THE SEMIANNUAL NEWSLETTER OF THE ROBERT PENN WARREN CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES VOL. 9, NO. 1 • FALL 2000 • VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY

Rediscovering the New World

he 2000/2001 Fellows Pro- national literatures. gram at the Warren Cen- Most of us become Tter, “Rediscovering the experts in the litera- New World: Exploring Lines of ture and culture of a Contact among the Americas and single nation. Spanish within the United States,” will American literature, consider the various ways in however, cannot be so which the cultures of North, Cen- easily confined—it tral, and South America have been places less emphasis defined, particularly since the be- on the nation-state ginning of the nineteenth century. and distinguishes it- Starting from the realization that self primarily from the Americas’ division into nation- literature of Spain. states often does not reflect the Latin American liter- Western Hemisphere’s diversity of William Luis, Cathy L. Jrade, and Earl E. Fitz ature extends even peoples and cultural interactions farther, encompassing Brazil and accurately, the seminar will con- partment of French and Italian, Center plays here at Vanderbilt, other countries in the region sider the Americas as a single and the department of Germanic we thought that this would be an whose first language is not Span- whole, identifying different cul- and Slavic languages. What be- appropriate venue for this pro- ish. We are therefore well posi- tural formations that have taken came clear from the review was ject—a place to establish dialogue tioned to undertake this kind of shape and considering their social that we, all the departments, had with scholars outside our depart- work on a larger scale. and political implications for the tended to work in isolation from ment. FITZ: I would say that the his- present and future. The seminar’s one another. It also became clear EARL FITZ: My interest in tory of the American university participants include scholars from that there was a great deal of these issues goes back a long has made it almost impossible to Vanderbilt’s departments of an- knowledge and expertise that time. Starting in the spring of pursue these kinds of studies. An- thropology, communication stud- could be pooled to build a 1979, I built up, at Pennsylvania other problem is linguistic—peo- ies, history, and Spanish and stronger Vanderbilt. I therefore State University, a program of six ple trained in individual language Portuguese, as well as a visiting suggested to Earl and Willy that courses that dealt with the litera- areas are often simply not pre- professor of Hispanic studies. we think about constructing a ture of the Americas. These pared to work with texts written The program’s co-directors are program that would place our courses ran the gamut from the in other languages. Their only re- Earl E. Fitz, professor of Por- work at the center of a larger, in- pre-Columbian era up to the course is either to remain com- tuguese and Spanish and director terdisciplinary project. Willy twentieth century. Their se- pletely ignorant or to read the of the program in comparative lit- works with Caribbean literature quence takes as its premise the texts in translation—which pre- erature; Cathy L. Jrade, professor and the culture of Hispanics idea that Willy and Cathy have sents additional difficulties. Then and chair of Spanish; and William within the United States, and been outlining—that one can fo- there is the political dimension. Luis, professor of Spanish. Profes- Earl has been active in inter- cus on the Americas as a whole, People who study inter-American sors Fitz, Jrade, and Luis met re- American studies for many years. considering historical, literary, literature have been disturbed by cently with Letters to discuss their My expertise is in the field of and cultural texts with a view to- hopes and plans for the program. Spanish American literature, par- ward both differences and simi- LETTERS: How did this pro- ticularly poetry. This program larities. Inside gram come about? will allow us to draw on our par- LETTERS: Why has there not Holocaust Curriculum 5 CATHY JRADE: The idea for ticular strengths while raising is- been much work in this area thus Arnold Rampersad to Present the program came about shortly sues that are not limited to far? Harry C. Howard Jr. Lecture 6 after a routine review of the de- Spanish America and Brazil, not JRADE: One reason has to do Third Annual Warren Lecture 6 partment of Spanish and Por- limited to literature and literary with the nature of the American 2001/2002 Fellows Program 7 tuguese. The department had studies. university. We are products of 2000/2001 Fellows 7 been reviewed with the program WILLIAM LUIS: And given the graduate programs; the traditions Nobel Laureate José Ramos-Horta in comparative literature, the de- important role that the Warren that we are trained in are those of to Speak at Vanderbilt 8

Letters • Fall 2000 • 1 Letters • Fall 2000 • 2

FITZ: The history of the American university has made it almost impossible to pursue these kinds of studies.

the perception that the United LETTERS: How might post- velopment. My sense, however, is cause at that historical moment States acts like the proverbial big colonial studies shed light on the that these issues have become the nations of Latin America pig at the trough, while everyone project that you are pursuing? more urgent, and that we need to emerged as independent countries. else plays second fiddle. In one LUIS: Postcolonial studies first project forward as much as we In considering the origin of these sense, this is the classic problem of emerged in reference to the Euro- look back. The presence, cultural nations, we have an opportunity comparative literature: whoever pean countries and their Asian influence, and political clout of to question the visions of nation- becomes established as the model and African colonies, but some of Hispanics within the United hood that the different founding achieves hegemony, but the others its ideas need to be modified in a States, for example, carries many fathers established. Often, these have to struggle to be heard. The Latin American context because implications for the future. visions are hegemonic discourses fact that many countries in the the model does not fit exactly. FITZ: I would agree. The three meant to promote the interests of Americas have a troubled histori- Some postcolonial concepts of us envisioned a project that will a particular class, rather than ideas cal relationship with the United might illuminate the old relation- focus primarily on the nineteenth representative of the whole popu- States also plays a role here. ship between Spain and Latin century through the present. The lation. But if identity is con- I do think, though, that the ta- America. Others might reflect on colonial and pre-Columbian peri- structed with reference to one’s bles began to turn decisively in the the double role of the United ods are important, to be sure, and nationality, then how does identity 1960s toward a more comparative States, which began as a colony they do draw attention to a num- change if we interrogate the model approach to these literatures. In but became a colonizer. Of ber of volatile political issues. of nation that undergirds it? that decade, the new novelists of course, the traditional model of Many Native Americans, for in- The nineteenth century is also Latin America began to influence postcolonial theory assumes a ge- stance, want nothing to do with crucial to the identity of the younger writers in the United ographic distance between colo- this kind of work. They object to United States, which emerged as a States through the translations of nizer and colonized—whereas in being called Americans at all. Oth- dominant power in the hemi- their novels. The influence of the Americas, colonizer and colo- ers counter that the choice not to sphere, took over a huge portion Gabriel García Márquez and Jorge nized usually occupied the same engage in these debates proves iso- of Mexico in the Treaty of Luis Borges on John Barth, for ex- space. In other words, the frame lating and self-defeating in the Guadalupe Hidalgo, and began to ample, is now well established. of reference in Latin America is long run. extend its influence into the One result of this influence is that different—and this difference al- The struggles between the Eu- Caribbean. Though Americans comparative study between Anglo lows for a different but enriching ropean powers in the colonial pe- have not often considered these and Latin American literatures has reading of postcolonial theory. riod also have had long-term events in this light, they have im- become more accepted. effects on the history of plications for the historical devel- LUIS: As Cathy suggested, those these countries and their opment of North American of us who specialize in Latin Amer- cultures. The Spanish and identity. ican or Spanish American literature the Portuguese, for exam- LETTERS: Could you perhaps are in a good position to question ple, were disputing who talk a little about specific mo- the concept of the nation. After all, owned what territory in ments in culture or literature that we have had to know the litera- the New World as early as you might see the concerns of tures and cultures of more than the fifteenth century. this project engaging? one country from the outset. But Later, in colonial New FITZ: Back in October of 1963 the rise of this interdisciplinary, England, Samuel Sewall I was reading a famous Spanish transnational approach also coin- and Cotton Mather were American epic poem, La Arru- cides with a period in the history much concerned about cana, by Alonso de Ercilla y of literary criticism—the period in the Spanish in the New Zúñisa. I could not understand which Jacques Derrida and others World, very covetous of why it seemed so familiar to me, began deconstructing traditional their wealth, and at least because it was the first time I had notions of the center, of the sign. for a while contemplating read the poem. I finally realized The elements that a Derridean ap- an invasion of Mexico. In that language differences aside, the proach uncovers are often transna- real human terms these poem was essentially dealing with tional in nature. Moreover, the cultural interactions and the same issues familiar to students theory of postcoloniality, which is conflicts begin thousands of United States history—the ar- widely read at the moment, allows of years ago; in more text- rival of European adventurers who us to place these ideas in a larger book terms they begin slaughter Native Americans and context. Even as we talk specifically LETTERS: So would one goal of with what we think of as the pre- take over whatever they possess. about Latin American, intra- and the project be to emphasize that Columbian period. In any case, This experience showed me that inter-American literature, we are this intermingling of cultures is there are long standing, deeply these texts can be viewed not just really talking about questioning nothing new, but a phenomenon rooted cultural and historical con- from a strictly local, but also from the discipline. Universities them- that extends back to the original flicts that shed light on what be- a hemispheric, perspective. selves are reconsidering their role European settlement, if not before? gins to happen in the nineteenth Around the same time, John in the twenty-first century, and our JRADE: The roots do indeed go century. Barth began speaking about the perspectives can speak to these is- back very far, and we are interested LUIS: We chose the nineteenth influence of Latin American writ- sues in a unique way. in the full spread of historical de- century as our starting point be- ers on his work. His first novel, Letters • Fall 2000 • 3

JRADE: The problems of national and transnational affiliations are ultimately global.

The Floating Opera, is indebted and lived for extended periods lem. Real authors write not just to Márquez and Borges, outside their native countries. real texts, and they still but also to the Brazilian novelist How do their migrations play into have to be dealt with as Machado de Assis. With these the issue of national or transna- texts. In theory, how- two experiences in mind, I began tional identity? Did these writers, ever, the danger of ho- to accumulate notes, to uncover like many intellectuals today, con- mogenization is worth an extraordinary number of pat- sider themselves members of a pondering. terns and relationships that already world community? How does the LUIS: I would agree, existed. imaginative dissolution of borders but I also think that the LUIS: I became interested in affect cultural identifications? 1960s are important be- this subject while working on my How do we define ourselves, to cause of that decade’s most recent book, Dance Between what do we belong? I think that political conflicts. There Two Cultures. That book explores these are some of the issues that was a refocusing of how the Hispanic population in we should explore; they are issues world attention on Latin the United States both interacts that extend beyond the Americas, America, particularly with and maintains a distance to Europe, Africa, and Asia. The because of the Cuban from the dominant Anglo culture. problems of national and transna- Revolution and the pos- I came to see, however, that the tional affiliations are ultimately sibility that nuclear war Hispanic population was itself not global. would erupt as a result monolithic. Puerto Rican, Cuban, LETTERS: You mentioned be- of the Cuban Missile Dominican, Afro-Hispanic, and fore that this kind of work has Crisis. Ever since then, Chicano experiences within the taken on a particular urgency since there has been a more United States are distinct. With the 1960s. Why have older cul- political interest in Latin these differences in mind, I could tural histories begun to lose their America—consider, for example, Fuentes, Mario Vargas Llosa, reconsider the history of Latin explanatory power? What political John Kennedy’s Alliance for Guillermo Cabera Infante, Gabriel America and the presence of mar- or cultural forces are at work in Progress, which sought to elimi- García Márquez, and many other ginal groups within those cultures this transition? nate poverty but also to diminish writers of the so-called “Boom” as well. Rather than looking sim- FITZ: Technology is certainly Cuban or Communist influence period really came into their own. ply at the literature of the domi- one factor. Things simply happen in Latin America. The 1960s also JRADE: But I would also say nant class or entertaining the idea more quickly, and the rate of saw the establishment of Latin that this urgency is, in its crassest of a single nationalist discourse, I change will almost certainly con- American studies programs in terms, political. We are now recog- have come to look for a multiplic- tinue to accelerate. Technological U.S. universities, the questioning nizing the Hispanic population ity of voices, dominant and mar- innovations will probably erode of U.S. foreign policy, and large within the United States as an im- ginal, and to ask how those voices many of the disciplinary bound- migrations of peoples from Latin portant political factor. I often re- contribute to national discourses aries that graduate programs and America. The Puerto Rican pres- count to my classes that when I and the construction of identity. universities have erected, placing ence, of course, had been evident was growing up, Hispanics had a So whether we are talking about many faculty and students in awk- since the Jones Act of 1917, which very bad reputation. The image of Spanish America, Portuguese ward positions. People will have to granted Puerto Ricans U.S. citi- the Mexican lying under a cactus Brazil, the United States, or the learn to read texts in radically dif- zenship, but in particular after with his sombrero over his head, Francophone and Anglophone ferent ways. We will have to come Operation Bootstrap in the late sleeping, lazy, unproductive—this Caribbean, there is the possibility to grips with the fact that the 1940s. After the Cuban Revolu- and other erroneous stereotypes of reading one particular experi- process of literary and cultural in- tion, Cubans began arriving in had considerable cultural currency. ence in terms of another that en- fluence and reception—which large numbers; after the death of Now suddenly—almost overnight, riches and deepens our work on constitutes a cornerstone of com- Trujillo in 1961, Dominicans; and it seems—Hispanic culture has be- each of the various countries. parative literature as a discipline— of course in California many Mex- come positive. There is a new JRADE: My own background in has assumed an unprecedented icans moved across the border to recognition of a very strong, valu- this area emerges from my work importance. In some ways, this look for work with increasing fre- able, family-oriented culture that on Modernismo, the twentieth- ever widening circle of influences quency in the twentieth century, has wonderful things to offer. Cul- century literary movement that ex- highlights the classic weakness of as they had done before the tural features of the Hispanic tended beyond national bound- comparative literature, which is United States imposed a political world are being incorporated into aries in Latin America. I wanted to the danger of homogenization. border in 1848—a border which the dominant North American know how literary and cultural The more one loses a sense of the they do not recognize. Later, in culture quickly at this point— discourses, writers and intellectuals particularity of a nation, a culture, the 1970s and 1980s, more people something that has never hap- responded to social and political a text, an author, the more one arrived fleeing from dictatorships pened before. One can see this change in their individual coun- concedes to influence—and every- and military regimes in Argentina, appreciation even in popular cul- tries even as they embodied a per- thing begins to look more or less Chile, and Central America. Fi- ture. Salsa, for instance, which has spective that transcended regional the same. This problem exists in nally, in the literary world, during existed for many years, was concerns. Many of this move- my mind much more as a theoreti- the 1960s Latin American writers ignored. Political and cultural fac- ment’s writers traveled a great deal cal issue than as a practical prob- received world attention: Carlos tors are causing students, here at Letters • Fall 2000• 4

LUIS: How does identity change if we interrogate the model of nation that undergirds it?

Vanderbilt and elsewhere, to recog- done, because the differences be- firm. I remember that nize that it pays to study Spanish tween countries and cultures are when I went to Colom- and Portuguese, that a knowledge simply too great. Here again is bia for the first time, I of these languages will prove useful the fear of homogenization. Yet was amazed at how cul- not just for people who pursue ca- as I said, I think that this danger turally distinct even very reers in international relations or does not really materialize when small adjacent regions trade, but for people in the United one confronts actual texts, actual were. Differences in States. At the same time, these phenomena. Instead, people end pronunciation, in food rapid changes put pressure on the up doing what other people claim preparation, in folklore, academy to devise new frameworks to be impossible. The proof is in in popular songs could for cultural analysis. the pudding. be considerable from LETTERS: What about the dan- LUIS: It might be, though, that one region to the next. ger of homogenization that you looking at Latin America from So when we discuss the mentioned before? If we consider this point of view both reinforces push toward homo- the Americas as a cultural and his- and questions the concept of ho- genization, and then the torical whole, then how does one mogenization. Take a country shove back toward di- distinguish nuances within that such as Peru, for example, which versity, our position of- whole, or determine where one in- was constructed as a nation on the ten depends on what fluence begins and another ends? basis of nineteenth-century Euro- level we are looking at FITZ: My own work tends to pean concepts, but whose popula- and on how much we wrestle less with beginnings and tion today contains diverse abstract from that level. ends than with movements and elements, including not just the We can easily see that patterns. I suppose it could be ar- descendants of the Spanish but with regard to certain is- gued that, by doing so, it avoids also Chinese, Japanese, and Afri- sues, it makes more sense to focus waves of Cuban immigrants be- the whole problem. But I am in- cans. In other words, even as we on the differences; with others, cause the region demands a partic- clined to believe that the con- pay attention to the large frame of the similarities are more impor- ular conformity or at least a cepts of real beginnings and real reference that includes all the tant. But I am not so worried particular understanding of cul- ends are fallacious—they are Americas, we see that within indi- about homogenization when I see tures. These observations ulti- mental constructs without much vidual countries there are particu- the degree of diversity that is mately help us theorize and bearing in real life. I think that lar differences that complicate any maintained even within the envision culture in new ways. the most workable approach may simple understanding of that United States. Hispanics who JRADE: Then you have a writer be the one devised by Herbert country’s discourses. The same come to the United States pre- such as Rosario Ferré, who writes Bolton, a historian at the Univer- could be said of Guatemala, where serve a great deal of their national for and about Puerto Ricans who sity of California, who argued in Rigoberta Menchú has played an and cultural differences. Perhaps have never lived in Puerto Rico; the first decade of the twentieth important role in bringing issues Anglos tend to lump them all to- she deals with the nuances that century that the Americas have a to the forefront that had almost gether, but they themselves do emerge when one’s identity is not common history in relation to disappeared with the nineteenth not. defined by living in a certain geo- Europe. Within that larger pat- century. On the one hand, we un- LUIS: These differences also graphic space. tern, one could look for differ- derstand that the Ladinos’ ex- exist within the groups them- FITZ: The differences among ences, but there was a common ploitation of Native Americans selves. There are differences not Native American peoples are also frame of reference that encom- continues a particular pattern that just between Cubans who left a significant factor. passed all of these variations, all goes back to the moment the Cuba prior to 1959 and those LUIS: Yes, the Native American of these attempts to define the Europeans arrived there. Yet who left as a result of the Cuban situation adds another layer of nation. This is as true of Canada Menchú’s voice allows for a differ- Revolution, but also between complexity. Many Chicanos asso- as of the United States and Latin ent reading of that experience and those who left then and those who ciate themselves with Aztlán, the America—there is a joke among reminds us that the discourses came in the 1980s—who are in original Native Americans of Mex- inter-Americanists that the Cana- within particular countries, partic- turn different from the most re- ico, but when Native Americans dians are the most obsessed by ular groups remain contested. cent immigrants. Likewise, Puerto from Central America move to the the concept of the nation. I find JRADE: When we talk about na- Ricans who came at the beginning Southwest, no immediate identifi- it more productive to look at tional literatures, we are dealing in of the twentieth century differ cation with them occurs, because these large patterns of interac- broad generalizations and abstrac- from those who came because of they do not represent this mythi- tion, to treat cultural systems and tions. For instance, I teach courses Operation Bootstrap. Further- cal past. So these distinctions of- ideas as a continuum. Of course, on “Spanish American civiliza- more, regional distinctions within ten have little to do with Native this remains a bitterly divisive is- tion”—a rubric that suggests that United States Hispanic communi- Americans per se, but with cul- sue—many Spanish American Spanish America is unitary. In fact, ties have developed. There is more tural constructs of what Native historians and sociologists as far it is not even multiple—it is more commonality among Puerto Ri- Americans represent. Sometimes back as the 1930s have held that than multiple, as anyone who has cans and Cubans who live in New the historical record and the cul- this kind of study cannot be visited Latin America can con- York than among the different tural constructs exist in tension. Letters • Fall 2000• 5

LETTERS: It strikes me that the Southern literature become a part sity, between the government and ology. But the times really are U.S. South offers an example of of Latin American literature? the university? These are the chal- changing, and if there were ever a some of the ideas you have been FITZ: Gabriel García Márquez lenges that we face. culture that needs to recognize discussing. How might a regional has called Faulkner one of the FITZ: I agree. I find it astonish- these changing times, it is the identity within the United States greatest Latin American writers. ing that the concept of inter- United States at the beginning of be examined in terms of a hemi- JRADE: Deborah Cohn, our American literature is considered the twenty-first century. This pro- spheric perspective, and what are seminar’s William S. Vaughn Visit- new and radical in the United ject has great political importance. the implications for politics based ing Fellow from McGill University, States. For Canadians and Latin JRADE: At the beginning of his on that identity? takes up this question in her book Americans, it is an old story. No novel The General and His LUIS: That is an interesting test History and Memory in the Two doubt this is in part because of the Labyrinth, García Márquez thanks case. Is Miami part of the South? Is Souths. I hope that our seminar will hegemony that the United States people who have facilitated com- a writer like Gustavo Perez Firmat a explore this topic at length. has achieved. We do the exporting munication through such innova- Southern writer? What about Glo- LUIS: I think that English and of literature and culture, and ex- tions as faxes and the Internet. ria Anzaldúa? Or Judith Ortiz American studies departments also pect other countries to evaluate Though the book is about the Cofer, a Puerto Rican writer who need to question why these cate- themselves according to our stan- nineteenth century, it is also about lives in Georgia? What about the gories exist. Once you begin to de- dards. Naturally this has been a knowing the nineteenth century case of Rosario Ferré’s novel, The construct the boundaries between, source of tremendous irritation to from a twentieth century perspec- House in the Lagoon, which shows say, Southern literature and Latin our neighbors. And that is one tive, from a point at which you can the influence of Faulkner? The American literature, then you see reason why the whole concept of be in another country with a cou- South may be a geographic space, that other kinds of boundaries can inter-American literature is so po- ple of clicks on the computer. The but when you see the influence of be formed. What are the implica- litically explosive. Many people appropriate word, as Willy sug- the South in the literatures of other tions of this questioning for glob- want nothing to do with it be- gested, is globalization. Above all, writers, do those writers also be- alization? Do we also need to cause they worry about not being our seminar needs to reflect the come incorporated into Southern rethink the boundaries between able to measure up—it is an old complexity of the world created literature? Or, conversely, does the business sector and the univer- problem of comparative method- by these forces.

Holocaust Seminar Produces Curriculum

uring the 1999/2000 acade- Tennessee Holocaust Commision refine and further develop the ini- The curriculum’s four units fo- Dmic year, the Warren Center to develop approaches to teaching tiative’s work. Their combined ef- cus on the history of the Holo- hosted “The Holocaust, Genocide, the Holocaust. During the summer forts culminated in the production caust; the cultural representation and the Teaching of Ethical Val- of 2000, a group of eight secondary of “The Holocaust and Other and memorialization of the Holo- ues,” an initiative funded by the school teachers from Middle Ten- Genocides,” a curriculum designed caust; the comparative study of Zimmerman Foundation and the nessee met at the Warren Center to for secondary school teachers. genocides in Armenia, Bosnia and Kosova, and Rwanda; and the ethi- cal problems posed by genocides. These units include primary sources, questions for discussion, and a variety of supplementary re- sources. Because the units were constructed with an interdiscipli- nary approach in mind, materials can be excerpted from them for use in humanities, social studies, language, and ethics classes. Ac- cording to Paul Fleming and Sue Gilmore, two high school teachers from Nashville who participated in the Holocaust seminar, the cur- riculum is intended “to promote discussion at a high level, to help Secondary school teachers from Middle Tennessee take part in a workshop at the Warren Center to develop ap- students face the ‘unfaceable,’ and proaches to teaching the new Holocaust curriculum. From left to right are Sue Chaney Gilmore, Lilian Lawrence- to bring active understanding to Crabtree, Griff Watson, Robin Jubela, Nancy Kemp, Carmen Anderson, Andrea Joy York, and Paul Fleming. the phrase ‘Never again.’” Letters • Fall 2000 • 6

Arnold Rampersad to Present Harry C. Howard Jr. Lecture

his year’s Harry C. Howard edition of the works of Richard TJr. Lecture will be delivered Wright, including revised individ- by Arnold Rampersad, Sara Hart ual editions of Native Son and Kimball Professor in the Human- Black Boy, and currently serves as ities at Stanford University and a co-editor of the Race and Ameri- renowned critic and biographer. can Culture book series published His lecture, “Biography and by Oxford University Press. From African-American Lives,” will 1991 to 1996 he held a Mac- take place Thursday, October 19 Arthur Foundation Fellowship. at 4:10 p.m. in 103 Wilson Hall. The Harry C. Howard Jr. Lec- Rampersad is best known for ture series was established in his work in African-American lit- 1994 through the endowment of erature and biography. His magis- Mr. and Mrs. Thomas E. Nash, terial The Art and Imagination of Jr., and Mr. and Mrs. George D. W.E.B. DuBois, published in Renfro, all of Asheville, North 1976, remains a standard text; his Carolina. The lectureship honors subsequent biographies of Harry C. Howard, Jr. (B.A., Langston Hughes and Jackie 1951) of Atlanta and allows the Robinson have also received criti- Robert Penn Warren Center to cal acclaim. In 1993 he co-wrote being an outstanding scholar to Days of Grace, a memoir, with Vanderbilt annually to deliver a Arthur Ashe. He has edited the lecture on a significant topic in Library of America’s two-volume the humanities.

Third Annual Robert Penn Warren Lecture on Southern Letters: William Styron

he third annual Robert Penn tory, including the conflict be- ing in the Marine Corps during of Nat Turner), the American TWarren Lecture on Southern tween Calvinist and “Cavalier” World War II, Styron graduated Book Award (for Sophie’s Choice), Letters will be delivered this year worldviews within the Southern from Duke and went to work and the National Medal of Arts. during the Tennessee Humanities elite and the social damage in- briefly as an associate editor for The Robert Penn Warren Lec- Council’s Southern Festival of flicted by slavery. In the words of McGraw-Hill. His first novel, Lie ture on Southern Letters was Books by the distinguished novel- the critic Lewis A. Lawson, Down in Darkness, was published founded in 1998 as a collaborative ist William Styron. Styron’s talk Styron has been successful in in 1951. Subsequent novels have project between the Warren Cen- will take place Friday, October 13, wrestling with the complexities included The Long March, Set ter and the Tennessee Humanities following a dinner at the Sheraton of Southern history because he This House on Fire, The Confes- Council. It is intended to provide Nashville Downtown, 623 Union possesses “that double vision so sions of Nat Turner, and Sophie’s a public forum for the exploration Street. Tickets for the event are useful to the artist, the ability not Choice. His most recent works of topics related to Southern writ- $50.00 and will go on sale Sep- merely to see a thing, but to are Darkness Visible, a memoir, ing. Previous lectures have been tember 1. question it.” and A Tidewater Morning, a vol- delivered by Elizabeth Spencer Styron was born in 1925 Styron attended Christchurch, ume of three short stories. and Reynolds Price. For tickets in Newport News, Virginia. an Episcopal boarding school, and Among his numerous awards are and further information regarding Though he has lived for much of spent a year at Davidson College the American Academy of Arts the lecture, please contact the his life outside the South, his before he transferred to Duke and Letters’ Prix de Rome (for Tennessee Humanities Council work reflects an ongoing interest University to enter a wartime offi- Lie Down in Darkness), the at (615) 320-7001 or www.tn- in the problems of Southern his- cer training program. After serv- Pulitzer Prize (for The Confessions humanities.org. Letters • Fall 2000 • 7

2001/2002 Fellows Program

he 2001/2002 Fellows becomes especially important. In other words, they will consider ethnic conflicts in the Middle Program at the Warren The new century, which once memory less as a cognitive device East, the Balkans, and Ireland; TCenter is entitled “Mem- seemed to promise a new global- allowing us merely to know the identity-based separatist move- ory, Identity, and Political Ac- ism transcending the particular past than as a means of defining ments in Africa, North America, tion.” The program will be political attachments of an earlier an ethical dimension of life, a Europe, and East Asia; the Holo- co-directed by Vanderbilt faculty age, has begun in an upsurge in sense of one person’s or commu- caust and its continuing legacies; members William James Booth nationalist and other particularist nity’s accountability across time and the political crystallization of (political science), Larry J. Griffin politics, whose agendas depend and to others. Questions that African-American identities. (sociology, political science, and upon invocations of memory and may be taken up include how Five Vanderbilt University fac- American and Southern studies) continuity with the past. Memory memories are transmuted into ulty members will be selected to and Michael Kreyling (English). allows groups to define, compre- identities, the extent to which join the program’s co-directors in This seminar will consider the hend, affirm, and project who memory is voluntary or involun- the year-long seminar. The War- role that memory plays in shap- they are, where they are situated tary, the bases of shared memories ren Center will also sponsor a ing identity and justifying politi- relative to others, and how they and the reasons for contested Visiting Fellow with expertise in cal action. In an age in which the construct a moral identity. memories, and the political and the area of study. The program’s creation of museums and memo- The Fellows will investigate moral impact of collective amne- specific sites of inquiry will be rials, the invocation of cultural memory as an active agent in ex- sia. Rich historical cases and cul- shaped by the Visiting Fellow and lineage and heritage, and national periencing the past, in ascertain- tural sites for inquiry into these the Vanderbilt faculty Fellows. or collective attributions of guilt ing the past’s moral and issues abound: apology, historical Information regarding both the or appeals for redemption for past emotional significance, and in reckoning and national efforts at internal and external application horrors have become common- spurring or retarding political ac- reconciliation in South Africa, processes can be obtained from place, an examination of the po- tion premised on some under- post-Communist Eastern Europe, the Warren Center. litical implications of memory standing of that past’s morality. the United States, and elsewhere;

Marshall C. Eakin, associate in Brazilian literature and on the on cultural adaptation and 2000/2001 professor and chair of history, spe- comparative study of Brazilian, change among African, Hispanic, cializes in the social and economic Spanish American, and North and Anglo peoples in Spanish Fellows history of Brazil. His books in- American literatures. His books America, the Caribbean, and the clude Brazil: The Once and Future include Ambiguity and Gender in United States. She is the author Deborah N. Cohn, William S. Country, a general history, and the New Novel of Spanish America of Black Society in Spanish Vaughn Visiting Fellow and visit- Tropical Capitalism, a forthcoming and Brazil; Rediscovering the New Florida. Currently, she is at work ing assistant professor of Spanish, study of the industrialization of World: Inter-American Literature on two monographs. The first, is assistant professor of Hispanic the Brazilian city Belo Horizonte. in a Comparative Context; and Black Kingdoms, Black Republics: studies at McGill University. Her His next project, a general history Clarice Lispector. Free African Towns in the Spanish work examines the literature of of Latin America, has been con- Cathy L. Jrade, Spence Wilson Americas, explores how Africans Latin America and the southern tracted with St. Martin’s Press. in the Spanish world negotiated United States, focusing on the Fellow and professor and chair of Edward F. Fischer, assistant Spanish, is a co-director of the alternatives to slavery; the sec- way such figures as Mario Vargas ond, Juan Bautista Witten, For- Llosa and William Faulkner have professor of anthropology, has 2000/2001 Fellows Program. She done extensive research on the has published extensively on merly Known as Big Prince, is a been taken up by critics who case study of a West African who work from an inter-American Maya communities of rural Modernist poetry in Spanish Guatemala, Mexico, and Belize America, particularly its con- escaped from slavery and joined perspective. She is the author of the Floridian exodus to Cuba. History and Memory in the Two and is particularly interested in frontation with the social, politi- Souths: Recent Southern and Span- the effects of globalization on cal, and philosophic upheavals of William Luis, Rebecca Webb ish American Fiction, published these communities. He is the au- its time. Her books include Mod- Wilson Fellow and professor of by Vanderbilt University Press. thor of Maya Cultural Logics and ernismo, Modernity, and the Devel- Spanish, is a co-director of the Identity Politics in Guatemala and opment of Spanish American 2000/2001 Fellows Program. He Anne T. Demo, assistant pro- co-author of Tecpán Guatemala: Literature and Rubén Dario and specializes in nineteenth- and fessor of communication studies, An Ethnography of a Modern the Romantic Search for Unity: The twentieth-century Latin Ameri- is working on a project that con- Maya Town, both forthcoming. Modernist Recourse to Esoteric Tra- can literature, as well as contem- siders the changing representa- Earl E. Fitz, Jacque Voegeli dition. Recently, she has pub- porary Spanish American, tions of the U.S.-Mexico border lished the chapter on Modernist Caribbean, Afro-Hispanic, and and the role that these construc- Fellow, professor of Portuguese and Spanish, and director of the poetry for The Cambridge History Latino literatures. His most re- tions have played in the formation of Latin American Literature. cent books include Dance Between of national identity. She has pub- program in comparative litera- ture, is a co-director of the Jane G. Landers, associate Two Cultures: Latino Caribbean lished articles on the founding of Literature Written in the United environmentalism and the idea of 2000/2001 Fellows Program. His professor of history and director research focuses on the colonial of the Latin American and Iber- States and Literary Bondage: Slav- wilderness, and on the feminist re- ery in Cuban Narrative. sistance of the Guerrilla Girls. period and the twentieth century ian studies program, has written Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities Non-Profit Org. Box 1534 Station B U.S. Postage Vanderbilt University Paid Nashville, Tennessee 37235 Nashville, TN Permit No. 1460

Nobel Laureate José Ramos-Horta to Speak at Vanderbilt

osé Ramos-Horta, 1996 Nobel and on the denial to East Timorese JPeace Prize laureate, will of their right to self-determination. deliver an address entitled “Peace- He is also active in other human making: The Power of Nonvio- rights movements around the lence” in Langford Auditorium on world, maintaining close ties with October 4 at 7:00 p.m. His visit is such leading figures as Tibet’s Dalai sponsored by the Dean’s Office of Lama and the Guatemalan activist the College of Arts and Science. Rigoberta Menchú. He shares the Ramos-Horta will be introduced 1996 Nobel Peace Prize with In- by Chancellor E. Gordon Gee. donesian Bishop Carlos Filipe The son of a Timorese mother Ximenes Belo and has also received and a Portuguese father, Ramos- the Unrepresented National and Horta is best known for his denun- Peoples Organization’s UNPO ciation of the 1975 invasion and Prize for his “unswerving commit- subsequent annexation of East ment to the rights and freedoms of Timor by Indonesia. An exile from threatened peoples.” his native land of East Timor since Ramos-Horta’s lecture is part of the invasion, he has worked to fo- Symposium 2000. A complete list- cus international attention on the ing of planned events can be found Indonesian military’s mass slaugh- on the World Wide Web at ters (whose victims include four of www.spaceformusic.com/symposium Ramos-Horta’s brothers and sisters) 2000/main.html.

THE ROBERT PENN WARREN CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES Warren Center Staff Letters is the semiannual newsletter of Statement of Purpose programs, which are designed to inten- the Robert Penn Warren Center for Established under the sponsorship of sify and increase interdisciplinary dis- cussion of academic, social, and cultural Mona C. Frederick, the Humanities at Vanderbilt Univer- the College of Arts and Science in 1987 sity, Box 1534 Station B, Nashville, and renamed the Robert Penn Warren issues. Executive Director Tennessee 37235. (615) 343-6060 Center for the Humanities in 1989, the Thomas Haddox, Editor Fax (615) 343-2248. Center promotes interdisciplinary re- Vanderbilt University is committed to principles Paul W. Burch, Jr., search and study in the humanities, so- of equal opportunity and affirmative action. For more information concerning the Office Assistant cial sciences, and natural sciences. Published by University Publications & Design Center or its programs, please contact Members of the Vanderbilt community Photographs by David Crenshaw, except photo the above address or visit our web site representing wide variety of specializa- of José Ramos-Horta, by Humberto Salgado, at www.vanderbilt.edu/rpw_center. tions take part in the Warren Center’s and photo of Arnold Rampersad, used courtesy

Letters • Fall 2000 • 8