Mexico Virtual Lecture Series
"De desamor:" Cristina Rivera Garza’s Literary Landscapes
Dominique Vargas
Dominique Vargas is a doctoral candidate in Notre Dame’s department of English. She is also a University Presidential Fellow, a PhD Fellow with the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study, and a Graduate Student Fellow with the Institute for Latino Studies. Her work focuses on race, gender, linguistics, and literary theory 20th and 21st century literature. She holds a BA and MA from St. Mary’s University as well as an MFA from The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University.
In this lecture, Vargas will examine Mexican literary representation of fictional border landscapes as aesthetic analysis of contemporary realities. Focusing on Cristina Rivera Garza’s novella, El Mal de La Taiga and her collection, Grieving: Dispatches from a Wounded Country, this talk addresses the way that the fictional setting and the eponymous Taiga syndrome paradoxically removes characters and readers from their realities and also grounds them in an intensely contemporary moment complicated by neoliberal political, economic, and gendered border space. Ultimately, Vargas presentation will consider the way that literature illuminates the relationship between real landscapes and those who occupy them.
The Mexico Virtual Lecture Series is a recurring online event intended to highlight the deep connections between Notre Dame and Mexico. Each lecture focuses on the current work of a Notre Dame faculty member or researcher, covering topics that vary widely from medical research to the social sciences and arts and culture.
The series is intended for a general audience and can be viewed via Zoom. Pre-registration for the session is requested and the Zoom link will be made available once registration is received.
PLEASE NOTE: Indicated event times are Eastern Standard Time (11:00am - 12:30am CST).
Originally published at mexicocity.nd.edu.