Cubans Choteando Classics: Subversive and Irreverent Humor in Cuban Adaptations of Greek Tragedies
By Eduardo Garcia-Molina (University of Chicago)
Firmly rooted in an acceptance of the inequalities of life and a subsequent desire to mock them, Cuban choteo (“joking”) is a trope that finds humor in dragging its lofty victims down with low language and crude comedy (Firmat 1984, Mañach 1991.) Given its quintessential role in Cuban identity, it is no surprise that choteo forms an integral part of the transformations of Classical tragedy for the Cuban stage.
Invideat vatem iure: Juan Latino and the Poetics of Race
By Jonathan F. Correa-Reyes (The Pennsylvania State University)
Recent decades have seen an increase in the scholarly attention devoted to Juan Latino, the first known poet of African descent to be published in Latin. In this presentation I will discuss a rich point of criticism of Latino’s oeuvre: his self-proclaimed Ethiopian origins. This claim peppers some of Latino’s epigrams.
Confronted Athens: Identity Narratives and National Receptions of Ancient Greece in Latin America (1880-1944)
By Bruno Lloret Fuentes (King’s College London)
Throughout the 19th century intellectuals such as José Martí, Rubén Darío and José Enrique Rodó urged the youth of America towards a spiritual Hispanic Renaissance. This call asked future Latin American writers to engage with a wide range of cultural sources which would speak to the new postcolonial experience of the Americas.