Suchergebnisse

Of the numerous traditions that the Mexican writer Esther Seligsonadapts in La morada en el tiempo (1981), which spans Jewish history fromthe creation to the second part of the twentieth century, the present analysisfocuses on prophetic communication. This study puts forward a readingthat shows that many passages in Morada could be considered examples ofprophetic discourse. Not only does Morada include modified versions of theprophets' stories, the central speaker also constitutes an updated figure ofthe prophet. At the same time, the speaker examines the meaning of silencein human-divine communications.Keywords: poetic prose, Esther Seligson, prophetic literature, Mexicanliterature, Spanish American Jewish writers

La obra de la narradora brasileffa Clarice Lispector (n. Ucrania 1920; m. Rio de Janeiro 1977) presenta, entre muchas otras complicaciones, un problema critico sumamente dificil de abordar y resolver: la busqueda e identificaci6n de los rasgos del pensamiento judio que se puedan percibir en su obra. A pesar de provenir de una familia judía, nunca tematizó explícitamente su cultura de origen.

This article presents an overview of recent tendencies in Latin
American Jewish Studies (hereafter LAJS). Two major developments will be
surveyed. One is the growth of resources for research; these include new
publications, reissues and translations of previously difficult-to-access
texts, and scholarly associations and other means of main taining
contact between researchers with similar concerns. These developments are
especially significant since faculty researching and teaching LAJS have
often been hindered by the difficulty of gaining access to information
and teaching resources.


Beyond making material available, LAJS researchers have been bringing
their own activities more clearly into focus. Scholars have made
efforts to identify the direction LAJS is taking and to suggest future
directions.

Since the 1920s, when scholars first began to specialize in Latin American writing, the subject of Latin American literary studies has grown from a small subset of Spanish and Portuguese literary research and teaching to become the largest field within Hispanism and a significant presence in comparative literature. The expansion of their place in the academic world has often prompted students of Latin American literature to wonder whether, in being swept into the mainstream, their field has not left out of account the historical situations of Latin American nations. These reflections lead critics back to a problem that has troubled Latin American thinkers since Independence: the achievement, or erosion, of cultural autonomy. Though undeniably close to major powers, the Latin American nations are unequal partners in trade and cultural exchange. Corresponding to their uneven and shifting relations with Europe and later the United States, their cultural life evolves following a distinctive historical dynamic. This article considers recent efforts by scholars and essayists to characterize the features that distinguish Latin America from more politically and economically advantaged nations. Special attention goes to those scholars who, drawing on anthropological research, examine communicative and expressive practices of indigenous origin, and those who borrow from economic theory to view Latin America as shaped by its history of dependence on more powerful nations and regions.

In recent years, considerable scholarly and popular attention has been extended to the Jewish populations of regions beyond those traditionally discussed—the United States, Europe, Russia, and the Middle East. Particular attempts have been made to record and analyze the experience of Jews residing in Latin America. The dramatic deterioration in the situation of the Argentine Jewish community over the past five years has given special visibility to this group, both because of widespread concern over the human rights issues involved and because of the appearance of Jewish-Argentine exiles in the United States and other areas heavily covered by the media. The difficulties experienced by Jewish citizens of Latin American countries certainly are deserving of attention, but one would hope that the interest aroused by these circumstances would lead to a more general curiosity about the many aspects of Jewish culture in this region.

Argentina has undergone several decades of social and political turmoil since the Second World War with the rise to power of Juan Pero'n, labor strife, and the protracted battle between leftists and the government. In her examination of the social content of Argentine single‐drawing cartoons appearing in mass audience publications since the 1940s, Naomi Lindstrom focuses on the Peronist period (1946‐1955) and immediately afterward. She observes that descriptive, nonevaluative humor characterized the cartoon until the latter half of the fifties, when hrtmorists became more explicit in their criticism of social hierarchy and the distribution of power. After Pergn's demise, a new wave o f humor appeared which was indecorous and irreverant. Examples are drawn from several Argentine publications including Rico Tipo, Esto and Que'. Along with David Foster's article on Quino's Mafalda, readers have an interesting overview of Argentine cartoons during the last thirty years.

Recent years have witnessed a massive resurgence of interest in the question of socially determined sex roles. Investigators, both rigorous and popular-essayistic, have inquired into the ways in which society regulates which attitudes and behaviors are appropriate to men and which to women. There have been widespread expressions of dissatisfaction with the excessive constraints inherent in the traditional female role, along with numerous proposals for affording women greater freedom. The consideration of this set of related issues might most accurately be described as the critical questioning of sex roles, but it is generally referred to as feminism.