Hidden in Plain Sight: Amphion and the Dilemmas of Lyric Theory, 30 October 2024 – Seminar write-up

This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2024-2025.

On Wednesday 30th October, the Core Disciplinary Research Group in Modern Languages hosted Leah Middlebrook, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Spanish at the University of Oregon. Professor Middlebrook gave a seminar on the findings of her new book, Amphion: Lyre, Poetry and Politics in Modernity (University of Chicago Press, 2024).

Cover of Professor Middlebrook’s book, created by University of Chicago Press

Professor Middlebrook opened her presentation with the story of the construction of the city-state of Thebes, as told through the myth of Amphion, who with the playing of his lyre made the stones move to build walls to form this great city. The figure of Amphion has continued to be prominent for his role in music and architecture. He was also key to the development of lyric theory and practice, as Professor Middlebrook demonstrated. However, Amphion was pushed to the academic and cultural periphery in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The idea that Amphion represents is that fragments converge to create something abstract and solid, in particular, creating bulwarks of language. This is best encapsulated according to Professor Middlebrook, in the reference to Luis Pérez Ángel, as cited in the 1602 work Discurso en loor de la poesía (by anonymous Peruvian poet “Clarinda”) whose poems were described there in an explicit Amphionic analogy as “build[ing] […] walls” for a city, a concept that Middlebrook revisited later in the seminar. This came in the form of the image depicting Mercury (Hermes) guiding Amphion as he played the Lyre, an instrument of Hermes’ own invention. The image connotes the idea that while Amphion’s lyre is associated with the civic form that is the polity, it is also a figure that represents the power of lyric to deconstruct. This was a poignant suggestion made by Middlebrook as Thebes was reputed to be a political disaster. It was a city that, although capable of keeping its enemies out, could not, however, deter its own social erosion. Middlebrook described this dynamic as ‘The mercurial Poesis’, since the Theban stones represent both construction and destruction. The lyre animates collective action, but that action can result in ruin.

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French Studies and the Medical Humanities: Critical Intersectionalities (Travel Bursary write-up)

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This post, published in 2024-2025, is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2023-2024.

The conference “French Studies and the Medical Humanities: Critical Intersectionalities” took place at the University of London’s Institute of Languages, Cultures, and Societies on the 3^rd and 4^th of September, 2024. I was fortunate to be able to attend with the support of a Modern Languages MRes Travel Bursary from the Modern Languages Core Disciplinary Research Group.

As part of a strategic effort to de-centre anglophone perspectives and broaden the linguistic horizons of the field, the conference sought to highlight the importance of linguistic and cultural sensitivity in ongoing conversations about medical experiences. Paper topics included critical disability studies, environmental anxiety, bibliotherapy, and narrative medicine.

In her paper titled “L’affaire Anne Bert: Assisted dying between law and literature”, keynote speaker Anna Elsner (University of St Gallen) discussed how individual narratives are co-opted by politicians and governments to shape the lawmaking process. She highlighted the example of Anne Bert, a former court-appointed legal guardian who became a writer later in life. After being diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) in 2015, she publicly campaigned for changes in France’s legislation surrounding assisted dying, before travelling to Belgium to seek an assisted death in 2017. This decision was subject to widespread debate in the French media and parliament. Elsner’s paper encouraged attendees to de-centre their own perspectives and allow both the medical humanities and French studies to enrich each other through their mutual engagement.

Of particular interest to my own project was a panel titled “Disability and Clinical Environments”. In her paper on disability in the works of Samuel Beckett, Molly Crozier (University of St Andrews) discussed the networks of care that exist outside of traditional medical settings and the intimacy involved in caring relationships, especially in light of the capacity of interpersonal relationships to cause more harm than good. Áine Larkin (Maynooth University) then analysed how the documentary La Permanence by Alice Diop centres the patient and their subjectivity in its depiction of the clinical encounter, and how it positions vulnérabilité (vulnerability) alongside the French values of liberté, égalité, fraternité (freedom, equality, fraternity). These papers helped me think about the caring relationships depicted in my own corpus texts, and pointed to useful sources that helped me shape the conclusion of my MRes dissertation.

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The Power of Play: Comparative Caribbean Carnival Cultures from Leeds to Martinique, 16 October 2024 – Seminar write-up

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This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2024-2025.

On Wednesday 16^th October 2024, for Black History Month, Professor Emily Zobel Marshall gave a talk on her research and involvement in carnival and its role in society. Her talk, ‘The Power of play: Comparative Caribbean Carnival Cultures from Leeds to Martinique’ took us on a journey explaining the beginnings of Caribbean carnival culture through to its worldwide impact today.

Red Devil troupe at Martinique Carnival, March 2024, photographed by Emily Zobel Marshall

Professor Zobel Marshall, being ‘Martinican royalty’ (according to Professor Maeve McCusker who chaired the talk) due to her famous grandfather, spoke briefly about her connection with Martinican author Joseph Zobel, and how this lineage had influenced her interests and research from an early age. Although an esteemed academic, Professor Zobel Marshall explained how her research into carnival culture was an endeavor to ‘blur the lines between academia and art’ through various projects. She spoke of this breaking down of barriers between the academic and artistic worlds and detailed just how important that is for her.

The beginnings of carnival culture across the Caribbean islands, according to Professor Zobel Marshall, started as something of a mélange culturel, or cultural mixing. She spoke of the initial introduction of the masquerade (today known familiarly as ‘mas’) as hybrid cultural form – a fusion of the religious rituals of French Catholic colonisers and the musical and performance traditions of enslaved Africans. As a form of resistance, enslaved peoples further developed their own version of the masquerade where plantation owners could be mocked and ridiculed, giving power to the disempowered.

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José Iglesias de la Casa (1749-1791), a Problematic Pastoral and Satirical Poet, Friday 8 March 2024 – Seminar write-up

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This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2023-2024.

On Friday 8^th March, Noelia López-Souto (Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife) delivered a seminar on her research into Salamancan poet José Iglesias de la Casa, focusing on his life and poetry in 18^th century Spain.

Noelia López-Souto (photo by Modern Languages CDRG)

To begin her presentation, Dr López-Souto presented us with a portrait of José Iglesias de la Casa, and highlighted how elements included in this portrait represented his life as a priest and poet. However, his dual role of priest and poet posed a problem, as there was sometimes a tension between his religious life and the content of his poetry including, for example, his use of satire. Writing in the 18^th century, at a time which fell between the Golden Age and Romantic period of literature, his work is part of the School of Salamanca, an important Spanish literary group with a new poetry influenced not only by the European Rococo movement but also by traditional Spanish poetry and classical models.

Dr López-Souto highlighted how many of his works were subject to posthumous editing, leading to the modification of controversial sections of the original texts, and their division into volumes to facilitate publishing. Despite this, his Poesías Póstumas (1793) were widely successful, and were included in various collections of classical Spanish poetry. However, these works were later silenced and removed from these publications. Dr López-Souto then explained how she has released a new manuscript with poems by Iglesias. Her research aims to recover the poet’s lost works and make them more widely available.

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Modern Languages CDRG Showcase 2024 / Crossing Borders With Only Our Words: (Translating) Prose and Poetry in the Americas – Keynote write-up

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This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2023-2024.

Ilana Luna (photo by Modern Languages CDRG)

On Friday 24^th May 2024, Dr Ilana Luna, Associate Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies at Arizona State University, delivered the keynote speech at the 2024 Modern Languages Core Disciplinary Research Group Showcase on the importance of translation in human understanding of our global neighbours. Her interdisciplinary approach brought together her interest in Latin American studies, feminist writing, poetry and translation. In her paper Dr Luna drew on her extensive experience as a translator (she was shortlisted for the inaugural Sarah Maguire Prize for Poetry in Translation in 2021 for her edition of Judith Santopietro’s Tiawanaku) and her work as an Associate Editor for Cardboard House Press in Phoenix, Arizona. She noted the importance of small presses to the literary landscape of today especially when it comes to the role they play in supporting texts in translation.

In her paper, as in her book Adapting Gender: Mexican Feminisms from Literature to Film (SUNY Press, 2018), which looks at the historical role of women in the Mexican film industry and how this ruptures stereotypes in the broader socio-political context of Mexico, Dr Luna sought to build bridges by creating conversations among people and texts prompting them to think about what it means to cross borders with only our words.

In her keynote speech, Dr Luna rejected the idea of a pristine, pure translation which as linguists we all grapple with. She described the process of translation as being simultaneously in oneself and outside oneself as it is a radical act of listening and interpretation. Throughout her presentation she drew on many examples of her translation of poetry, including Una vez que la leña se hubiera terminado [Once the firewood had finally burned out] by Cristián Gómez Olivares and Independencia del apátrida [Independence for the stateless] by Mauricio Espinoza. These poems reflect the touching reality of thousands of people who struggle to feel a sense of belonging to a nation because of their borderland experience.

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Postgraduate student interviews: Isabella Gammon-McConville (MRes)

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This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2023-2024.

Can you tell me a bit about your academic experience at Queen’s so far?

I started at Queen’s back in 2018 and I did my undergraduate [degree] in Spanish. I did my [first] two years at Queen’s and then I went abroad to Spain, where I worked as a language assistant. That was during Covid, so it was a bit of a different experience, but I was in the south of Spain there. I came back and did my final year, then went on and did the MRes, also looking at Spanish.

Isabella Gammon-McConville, personal archive

What topic did you choose for your MRes and what drew you to it?

I handed in my dissertation back in September [2023] and the title was ‘Language Acts and World (Un)Making: The Poetics of Power and Resistance in the Drama of Ana Caro and Leonor de la Cueva’. I was looking at Golden Age drama and specifically the comedia. I’d done a bit of that in my undergraduate work, I’d looked at a few different areas but I hadn’t seen a lot of work done by female dramatists. I was interested in how they wrote resistance into a lot of their work, because they followed the societal norms and expectations of writing literature in order to be able to write in the period, and they also managed to get in things that made their work different to the canonical work of the period.

What was the highlight of your post-grad experience?

That’s a difficult one. Honestly, probably handing my dissertation in! No, making my work and research fit within the field and seeing links between the research done by everyone else. The collaborative idea of research is that you get to do something that’s a bit different, but you get to draw on work that has already been written by other people and make your own space within the field. For me, this was developed throughout the MRes: the research methods classes which introduced various lenses to look at Caro and Cueva’s work, the discussions with my supervisor, and my own research into publications on the authors. Coming to conclusions using different research methods was really interesting. I guess it’s [about] coming up with something new, isn’t it?

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Postgraduate student interviews: Claire Whyte (PhD)

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This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2023-2024.

What has your academic journey looked like so far? What did you study during your undergraduate and previous postgraduate experiences?

I undertook my PhD in Spanish as a mature student. For my undergraduate degree I did Languages and Latin American Studies [at the University of Essex]. After university I didn’t go straight on to postgraduate study. I travelled after my degree and I lived abroad for several years, teaching in a number of countries (South Korea, New Zealand). In 2016, when I was made redundant from the language program I was teaching on, I applied for a Master’s in Modern Languages at Queen’s. I then had a year between finishing my master’s and applying for the PhD. I enjoyed the return to studying and university life. So, I put a proposal together, applied for the PhD, and got accepted, which I hadn’t really expected! I just finished my PhD in November [2023] – there were some interruptions to my studies, especially because of the pandemic, so my journey was a bit more protracted.

Would you be able to give a brief explanation of your PhD research?

I will try! My broad area is Mexican Studies; in my thesis, “Frida Kahlo and Astrid Hadad: Performing Woman and Nation in 20^th Century Mexico”, I look at artist Frida Kahlo, and cabaret político [political cabaret] performer Astrid Hadad. I examine how they perform, resist and contest the hegemonic constructs of Mexican womanhood. So, I look at Kahlo’s self-portraits against the background of cultural nationalism in post-revolutionary Mexico (the period following the Mexican revolution of 1910-1920). I contextualise her work against the art history and discourse of the period. In relation to Astrid Hadad, I examine her work against the backdrop of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, which was signed towards the end of the 20th century. I look at how she uses her cabaret performances as political commentary and how she performs womanhood in that context.

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Travel Experiences and Illness in Early Modern Female Religious Communities, 17 April 2024 – Seminar write-up

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This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2023-2024.

On Wednesday 17th of April 2024, Dr María D. Martos Pérez (UNED, Madrid-Bieses) delivered a seminar on the topic of “Travel Experiences and Illness in Early Modern Female Religious Communities”, based on her research into female religious pilgrimages from Spain during the 16th and 17th centuries. Her research for this seminar focused on recovering female authors. She considered themes of female authorship and the history of female participation in the production of literary works.

Dr Martos Pérez began the seminar by explaining how she used women’s writing about their travel experiences to further understand the Early Modern female experience. The majority of the texts she examined were written by nuns travelling from the Iberian Peninsula to establish new convents in Spanish colonies. Their writings took the form of biographies, autobiographies or letters. The aim of this research was to compare the nuns’ individual experiences, investigate what these texts emphasise about the travelling conditions, study descriptions of the illnesses that the nuns’ endured while travelling, and consider how their suffering was transmitted through discursive rhetoric in the texts. She noted that the majority of female written manuscripts were addressed to the members of their religious community for informative purposes, while male-written texts were more often used as propaganda.

Dr Martos Pérez outlined three main purposes of the travel narratives: they acted as points of reference for the other nuns, established the social role of religious women, and depicted a model for women’s writing. The manuscripts provide subjective accounts from the nuns, and give authority and legitimacy to their experiences, therefore legitimising women in public and scholarly roles.

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Seoda i bhFolach: Fráseolaíocht agus Cultúr na Gaeilge, Dé Céadaoin 31 Eanáir 2024 – Scríbhinn an tSeimineáir / Hidden Gems: Phraseology and Culture in Irish, Wednesday 31 January 2024 – Seminar write-up

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Tá an post seo mar chuid dár Scéim Tionscnaimh Taighde do 2023-2024.

This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2023-2024.

(ENGLISH SUMMARY PROVIDED BELOW)

Frásaeimí & frásaíocht

“Hidden Gems: Phraseology and Culture in Irish” cé a dhiúltódh níos mó a fhoghlaim faoin teideal mealltach seo? Ní mise cibé ar bith!

Katie Ní Loingsigh ó Choláiste na hOllscoile, Corcaigh a nocht na seoda ar 31 lá Eanáir agus í ag plé na nasc idir cúrsaí cultúir agus nathanna na Gaeilge ó thaobh na frásaíochta agus réimse na teangeolaíochta. Ar Chearnóg chlúiteach ilteangach Ollscoil na Banríona i mBéal Feirste a chruinnigh idir mhic léinn a dhéanann staidéar ar an mhodúl, An Béal Beo (CEL3001), agus roinnt léachtóirí Spáinnise, Gaeilge, Portaingéilise agus Fraincise. Ócáid iltíreach!

Cé nach bhfuil mórstaidéar cuimsitheach déanta go fóill ar an dlúthcheangal idir cúrsaí cultúir agus nathanna, glactar leis go forleathan go bhfuil tábhacht ar leith ag baint leis an chultúr san anailís a dhéantar ar nathanna. Ábhar dochtúireachta aon duine?

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Postgraduate student interviews: Isabel Buckley (MRes)

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This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2023-2024.

What has your university journey been like so far?

During my A-level studies I au-paired in Spain and I really enjoyed using the language there. I did History and Spanish for my undergraduate degree [at Queen’s] because I didn’t want to lose my Spanish and I found the Spanish side more interesting for me and that’s how I have come to do an MRes [Master of Research] now.

So, tell me about your current research project: ‘Genre and gender in female authored narco-novelas’.

It looks at female narco-novelas which are women-authored books about drug trafficking. I’m looking at Perra Brava by Orfa Alarcón, who is a Mexican author, El Leopardo al Sol by Laura Restrepo, who is a Colombian author, and Pistoleros by Paula Castiglioni, who is an Argentinian author. So, my scope is across Latin America. From what I have seen, most of the productions on drug trafficking, like TV series, focus on male figures so I thought it would be interesting to look at a female-narrated point of view and the portrayal of women and see how that is different.

Where did your interest in this topic come from?

I enjoyed Sarah Bowskill’s module on US/Mexican border issues during second year and then in final year I did Sarah’s other module, on Roberto Bolaño’s 2666, which touched on the issue of drug trafficking. I really enjoyed the further readings that were set within these two modules and believe the good grades I achieved were down to how much I enjoyed the content. Then when I heard about the MRes and how flexible it was, I decided to do that, and I also got funding which has helped.

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