Universidad de La Laguna
Departamento de Filología Inglesa y Alemana

Insights and Bearings: Festschrift for Dr. Juan Sebastián Amador Bedford

Thirty-five scholars write for this book to commemorate Dr. Juan Sebastián Amador Bedford's retirement. This bunch of essays offers a manifold perspective that covers not only cultural and literary analyses but also semiotic, linguistic and translation studies. Its various contents pays homage to the intellectual curiosity aroused by ULL teacher Juan Amador Bedford. His work in promoting the analysis of American women's poetry specifically, through undergraduate and graduate courses, lectures, dissertations, and research projects, has given rise to the consolidation of this kind of research at ULL, which now counts with a significant number of teachers and postgraduate students who have made women's literature the main focus of their academic research. Undoubtedly, this Festschrift effectively proves the progressive diversity and specialization to which English studies have tended at the Universidad de La Laguna.

On the Matter of Words: In Honor of Lourdes Divasson Cilveti

To honor Lourdes Divasson Cilveti, an exemplary communicator and dedicated enabler of future medical doctors and researchers in crucial linguistic expertise, this book brings the matter of words into the fray. Dr. Divasson Cilveti, with her knowledge of both of the official languages of Canada, felt at home in a multilingual context, presenting papers at conferences and programs. Through the forty-four essays included in this book, ranging from literary to language studies, cultural and translation studies, scholars of the Departmento de Filología Inglesa y Alemana at ULL show sparkling originality and theoretical sophistication. While some focus on the complex features of Old English verbs or Medieval England, others refer to American literature and culture -for instance, on Michael Moore, Estella Portillo or Ana Castillo. Others search for authentic voices in particular poets like Anne Sexton or Dennis Lee, or are aware of the developments of various modes of fiction in English, as seen through Alice Munro's stories, Toni Morrison, and Charlotte Lennox. Furthermore, we've found room for analyzing the relationships between the Canary Islands and English culture through William Shakespeare, Henry A. Harris, or through the banana trade. This book sketches the intellectual labor we all are involved at the Universidad de La Laguna, and this florilegium of essays is offered to Lourdes Divasson as a sign of our admiration to a beloved friend, colleague, and teacher

Traditions and Innovations: commemorating forty years of English studies at ULL (1963-2003)

La Laguna: RCEI, 2004
380 p.: 23 cm
ISBN 8492145420

Price: 20 euros
Order copies at
filina@ull.es

Thirty-four essays are included in this commemorative book (edited by Manuel Brito and Juan Ignacio Oliva), which has been divided into two main sections: i. Language Studies, and ii. Literary and Cultural Studies, both arranged in alphabetical order, and preceded by an introductory article on the history of English Studies at the Universidad de La Laguna. A strong interest in applied linguistics is evident among the fifteen language essays, although there are others dedicated primarily to diachronic English -- standardization and syntactic evidence in 15th-century documents, semantic change in cognitive linguistics and morphophonology and semantic motivation in English locative prefixation. Other works include topics such as analyses on L2 English syntactic competence, on self-study summer books and on age as a handicap to the discrimination of sounds in foreign languages. Essays on Methodology include subjects like instruments to considering evaluation at university level, or involving students in assessment. Other papers evaluate the ESP story at the Universidad de La Laguna, the gendering talk in a semi-institutional setting, or more particular items such as book reviews and poster presentation, genre-based pedagogical approaches to academic writing, or subtitling films and simultaneous readings. An interview with prestigious professor F. Salager-Meyer is also included.

Nineteen essays will be found in the literary and cultural section, ranging from the English and American literature to the Canadian or African, and including also literary criticism and cultural and translation studies. An essay on George Glas's writings, a paper on medieval literature, the family bonds in the Clerk's Tale, together with an architectural analysis of Hardy's narrative method and two contemporary studies on the British novel and the notion of "Englishness" in PeterAckroyd are included among the English literature works. The scope of American literature is covered by studies on Chicana representations, women's poetry and language poetries anthologies, and two visions of Anne Sexton's poems, analysing the father figure and the issue of maternity. Canadian topics include a style analysis on Sri-Lankan Canadian author, Shyam Selvadurai, the influence of nature in Anglo-Canadian poetry, transculturalism in Canada and a prologue to the book Generaciones. There is also an essay on Margaret Laurence's vision of Africa, and two essays on the feminist contribution to autobiographical studies and on evasive devices in literary translation. Two works on cultural studies titled "Roger, Michael, and Me" and "Gloss on the Enola Gay, Again in Full Array" will also appear in this section.