SEMINAR ON BOB DYLAN AT UNIVERSITY OF SEVILLE / SEMINARIO DE BOB DYLAN EN LA UNIVERSIDAD DE SEVILLA

An official course on Bob Dylan, entitled “Bob Dylan, el poeta del rock and roll”, is under way at the University of Seville, Spain. Details may be found in an article by Neftali Caballero in “El Correo de Andalucía”, 21 February 2010, ‘130 alumnos de la Hispalense se matriculan en una asignatura sobre Bob Dylan’ (‘130 Seville students register on a course on Bob Dylan’):

 

www.elcorreoweb.es/cultura/085388/alumnos/hispalense/matriculan/asignatura/bob/dylan

 

and on the university’s website:

 

www.comunicacion.us.es/?q=node/2860

 

(programme: www.comunicacion.us.es/sites/default/files/dylan.pdf )

 

The course organiser is Mario Ernesto Ríos, a student at the university’s law faculty, and 130 students have enrolled. It is actually the second such course to be held in Seville, building on the success of an initial event last year. The programme comprises 15 lectures, from 23 February to 29 April 2010, by Spanish Dylan experts, including the novelist Benjamín Prado and the veteran rock journalist Jesús Ordovás. This course follows on from similar events held in the last couple of years in Peru and Bolivia (see entries on this blog for 26 Sept 2007 and 9 July 2009), and further consecrates Dylan’s academic status in the Hispanic world.

 

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Un seminario de carácter oficial dedicado a Bob Dylan, bajo el título “Bob Dylan, el poeta del rock and roll”, está en curso en la Universidad de Sevilla (España). Se puede hallar información detallada al respecto en un artículo de Neftali Caballero en “El Correo de Andalucía”, 21 de febrero de 2010, ‘130 alumnos de la Hispalense se matriculan en una asignatura sobre Bob Dylan’:

 

www.elcorreoweb.es/cultura/085388/alumnos/hispalense/matriculan/asignatura/bob/dylan

 

y en el sitio web de la Universidad:

 

www.comunicacion.us.es/?q=node/2860

 

(programa: www.comunicacion.us.es/sites/default/files/dylan.pdf )

 

Organiza el curso Mario Ernesto Ríos, alumno de la Facultad de Derecho sevillana; se han matriculado 130 universitarios. En realidad se trata del segundo ciclo dylaniano que se celebra en esa universidad, ya que un primer ciclo, menos ambicioso, fue montado el año pasado. El programa se compone de 15 conferencias, del 23-II al 29-IV-2010, dictadas por destacados dylanianos hispanos, entre ellos el novelista Benjamín Prado y el veterano periodista rock Jesús Ordovás. Este curso sigue en la línea de eventos semejantes que tuvieron lugar en el último par de años en Perú y Bolivia (véase en esta bitácora: entradas para 26-IX-2007 y 9-VII-2009), y marca un paso más en la consagración del estatuto académico de Dylan en el mundo hispanohablante.

 

 

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JOSÉ SARAMAGO interviewed in MAGAZINE LITTÉRAIRE, March 2010

JOSÉ SARAMAGO interviewed in MAGAZINE LITTÉRAIRE, March 2010

The March 2010 issue of ‘Le Magazine Littéraire’ (Paris) carries a long interview with José Saramago, on the occasion of the publication of the French translation of ‘Cadernos’ (‘Notebooks’ or ‘Le cahier’), his collection of a year’s worth of blog posts: ‘J’ai passé ma vie à proclamer que le narrateur n’existait pas”’ [“José Saramago: ‘I’ve spent my life proclaiming the non-existence of the narrator”’], interview with Aliette Amiel, No 495, March 2010, pp. 96-100).

The Portuguese Nobel speaks on his most recent novel, “Caim” (“Cain”) and the controversy around it, once more declaring himself ‘profondément athée’ (‘deeply atheistic’) and stating that he is highly curious as to how the book will be received when it comes out in Italy in April or May (100) (the magazine adds in an insert that ‘Cadernos’ will not be appearing in that country at all thanks to its criticisms of Silvio Berlusconi – 98). He also states that his writing is simultaneously local/Portuguese and universal, and reiterates his oft-affirmed position that his novels can be read as essays in narrative form (“J’écris des romans parce que je ne sais pas écrire des essais” – “I write novels because I don’t know how to write essays”, 99).

Particularly interesting are Saramago’s narratological observations. Explicitly rejecting Roland Barthes’ arch-influential notion of the ‘death of the author’, he declares: ‘J’ai passé ma vie à proclamer que le narrateur n’existait pas”’ (‘I’ve spent my life proclaiming the non-existence of the narrator”’), relating his experience at a conference in Edmonton, Canada, where he encountered ‘le mot narrateur des dizaines de fois, mais jamais le mot auteur (…): pour des centaines de professeurs de littérature venus de tous les continents, l’auteur avait cessé d’exister” (‘the word narrator [appeared] scores of times, but never the word author (…): for hundreds of professors of literature from every continent, the author had ceased to exist” (99). Without here entering into the controversy, we may note that Saramago in his novels almost always employs an omniscient third-person narrator (not a first-person narrator-character), and suggest that criticism should at least be aware of his opinion that this narrative voice in his novels is not a construct of the text but his own. Therein may lie a conference paper …

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NOTE added 2 March 2010:

This piece was taken up by the Albuquerque Contemporary Literature Examiner on 1 March 2010, in an article by Peter Kelton (to whom my thanks), entitled:

"Lively Nobel Laureate José Saramago, 88, writes his way; doesn’t fit Barthes’ critical theory"  –

http://www.examiner.com/x-15737-Albuquerque-Contemporary-Literature-Examiner~y2010m3d1-Lively-Nobel-Laureate-Jose-Saramago-88-writes-his-way-doesnt-fit-Barthes-critical-theory

 

SEVA BHARATI JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES, Jan 2010 (includes my review of Sophie Treadwell, MACHINAL, ed. Dolores Narbona)

Now out is Vol. VI (Jan 2010) of SEVA BHARATI JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES, from Midnapore, India (ed. Jaydeep Sarangi). This issue includes, inter alia, articles by Rajeshwar Mittapalli (representation of Dalits in Indian Writing in English), E.E. Sule (on the Indian-Nigerian writer Kanchana Ugbabe), Pramod K. Nayar (Nayantara Sahgal), K.V. Dominic (Rushdie’s “Midnight’s Children”), Nilanshu Agarwal (Indian women writing in English), and a tribute to the deceased critic Meenakshi Mukherjee, by Subendhu Mund. Also included is my review of:

 

Maria Dolores Narbona Carrión (ed.), ‘Sophie Treadwell: Contexto teatral, biografía, crítica y traducción de su obra Machinal,’

(pp. 175-187; also on-line at: http://yatrarollason.info/files/Sophie.pdf)

 

The volume reviewed is a translation of and commentary on MACHINAL, a play by the American dramatist Sophie Treadwell (1928). Treadwell, a pioneering woman dramatist and journalist, was of part-Mexican extraction and the play is also of Edgar Allan Poe relevance. My review looks at those aspects and also considers the Translation Studies issues raised by the Spanish version of the play. I hope, therefore, it will be of interest from multiple viewpoints. For more details of this article and an abstract, see the earlier entry on this blog, 23 April 2009.

 

MAPOCHO (Chile), N° 66 – INCLUYE MI ENSAYO SOBRE / INCLUDES MY ESSAY ON WALTER BENJAMIN

Ha salido el N° 66 (segundo semestre de 2009) de MAPOCHO: REVISTA DE HUMANIDADES, publicación de la Biblioteca Nacional de Chile y de la DIBAM (Dirección de Bibliotecas, Archivos y Museos), del Gobierno de Chile (director de la revista: Carlos Ossandón Buljevic). Este número incluye, entre otros, textos sobre César Vallejo, Andrés Bello y culturas indígenas chilenas, así como una amplia recopilación de escritos en homenaje al escritor chileno Alfonso Calderón Squadritto. También y por segunda vez, MAPOCHO me ha brindado el honor de publicar un texto de mi autoría, concretamente la versión en lengua castellana de un ensayo que ya publiqué en inglés en la India, sobre Walter Benjamin y París (véase entrada en esta bitácora, 25-IX-2005, donde también hay fotos de los pasajes parisienses).

Detalles:

 

·         ‘The Passageways of Paris: Walter Benjamin’s "Arcades Project" and Contemporary Cultural Debate in the West’, en Modern Criticism, ed. Christopher Rollason and Rajeshwar Mittapalli, New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, 2002, pp. 262-296; versión revisada, Walter Benjamin Research Syndicate, http://www.wbenjamin.org/passageways.html (Internet), 2002; versión en lengua castellana, ‘El Libro de los pasajes de Walter Benjamin, la historia no lineal e Internet’, tr. Andrea Sekler, Mapocho: Revista de Humanidades (Santiago, Chile: Ediciones de la Dirección de Bibliotecas, Archivos y Museos), N° 66, 2° semestre, 2009, pp. 13-31; en línea: http://yatrarollason.info/files/BenjaminES.pdf

 

Now available is No 66 (Jul-Dec 2009) of MAPOCHO: REVISTA DE HUMANIDADES, published by the National Library of Chile y and the DIBAM (Directorate for Libraries, Archives and Museums), of the Chilean Government (editor: Carlos Ossandón Buljevic). This number features, inter alia, articles on César Vallejo, Andrés Bello and Chilean indigenous cultures, as well as a collection of tributes to the Chilean writer Alfonso Calderón Squadritto. Also and for the second time, MAPOCHO has honoured me by publishing one of my essays: this time, the Spanish-language version of a text earlier published in English in India, on Walter Benjamin and Paris (see entry on this blog, 25 September 2005 – that entry also has photos of the arcades).

Details:

·         ‘The Passageways of Paris: Walter Benjamin’s "Arcades Project" and Contemporary Cultural Debate in the West’, in Modern Criticism, ed. Christopher Rollason and Rajeshwar Mittapalli, New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, 2002, pp. 262-296; rev. version on Walter Benjamin Research Syndicate site, http://www.wbenjamin.org/passageways.html (Internet), 2002; Spanish version, ‘El Libro de los pasajes de Walter Benjamin, la historia no lineal e Internet’, trans. Andrea Sekler,  Mapocho: Revista de Humanidades (Santiago, Chile: Ediciones de la Dirección de Bibliotecas, Archivos y Museos), No 66, July-December 2009, pp. 13-31; on-line at: http://yatrarollason.info/files/BenjaminES.pdf

 

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Resumen:

 

El presente ensayo examina el célebre libro de Walter Benjamin, el Libro de los pasajes, desde la perspectiva del principio de la interrelación, considerado como el motivo estructural clave del libro. Se demuestra que Benjamin, en este trabajo y en las "Tesis sobre la Filosofía de la Historia", rechaza la doctrina del progreso y propone el modelo alternativo de la constelación histórica. Se concluye que el principio relacional que se afirma en el trabajo de Benjamin ofrece una anticipación significativa y desafiante del modelo de organización de la actual Internet.