authors use women's bodies in exile as a discursive terrain of liberation. My analysis situates these negotiations of gender within a broader nexus of political and cultural discourses, in which women's struggles for recognition and equality intersect with complex issues of human rights and contested notions of Cuban identity. Valdés and Montero use their literature that focuses on women and their dreams as a way to oppose and critique their lack of power in Cuba and give women a voice in society. Through literary analysis and personal interviews with the authors, I demonstrate how women are placed in the center, away from the margins. While many studies center on Cuban diaspora writers in the United States, this study emphasizes those who have taken alternate routes, to Europe and the Caribbean. The novels by Valdés and Montero are in dialogue with other literary representations of Cuban exile, but emphasize their new places of residence.
Indigenous experience in Mexico: readings in the Nahua intellectual tradition.
(2010-06) McDonough, Kelly Shannon
Sometimes unwittingly academic trends, disciplinary isolation, and narratives of nation-building have contributed to the exclusion of native voices from the literary and cultural history of Mexico. Literary anthologies mention the "great pre-Colombian civilizations," discussing the Popul Vuh and Aztec codexes, and ethnohistorians over the last thirty-some years have shed new light on indigenous intellectual work in the first centuries of the Colonial Period. But less is heard from indigenous people after this. Did they progressively cease to think, speak, and write poetically, abstractly, or philosophically after conquest? My dissertation discusses how Nahuas, heirs to one of the most widely spoken and best-documented indigenous language in Mexico (Nahuatl), have indeed continued to work as intellectuals. However, as needs of specific communities changed, so did the role of the intellectual along with the genres, forums, tools, and discursive codes he/she used. To demonstrate these shifts, I trace four Nahua intellectuals over a period of nearly five hundred years, dipping into distinct historical time periods that markedly affected indigenous intellectual work. I begin with Nahua and Jesuit priest Antonio del Rincón, the first indigenous person in the Americas to write a grammar of his own native language, Arte mexicana (1595). Next, I discuss the rhetoric of nation-building during the nineteenth century, including the disappearance of indigenous people in the discourses of citizenship through the work of Faustino Galicia Chimalpopoca, Nahua politician, attorney, scholar of colonial Nahuatl texts, and Nahuatl teacher to Emperor Maximilian I. Moving to the early twentieth century, I highlight discourses of Social Darwinism manifested in the nation's resolve to deal with the "Indian problem" as read in the testimony of Doña Luz Jimenez, specifically her experience with assimilative schooling. Finally, I explore bilingual education in Mexico and the co-optation of indigenous peoples to promote assimilation in the latter half of the twentieth century. I focus on Ildefonso Maya Hernández's play Ixtlamatinij and a series of interviews with the author. In a move to reconnect the theorization with the people being theorized, I also read the texts in focus groups with Nahuas, some encountering their own cultural patrimony for the first time.
Los Campos de la Memoria: the concentration camp as a site of memory in the narrative of Max Aub.
(2009-08) Dickey, Eric
This dissertation explores constructions of memory and testimony in the concentration-camp narrative of Spanish author Max Aub. One of the most forgotten chapters of all Spanish Civil War and exile history is that pertaining to the Spanish Republicans who were interned in French concentration camps after the end of the Civil War. The concentration camp occupies a central place of memory and becomes a recurrent symbol and leitmotif that reappears in various manifestations throughout much of Aub's narrative work. In this dissertation, I investigate the symbolic value of the concentration camp as a discursive vehicle, a lieux de mémoire, that allows Aub to reconstruct his traumatic memories of the camp and convert them into narrative memory through writing. I examine the fictionalization of testimony in various literary genres and media, and analyze the use of different narrative strategies of remembrance and memory work to convey the experience of internment. My analysis of the camps goes beyond the traditional psychoanalytical conception of trauma as an individual phenomenon by exploring the collective dimension of trauma and memory. Aub's recounting of his own personal experiences exceeds a mere autobiographical portrait as it speaks in a collective voice that seeks to share the suffering of fellow exiles and camp survivors in order to form a new collective or group consciousness. Writing about the camps represents Aub's way of bearing witness to his trauma at the same time as it is his way of fighting the silence that has surrounded this experience shared by so many fellow Republican exiles. Through his testimonial writing, in both its individual and collective dimensions, Aub succeeds in a long-cherished goal, that of reinserting the memory traces of the Civil War, exile, and the camps back into Spain's historical and literary discourse.
Migración y Derechos Humanos: Un encuentro multidisciplinario en la narrativa mexicana contemporánea
(2009-08) Reyes Zaga, Héctor Alberto
This dissertation pursues a new strategy for the study of contemporary Mexican narrative —particularly that which is produced on the border with the United States— using human rights as an analytical framework. By examining Mexican narrative through a human rights hermeneutics, I argue that we can better situate the intricate negotiations among legal, cultural, and political discourses of subjectivity they set in motion. This negotiation is particularly fraught in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the drastic shift in public and legal stances on immigration that followed them. The dissertation’s introduction outlines human rights theory and positions this study of resistance literature at the nexus between postcolonial, legal, and human rights theory. Chapter One examines the notion that immigrants are vulnerable subjects of human rights as recognized by intergovernmental organizations such as the International Labor Organization, the United Nations, and the Organization of American States. It then further reviews this condition as portrayed through international laws and treaties designed by the above entities to protect these subjects. Chapter Two demonstrates that immigration policies established by state and federal authorities in the United States breach international treaties and have caused the “criminalization” of Mexican immigrants. Here, I analyze ethnographic and statistical data from the perspective of cultural anthropology with the purpose of finding an explanation of the relationship between human rights violations of Mexican immigrants and the increment of border enforcement in the United States. Chapter three sets up the analytical categories derived from the framework created in the first two chapters and establishes a dialogue between human rights and Mexican narratives depicting immigrants. The following chapters then apply these categories to the study of an array of literary works created by Mexican authors such as Luis Humberto Crosthwaite, Hugo Salcedo, J. Humberto Robles Arenas, Victor Hugo Rascón Banda, and Rosario Sanmiguel. In particular, I look to examine the ways in which these works represent the effects of human rights violations of Mexican immigrants and thereby enter into salient debates within the field of human rights, mainly the debate regarding national sovereignty versus individual rights.
Politeness and social interaction in study abroad: Service encounters in L2 Spanish
(2008-06) Shively, Rachel Louise
This study examines the second language (L2) learning of politeness and social interaction in study abroad within a sociocultural and rapport management framework, reporting on longitudinal, ethnographic research of service encounters recorded in situ between L2 learners of Spanish and local Spanish service providers in Toledo, Spain. Service encounters are defined as interactions between a customer and a service provider in which some commodity will potentially be exchanged. The participants in the study were seven U.S. American students who studied abroad for one semester in Spain during 2007. The data consist of naturalistic digital recordings that participants made of themselves while visiting local stores, banks, information desks, and other service providers. The study was longitudinal with five recordings made at the beginning, middle, and end of the semester by each student, for 113 recordings total. Other sources of data included students' weekly journals describing their service encounters and learning of politeness, interviews with participants and local Spaniards, and the researcher's field notes as a participant observer. The findings indicate that, during the semester abroad, participants learned target language norms of politeness regarding requests, openings, and discourse markers. These developments over time in L2 politeness were connected to students' descriptions about how they learned specific politeness features, namely, through explicit instruction, observation of Spaniards, participation in service encounters, and reactions of interlocutors. Learners managed rapport in service encounters through tone of voice, positive assessments, and other face-enhancing moves.
Retorno a la novela indigenista del cardenismo: Derechos humanos, antropologia y literatura como instrumentos del Estado.
(2011-05) Báez-Ronquillo, Carlos
El presente trabajo se concentra en cinco novelas mexicanas producidas o investigadas durante la presidencia de Lázaro Cárdenas (1934-1940). Mi interés es volver a estas obras problematizándolas desde la perspectiva de los estudios culturales. Uso el término problematizar con dos significados. El primero es contextualizar una literatura de ficción de hace más de setenta años de acuerdo con preocupaciones del presente. La principal de éstas es, sin duda, la de los Derechos Humanos, especialmente la discusión internacional de los derechos de los pueblos nativos anteriores a la conquista de América por potencias europeas y las repercusiones y continuidades que tuvo la conquista más tarde en los Estados independientes hasta el presente. El segundo significado es que este estudio debe explorar el valor humanístico de las contradicciones ideológicas que han surgido en el entendimiento de los Derechos Humanos como asunto de política estatal práctica y concreta. En mi estudio es de importancia fundamental un entendimiento del circuito productivo de la novela indigenista del cardenismo en sus dimensiones estatal, institucional, burocrática, ideológica, simbólico-metafórica. Profundizo su relación ideológica con la programática del Estado revolucionario mexicano desde la óptica del Derecho Internacional de Derechos Humanos. Para esto he usado la propuesta de Hernán Vidal (1994) en cuanto a transferir principios de ese derecho a las analogías disponibles en la historia de la estética artística y aplicarlas a la crítica de la institución literaria. Apoyo esta aproximación con las nociones de constructivismo social de Peter Berger y Thomas Luckmann, de imaginario social de Cornelius Castoriadis y de mito de Leszek Kolakowski.
Socially stratified phonetic variation and perceived identity in Puerto Rican Spanish.
(2009-08) Mack, Sara Lynn
This dissertation examines the interaction between phonetic variation and perceptions of speaker identity in Puerto Rican Spanish. Using an interdisciplinary approach, three experiments were designed and carried out: (1) an descriptive study of stereotypes about sexual orientation and male speech, (2) an observational study examining the relationship between acoustic parameters and perceived sexual orientation, perceived height, perceived social class, and perceived age, and (3) an implicit-processing experiment examining the influence of social stereotypes on memory for voices. The study was carried out in the San Juan, Puerto Rico, metropolitan area and included ninety-six participants. Results of the first experiment indicate that there is considerable uniformity in notions of speech variation associated with the gay male speech stereotype for the participants in the study, and that the most cited stereotypical markers of sexual orientation are related to stereotypical notions of gender. However, a majority of the respondents explicitly stated that although they realize a stereotype exists, they do not believe there is necessarily a correspondence between stereotypes of gay men's speech and real life production. Results of the second experiment show that listeners do evaluate speakers' voices differently in terms of perceived sexual orientation, and that perceptions of sexual orientation are most strongly predicted by one acoustic measure of vowel quality (the second resonant frequency of the vowel /e/, which relates to tongue position in the anterior-posterior dimension). An examination of the relationship between perceptions of sexual orientation and perceptions of height, age, and social class revealed that perceptions of height were correlated with perceived sexual orientation. The third experiment showed that listeners responded more quickly to speakers previously rated as more gay sounding than they did to speakers rated as more straight sounding, and the slowest mean responses were for the deleted variant. Most significantly, a d-prime analysis showed the strongest signal detection in the case of the sibilant ([s]) when produced by stereotypically gayer sounding speakers. The results suggest a relationship between /s/ variation and listener perceptions of sexual orientation as well as a possible effect of perceived sexual orientation on speech processing. Taken together, these results underscore the need for methods that measure both conscious and subconscious effects of stereotypes in speech production and perception.
Teatro Peruano en el periodo de conflicto armado interno (1980-2000): Estetica Teatral, derechos humanos y expectativas de descolonizacion
(2011-06) Vargas-Salgado, Carlos
The historical fact of the Internal war experienced by Peru beginning in 1980 has uncovered historical-cultural problems: inequalities, racism and coloniality, and deficient process of democratization. This Dissertation describes the relationship between internal war and the richness of Popular and Independent theater production in Peru during those years (1980-2000). Approach is multidisciplinary: Cultural Theory, Performance Studies, Literary theory, Transcultural critique, Hermeneutics of Human rights and Postcolonial and Decolonial theories. In Part I, it is discussed the ways in which cultural memory of the Peruvian conflict has been constructed and current debate remains between ideological versions of the historical facts. In Part II, the text proposes eight models of theatrical appropriation of the violent reality seen in the work of urban playwrights (Sara Joffré, Alfonso Santistevan, César De María) popular and independent collectives (Yuyachkani, Barricada), and producers affected directly by internal war (Lieve Delanoy, Movimiento de Teatro Independiente). In the Conclusions, I discuss the validity of terms like postmodernity and political art regarding the experience of Andean performances and independent theatre in Peru during the period of internal war. In this work, I suggest that a living memory of the social catastrophe was better preserved for collectivities that intervened actively in the discussion on violence throughout non-official narratives, such as independent theatre and popular Andean performances.
Toward a student-centered understanding of intensive writing and writing-to-learn in the Spanish major: an examination of advanced L2 Spanish students' learning in the writing-intensive Spanish content course.
(2009-12) Strong, Robert Marvin
The purpose of this study is to build upon our understanding of the place and value of writing in the advanced foreign language curriculum. Specifically, the study examines how students in writing-intensive Spanish-major courses are affected by the writing-intensive (WI) requirement at the University of Minnesota. Writing-Across-the-Curriculum (WAC), an educational movement which began in the 1960's in England and whose most fundamental tenet, writing-to-learn, emphasizes the value of writing in the learning process, has led to the establishment of writing-intensive curricula in post-secondary institutions throughout North America. The study is an attempt to give students a voice in the FL curriculum inasmuch as it investigates students' perceptions and attitudes regarding the writing-intensive requirement and explores what they believe they learn, in terms of the course content, writing skills and the Spanish language, as a result of their participation in the writing-intensive Spanish course. Both qualitative and quantitative data were employed in the study. Qualitative data were gathered by means of focus group interviews and open-ended questions on a written survey. Quantitative data were collected via the aforementioned survey and by way of pre- and post-write samples whereon errors per T-unit (E/T) analyses and topical structure analyses (TSA) were performed for verification of improvement in linguistic accuracy and coherence in students' writing respectively. No statistically significant improvement was found in terms of linguistic accuracy (E/T) or coherence (TSA) over the course of the semester and findings suggest that writers in Spanish as a FL may be more apprehensive about writing in Spanish than are English L1 writers about writing in English. Additionally it was found that many advanced Spanish student writers perceive that the workload associated with the WI requirement is excessive and that writing in Spanish as a FL is generally harder than writing in L1 English. On the other hand, however, many Spanish students expressed a belief that the WI requirement was no harder for them than for students writing in English and some expressed the sentiment that WI was actually more advantageous for Spanish students than for English L1 students given the value of writing for the language learning process. With regards to students' beliefs about their learning resulting from engaging in intensive writing in the advanced Spanish classroom, findings show that students generally believe that they learn not only how to be better writers but also that they improve in their abilities with the Spanish language and, especially, in their understanding of the subject matter of the course. Additional findings regarding students' learning of the Spanish language are that students generally believe that not only their Spanish grammar and vocabulary improved as a result of their participation in the intensive writing in the WI course, but also their ability to speak in Spanish. Based on the findings of the study, it is proposed that foreign language education practitioners be especially sensitive to students' perceptions and beliefs regarding both negative and positive aspects of writing in the FL curriculum.
“Tú que te mereces un príncipe, un dentista”: the use of metaphors of love, desire, and gender in personal ads on the Internet to perform heterosexuality. Creating and supporting ideologies of heteronormativity and sexuality in Spanish.
(2009-12) Rojas-Sosa, Deyanira
This study investigates how heterosexuality is performed and achieved in everyday language use, specifically in personal ads from the Internet. Within personal ads, it focuses on the metaphors used by ad posters to articulate concepts of love, desire, gender and sexuality. The aim was to determine how the use of certain metaphors reflects ad posters' ideologies and models of heterosexuality and how they contribute to the preservation of heteronormativity. Analyzing the language used in personal ads contributes to determining the ideologies shared by the ad posters since it is very structured, formulaic and shared in the majority of the ads, creating a genre where similar linguistic and semantic features are constantly repeated. This iterability allows an examination of how posters express individual desires in a manner determined by social rules. These rules are established by the ideologies shared by their community, and analyzing their language use allows the uncovering of the ideologies behind it. The personal ads analyzed originated from a dating website that serves Spanish speakers. The selection used in this study came from five different countries: USA, Venezuela, Spain, Mexico, and Argentina. The data analyzed included a total of 2000 ads, 400 hundred ads from each country, and from this selection 200 were of women looking for men and 200 hundred of men looking for women. Using a Critical Metaphor Analysis approach, five hundred and seventy five metaphors were identified, classified and analyzed. These metaphors were related to love, relationships, desire and gender and were classified in twelve conceptual metaphors, as well as a category called "label metaphors." The results of this study show that most ad posters use traditional metaphors of love and relationships to circulate ideologies that contribute to the maintenance of traditional gender roles and heterosexual hegemony. At the same time, some metaphors used by posters attempted to challenge and reinvent the system. Posters attempted to reinvent the system when they used innovative metaphors to oppose traditional values and portray themselves as not abiding by traditional heterosexual norms. In addition, the results of this research indicate that ad posters use metaphors to articulate the notion of gender as a performance showing that they are aware, up to a certain point, of this performativity.

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