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fernande (a) middlebury dot edu
(802) 443-5792
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Decimonónica
Co-director
and Editor for Latin American Literature and Cultures
of 
a
Journal of Nineteenth-Century Hispanic Cultural Production.
Education
1999. Ph.D., Hispanic Studies, The Johns Hopkins University
1994. M.A., Hispanic Studies, The Johns Hopkins University
1989. M.A., Spanish, Middlebury College
1985. B.A., Spanish, Middlebury College
Academic Appointments
2009-present: Professor, Middlebury College
2003-2009: Associate Professor, Middlebury College
2000-2003: Assistant Professor, Middlebury College
1998-2000: Instructor, Middlebury College
1995-1998: Visiting Instructor, Middlebury College
Courses taught at Middlebury:
(Most links are restricted to use on campus)
- SPAN 488: Borges: This seminar offers a detailed analysis and discussion
of representative works of Jorge Luis Borges, with additional readings from
major literary and cultural sources. We will discuss examples of Borges's
poetry, short fiction, essays, and translations. The Argentine author's work
will serve as a gateway to such topics as literary theory, the role of the
author, representation, philosophy, modernism and post-modernity,
genre and subterfuge.
- SP476:
The Spanish American Historical Novel: This course will examine the
origins of the historical novel and how some of the European presuppositions
of the genre came into conflict with the Spanish American context, causing
narratological and thematic differences to appear in the nineteenth-century
Spanish American historical novel. Our attention will rest mainly on the twentieth
century, with what some have called the "new historical novel,"
and how these novels problematize the notion of history and its relationship
with fiction, truth, knowledge, historical memory, and power.
- SP384:
Place & Environment in Spanish American Fiction: This course reconsiders
the role of place and the environment in a series of Spanish American novels
and short stories in which the physical setting plays a significant role.
We will explore the different ways in which the natural world has shaped a
sense of place-bound identity and how Spanish American identities have been
tied to the natural landscape; how the prairies, the jungle, the mountains,
the desert, and the water contributed in shaping individuals and a sense of
place. The class looks at how Spanish America is represented through landscape
and wilderness, and studies the human relationship with the natural environment.
Topics to be discussed include the influence of Romanticism and idealized
landscapes, the autochthonous novel and regionalism, reactions to modernization,
how human history is implicated in natural history, ecocriticism of the 1990s,
and our own experiences of wilderness and wildness.
SP 305 Spanish American Culture and Civilization: An introduction
to the major political, historical, social and artistic components that contributed
to the development of Spanish American culture and civilization. The class
will make use of a great deal of information gathered from the Internet and
students will be responsible for producing group multi-media projects at the
course's conclusion.
- SP 307 The Literature of
Spanish America: An introduction to works of Spanish-American
literature. We will examine the historical and cultural backgrounds of the
periods under study and discuss the literary works that best represent them.
Students will be required to do class presentations and write papers.
- FS 031 First-Year Seminar: Growing Up 'Other' in the Americas: Who
am I and how do others see me? This seminar will focus on the growing up and
educational experiences of individuals from a number of marginalized groups
throughout the Americas. By studying a number of novels, essays and films
we will look at such questions as: What does it mean to be "other"? What does
"American" mean? Where and how does one find one's voice? What is the importance
of landscape in one's identity? We will touch on issues of gender, ethnicity,
and sexual orientation.
FYS 039 First-Year
Seminar: Crime and Punishment in Latin American Literature and Culture
This seminar will explore the themes of crime and punishment in a series of
modern Latin American novels and movies. Why is violence so pervasive in the
literature, media and minds of Latin Americans? We will also consider artwork,
music, newspapers articles, journalistic essays and festival traditions in an
effort to comprehend the causes and effects of violence in Latin America. The
goal of this seminar is to produce a clearer understanding of Latin American
culture through interdisciplinary study. Authors may include García Márquez,
Fuentes, Bombal, Echeverría, Vargas Llosa and Quiroga. Movies might include
"Camila", "La Historia Oficial", "Pedro Páramo," "Kiss of the Spider
Woman" and "American Me". 3 hrs. lect./disc. This course is writing intensive.
SP 101 Beginning Spanish: This course is an introduction to the fundamentals
of grammar and focuses on the development of four skills in Spanish: comprehension,
speaking, reading, and writing. Emphasis will be placed on active communication
aimed at the development of oral and comprehension skills. The course is open
only to students who have not previously studied Spanish. Students are expected
to continue with SP 102 after successful completion of SP 101.
- SP 102 Beginning Spanish II: Continuation of SP 101, dealing with
more complex Spanish.
- SP 103 Beginning Spanish
III: Continuation of SP 102. Intensive reading, writing, and oral
activities will advance students' proficiency in Spanish in an academic setting.The
cultural component of this course will focus on Chile. We will read Gabriel
García Márquez's novel La aventura de Miguel Littín
clandestino en Chile and investigate the history and contemporary culture
of Chile. Readings, discussions, and compositions.
- SP 210 Intermediate
Spanish I : A course designed to consolidate the communicative and grammatical
skills attained in SP 101, 102, 103 or the equivalent.
SP 220: Intermediate Spanish
II. SP220 es el segundo curso de la secuencia de segundo año
de estudio del español. Se presupone que los estudiantes conocen la
morfología del español, tienen un conocimiento intermedio de
las estructuras gramaticales del español y saben desenvolverse en situaciones
de comunicación básicas. En este curso los estudiantes van a
profundizar en su conocimiento de la gramática formal del español
a un nivel intermedio alto y van a aplicar este conocimiento para la confección
de escritos de tipo académico. Durante el curso se va a leer la novela
Soldados de Salamina, que va a ser el punto de partida para discusiones de
tipo cultural e intelectual en español.
- SP 313 Small
Wonders: The Hispanic Short Story -- This course will study the main
literary, sociopolitical, and cultural issues in a selection of short stories
from Spain and Spanish America. Emphasis will be on the close reading of texts
with the purpose of developing critical vocabulary and writing skills. Authors
may include Pardo Bazán, Valle Inclán, Palma, Anderson Imbert,
Borges, Rulfo, Cortázar, Quiroga, Matute. For students who have not
studied abroad. (SP 300, 301/4 or 302/5)
SP
363 The Frontier in Latin America as Seen Through Literature and Film:
Many Latin American countries experienced an expansion inland similar to the
U.S. after the arrival of the Europeans. This continual advancement along a
frontier represented a confrontation among various cultures where there was
an engagement in the dialogical process of cultural encounter, resistance and
exchange. We will explore the similarities and differences in the construction
of the frontier mentality and myths of a number of Latin American nations as
represented in their literature. Our focus will be on the experiences involved
in the contact with other cultures and the constructions of "others". Authors
will include: Amado, Carpentier, Güiraldes, Rivera, Vargas Llosa. Films
will complement the readings.
- SP 475 Literatura gauchesca: This course examines the roots of the
culture of the Río de la Plata region through the study of gauchesca
literature. We will concentrate on issues of the formation of national identity;
city vs. Pampa; written vs. oral texts; the transformation of the gaucho from
vagabond to national myth; and the use of literature as a political tool.
Authors include Hidalgo, Pérez, Ascasubi, del Campo, Hernández,
Gutiérrez, Güiraldes and Borges.
Recent Publications
"La naturaleza humana y el altruismo en el Martín Rivas de Alberto Blest Gana: Una lectura darwiniana.” Nueva Revista del Pacífico 52 (2007): 83-97. [pdf]
“¡Viva el salvagismo!: The Representation of Amerindians in Argentine Satirical Newspapers during the Years of National Organization (1852-1880).” Colorado Review of Hispanic Studies 4 (2006): 127-45. [pdf]
"Refashioning José Hernández Through Francisco F. Fernández's Solané:The Shifting Political Ideologies Among Federalist
Reformists." Hispanófila 143 (2005): 87-109. [pdf]
"Borges’s Fascination with Ascasubi." Ciberletras
8 (December 2002). [pdf]
"The Capitalist Payador: Hilario Ascasubi’s Aniceto el Gallo,"
Chasqui 31.1 (2002): 86-103. [pdf]
"Santos Vega Revisited," Romance Languages Annual
Volume XI (2000): 448-455. [pdf]
Grants, Honors, and Awards
2006-2007. Visiting Researcher, Universidad de Playa Ancha, Valparaíso, Chile
2000-2001. Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad Fellowship.
2000-2001.Visiting Researcher, Universidad Torcuato di Tella, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1996-1997. Davis Educational Foundation Faculty Fellow.
Research Interests
My primary field of study is 19th-century Argentine literature with a focus
on the gauchesca. Broader research interests include 19th- and 20th-century
Latin American literature and cultures; intersections between literary, cultural,
and historical discourses; literature and the environment; literature and evolutionary thought; and Spanish language
pedagogy.
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© Miguel A. Fernández 1997-2008, All Rights Reserved