Ecos de Sylvia Plath: políticas del secreto, poéticas del fantasma

Partiendo fundamental pero no exclusivamente de las formas de lectura crítica y de los métodos de análisis textual propuestos por el movimiento crítico denominado Nuevo Historicismo, este estudio tiene por objeto analizar aspectos esenciales de la paulatina modelación y construcción textual o discursiva de Sylvia Plath, poeta icónica de la literatura contemporánea de los EE.UU. La elección de Plath como objeto de estudio se basa en los siguientes motivos: 1) Su ubicación en el canon poético contemporáneo como autora de culto, situación que no se repite en ningún otro poeta coetáneo. Plath ha sido y es identificada como un “mito” o una “leyenda” a la altura de otros iconos de la cultura contemporánea popular proveniente de Norteamérica. 2) La polémica ha rodeado siempre la biografía de esta autora, desde su suicidio a una edad temprana hasta el presente. Dicha polémica surge de forma más señalada alrededor de dos aspectos fundamentales: por un lado, la de su personalidad poética entendida como esencialmente autobiográfica o confesional, cuestión a menudo disputada; y por otro lado su estatus como figura icónica de la cultura norteamericana (y no solo en el ámbito de las letras). Como icono de la cultura norteamericana, Plath ha sido etiquetada en algunos ámbitos como “la Marilyn Monroe de los literatos”, es decir, una joven artista, con una prometedora carrera, desaparecida demasiado pronto y congelada de ese modo en el inconsciente colectivo. 3) La situación particular en torno a lo que podemos convenir en denominar su “yo textual”. Esta situación cobra una especial relevancia en el mundo de las letras y la cultura. Sylvia Plath estaba casada en el momento de su suicidio en 1963 con el joven poeta inglés Ted Hughes, de carrera prometedora, y futura figura central de las instituciones británicas como Poeta Laureado que fue desde 1984 hasta su muerte en 1998. A la muerte de Plath, los permisos de publicación de todos sus escritos y materiales quedaron en manos de Ted Hughes, que a lo largo de las décadas, y pese a que en 1963 la pareja vivía separada como consecuencia de una crisis producto de una infidelidad de Hughes, publicó los escritos de Plath siempre de acuerdo con su criterio personal. Las desavenencias entre la pareja, la posesión de Hughes de los derechos de autor de Plath, la publicación idiosincrática que Hughes hizo de los textos de Plath (fragmentaria, poco planificada, aunque siempre informada y matizada por sus propios prefacios, notas e introducciones) le granjearon poca empatía, cuando no manifiesta hostilidad, por parte de sectores del público y la crítica, en especial el feminismo...

The Ultimate Secrecy: Feminist Readings of Masculine Trauma in Vietnam War Literature

It is a widely acknowledged and often unquestioned fact that patriarchy and its modes of behaviour and social organization favour the appearance of trauma on the weakest (and defenceless) members of society: women. In the last decades, trauma seems to have taken the baton of typically female maladies such as 19th c. hysteria or 20th c. madness. Feminists in the 20th c. have long worked to prove the connection between the latter affections (and their reflection in literary texts) and patriarchal oppression or expectations of feminine behaviour and accordance to roles and rules. With Trauma Studies on the rise, the approach to the idea of the untold as related to femininity is manifold: on the one hand, is not trauma, which precludes telling about one’s own experience and keeps it locked not only from the others, but also from ourselves, the ultimate secrecy? On the other hand, when analyzing works that reflect trauma, one is astounded by the high number of them with a female protagonist and an almost all-female cast: in this sense, a ‘feminist’ reading is almost compulsory, in the sense that it is usually the author’s assumption that patriarchal systems of exploitation and expectations favour traumatic events and their outcome (silence and secrets) on the powerless, usually women. Often, traumatic texts combine feminism with other analytical discourses (one of the topics proposed for this panel): Toni Morrison’s study of traumatic responses in The Bluest Eye and Beloved cannot be untangled from her critique of slavery; just as much of Chicana feminism and its representations of rape and abuse (two main agents of trauma) analyze the nexus of patriarchy, new forms of post-colonialism, and the dynamics of power and powerlessness in ethnic contexts. Within this tradition that establishes the secrecies of trauma as an almost exclusively feminine characteristic, one is however faced with texts which have traumatized males as protagonists: curiously enough, most of these characters have suffered trauma through a typically masculine experience: that of war and its aftermath. By analyzing novels dealing with war veterans from Vietnam or the Second World War, the astounding findings are the frequent mixture of masculine or even ‘macho’ values and the denial of any kind of ‘feminine’ characteristics, combined with a very strict set of rules of power and hierarchy that clearly establish who is empowered and who is powerless. It is our argument that this replication of patriarchal modes of domination, which place the lowest ranks of the army in a ‘feminine’ situation, blended with the compulsory ‘macho’ stance soldiers are forced to adopt as army men (as seen, for example, in Philip Caputo’s Indian Country, Larry Heinemann’s Paco’s Story or Ed Dodge’s DAU: A Novel of Vietnam) furthers the onset and seriousness of ulterior trauma. In this sense, we can also analyze this kind of writing from a ‘feminist’ point of view, since the dynamics of über-patriarchal power established at the front at war-time deny any display of elements traditionally viewed as ‘feminine’ (such as grief, guilt or emotions) in soldiers. If trauma is the result of a game of patriarchal empowerment, how can feminist works, not only theoretical, but also fictional, overthrow it? Are ‘feminine’ characteristics necessary to escape trauma, even in male victims? How can feminist readings of trauma enhance our understanding of its dynamics and help produce new modes of interaction that transcend power and gender division as the basis for the organization of society?

The Complications of the Erotic: Eroticism in Last Tango in Paris and Une liaison pornographique

Even more so than in other arts, film has tried to draw an artificial but clear line between eroticism and pornography, nonetheless perpetuating moral judgments about movies marketed as “erotic”. The explicit and repeated portrayal of sex in such films would place them dangerously near the vortex of the pornographic, and thus, since they are not concerned with transcendental issues, they would require little or no critical attention. I will however try to argue, using Last Tango in Paris and Une liaison pornographique, that many of these “erotic” films conclude that a relationship based solely on sex (i.e. “pornographic”), which ignores the complexities of individual identity and the interpersonal is doomed to fail. Also, I would like to show how these films ultimately conceive of sex as something that goes beyond the merely physical and walks the grounds of such transcendental issues as despair, loneliness, death, or love.

Consecuencias literarias del 11-S: la representación de la violencia en la novela angloamericana

In my eight years as a professional journalist, I have been a front line observer of the extreme level of violence which occurs everyday in our society. As victims, consumers or perpetrators of violence, this phenomenon is now a part of our existence. As a reporter for the Spanish national newspaper El País I have been witness to the most terrible acts of violence. In Venezuela, with one of the highest rates of criminality in the world, I saw piles of bodies stacked up in mortuaries. In Argentina, I reported on the most brutal crimes including the rape of children by policemen. I believe that my interest in the manifestations and causes of violence was aroused during my time as a journalist. On a personal level, I was deeply affected by the twin poles of attraction/repulsion which the violent images produced in me. The first time I visited New York in 2003, I talked to various people who were selling photos of the victims of the Twin Tower attacks. They had laid out their wares along the wire fence that separated Ground Zero from the main public areas. One particular photograph made an indelible impression on my mind: a ghost like corpse covered in white dust which was streaked with blood. It is an image I will never forget. If I remember well, a complete album of these gruesome images cost about ten dollars. At the same time, I also became interested in islamic terrorism: its complexity and the great impact it has made on Western society. One only has to look at the front page of the press around the world to read about war, terrorism or the constant violation of human rights. The words Al-Qaeda, Daesh, Boko Haram and Islamic State have sadly become parts of our everyday language. The nihilistic philosophy which promisess eternal life in exchange for self-inmolation is a new, highly worrying reality, especially painful when it involves young people who become indoctrinated through the social media. They have become the most loyal supporters of a fanatical and uncompromising version of Islam. The stark reality is that these young recruits to Jihad (holy war) were born in places like London, Paris, Rome or Madrid...

Propuesta de un análisis metafórico-poético en una novela de ciencia ficción: 2001, una odisea del espacio

The aim of this doctoral thesis is to analyse both the text (production) and the set of cognition processes which facilitate the understanding of a masterpiece of Science Fiction: 2001, A Space Odyssey from a new perspective. Unlike other literary theories, texts in cognitive poetics (i.e. Structuralism, Generative Linguistics, Literary Criticism) are projected on the readerś minds by means of cognitive procedures. Cognitive poetics uses tools of cognitive science in order to understand literature (and in this particular case, Science Fiction). This has lead to a great change in our understanding of texts, literary and otherwise. This literary analysis was carried out on the Science Fiction genre based on the assumptions of cognitive poetics. Due to the peculiar kind of subjects touched upon by this genre, it has been theorised that the type of metaphor used for both its creation and style are rather different from other genres. Science Fiction coincides with other genres of writing in that it contains its own specific ways of providing language with a meaning while making it so innovative that many literary theories point out that it is written differently or that it is necessary to possess single reading codes in order to be fully understood. The methodology used for this thesis required a metaphorical basic and poetic conceptual analysis according to the poetical metaphor theory developed by Lakoff and Turner (1989). The aim of this metaphorical study is to analyse the basic and conceptual structure of 2001, A Space Odyssey by A. C. Clarke. The parameters of literary conceptualization of Science Fiction established by Peter Stockwell in his Poetics of Science Fiction (2000) were also applied in order to analyse this novel. The ICMs (Idealised Cognitive Models) were then examined to determine the presence of isomorphism related to the production level...

Imagen e interacción narrativa en los nuevos medios: Los videojuegos narrativos y Heavy Rain

Este artículo analiza cómo los llamados “videojuegos “narrativos” intentan, basándose en la lectura y el cine, aproximar llevar más allá la experiencia del jugador, utilizando como texto de análisis Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream, 2010). Se analizará como estos videojuegos combinan lo narrativo y lo visual en torno a dos ejes fundamentales: por un lado, su identificación (visual y argumental) con géneros de estética muy marcada, como literatura de detectives o cine negro; por otro, por el carácter interactivo de la narración, es decir, la participación activa del jugador y su capacidad para influir sobre la historia narrada, más allá el papel tradicionalmente pasivo reservado al lector o espectador. Esta interactividad está anclada en lo sensorial, más específicamente en lo visual, y es, seguramente, la característica que añade un aspecto más innovador a este nuevo medio, y lo que convierte a estos videojuegos en ejemplos privilegiados de hasta dónde pueden unirse lo narrativo y lo visual.

Una plataforma móvil para la enseñanza de la literatura inglesa

Actualmente vivimos en una época de cambios en la que podemos ver como las tecnologías están presentes en todos lo ámbitos de nuestra vida y cada día avanzan más rápido. Es por eso que el objetivo principal de este trabajo de fin de grado es una propuesta para la innovación educativa, en colaboración con la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, de actualizar la educación a los tiempos que corren, de utilizar las tecnologías que tenemos a nuestra disposición para facilitar tanto a profesores como a alumnos la labor de enseñanza y aprendizaje. Este proyecto es de nueva creación y se propone la creación de una plataforma móvil que incorpore información creada por los propios alumnos, para que puedan, estudiar o repasar contenidos vistos en clase directamente en sus propios móviles. Para ello se van a utilizar herramientas de desarrollo de aplicaciones móviles, en nuestro caso Android Studio. Como propósito se encuentra el crear una aplicación que sea funcional en la mayoría de los dispositivos actuales, y que por lo tanto no requiera de unas altas especificaciones para su correcto funcionamiento, ni tenga requerimientos excesivos de memoria y batería. También se ha diseñado una plataforma web a través del cual los usuario incluyan su propia información. Se propone estudiar también como los alumnos aceptan este tipo de propuesta.