University Library News

Prof. Elena del Rio Parra of the World Languages & Cultures Department has recently published Materia médica.  Rareza, singularidad y accidente en la España temprano-moderna (2016; on order).

Materia médica explores the intersection of the sciences and humanities in Spanish sixteenth and seventeenth century representations of the extraordinary within the larger scheme of the Baroque. Medical and chirurgical treatises, discourses, letters, broadsheets, and paratexts of the period share with the humanities thought processes, methods, patterns, and—most importantly—some forms of description. Archival evidence broadens the spectrum of these texts, and cases are frequently compared to similar instances in disciplines such as theology, literature, and the law.  An eclectic monograph, it is intended for specialists in both early-modern culture and intellectual history. It also appeals to scholars who are particularly interested in the history of the rare, the unusual, and the monstrous, a fertile niche that is very much in the spirit of sixteenth and seventeenth century Western thought. —  publisher.

Dr. del Rio Parra’s research focuses on the history of ideas around the Spanish Golden Age, as well as early modern poetry and 20th century Latin American narrative.  Her other publications include the following books:

• Cartografías de la conciencia española en la Edad de Oro (2008)
• Decisiones prácticas y morales para curas, confesores y capellanes de los ejércitos y armadas :avisos políticos, ardides militares y medios para afianzar los buenos sucesos de la guerra, ed. (2006)
• Primero sueño y otros escritos, ed. (2006)
• Una era de monstruos: representaciones de lo deforme en el Siglo de Oro español (2003)
• El aleph de Jorge Luis Borges, ed. with Julio Ortega (2001)

and these selected articles:

• “‘He Has No Pulse’: Typologies of the Fear of Being Buried Alive in Preindustrial Spain,”  South Atlantic Review 76, no. 3 (2011): 129-150.
• “La suspensión como acto estético en las letras áureas,”  RILCE: Revista de Filología Hispánica 26, no. 1 (2010): 157-167.
• “Sobre el alma: Matrimonio, confesión y casuística en torno a El burlador de Sevilla,”  Revista de Literatura (RL) 68, no. 135 (2006): 151-171.
• “Sacerdotes contrahechos y bautismo de locos: Sobre rituales, decisión e intención en la casuística áurea” Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies 6, no. 3 (2005): 287-304.
• “El tamaño del barroco: Dimensión y espacialidad en la palabra poética áurea,” Hispanic Research Journal: Iberian and Latin American Studies (HRJ) 5, no. 1 (2004): 3-14.
• “Eslabones perdidos: Una nota sobre prensa científica y espectáculo en el siglo XIX transatlántico,” Iberoamericana: América Latina-España-Portugal (IberoamericanaALEP) 3, no. 9 (2003): 161-70.
• “La figura del secretario en la obra dramática de Lope de Vega,”  Hispania: A Journal Devoted to the Teaching of Spanish and Portuguese (Hispania) 85, no. 1 (2002): 12-21.