Lo que cuesta, vale.
Current Academic Projects
I am in process of writing my dissertation, which focuses on the intersections between Rosa Montero's journalism and her speculative fiction work.
Past projects
In March 2018, I organized a panel on Rosa Montero's speculative fiction work at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts (ICFA) in Orlando, Florida, during which panel I presented a paper on institutional and individual memory in her novel Temblor.
In March 2017, I presented a paper on Hazael González's Quijote Z at ICFA. The paper in its revised form has been published in volume 6, issue 1 of Alambique.
In March 2016, I presented a portion of my MA thesis at ICFA.
I completed my MA thesis in July 2015. In the summer of 2014, I met and interviewed Rosa Montero and Fernando J. López del Oso. (My interview with Rosa Montero has been published in the Spanish and Portuguese Review.) In my thesis, I examine monstrosity and heroism in Fernando J. López del Oso’s Yeti and Rosa Montero’s Lágrimas en la lluvia. Both texts are modern wonder tales, works of science fiction which explore the connection with the Other. The monstrous/heroic nature of Mario and Bruna, the protagonists of the works, allows them to serve as disruptive characters. They cross boundaries and blend normatively separate categories. This border crossing contributes to a sense of wonder as the characters discover new Others beyond literal or metaphorical frontiers.
Common figures in wonder tales, monsters come in various kinds: non-human monsters such as Dracula, human monsters like Hitler, created-by-human monsters like Frankenstein’s Creature, and more-than-human monsters such as the X-Men. Figures from any of these categories have the potential to be both helpful and harmful to humanity. Mario’s abnormal strength and size, as well as his affinity for nature separate him from the average human. As a combat android, Bruna struggles to feel like more than a weapon. Both Mario and Bruna struggle to decide whether they want to help those around them or leave them to their fate.
They are also heroes, and that role requires them to confront other monsters and solve mysteries. Critics and authors have long realized the connection between heroes and monsters, often describing them as mutually necessary, as two sides of a single coin. This analogy is lacking, because it does not allow for the possibility of overlap between heroism and monstrosity. As monsters and heroes, Mario and Bruna exist in the borderland between genres. They are characters of the fantastic, which exists as a genre at once central to mainstream literature and marginalized from it. Mario and Bruna present such overlapping characteristics, as evidenced by the textual descriptions of their physical appearance, their relationship with scapegoats, the porosity of species and other boundaries, and the decisions they make in regards to the Other.
On March 20, 2014, I presented a paper on Rosa Montero's Lágrimas en la lluvia at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts (ICFA). In my paper, I discuss how Bruna Husky, the main character, struggles to find a sense of her own identity as an android, doomed to a short life, shunned by society at large and accepted by only a few friends. Like all androids in her world, Husky has a set of scripted memories, as well as memories of actual experiences from her own short life. She struggles to deal with the emotions resulting from what she sees as her “false” memories, written for her by a memorist. Bruna’s memories and her world are full of mirrors in which she sees herself reflected. She uses the reflected image of herself to build her sense of identity. At first she denies her memories as irrelevant to her present, but it is only when she is able to join the fragmented images of herself that she is able to recognize who she is.
Throughout the novel, the leitmotif of the eye underscores Bruna's need to revise her incomplete understanding of herself, a human gaze from her android eye. Bruna’s relationships with others fit a pattern of misrecognition. As she unravels the mystery, she perfects her vision.
In March 2017, I presented a paper on Hazael González's Quijote Z at ICFA. The paper in its revised form has been published in volume 6, issue 1 of Alambique.
In March 2016, I presented a portion of my MA thesis at ICFA.
I completed my MA thesis in July 2015. In the summer of 2014, I met and interviewed Rosa Montero and Fernando J. López del Oso. (My interview with Rosa Montero has been published in the Spanish and Portuguese Review.) In my thesis, I examine monstrosity and heroism in Fernando J. López del Oso’s Yeti and Rosa Montero’s Lágrimas en la lluvia. Both texts are modern wonder tales, works of science fiction which explore the connection with the Other. The monstrous/heroic nature of Mario and Bruna, the protagonists of the works, allows them to serve as disruptive characters. They cross boundaries and blend normatively separate categories. This border crossing contributes to a sense of wonder as the characters discover new Others beyond literal or metaphorical frontiers.
Common figures in wonder tales, monsters come in various kinds: non-human monsters such as Dracula, human monsters like Hitler, created-by-human monsters like Frankenstein’s Creature, and more-than-human monsters such as the X-Men. Figures from any of these categories have the potential to be both helpful and harmful to humanity. Mario’s abnormal strength and size, as well as his affinity for nature separate him from the average human. As a combat android, Bruna struggles to feel like more than a weapon. Both Mario and Bruna struggle to decide whether they want to help those around them or leave them to their fate.
They are also heroes, and that role requires them to confront other monsters and solve mysteries. Critics and authors have long realized the connection between heroes and monsters, often describing them as mutually necessary, as two sides of a single coin. This analogy is lacking, because it does not allow for the possibility of overlap between heroism and monstrosity. As monsters and heroes, Mario and Bruna exist in the borderland between genres. They are characters of the fantastic, which exists as a genre at once central to mainstream literature and marginalized from it. Mario and Bruna present such overlapping characteristics, as evidenced by the textual descriptions of their physical appearance, their relationship with scapegoats, the porosity of species and other boundaries, and the decisions they make in regards to the Other.
On March 20, 2014, I presented a paper on Rosa Montero's Lágrimas en la lluvia at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts (ICFA). In my paper, I discuss how Bruna Husky, the main character, struggles to find a sense of her own identity as an android, doomed to a short life, shunned by society at large and accepted by only a few friends. Like all androids in her world, Husky has a set of scripted memories, as well as memories of actual experiences from her own short life. She struggles to deal with the emotions resulting from what she sees as her “false” memories, written for her by a memorist. Bruna’s memories and her world are full of mirrors in which she sees herself reflected. She uses the reflected image of herself to build her sense of identity. At first she denies her memories as irrelevant to her present, but it is only when she is able to join the fragmented images of herself that she is able to recognize who she is.
Throughout the novel, the leitmotif of the eye underscores Bruna's need to revise her incomplete understanding of herself, a human gaze from her android eye. Bruna’s relationships with others fit a pattern of misrecognition. As she unravels the mystery, she perfects her vision.