Hortensia R. Morell
PhD University of Wisconsin, Madison
Professor of Spanish
My scholarship on contemporary Spanish American writers, as evidenced by my publications and presentations at professional meetings over the last thirty years, has always been marked by a search to understand how literary works relate to poetics that encompass both works of art (painting, film, music) and literature. This is most obvious in the titles of my two monographs on José Donoso-- Composición expresionista en El lugar sin límites de José Donoso (1986) and José Donoso y el surrealismo: Tres novelitas burguesas (1990)--, and of my article (on Julio Cortázar) "Fin de etapa: Los peligros liminares del arte." Because of my interest in both surrealism and expressionism, I have necessarily been involved in understanding the psychoanalytic dimensions of literary works, a motivation that has been most important in my articles on Julio Cortázar's "Después del almuerzo" and "No se culpe a nadie."
Likewise, my explorations in musical poetics sparked two early articles on Alejo Carpentier's Concierto barroco, and most recently, articles on Donoso's El obsceno pájaro de la noche, on Mayra Montero's La última noche que pasé contigo, on Mayra Santos Febres's Serena Selena vestida de pena, and on Griselda Gambaro's Nada que ver con otra historia .
My early interest in Donoso and his gender/genre bending exercises is evident in my recent articles on Mayra Santos Febres's Sirena Selena vestida de pena and Elena Poniatowska's Querido Diego, te abraza Quiela.
My research focus has developed under the light of transtextual and transmedial studies into questions of writing and rewriting, transpositions of popular and high culture, hybrid cultures and plural readings. This development guided my book Palabras en las tablas (in press), where I particularly explore the transcultural works of Griselda Gambaro and Luis Rafael Sánchez, amongst others.
Most recent publications:
Book :
Palabras en las tablas. San Juan: Editorial Universidad de Puerto Rico, 2008.
Articles :
1. “Los Beatles en Nada que ver con otra historia: Sobre un Frankenstein amante del rock durante la Revolución Argentina.” Revista de Estudios Hispánicos (Washington U) (expected fall 2009).
2. "Tuning in to Boleros in Sirena Selena vestida de pena: A Character's Flawed Defense Mechanism." Into the Mainstream: Essays on Caribbean and Latin American Literature and Culture. Ed. Jorge Febles. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholar's Press, 2006. 15-25.
3. "Ficción gastronómica y gastronomía de la ficción en 'Cinco boleros aún por melodiarse' de La importancia de llamarse Daniel Santos." Revista Iberoamericana 72.215-16 (Abril-Septiembre 2006): 619-31.
4. "Las paradojas de la masculinidad en Sirena Selena vestida de pena." Caribe 8.2 (2005-06): 7-18.
5. "Presencia de Cortázar en La última noche que pasé contigo: Mayra Montero y su isla caribeña a mediodía." Caribe 4.2/5.1 (invierno 2001-02/verano 2002): 8-21.
6. "Crossed Words between the Lines: The Confusion of Voices in the Love Soliloquy of Elena Poniatowska's Querido Diego, te abraza Quiela." Journal of Modern Literature 25.1 (Fall 2001): 35-51.
7. "Entre la historia y la novela: El castillo de la memoria y la nueva novela histórica." La Torre 6.22 (octubre-diciembre 2001): 475-90.
8. "Relaciones musicales en El obsceno pájaro de la noche: Beethoven, Aldous Huxley y José Donoso." Revista de Estudios Hispánicos 34.1 (enero 2000): 71-86.
9. In press: “Presencia del policial en la creación literaria de Luis Rafael Sánchez.” La Torre (U Puerto Rico) (expected January 2010).
Teaching interests:
My teaching interests in Spanish American literature parallel my research interests. I believe in making students aware of how understanding certain poetics will help them contextualize literary creation. This has been important in such courses as: Metafiction, where I link self-reflexive writing to a long tradition but insist on its special connection to the poetics of postmodernism; the New Historical Novel (Historiographical Metafiction), where I make the links to new historicism; Cortázar, where I have them observe his early attachment to Greek models through his identification with Romantics such as Keats, his later searches via the surrealists of an enhanced reality, and a final recuperation of Spanish America via the Cuban Revolution; and Theatre, where I focus on the changes in stage poetics from illusionism to anti-illusionism through contacts with existentialist, Brechtian, absurdist, and Artaudian models. I always try to make students aware of genre provisos and their shifting demands on writers at different points in time, as evident in my focus on Theatre or Narrative when I teach Puerto Rican Literature. Finally, I like to emphasize the gender/color complexities inherent to most Spanish American literature, evident not only in my Gender Issues, but also in my classes on Puerto Rican Narrative and Theatre. My other major thrust in teaching is in the training of incoming graduate students in research paper writing. I try to make them aware of the importance of organization in the elaboration of a thinking process that culminates in writing and rewriting. I also engage in the same process with my dissertation advisees, when I am frequently rewarded by smooth development after a difficult first chapter.
Selected honors and distinctions:
Ford Foundation Fellow, U Wisconsin, Madison, 1973-78 University of Wisconsin Dean's Scholarship, 1977 (declined)
Research and Study Leaves granted for research in Spring of 1986, 1992, 1999, and 2005
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