Degrees

• Ph.D. in Hispanic Studies, 1974
• Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912
• A.M. in Hispanic Studies, 1971
• Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912
• B.A. in Spanish, 1969, Summa cum laude
• Queens College, City University of New York, Flushing, New York 11367

Research Area

• Modernismo
• Modernity
• Fin de Siglo
• Contemporary Prose and Poetry

Current Research

• Delmira Agustini: A Modernist on her own Terms
• In this work, I focus on Delmira Agustini, who was a late modernista and the first major female poet of twentieth-century Spanish America. I explore the relationship between Agustini’s innovative poetic discourse and the changing gender roles and sexual mores of the day as well as the unusual way that Agustini’s writing builds upon the tradition begun by earlier modernistas of questioning and critiquing predominant ideological, cultural, and discursive conventions. These discursive conventions are found both in the language of nation-state formation that circulated at the turn of the century and within modernista poetry itself. Most specifically, I show how Agustini begins to re-write Darío, the undisputed head of the modernista movement, claiming for herself full poetic status by asserting herself in sexual terms.

Current Courses

• Spanish 223, Spanish American Civilization

Professional Societies

• MLA
• AATSP
• IILI

Professional Honors

• Elected to the editorial board of the Revista Iberoamericana in the field of nineteenth-century Spanish American literature, 2002-2006
• Scholar-in-residence, Brigham Young University, March 10-16, 2002.
• Named to a three-year term on the Editorial Board of the South Atlantic Review, Winter 2001
• Spence Wilson Fellow and Co-Director of the Fellows Program of the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities entitled “Rediscovering the New World: Exploring Lines of Contact among the Americas and Within the United States,” Vanderbilt University, 2000-2001
• Modernismo, Modernity, and the Development of Spanish American Literature, published by University of Texas Press, named a Choice Magazine 1999 Outstanding Academic Title
• Election to the Executive Committee of the MLA Division "Latin American Literature from Independence to 1900," December 1996 (term from 1997 to 2000)
• Hispania award for best article on Latin American literature during 1979-1980, 1981
• Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellowship, 1972-1973
• Sigma Delta Pi (Spanish Honors Society), Honors in Spanish, B.A.
• Phi Beta Kappa

Graduate Students

• Latínez, Alejandro. Entre el laberinto y la noche: El adolescente como nación en América Latina. Vanderbilt University, in progress
• Lehnen, Leila. Unimagined Identities: The Questioning of National Identities in Contemporary Latin American Literature. Vanderbilt University, 2003.
• Beatson, Jennifer. Self-translation and Re-writing : Rosario Ferré's Maldito amor and Sweet Diamond Dust. Vanderbilt University, 1998
• Petit, Anne. Tiempo y mito en tres obras posmodernas de Carlos Fuentes : Gringo viejo, La campaña, y El naranjo. Vanderbilt University, 1998
• Fenderson, Gail K. Readers and Neophytes : Discourses of Initiation and the Search for Unity in Selected Stories by José Emilio Pacheco. Vanderbilt University, 1998
• Rivera Villegas, Carmen M. Mujer, nación y modernidad en la obra de Julia De Burgos. Vanderbilt University, 1997
• Sloan, Cynthia Ann Najmulski. Clarice Lispector: Alternate Feminist Readings. Vanderbilt University, 1995
• Eire, Ana. La Experiencia de la Escritura: El discurso literario en la lectura de Severo Sarduy. Vanderbilt University, 1992
• Crispin, Ruth Katz. Poetic Individuation: Reading Coleridge and Salinas through Lacan. Vanderbilt University (Comparative Literature), 1991
• Danner, Catherine C. Language and Identity in the Novels of Teresa De La Parra. Indiana University, 1983
• Van Meter, Dan. The poetics of Vicente Aleixandre: The Interplay of Nature, History, and Language. Indiana University, 1980

Selected Publications

• Books
• Delmira Agustini: A Modernist on her own Terms, in progress
• Modernismo, Modernity, and the Development of Spanish American Literature, netLibrary.com: www.netLibrary.com, 2000.
• Modernismo, Modernity, and the Development of Spanish American Literature, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998.
  
• (Reviews: Arrington, Melvin S., Jr.; World Literature Today, Norman; Autumn 1999; Vol. 73, Iss. 4; p. 707; Anonymous; The Virginia Quarterly Review, Charlottesville; Summer 1999; Vol. 75, Iss. 3; p. 82; Gomez, G; Choice, Middletown; May 1999; Vol. 36, Iss. 9; pp. 1624-1625; Swanson, Philip; TLS, the Times Literary Supplement, London; Jan 22, 1999, Iss. 4999; p. 33; Oxford, Jeffrey, South Central Review, Texas A&M University; Winter 1999-Spring 2000, Vols. 16-17, Numbers 4 and 1; pp. 114-155; Lewis, Bart; Hispania, University of Mississippi; March 2000; Vol. 83, Number 1; pp. 72-73; José María Martínez; Revista Iberoamericana, Pittsburgh; enero-marzo 2000; núm. 190; pp. 200-202)
• Rubén Darío y la búsqueda romántica de la unidad: El recurso modernista de la tradición esotérica, an augmented version of the earlier work, translation with the assistance of the author, Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1986.
• Rubén Darío and the Romantic Search for Unity: The Modernist Recourse to Esoteric Tradition, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1983.
• Chapters in Books
• "Modernist Poetry," The Cambridge History of Latin American Literature, ed. Roberto González Echevarría and Enrique Pupo-Walker. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, 2: 7-68.
• "Annotated Bibliography on Modernist Poetry," The Cambridge History of Latin American Literature, ed. Roberto González Echevarría and Enrique Pupo Walker. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, 3: 595-613.
• Recent Articles
• “Rubén Darío y su contexto: El mundo modernista,” Miradas críticas sobre Rubén Darío. Ed. Nicasio Urbina. Managua: Centro de Investigación de la Realidad Americana, 2003.
• “The Spanish American Modernismo,” Modernism: Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2003.
• “Agustini y Darío: Una lucha entre deseos poéticos,” Actas del XXXIII Congreso del Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana, forthcoming.
• "Modernism on Both Sides of the Atlantic," Anales de la literatura española contemporánea (Special issue devoted to modernity), 23 (1998), 181-196.
• "César Vallejo's España, aparta de mí este cáliz: The Struggle Between Two Modes of Discourse," Hispanic Journal, 18 (Spring 1997), 125-134.
• "De sobremesa: novela modernista, novela moderna," Revista Casa Silva: Silva, su obra y su época, ed. J. Eduardo Jaramillo (Bogota: Casa de Poesía Silva, 1997) 203-213.
• Notes
• “Shifts in Teaching Philosophy during the Past One Hundred Years,” PMLA: Special Millenium Issue, 115, no. 7 (December 2000): 2007-2008.