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Focus on Scholarship—Lilián Uribe:
During undergraduate studies in Montevideo in the early 1980s, Uribe’s intellectual loves blossomed into a passion to teach. She recalls: “My research and classroom activities are inspired by the examples of my mentors. With their knowledge, incredible communication abilities, and humanity, they built a bridge, a dialogue with students that went way beyond the classroom setting. One of my professors was the Chilean poet Pedro Lastra, who used the power of the language to nurture and strengthen my love of literature and of teaching.” Literature, language, and location are intertwined in Uribe’s research: “The literature of Latin America is inexorably linked to the region’s politics. In many cases, this poetry cannot be discussed in conventional terms of meter, rhyme, image, and metaphor, but must be appreciated within its own ideological context. Most of my writing is focused on the works of Juan Gelman, a contemporary Argentinean poet.” Gelman’s life, Uribe notes, is representative of the social turmoil that has gripped Latin America for so long. In 1976, the poet’s son and his pregnant wife were kidnapped in Argentina and murdered in Uruguay following the birth of their daughter. Gelman’s only grandchild was not restored to him until 23 years later. Uribe (pictured at right) became interested in Gelman’s work while she was a graduate student at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Delving into his poetry and commentaries about his life, she relates both to a broader audience in several of her works published in Spanish and in English. She is perhaps best known for her book Como temblor del aire: la poesía de Juan Gelman [Like the Trembling of Air: The Poems of Juan Gelman]. Visits with the poet and some of his close associates helped her gain insights into his unique use of language. “I continue to be fascinated by what I describe as his ‘exiliar’ vision of language,” Uribe says, “which demonstrates how Gelman’s poems attempt to fashion out of language a new history, which is capable of recording and reflecting the terrible tragedies of our times. Gelman creates a counter-language of resistance, a language that names reality from the sidelines of power.” Uribe finds that Gelman’s poetry “constantly punches out against the boundaries of language, which is something I see non-Spanish speaking students doing. Just a few weeks ago, for instance, a student in my Beginning Spanish class created the verb amorar from the word amor. While this new word does not exist, in creating it the student demonstrated a good understanding of the function of the Spanish verb system, which is the bone of language. At the same time, she widened the horizon of its meaning, which is exactly what Gelman’s poetry does.” Uribe’s scholarship is devoted to the main intertexts in Gelman’s poetry, as well as the poet’s concept of language. Consequently, her extensive writings and lectures about Gelman and other Latin American writers have attracted wide attention, including that of the U.S. Library of Congress, which in 1992 appointed her as a contributing editor of its prestigious Handbook of Latin American Studies. Initially, Uribe was responsible for the poetry section of the River Plate Countries (Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay). The assignment complements her other scholarly research by requiring her to keep current on trends, publications, and research in the field. Periodically, the Library of Congress sends her “hundreds of publications to read and evaluate as the basis for selecting and writing reviews of the books that I consider to be most significant. These descriptive and evaluative comments for each selected book are published in the Spanish-American Literature section of the Handbook.” After eight years of work on the Handbook, Uribe was promoted to Chief Contributing Editor for the entire Spanish-American Poetry section. “I canvass the general studies and the anthologies that embrace two or more areas,” she says, “and prepare the introductory essay of our section.” Dr. Lilián Uribe, a CCSU faculty member since 1990, continues her scholarship, notably “Citas y Comentarios o la lectura reveleda,” her essay on Gelman’s book Citas y Comentarios [Quotes and Commentaries], which was published in Spain last year. She also relates her work to the classroom, working with colleagues to develop and refine new language courses, some of which were created specifically for students of Spanish heritage. “In most cases, family and friends have been these students’ only source of learning and practicing the language, which limits their competence to oral communication,” she says. “Supported by a body of new and emerging literature from Latin America, we shape our courses to widen the spectrum of language usage and skills, as well as to enrich students’ vocabularies and structures. “We put students’ linguistic competence in a context that is much wider than that of their immediate community. The power they gain through their knowledge of the language and culture builds their confidence and better prepares them to succeed in the work force,” she says with pride. “Who knows?” she wonders aloud. “Perhaps one of our
students is the next Juan Gelman, helping to refine Spanish for
generations to come.” |
Love of language and literature is a family
heritage for Dr. Lilián Uribe, professor of modern languages. She
recalls fondly that her grandfather, an avid reader of the Gauchesque
literature of her native Uruguay, “always carried a dictionary with
him.” Encouragement at home was reinforced in school, where, she
“discovered and learned to enjoy the wonders of Spanish syntax and the
subjunctive.”