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Dr. Dan Russek

Position

Professor

Contact

Office: CLE B429

drussek@uvic.ca

250-472-5455

Credentials

MA (UNAM), PhD (Chicago)

Area of expertise

Twentieth-Century Latin American Literature (Mexico, Argentina), Literature and visual arts and media, Literature and Philosophy Aesthetics.

Bio

I earned a B.A. (Philosophy) and an M.A. (Comparative Literature) from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). I completed a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at the University of Chicago, specializing in modern and contemporary Latin American literature and visual arts. My fields of research include the links between literature and the visual arts and media, urban studies and aesthetics.

Research Profile

My first book, Textual Exposures: Photography in Twentieth Century Spanish American Narrative Fiction, was published on May 2015 with the University of Calgary Press. My new research project explores the relations between modern technology, culture and literature, and centers on the notion of epiphany and the phenomenon of light.

My second book, Ejercicios de mística urbana (Poesía práctica), is a miscellaneous collection of poetic prose, quotes and essays, illustrated with my own photographs. The book explores the epiphanic moment of aesthetic experience and the poetry in the everyday. It was published in Mexico by Bonilla Artigas editors in 2020.

I have published literary essays and a book of poetry in Spanish (Tornasol. México: El Tucán de Virginia, 1993). I continue developing my lyrical vein in literary essays and poems.

I regularly teach a survey course on modern and contemporary Latin American literature (SPAN 385) and a course on Latin American film (SPAN 485B). I have taught courses on Latin American literature and the visual arts, and monographic courses on Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar and Octavio Paz.

I coordinate the Annual Latin American and Spanish Film Week and I am the president of the Hispanic Film Society of Victoria.

Principal Teaching Areas

I teach courses on XXth and XXIst C. Latin American Literature, Literature and visual arts and media, Latin American cinema, and aesthetics and urban studies.

Selected publications

Books

Textual Exposures: Photography in Twentieth Century Latin American Narrative Fiction. University of Calgary Press, (2015).
Ejercicios de mística urbana. Poesía práctica. México: Bonilla Artigas editores, (2020)

Articles and book chapters

“Julio Cortázar: Between Aesthetics and Politics: The Travails of a Literary Traveler.” In A Companion to World Literature. New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc, (2020).
“Melancholia and Relajo in Güeros (2014) by Alonso Ruizpalacios.” In Politics of Children in Latin American Films. Maria Soledad Paz-Mackay and Omar Rodriguez, eds. New York and London: Lexington Books, 2019, 77-94.
"Soledad y solidaridad en el cine mexicano reciente: en torno a Japón (2000), Párpados azules (2007) y Perpetuum Mobile (2009)." Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos 37.1 (2012) 215-232.
"From Buñuel to Eimbcke Orphanhood in Recent Mexican Cinema." In Representing History, Class, and Gender in Spain and Latin America. Children and Adolescents in Film. Carolina Rocha and Georgia Seminet, eds. New York: Palgrave McMillan, 2012. 135-150.
"El momento epifánico en Luz silenciosa (2007) de Carlos Reygadas". Proceedings of Cine-Lit VII: An International Conference on Hispanic Film and Fiction. Guy H. Wood, ed. Corvalis, OR: Cine-Lit Publications, 2012. 74-87
“Photographing Christ: Technology and Representation in Rubén Darío’s ‘Verónica’.” Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos. 34.2 (2010) 359-378.
“Borges‘ Photographic Fictions.” Hispanic Journal. 31.2 (2010): 67-80.
“Rulfo, Photography and the Vision of Emptiness.” Chasqui: revista de literatura latinoamericana. 37.2 (2008) 15-27.
“An Aesthetics of Reticence: Borges and the Films of Lucrecia Martel.” Proceedings of Cine-Lit VI: An International Conference on Hispanic Film and Fiction. Guy H. Wood, ed. Corvalis, OR: Cine-Lit Publications, 2008, 54-64.
“Ekphrasis and the Contest of Representations in La Novela de Perón (1985) by Tomás Eloy Martínez.” In Double Exposure: Photography and Literature in Latin America. Marcy Schwartz and Mary Beth Tierney-Tello, eds. New Mexico Uiversity Press, 2006, 173-191.
“ Literature and Photography: Parallel Crafts. An Interview with Elena Poniatowska.” In Double Exposure: Photography and Literature in Latin America. Marcy Schwartz and Mary Beth Tierney-Tello, eds. New Mexico University Press, 2006, 242-249.
“Verbal/Visual Braids: on the Photographic Medium in the Work of Julio Cortázar,” Mosaic 37.4 (2004) 71 - 86 (Reprinted in the critical volume Julio Cortázar. Short Story Criticism series. Layman Poupard Publishing, Columbia, SC: 2018, 150-158).