Tag Archives: politics

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

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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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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 24th 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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Prizes for Spanish American Literature and the Changing Role of the Author in Society, Friday 11 February 2022 – Seminar Write-up

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This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2021-2022.

On Friday 11th February, Dr Sarah Bowskill (Senior Lecturer in Latin American Studies, QUB) delivered a seminar entitled ‘Prizes for Spanish American Literature and the Changing Role of the Author in Society’ at the 2021-2022 Modern Languages Core Disciplinary Research Group Seminar Series. Dr Bowskill’s talk explored the link between power and literary prestige, focusing particularly on how politics underpins Spanish American literary prizes and award ceremonies, and the role of the author in society.

image: cover of Sarah Bowskill’s new monograph

The talk commenced with an overview of the intertwining of literature and politics in Latin America. Dr Bowskill drew on the work of Doris Sommer to explain that in the nineteenth century, post-independence Latin American nations were built by author statesmen, such as Domingo Faustino Sarmiento and Bartolomé Mitre. Writing formed an important part of their political work, and the texts written by these author statesmen were taught in schools, and intended to inspire love for the nation. By the early twentieth century, national prizes for literature were used by the state to further connect literary and political fields. Dr Bowskill highlighted the motivation behind introducing such prizes, since Latin American countries looked to prizes for science and literature as a way to establish international status and national pride.

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Modern Languages CDRG Research Showcase 2021: Child-centred Art at the Mexico-U.S. Border: Ethical Questions and Imaginative Possibilities

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This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2020-2021.

On the 25th of June, as keynote speaker of the Modern Languages Core Disciplinary Research Group Research Showcase of 2021, Professor Nuala Finnegan of University College Cork gave a plenary lecture entitled ‘Child-centred Art at the Mexico-U.S. Border: Ethical Questions and Imaginative Possibilities’.

Professor Finnegan began her lecture by showing an image of Donald Trump on the cover of Time magazine in June 2018, in which Trump is depicted looking down on a distressed child crying. This is a reconfiguration of a now infamous image, wherein this child is watching her mother being searched at the U.S.-Mexico border. This brought us to the child separation process of April 2018 during the Trump administration, and the inhumanity of this.

Professor Finnegan identified three primary tropes of representation of children at the border: children as dead, distressed, or imprisoned. She criticised the lack of integrity shown within the fields of journalism and politics regarding such representations, as the migrant child and their trauma has often been used for political photo opportunities, or as disaster pornography in humanitarian campaigns. Professor Finnegan therefore covered the faces of children and migrants in the images she used throughout the lecture to respect their privacy and agency. She considered what happens when other representations of children enter the fray, asking: how does this disrupt the narrative?

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