Category Archives: Modernity

Cartographic Narratives: Using Data and Mapping Principles to Teach L2 Literature

Posted on March 26, 2021 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

One of my main goals in teaching second-language (L2) Spanish Literature courses is to develop non-traditional tasks that demonstrate the value of reading for the development of the target language. Students often perceive literature classes as boring, difficult, or irrelevant – and who can blame them? Literature pedagogy, in either the L1 or the L2 leaves much to be desired… if it exists at all. Continue reading →

Posted in Art, History, Literature, Modernity, Pedagogy, Spain | Tagged Carmen de Burgos, L2 Literature Pedagogy, La rampa, La Venus mecanica, madrid, maps, spanish literature, urban studies | 1 Comment

1900s Madrid, in Narrative and a High-Resolution Map

Posted on October 19, 2019 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

This fall semester I’m teaching three literature classes at K-State, one of which is a seminar I based on a few of my past and current research projects related to early 20th-century Spanish literature. The texts are attentive to the … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Literature, Modernity, Spain | Tagged 1920s, books, Carmen de Burgos, digital humanities, La rampa, madrid, maps, modernity, novel, spanish literature | 2 Comments

The Body, Blood, and Soul of Spanish Modernity: review of Life Embodied

Posted on February 5, 2019 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

It’s been quite awhile since I’ve been able to find the time to put up a new post! Aside from a few weeks during my summer trip to Spain where I managed to write about two fantastic new books (A … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Literature, Modernity, Science and Medicine, Spain | Tagged 17th century, 18th century, 19th century, 20th century, body, medical history, medicine, Miguel de Unamuno, modernism, modernity, philosophy, science, soul, spanish literature, vital force | 1 Comment

Multiple Modernities: New essays on Carmen de Burgos (review)

Posted on June 17, 2018 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

Review: Anja Louis and Michelle M. Sharp, eds. Multiple Modernities: Carmen de Burgos, Author and Activist. Routledge, 2017. 224 pp. I recently finished writing a review of Anja Louis and Michelle Sharp’s new volume of essays on Carmen de Burgos (1867-1932), a … Continue reading →

Posted in Feminism, First-wave spanish feminism, Literature, Modernity, Spain, Women | Tagged book review, books, Carmen de Burgos, spanish literature | 3 Comments

Fashion and the Fine Arts in Carmen de Burgos’ Avant-garde Novel, La mujer fantástica

Posted on January 25, 2018 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

I’m going to start the new year with a post on my most recent article, “Fashion, Ekphrasis, and the Avant-Garde Novel: Carmen de Burgos’ La mujer fantástica (1924)”, which was published in the open-access journal Ciberletras in December 2017. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Literature, Modernity, Spain, Women | Tagged 1920s, art history, avant garde, Carmen de Burgos, ekphrasis, Empress Eugenie, fashion, novel, Paris, vanguardia, Winterhalter | 5 Comments

Urban Spain through Literature: Literary Maps of Madrid and Barcelona

Posted on September 19, 2017 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

Anyone who has ever traveled with me knows I am a bit obsessed with maps – I’m either wandering around following my route via Google Maps, attempting to get my bearings and update what I refer to as “my internal … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Feminism, History, Literature, Modernity, Spain, Women | Tagged Barcelona, Carmen de Burgos, madrid, maps, Margarita Nelken, Ramon Gomez de la Serna, urban studies, verbena | 2 Comments

Illustrating Spain’s Silver Age of Literature: Carmen de Burgos, Ramon, and “Bon”

Posted on July 21, 2017 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

I’ve been working for several months now on an article on Carmen de Burgos’s 1924 novel La mujer fantástica (The Amazing/Fantastic Woman), and my research has been focused a lot on European art history and the diverse visual imagery that … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Literature, Modernity, Spain, Women | Tagged 1920s, avant garde, Barcelona, Bon, books, Carmen de Burgos, madrid, Pablo Picasso, Ramon Gomez de la Serna, spanish art, spanish literature | 4 Comments

Maternity and Madrid: Gendered Spaces in La rampa (1917)

Posted on September 30, 2014 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

I have officially decided that September is the fastest-moving, shortest month of the (academic) year. It flies by quicker than winter break. One day you are rather calmly introducing the course syllabus and getting to know new students… the next … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Literature, Modernity, Science and Medicine, Spain, Women | Tagged 1920s, Carmen de Burgos, gender, literature, madrid, maternity, motherhood, Spain, urban studies | 10 Comments

Bicycles, typewriters, and sex!?!? Cultures of the Erotic in early 20th Century Spain

Posted on June 12, 2014 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

Among the many articles and books I consulted for my last article on La Venus mecánica, Maite Zubiaurre’s Cultures of the Erotic in Spain, 1898-1939 (from Vanderbilt UP, 2012) was by far my favorite. Not only does Prof. Zubiaurre‘s monograph … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Literature, Modernity, Spain | Tagged 1920s, art, books, erotica, Eugenics, gender, Hildegart Rodríguez, literature, madrid, modernity, pseudoscience, sex, sexuality, Spain, spanish art, spanish literature | 6 Comments

The Morphing Body: Salvador Dalí’s Skulls and the Female Form

Posted on May 6, 2014 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

I’m currently working on an article that revolves around theories of corporeality and the body, so I’ve been reading a range of feminist interpretations of the subject: Elizabeth Grosz‘s challenge to mind/body dualism by way of the Moebius strip paradigm; … Continue reading →