Modern Languages & Literatures

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Faculty Publications

The Inherited Discourse: Paradigms of Stalinist Culture in Thaw Cinema and Literature (2007). Alexander Prokhorov, author

The Inherited Discourse presents a new reading of Soviet cinema and literature from 1953 to 1964, based upon the pioneering theoretical work of Hayden White and Katerina Clark.

Scènes d’intérieur: Six romanciers des années 1980-1990 (2007). Maryse Fauvel, author

Although aimed at ephemeral gratification, the French novel of the 1980-1990s stresses openness to the other and provokes enduring questions. It no longer reflects a quest for cultural coherence or linguistic purity, but a multiplicity of trajectories that demonstrate strategies of coexistence.
The visual image both influences and competes with the written text in some novels: Toussaint decries the era of the spectacle and the reign of idolatry ; Duras translates the un-representable. Other texts fight against oblivion: Lê re-members the colonial past and evokes the integration of immigrants in France; Ernaux delineates the commemorative traces of working-class identity. Others focus on the private sphere: Redonnet unfolds a utopic imagination in order to overcome a conflictual present dominated by technology and profit ; Sebbar creates nomadic characters in order to narrate hybridity in daily life. All display a dissident writing practice.
Thus, these novels begin social and literary debates which are vital in the XXIst-Century.

Land and Landscape in Francographic Literature (2007). Magali Compan, co-editor

The literary production of landscape in the French-writing world, whether in Quebec, Morocco or Mauritius, is not new, but over the past fifty years it has developed added significance. As the dynamics of globalization continue to displace bodies around the world and deterritorialize its subjects, the relevance of land and landscape as a potent source for cultural identity, nationalist aspirations, and alternative post-nationalist subjectivities continues to grow. The essays in this collection examine contemporary literature in French from and in multiple spaces around the world, and consider the ways the vernacular and the local-as well as the virtual and transnational-re-claim, re-map and re-fashion post-colonial, national, cultural and ethnic landscapes while also questioning both the limits and challenges to this imagination. Contributors address landscape as an imaginary, constructed, and negotiated literary space rather than an unproblematic transcription of an external geographic reality, and through this prism explore images of dispossession, resistance, and re-appropriation. These essays link the literary conquest of nature to the process of writing/righting a history of imperialism and neocolonialism, locate in nature the rhythms of a material identity and metaphysical reality beyond urban and industrial capitalism, use landscape to explore the psychic disturbances of displacement, and call for a reinvention of places of memory. The collection aims to illuminate what can best be described as a Francographie that traces in multiple hands tenuous if not altogether uncertain geographies and unfinished maps. Katarzyna Pieprzak is an Assistant Professor at Williams College in the Department of Romance Languages and Program in Comparative Literature. Magali Compan is an Assistant Professor at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, where she teaches Francophone Literatures and Cultures. Cover image courtesy of Jennyfer Machuca.

Realm of the Dead (2006). Rachel DiNitto, translator

Stories by Uchida Hyakken, translation by Rachel DiNitto. Considered one of the foremost innovators of Japanese modernism, Hyakken incorporates a distinctly non-Western set of myths and folklore to create dreamscapes that open doors into another world. Realm of the Dead is set in a dark and mysterious world where logic and reality are subject to constant change and where ideas about identity and self are continually questioned. The book also includes a full translation of the short story collection Triumphant March Into Port Arthur. The translation was published under the auspices of the Japanese Literature Publication Project and sponsored by the Agency of Cultural Affairs of Japan.

Taisho Trilogy, Suzuki Seijun DVD box set (2006). Rachel DiNitto, Essay

Maverick filmmaker Suzuki Seijun spent the 1960s concocting astonishing masterpieces of yakuza psychedelia with such famous films as Branded to Kill (1967) and Tokyo Drifter (1966). With the ambitiously stunning Taisho Trilogy, Suzuki reincarnated himself as a master auteur of modern Japanese cinema. Set in 1920s Japan, Taisho Trilogy is cinema at its most fantastic and bizarre. The three films Zigeunerweisen (1980), Kageroza (1981) and Yumeji (1991) are considered by cult film fanatics and critics alike to be Suzuki's undisputed masterpieces.

Interaction, 7th Edition (2006). Ron St. Onge, co-author

From Amazon.com: Best-selling INTERACTION is a complete program offering unparalleled support for the study of culture, literature, and language at the intermediate level. This edition continues to offer a systematic and unified presentation of intermediate structures and functions. A one-book format combines the best of a complete grammar text and a literary and cultural reader in one convenient, easy-to-use manual.

The Latin American Fashion Reader (2005). Regina Root, editor

Winner of the 2006 Arthur P. Whitaker Prize, awarded by the Middle Atlantic Council of Latin American Studies for the best book published by a member in 2004-2005. Recently shortlisted for the national Milia Davenport Award, the volume received honorable mention at the 2006 Costume Society of America symposium. Reviews in Elle (Argentina), Foreign Affairs, Journal of American Studies, among others. From the tango-inspired dress of Argentina and guerilla chic in downtown Buenos Aires to swimwear on Copacabana Beach and the rainbow that adorns Mayan women, Latin America has long been a source of inspiration for designers throughout the world. This book is a long overdue assessment of Latin America's influence on fashion. The authors examine the significance of textiles and dress to Latin American culture and the reasons behind it - from fashion history to popular culture and the (re)making of traditional garments, such as the poncho, the guayabera and maguey cactus fiber sandals. It also considers its global impact, visible in chains and mass-produced fashions, and the international worship of fashion icons such as Frida Kahlo and Eva Perón.
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La Coronica: A Journal of Medieval Spanish Language and Literature ( 2005). George Greenia, Editor

A Journal of Medieval Spanish Language, Literature and Cultural Studies sponsored by the MLA Division on Medieval Spanish. An award winning publication in its 33rd year, and 11th under the Editorship of George Greenia, it publishes over 500 pages of scholarly work each year in English and Spanish. La corónica awards two prizes of its own, the John K. Walsh Award for best article published in each volume and an annual International Book Award for the best monograph published in any country on the research interests of this sector of Medieval Studies.
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Masculine/Feminine: Practices of Difference(s) (2004). Silvia Tandeciarz, translator

Author Nelly Richard is one of the most prominent cultural theorists writing in Latin America today. As a participant in Chile’s neo-avantgarde, Richard worked to expand the possibilities for cultural debate within the constraints imposed by the Pinochet dictatorship (1973–1990), and she has continued to offer incisive commentary about the country’s transition to democracy. Well known as the founder and director of the influential Santiago-based journal Revista de crítica cultural, Richard has been central to the dissemination throughout Latin America of work by key contemporary thinkers, including Néstor García Canclini, Jacques Derrida, Fredric Jameson, and Diamela Eltit. Her own writing provides rigorous considerations of Latin American identity, postmodernism, gender, neoliberalism, and strategies of political and cultural resistance. (excerpted from Amazon.com) Co-translated with Alice Nelson.

Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 286: Castilian Writers, 1400-1500 (2004). George Greenia, Co-Editor

The first of a three-volume illustrated encylopedia on the authors of Medieval Castilian, Latin and Hebrew. Co-Editor: Frank Domínguez (UNC-Chapel Hill). The entire project embraces articles by a hundred authors totaling over a million words.
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Juntos: Community Partnerships in Spanish and Portuguese (2004). Jonathan Arries, editor

The senior editor of "Juntos" , Josef Hellebrandt, finds inspiration in the following challenge to higher education: "Our great universities simply cannot afford to remain islands of affluence, self-importance and horticultural beauty in seas of squalor, violence and despair" (Harkavay). Hellebrandt, Lucía T. Varona (my fellow co-editor) and I set out to discover how faculty in Spanish and Hispanic Studies across the country traverse disciplinary boundaries, use technology and adapt new theories of learning as they design service-learning courses. It is our hope that this volume will help others develop their praxis, make our universities less insular, and develop the skills and intellect of students in the Humanities so they become engaged citizens who can work with Latino communities.

The Insubordination of Signs (2004). Silvia Tandeciarz, translator

Translation, with Alice Nelson, of Nelly Richard's La insubordinacion de los signos.

Tâches d'Encre (2004). Maryse Fauvel, co-author

Second edition of a process-oriented composition text with new literary pieces, a new organisation, new writing assignments differentiating between four phases of the writing process. Each chapter ends with essays written by students from universities in the US : five of the eight essays have been written by students from the College of William and Mary in FR 305 !

Spanish Culture Behind Barbed-Wire: Memory and Representation of the French Concentration Camps, 1939-1945 (2004). Francie Cate-Arries, author

2005 "Honorable Mention" recipient of the Modern Language Association's Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize for outstanding book published in English in the field of Latin American and Spanish literatures & cultures. --"A remarkable research project on an important and neglected topic, this book makes public the record of Spanish refugees who had crossed the border following the Civil War, only to find themselves interned in concentration campus during World War II. It is impressive as a historical document, but it is also the work of a sensitive, analytical, and theoretically informed reader of literature. The combination of these elements and the diverse gifts of the author make the study spellbinding and moving, in short, an impeccable work of scholarship. Its historical and literary gap-filling merits close attention and acclaim."--Citation by MLA Selection Committee
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Pablo Neruda and the U.S. Culture Industry (2002). Teresa Longo, editor

This book gathers critical and poetic voices to analyze the politics of packaging and marketing Chilean poet Pablo Neruda in the U.S. The ground swell of enthusiasm in the U.S., the contributors argue, has relied upon a vastly oversimplified, romanticized, and depoliticized interpretation of Neruda as panacea -- offering healing visions of community, hope, and wonder. The essays gathered here rediscover the richness to be found in Neruda and challenge the poet's commodification in the U.S. marketplace.

Springtime for Soviet Cinema: Re/Viewing the 1960s (2001). Alexander Prokhorov, editor

"Springtime for Soviet Cinema" explores the role of the film industry in the destalinization of Soviet culture. The volume pays special attention to the rise of auteurism as a cultural and industrial phenomenon in the Soviet cinema of the 1960s.
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Death Squads in Global Perspective: Murder with Deniability (2000). Bruce Campbell, editor

Death Squads are killing people today. They may be found around the world, and in many different types of states. Campbell and Brenner have gathered scholars from several countries and disciplines to produce the first global comparison of death squads, and the first to put them in historical perspective. Available in hardcover and paperback.

Exorcismos (2000). Silvia Tandeciarz, author

Poetry. In Spanish. Contact author for availability. De la Contra-portada: En su primer poemario...Tandeciarz se desliza de la muerte a la vida y de la negación ("la soledad es infinita/la vida no") a la afirmación. La poesía de Tandeciarz niega--exorcisa--la soledad. Sobre los espacios en blanco que marcan las separaciones de su vida, ha inscrito amor, "un amor que a veces muerde," y "un amor que se vuelca en ternura." Sus exorcismos son a la vez "un tango que necesita aprender a bailar sola" y "un abrazo interminable." Sus poemas llenan las ausencias con el lenguaje de la vida: "erizos, caracoles, estrellas, soles, dientes de tiburón, algas, aguas vivas." Es, finalmente, esta tensión poética--el acto de escribir en la encrucijada del amor y la muerte, de la ausencia y la comunión--la que transporta a Tandeciarz del espacio en blanco hacia la liberación por medio de las palabras. (Teresa Longo)

The SA Generals and the Rise of Nazism (1998). Bruce Campbell, author

No part of the Nazi movement contributed more to Hitler's success than the Sturmabteilung (SA) -- the notorious Brown Shirts. Bruce Campbell offers the first in-depth study in English of the men who held the three highest ranks in the SA. Organized on military lines and fired by radical nationalism, the Brown Shirts saw themselves as Germany's paramilitary saviors.
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Framing Latin American Cinema: Contemporary Critical Perspectives (1997). Ann Marie Stock, editor

"Arguing for a 'postnational critical praxis,' Stock has gathered twelve essays on audiovisual culture in Latin America which, taken together, examine the geopolitical assumptions often underlying audiovisual criticism and the politics of production and reception across cinema's first century." --Kathleen Newman review

Generaciones: Composición y conversación en español (1997). George Greenia, author

Generaciones is an advanced composition and conversation text for college Spanish. It features a process approach to writing through which students gather ideas by reading from current articles in the Spanish press worldwide. Brainstorming exercises, vocabulary building, collaborative writing and peer review are key elements in this book which has been used at colleges and universities – and not a few advanced secondary schools – throughout the country. It includes a special “Appéndice” on Advanced Placement Spanish from ETS with official scoring rubrics and actual essay questions from past AP national exams. It also offers suggestions for college teachers on how to draw on writing skills developed in high school AP Spanish programs. The title Generaciones alludes to the multiple generations among which Hispanics live, the generations or stages of our own lives, our growing maturity as writers, and the successive generations our own drafts go through as we generate ideas and fresh ways to express them.

La Civilisation française en évolution II (1997). Ronald St Onge, co-author

Volume II of La Civilisation....introduces the reader to post-war France and continues up to the Chirac presidency. It contains many authentic texts with background information to help set the stage for the readings. Articles from Le Nouvel Observateur, Midi Libre, Le Monde, and excerpts from Roland Barthes, Hélène Cixous and Alain Peyrefitte offer first-hand insights into modern French culture.

La Civilisation française en évolution I (1996). Ronald St. Onge, co-author

La Civlisation française en évolution, Vol. 1 is a modern and provocative look at French history and civilization from pre-history to the Fifth Republic. Organized into six dossiers, each dossier examines a particular facet of France's development. The text includes useful timelines, glossing, authentic texts and thought-provoking questions.

Tâches d'Encre (1996). Maryse Fauvel, co-author

This book is a process-oriented composition text intended for students who have completed two years of college-level study of French. The goals of the book are two-fold: improving students' written expression, in terms of both accuracy and content; and reducing writing anxiety so that students can write with more ease and less fear of the teacher's or another reader's corrective feedback. It was conceived with a variety of teaching contexts in mind. It thus contains a wide range of exercise and writing formats, including form-focused, teacher-initiated exercises, partner and small-group creative and editing activities, as well as structured and free writing assignments for individual work.

The Disciplines of Interpretation (1994). Rob Leventhal, author

In the early and mid 18th century, interpretation of texts was conceived as the rational and charitable representation of the author's ideas in accordance with the rules of reason, rhetoric, and semiotics. Around 1770, however, this model of interpretation is eclipsed by a theory of hermeneutic reading that stresses the historical position of the hermeneutic agent, the claims made by the text on the interpretive structure of the reader, and the constitutive incomprehensibility of the text. Analyzing works of G.E. Lessing, J.G. Herder, Friedrich Schlegel, as well as the institutional conditions created by the Philological Seminar in Goettingen under Christian Gottlob Heyne, this book attempts to trace this turning point in the history of textual hermeneutics.

Reading after Foucault (1994). Rob Leventhal, editor

Reading After Foucault presents new readings of German literature, letters, and culture from 1750 to 1830, based upon the pioneering work of the late Michel Foucault. Discussing the structures of historical-thought systems, the emergence of the human sciences, modern institutions of reading and writing, and technologies of self-fashioning, the authors extend Foucault's research into the system of writing technologies and power relations and reexamine the canon and the disciplines and institutions which make it possible. The book seeks to contribute to a "history of the present" by analyzing the networks in and through which literary modernity has been manufactured. New readings of Wezel, Kleist, Reinhold, Herder, Schiller, Campe, Goethe, the story of Kaspar Hauser, Hölderlin, Hamann, and Novalis by Joel Black, Linda Brooks, Ken Calhoon, David Wellbery, Ruediger Campe, Franz Fuetterknecht, Friedrich Kittler, Dorothea von Muecke, Rob Leventhal, and Ian Hacking are featured.
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