“Since ideas circulate more rapidly than technology, countries throughout Latin America, even those without the strong industrial bases of the global North, could still imagine technological change, alternate futures, and utopian societies.” – M. Elizabeth Ginway
Dear Prof. Ginway, thank you for accepting this interview !
You are welcome ! Let me know when it appears and send me the citation…thank you in advance.
Why did you decide to study Spanish and Portuguese ?
I was always good at languages. I simply liked my college Spanish and Portuguese classes better than my French classes. I was a Comparative Literature major, and my first foreign language was actually French. Latin American literature was my main interest.
What is the relevance of Hispanic and Lusophone studies ?
I am concerned primarily with the cultures of Latin America in the American academy. In this context, especially for our students, I think they provide another experience of the New World than the North American model. While the US is mainly a transplanted, Anglo-European culture, Latin America is formed by cultures with a greater degree of racial and cultural mixture; they are new cultures formed out of several traditions, often struggling with social and economic disparities that are different from developed countries.
What is a “cultural periphery” and a “third world country” ?
Another term would be the Global South. This periphery is a legacy of colonial practices, both cultural and economic.
Do you think that “Manifesto Antropófago” is still relevant today ?
Yes, I do. I think it is the way that Brazil or any country of the periphery actively creates art, transforming and parodying works from the cultural center to fit their realities.
What are the contributions of Brazilian culture to the world ?
Besides soccer and samba ? Seriously, though, in the 1940s, Stefan Zweig saw Brazil as the “Land of the Future” for its natural resources and apparent racial harmony. In the view of anthropologist Darcy Ribeiro, Brazil is a model for a “New People” in its cultural and racial mix. Brazil has also created a strong sense of national identity for such a large and diverse country. It has a vibrant tradition of popular culture (in religion, song, its martial art of capoeira) that has resisted elite prerogatives and notions of progress and “civilization.”
Is there such a thing as Latin American science fiction ?
Perhaps there is science fiction written in Latin America. I cannot make huge generalizations, but I think it exists and has a distinct point of view.
Are there cultural differences between Spanish American SF and Lusophone-American SF ?
I just wrote an article in Spanish for a Mexican journal called Pórtico comparing the science fiction traditions of Brazil and Mexico.
Just to take these two countries as an example, Mexico is steeped in the culture of the past. It has reminders of the trauma of the Conquista and suffers from the power of the Catholic Church, such that religious themes and apocalypse abound in Mexican SF, even in cyberpunk. In Brazil, the Catholic church is not as influential, and Brazil looks to the future and apocalypse is not a common theme in its SF, although poverty is often thematized. In addition, mainstream writers in Mexico, such as Juan José Arreola, Carlos Fuentes and Carmen Boullosa have consistently embraced SF in perhaps a way mainstream Brazilian writers have not. In Argentina, the presence of Lugones, Borges, Bioy Casares and Cortázar have legitimized the fantastic and SF to a greater extent. While Guimarães Rosa and Clarice Lispector may be metaphysical, their stories do not belong to the fantastic tradition or magical realism.
Jorge Amado, Erico Verissimo, João Guimarães Rosa, Clarice Lispector (to mention just four Brazilian mainstream writers) are worldwide famous exponents of Brazilian literature. What about Brazilian SF, are there similar important writers ?
You list several of Brazil’s most important writers. While Brazil does not have a literary niche in the same way that the Spanish American Boom writers do with magical realism, it has a rich tradition, beginning with Machado de Assis. In general, Brazilian literature has a marginal place of the world literary scene, and SF is thus on the margins of the margins. Although interest is growing in the genre and sales have increased, it still lacks prestige. The big names in SF would be Braulio Tavares, Roberto de Sousa Causo, Gerson Lodi-Ribeiro, Ivanir Calado and Nelson de Oliveira.
“Alien Vision: Essays on Brazilian Science Fiction” – M. Elizabeth Ginway (2010)
What are the characteristics of Brazilian SF ? And its main themes ?
To summarize, Brazilian SF from the 1960s generally shows a resistance to technological culture, while in 1970s, mainstream writers publish dystopias to protest the dictatorship 1964-1985. From the mid- 1980s to the present, all subgenres have flourished—alternate histories, cyberpunk, parallel universes, alien contact, steampunk, as well as theme -based anthologies, including those about dinosaurs, soccer, erotic sf, women’s sf, political sf, the sf of mainstream writers, the best of Brazilian SF. To me, the most interesting Brazilian SF is critical of society, dealing of social injustice, issues of race and class, urbanization, crime and poverty. More recently, there has been a boom in fantasy, vampires and some mixes of horror and SF, medieval fantasy and SF, and some is pure fantasy, in along the lines of Lord of the Rings. However, certain fantasy writers include ethic minorities or women’s issues in their novels.
Was Latin American SF influenced by the US one ? Are Latin-American SFs just local varieties of the US SF ?
While most SF writers in Latin America read American SF, I think they realize that their cultural reality is distinct from that of the US. SF is a toolbox that anyone can use. SF has had a tradition since the nineteenth century in Latin America as documented by Rachel Haywood Ferreira and Roberto Causo in their monographs about nineteenth-century SF in Latin America and Brazil. Causo and I wrote an article for the journal Extrapolation about the history of Brazilian SF, which editors of the journal called it a “meta-history” of SF, since it represents a parallel history to the mainstream, First-World SF. Some is derivative, but I think that some, by its best writers, is very compelling.
Has anything been translated into English of the Brazilian SF writers ? Why should a non-Brazilian read Brazilian SF ?
Stories by André Carneiro, “Darkness” (1963) and “Life as an Ant” (1986) are in Penguin Omnibuses of SF;
“Cosmos Latinos: An Anthology of Science Fiction From Latin America and Spain”, ed. Andrea Bell and Yolanda Molina Gavilán, has three Brazilian stories from 1962, 1978 and 1989;
“And Still the Earth” (1981) by Ignacio de Loyola Brandão is a dystopia that has been translated by Avon Books.
“Most Beautiful Woman in the World ” by Roberto de Sousa Causo :
http://nova-sf.de/internova/?p=185
http://www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com/cgi-bin/mag.cgido=issue&vol=i26&article=_005,
is an alien invasion story narrated by a child by Brontops Baruq. I am not sure why people read the SF of another culture. I sat in on a class about Polish science fiction, and enjoyed learning about Lem’s works in depth. I wanted another view of the genre, one that was not strictly Anglo-American or Western European.
Has the Brazilian SF community an international awareness ?
Yes. Most follow SF international trends, and read widely. While some writers believe that Brazilian SF should not insist on only Brazilian themes and topics, most are well read, in SF in English. Braulio Tavares commented that most Brazilians read English, so the exchange is not even.
Prof. Arielle Saiber (Bowdoin College, USA) mentioned that the fundamental characteristics of the Italian SF are lyricism and humor, Prof. Fernando Angel Moreno (Complutense University, Madrid) had independently mentioned that lyricism and humor are the characteristics of Spanish SF and the Romanian scholar, critic and writer Mircea Opriță had also independently mentioned that Romanian SF’s characteristics are lyricism and humor. Could be that those characteristics are common to all neo-latin SFs including the Latin American ones ?
How interesting ! A 1976 dissertation by David Lincoln Dunbar concluded about the same about Brazilian SF. However, this may be a bit of an overgeneralization. The volume that I co-edited, “Latin American Science Fiction: Theory and Practice”, is an attempt to move beyond descriptive or plot summary-based criticism. Perhaps Latin American SF has a sense of parody, but it would be in the anthropophagic way of Oswald de Andrade’s manifesto.
Are there common parallelisms between Portuguese SF and Brazilian SF ?
Probably. There is the 1993 “O altântico tem duas margens” (The Two Sides of the Atlantic), an anthology of Brazilian and Portuguese SF writers. There are Portuguese writers included in Brazilian SF anthologies, but I have not undertaken Portuguese SF as a part of my research. I wrote an article about transgendered characters (characters that change their sex) and included some works from Portugal to expand the number of examples— but the main focus was no Brazil. The study was published in the Luso-Brazilian Review. However, I have not studied Portuguese SF per se—more of its fantastic tradition and stories of Eça de Queiroz, Mário de Sá Carneiro, Almada Negreiros and José Saramago. The allegorical utopia/dystopia by Angolan writer Pepetela, “Muana Puó” (1969) is one of the most interesting examples of the genre I have ever read.
Cuban SF is a very interesting phenomenon with a Latin-american background that was exposed to sovietization (the communist SF model was the soviet “nauchno-fantasticheskaya literatura”/fantastic-scientific literature) the same as the Eastern European SFs ( for example, Romanian SF also has a neo-latin background, too). In your opinion, could some historical parallelisms exist between the Cuban and the Romanian SFs ?
I assume that the soviet model and ideas about the New Man were influential. In Cuba, Soviet influence was important in cultivating the genre. Despite the pro-Soviet stance of some SF there, there seems to be a more subversive undercurrent and sense of loss in works by Daína Chaviano, Michel Encinosa Fu, and Anabel Enríquez Piñero, as are several stories that appear in 50-year anthology of Cuban SF edited by Yoss.
“…Ginway’s Brazilian Science Fiction probably did the most to add to our understanding of SF as a multicultural phenomenon.” – Gary K. Wolfe, Roosevelt University
Your book “Brazilian Science Fiction: Cultural Myths And Nationhood In The Land Of The Future” (2004) is fundamental in understanding the specificity of Brazilian SF. How would you recommend your study to the European readers ?
I have described my study of SF as a type of barometer of attitudes towards modernization from 1960 to 2000. I look at Brazilian SF through its cultural myths—the green land, a sense of national greatness, the myth of racial equality and the peaceful nature of the Brazilian people. These are all cultural myths that are alternately embraced, parodied or debunked by Brazilian SF. I have divided my study into three periods: before, during and after the Brazilian military dictatorship 1964-1985.
You are the editor (together with J. Andrew Brown) of “Latin American Science Fiction: Theory and Practice” (2012). What is the contribution of this anthology of critical studies to the analysis of Latin American SF as a whole from Rio Grande to the Cape Horn ?
We offer a sense of the diversity of SF in Latin America as well as rigorous, theoretical approaches to authors, works and genres. For example we have the development of Brazilian comics and its relationship to the SF genre, as well as an article about the sequels of the Argentine comic “El eternauta” (1957). There is an article about Cuban Anabel Enríquez Piñero whose SF comments on the Cuban diaspora, and another on Mexican writer Bef whose stories about the contemporary economic and cultural realities of Mexico. Another chapter on Carmen Boullosa examines the ambiguity of history and time travel in Mexico. We also have an article about a Guimarães Rosa story and how it exemplifies an open-ended type of literary SF, and another that comments on lost youth consumer society and the zombie phenomenon by Chilean and Bolivian authors. I co-authored an article about looking at metafiction and SF elements in Jorge Furtado’s films.
Kindly address some words to the European readers and fans !
Thank you very much for this opportunity to talk about my work. It is indeed an honor to find out that others are interested in the SF of Brazil and Spanish America. I think it is very important to de-center or decolonize SF from Anglo-America paradigms and recognize unique contributions and the variations of the genre in Europe. While I think that we can all enjoy SF, we also recognize its power. On a more personal note, my father’s side of the family were all originally from Poland. If my father had not Anglicized our last name, it would be Ginalska for me !
Thank you very much, Prof. Ginway !
Copyright© Cristian Tamaș & M.Elizabeth Ginway
Dr. Mary Elizabeth Ginway is an Associate Professor of Portuguese and the Portuguese Graduate Program Coordinator at the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA. Prof. Ginway’s Areas of Specialization are the Brazilian Literature & Culture and Latin American Science Fiction & Fantasy.
She’s a graduate of Vanderbilt University with a M. A. in Spanish in 1986, and a Ph. D. in Spanish and Portuguese in 1989, at theVanderbilt University (Dissertation: “The Brazilian Miracle: Technology and Fiction in Brazil, 1959-1979”, Alexandrino Severino, director.)
Prof. Ginway is the author of the renown study “Brazilian Science Fiction: Cultural Myths and Nationhood in the Land of the Future”, Lewisburg, PA,USA: Bucknell UP, 2004. 288 pp. and co-editor with J. Andrew Brown of “Latin American Science Fiction: Theory and Practice”, New York: Palgrave McMillan, 2012. 241pp. and with Carmen C. McClendon of “Brazil in the Eighties Los Ensayistas Georgia Series on Hispanic Thought”,. Athens, Georgia Department of Romance Languages, 1990. 232 pp.
Articles and Book Chapters on Literature
2013: Entries for online revised edition of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, ed. John Clute.
http://sf-encyclopedia.co.uk/?p=latamspain
– André Carneiro
– Roberto de Sousa Causo
– Gastão Cruls w. Braulio Tavares
– Fausto Cunha
– Menotti Del Picchia
– Monteiro Lobato
– Braulio Tavares
“Introduction.” Co-authored with J. Andrew Brown. Latin American Science Fiction: Theory and Practice. New York: Palgrave McMillan, 2012. 2-15.
“Science Fiction and Metafiction in the Cinematic Works of Brazilian Director Jorge Furtado.” Article co-authored with Alfredo Suppia. Latin American Science Fiction: Theory and Practice. New York: Palgrave McMillan, 2012. 203-223.
“Teaching Latin American Science Fiction: A Case Study.” Teaching Science Fiction. Edited by Peter Wright and Andy Sawyer, Palgrave McMillan, 2011. 179-201.
“Um garimpo no monte de sucata pós-moderno: o pós-humano na ficção científica brasileira.” Translated by César Silva. Anuário Brasileiro de Literatura Fantástica 2009. São Paulo: Tarja. 2010. 153-160.
“Transgendering in Brazilian Speculative Fiction from Machado de Assis to the Present.” Luso-Brazilian Review 47.1 (2010): 40-60.
“Discovering and Re-discovering Brazilian Science Fiction: An Overview.” Co-authored with Roberto de Sousa Causo. Extrapolation 51.1 (2010): 13-39.
Introduction and story translation: “Finisia Fideli: Finding the Female Voice in Brazilian Science Fiction” and “The Resurrection of Lazarus” a story by Finisia Fideli. Femspec Vol 10.1 (2009): 66-82.
Um garimpo no monte de sucata pós moderno: o pós humano na ficção científica contemporânea (2006-2009). Trans. Cesar Silva. Anuário brasileiro de literatura fantástica 2009. Cesar Silva e Marcello Simão Branco eds. Devir: São Paulo, 2010: 153-160.
Interview with Argentine Fantasy Author Liliana Bodoc: Introduction, and Translation from Spanish, Femspec Vol. 9.1 (2008): 20-28.
“The Body Politic in Brazilian Science Fiction: Implants and Cyborgs.” New Boundaries in Political Science Fiction, edited by Donald Hassler and Clyde Wilcox, University of South Carolina Press, 2008. 198-211.
“A cidade pós-moderna.” Trans. Ramiro Giroldo. Em Volta do Mundo em Nove Artigos e um Conto. Ed. Edgar Cézar Nolasco, Rodolfo Londero. Corumbá: Ed. UFMS, 2007. 113-34.
“Chronology of Latin American Science Fiction.” Co-authored with Yolanda Molina-Gavilán, Miguel Ángel Fernández Delgado, Luís Pestarini, Andrea Bell, and Juan Carlos Toledano. Science Fiction Studies 34.3 (2007): 369-431. (Brazil section).
“Do implantado ao ciborgue: o corpo social na ficção científica brasileira.” Revista Iberoamericana octubre-diciembre 221 (2007): 787-99.
“Recent Brazilian Science Fiction and Fantasy Written by Women.” Foundation 36 (99: Spring 2007) 49-62.
“Globalizando e abrasileirando O Senhor dos Anéis.” Anuário Brasileiro de Literatura Fantástica 2005. Cesar Silva e Marcello Simão Branco, eds. Sao Bernardo do Campo-SP: Edições Hiperespaço, 2006. 182-188.
“A Working Model for Analyzing Third World Science Fiction: The Case of Brazil.” Science Fiction Studies (32.3) (2005): 467-94.
“Chico Buarque sob a ótica internacional.” Co-authored with Charles Perrone and Ataíde
Tartari. In Chico Buarque do Brasil: textos sobre as canções, o teatro e a ficção de um artista brasileiro. Rinaldo Fernandes, org. Rio de Janeiro: Garamond-Biblioteca Nacional 2004. 211-216.
“Vampires, Werewolves, and Strong Women: Alternate Histories or the Re-writing of Race and Gender in Brazilian History.” Extrapolation 44.3 (2003): 283-95.
“Fictional Trends in Brazil Under Military Rule.” The Brazil Reader. Ed. Robert Levine and John J. Crocitti. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 1999. 248-253.
“Nation Building and Heroic Undoing: Myth and Ideology in Bom-Crioulo.” Modern Language Studies 28.3, 4 (1998): 41-56.
“Iaiá Garcia: romance de transição na obra machadiana.” Hispania 78.1 (1995): 33-42.
“The Metaphor of Engineering in J. Veiga and Murilo Rubião.” Brasil/Brazil 9 (1993): 46-56.
“Traços do discurso épico em Iracema de José de Alencar.” Homenagem a Alexandrino Serverino. Ed. Margo Milleret and Marshall C. Eakin. Austin, TX: Host Press, 1993.
135-47.
“Surrealist Benjamin Péret and Brazilian Modernism.” Hispania 74.3 (1992): 543-53.
In Press
“A Paradigm of the Tropical: Brazil in Anglo-American Science Fiction and Fantasy.” Article Science Fiction Studies. Accepted: publication date, July 2013.
“Weaving Webs of Intrigue: Rubem Fonseca’s A grande arte as a Work of Analytic Crime Fiction.” Hispania. Accepted July 2012. 25 pp. projected publication Sept. or Dec. 2013.
“O presidente negro: Eugenics, Race and Gender in the Brazil’s Corporate State.” For essay collection, Black and Brown Planets. Isiah Lavender III, ed. Anthology accepted by University of Mississippi Press. 21pp. w. notes.
“A Eugenia, a Mulher e a Literatura Utópica no Brasil 1909-1929” for a volume titled: “Novas Cartografias e Estudos da Ficção Científica Mundial” ed. Alfredo Suppia, to be published by Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, UFJF. Submitted July 2012. 15 pp. w. notes.
Works in Progress:
Article: “Mitos de Amazonia y Atlántida en la ciencia ficción brasileña.” To be included in a volume edited by the Instituto Iberoamericana, Berlin.
“La CF mexicana y brasileña: especulaciones preliminares.” Article requested by Gabriel Trujillo Muñoz.
Article: “The Politics of Allegory: Machado de Assis’s Tales of the Fantastic: Metafiction and the Macabre.” 15 pp. written. To be submitted to the Luso-Brazilian Review.
Book: “The Body in Latin American SF&F: Monsters and Cyborgs.” This is a diachronic study of bodily invasion and modification in popular literature from tales of horror and fantasy from the 1870s through the present. The pulp genres include bodily distortions in fantasy and gothic horror, colonialist lost race narratives and science fiction as they reflect the changing nature of Latin American body politic.
Short online articles:
“Finisia Fideli, encontrando a voz na ficção cientifica brasileira.” Guest article for Terra Magazine columnist Roberto de Sousa Causo, Sat. Oct. 27, 2007
http://terramagazine.terra.com.br/interna/0,,OI2026142-EI6622,00.html
“Libby Ginway fala dos mundos partilhados,” Guest article for Terrra Magazine columnist Roberto de Sousa Causo, July 12, 2008.
http://terramagazine.terra.com.br/interna/0,,OI3003704-EI6581,00.html
Articles on Pedagogy
“Composição no Segundo Ano: Algumas Observações e Opções.” The Portuguese Newsletter. 11.2 (2000): 8.
“Video Use for Portuguese Language and Conversation Classes.” Hispania 74.3 (1991): 775-76.
Interviews and Newspaper Articles :
“Ficção científica: um gênero globalizado.” Entrevista com M. Elizabeth Ginway por Alfredo Suppia. Ciência e Cultura 62.4 (2010): 64-65
Internet Television Interview with César Freitas, “HQ & Cia” São Paulo, June 23, 2007.
http://www.hqcia.com/programa/elizabeth_ginway/
“Locus Reviews Ian McDonald,” Gary K. Wolfe’s Review of Brasyl, by Ian McDonald. http://www.locusmag.com/Features/2007/02/locus-reviews-ian-mcdonald.html
Feb. 22, 2007
“Brazilian Director Shares Lessons with UF Students” Erik Maza, Gainesville Sun CAMPUS, Feb. 21, 2007, 7.
“Astronautas Literários” Rachel Bertol, O Globo, “Prosa & Verso,” April 16, 2006, p. 1.
“Brazilian Films Featured in Hippodrome Series,” Brian Offenther, Gainesville Sun, January 23, 2006, 9A.
Interview article: “Latin American Science Fiction Symposium.” Colin McCandless, Gainesville Sun, Oct. 25, 2005. http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200551024060&source=email
“Ao arqueólogo do futuro: a ficção científica brasileira e seus futuros possíveis”Sept. 1, 2005.
http://agenciacartamaior.uol.com.br/agencia.asp?coluna=arqueologo
Interview: “Ficção alienígena.” Rascunho, O jornal de literatura do Brasil. Curitiba (Paraná, Brasil). 5 de agosto, 2005, pp. 22-23. www.rascunho.com.br
Interview article: Irinêo Netto, “Outra odisséia no espaço,” Gazeta do Povo, Caderno G, Curitiba (Paraná – Brasil) 24 de julho, 2005, p. 4.
“Libby Ginway.” Entrevista/Interview com Carlos Neves, junho, 2003 http://www.alanmooresenhordocaos.hpg.ig.com.br/entrevistas27a.htm
Book Reviews
Haywood-Ferreira, Rachel. The Emergence of Latin American Science Fiction. Middletown,CT: Wesleyan UP, 2011. xi + 303 pp. Print. Revista de Estudios Hispánicos.
Valente, Luiz Fernando. Mundivivências: Leituras comparativas de Guimarães Rosa. Belo Horizonte: UFMG P, 2011. 163pp. Print. Hispania.
Assembleia estelar: histórias de ficção científica política. Intro. e edição Marcello Simão Branco. São Paulo: Devir, 2011. 400pp. Terra Magazine, Colunista, Roberto de Sousa Causo. 14 de maio, 2011.
http://terramagazine.terra.com.br/interna/0,,OI5128433-EI6622,00.html
Cosmos Latinos: An Anthology of Science Fiction from Latin America and Spain. Ed. Andrea Bell and Yolanda Molina-Gavilán. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan UP, 2003. 352 pp. Science Fiction Research Association Review 270 Oct./Nov./ Dec. 2004: 15-18.
“Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror in Brazil, 1875-1959.” Ficção científica, fantasia e horror no Brasil 1875-1950. Roberto de Sousa Causo.Belo Horizonte: UFMG, 2003. Extrapolation 44.3 (2003): 380-84.
“The Literature of the Turn of the Century: The End of Utopia?” A Literatura da Virada do Século Fim das Utopias? Izarra, Laura P. Zuntini de. Ed. São Paulo: University of São Paulo 2001. Utopian Studies 13.2 (2002): 152-54.
Terra Verde. Roberto de Sousa Causo. São Paulo: Cone Sul, 2000, and Amazon, Ataíde Tartari. San Jose, New York, Lincoln, Shanghai: Writers Club Press, 2001. Hispania, 85: 3 (2002): 563-64.
O Crítico-Fã: Resenhas de Fiçcão Científica, Fantasia, Horror e Outras Formas Invisíveis de Literatura. Ed. Roberto de Sousa Causo. Brasópolis, Minas Gerais Edgard Guimarães, 1999. Biblioteca Essencial da Ficção Científica, Vol. 4. Science Fiction Studies 28 (2001): 310-311.
Prêmio Nova de Ficção Científica: Os Primeiros Dez Anos. Ed. Marcelo Simão Branco. Brasópolis Minas Gerais Edgard Guimarães, 1998. Biblioteca Essencial da Ficção Científica, Vol. 3. Science Fiction Studies 28 (2001): 309-310.
Jewish Voices in Brazilian Literature A Prophetic Discourse of Alterity, by Nelson H. Vieira. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1995. South Atlantic Review 62.1 (1997):
147-49.
Carlos Lacerda, Brazilian Crusader. Vol. 1. The Years 1914-60, by John W. Foster Dulles. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1991. Hispania 75.3 (1992): 1192-93.
Antônio de Castro Alves: The Major Abolitionist Poems. Introduction and translation by Amy K. Peterson. New York: Garland, 1990. Hispania 75.2 (1992): 345-46.
Opúsculo Humanitário, by Nísia Floresta. Introduction and notes by Peggy Sharpe-Valadares. Brasília: INEP, 1989. Hispania 74.3 (1991) 680-81.
Retired Dreams: Dom Casmurro, Myth and Modernity, by Paul B. Dixon. West Lafayette, IN, Purdue UP, 1989. Hispania 74.3 (1991): 680-81.
Translation and Introductions:
Translated from Portuguese: Braulio Tavares. “João Guimarães Rosa’s “A Young Man, Gleaming, White” and the Protocol of the Question.” Ed. M. Elizabeth Ginway and J. Andrew Brown. Latin American Science Fiction: Theory and Practice.” New York: Palgrave McMillan, 2012. 61-72.
Translated from Portuguese: Octávio Aragão. “Brazilian Science Fiction and the Visual Arts: From Political Cartoons to Conttemporary Comics.” Ed. M. Elizabeth Ginway and J. Andrew Brown. Latin American Science Fiction: Theory and Practice.” New York: Palgrave McMillan, 2012. 185-202.
Translated from Spanish: Ana María Sánchez. “Between Utopia and Inferno (Julio Cortázar’s Version).” Julio Cortázar, New Readings. Ed. Carlos Alonso. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1996. 19-35.
Introduction: FCB do B, Panorama da Ficção Científica Brasileira. Rio de Janeiro: Corifeu, 2007. 2-4.
Introduction: “Apresentação: Mulheres na literatura—fantásticas.” Lugar de mulher é na cozinha: histórias fantásticas do universo feminino. Ed. Martha Argel. São Paulo: Draco, 2012. 11-12.
Grants and Honors
2012 : Latin American Studies Course Development Grants (3000) for Spanish Amer. SF
2011 : Convocation, Faculty Honorees: University faculty designated as outstanding by the student award winners listed in this program
2010 : Nominated for College Teaching Award
2010 : FEO for Travel, SF in Spanish (15757) Summer A, 2010
2010 : Course Development for Favela FLAC Course (2700)
2008–09 : Colonel Allen and Margaret Crow Term Professorship (5000)
2007 : Course Development Grant for Science Fiction and Fantasy in Latin America (2500)
2007 : University of Florida International Center Grant Travel Grant for the Brazilian Filmmaker Joel Zito Araújo for Black History Month (1500)
2006 : Course Development for Brazilian Culture in Rio de Janeiro POR 3500 (1500)
2005 : HSBC Grant for Symposium: Latin America Writes Back, Oct. 27-29 (10,000)
Internal funding: Center for Latin American Studies, Department of Romance Languages, Global Studies, University of Florida International Center, ORTGE
2001 : Romance Languages Research Award
2001 : University of Florida International Center, Producer/writer for the Video CD-ROM for the Program in Rio de Janeiro.
2001 : University of Florida International Center, Planner/Host, Brazil Week and 20th Anniversary of the Program in Rio de Janeiro
1999 : Romance Languages Research Award
1998 : Humanities Enhancement Award, University of Florida
1998 : Romance Languages Research Award, University of Florida (declined)
1990–91 : Lilly Teaching Fellowship, University of Georgia
1990 : Sarah Moss Research Grant, University of Georgia
1983–86 : Harold Stirling Vanderbilt Scholar, Vanderbilt University
1982–83 : Fulbright Scholarship for research in São Paulo, Brazil
Invited Talks
“Mitologia na ficção cientifica brasileira.” Iberoamerikanisches Institut, Berlin, Germany, May 7, 2013.
“Literatura brasileira em chave comparada.” V Encontro International: Conexões: Literatura Brasileira no Exterior: formas de estudo e modos de difusão. Itaú Cultural, São Paulo. Nov. 23, 2012.
“Rubem Fonseca and Brazil’s Crime and Detective Fiction.” Brigham Young University, March 11, 2011
“The Body Politic in Latin American Science Fiction: Implants and Cyborgs.” Luso-Brazilian Keynote Luncheon Speaker, Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, April, 21, 2007.
“Literature under Military Dictatorship in Brazil.” Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia. May 1998
At University of Florida
“Emergent Brazil and Science Fiction” March 14, 2013. Manuel Vazquez’s LAS 4935 Seminar.
Entre nous series, Romance Languages: “Detective Fiction in Brazil.” Panel Discussion with Natalia Jacovkis, Deborah Amberson, moderator Nov. 28, 2006, University of Florida.
“Eugenics and Literary Utopias in Brazil 1909-1929.” History of Science Colloquium Series, Oct. 12, 2006, University of Florida.
Conference papers and Roundtables
“Monteiro Lobato’s O presidente negro.” Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington KY, April 20, 2013.
“Biological and Cybernetic Metaphors of Resistance in Brazilian Cyberpunk.” ICFA, Orlando FL, March 2013.
“Machado de Assis’s Tales of the Fantastic: Politics, Metaficion and the Macabre”
Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington, KY April 19, 2012
“Dictatorship, Trauma and the Monstruous Fantastic in Tales from the Brazilian Amazon”
International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando FL March 20, 2012
“Robots, Atlanteans, and Zombies: the Post-humans of Brazilian Steampunk”
International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts March 2011
“Science Fiction in the Cinematic Works of Jorge Furtado.” With Alfredo Suppia. Eaton Conference on Science Fiction, Riverside CA, Feb. 2011.
“Borderlands: the Hybrid Body and Cyborgs in Mexican Science Fiction and Film.” XVI Annual Mexican Conference, University of California, Irvine, April 2010
“Implants and Alex Rivera’s Film, Sleep Dealer (2008)” Fantastic n the Arts, March 2010, Orlando, FL
“Tales of the Amazon and Atlantis in Brazilian Science Fiction.” Eaton Conference, University of California, Riverside, May 2009.
“Scouring the Postmodern Scrapheap: The Post-human in Third Wave Brazilian Science Fiction.” International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts, March 2009, Orlando, FL
“Menotti Del Picchia’s Adventure Trilogy.” Fourth Interdisciplinary Colloquium, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida Feb. 2009
“Visão Alienígena: Outros Olhares da Literatura Fantástica Brasileira.” Round table, Elizabeth Ginway and Alexandre Linhares. “Fantasticon.” São Paulo, July 2008.
“Teaching About Postcolonialism: Representations of Brazil in Anglo-American SF.” SFRA 2008 Lawrence, Kansas, July, 2008.
“The Amazonian ‘Lost Race’ Novels of Brazil: A Virgin Territory of its Very Own.” Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington, KY, April 2008.
“Transgendered Characters in Brazilian Speculative Fiction: from the Sublime to the Absurd”
International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, FL March 2008
“As mulheres presentes na literatura fantástica,” Mesa redonda: Elizabeth Ginway, Helena Gomes e Finisia Fideli, Fantasticon, São Paulo, July 2007.
“Finisia Fideli: Finding the Female Voice in Brazilian Science Fiction.” International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, March 2007.
“Literary Allusion in the Detective Fiction of Rubem Fonseca.” SAMLA, Charlotte, NC, Nov.. 2006
“Do implantado ao ciborgue: A violência dentro corpo social na ficção científica latinoamericana contemporânea.” 2nd Colloquium on Hispanic/Latin American Literatures, Linguistics and Cultures. University of Florida, Gainvesville, Oct. 2006.
“The Brazilian Fantasy Genre 2001-2004: Globalizing and Brazilianizing The Lord of the Rings.” International Conference: Fantastic in the Arts, Ft. Lauderdale, March 2005.
“Transgenderings in Luso-Brazilian Speculative Fiction: Machado de Assis, André Carneiro and Sacha Ramos” MLA Conference, Philadelphia, Dec. 2004.
“Critical Approaches to Science Fiction in the Third World: the Case of Brazil.” SAMLA, Roanoke VA, Nov. 2004.
“Recent Science Fiction Written by Women” for the panel: The Future is Now. The Emergence of Science Fiction in Spanish and Portuguese in the U.S.” LASA, Las Vegas, October 2004.
“College Portuguese Offerings in the Southeastern United States.” Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, April 2004.
“Hard Science Fiction: The Legacy of Dictatorship in Brazil.” International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts.” Ft. Lauderdale, March 2004.
“Brazilian Science Fiction Written by Women 1960-2000.” Kentucky Foreign Language Conference April, 2003
“Dark Fantasy in Brazilian Science Fiction: Marcia Kupstas’s O demônio do computador.” International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts,Ft. Lauderdale, March 2003
“Ecological Dystopias and Ecofeminism in Plinio Cabral and Ignácio de Loyola Bradão. SAMLA, Baltimore, MD, November, 2002.
“Vampires and Strong Women, Alternative Histories or Re-writing Brazilian Colonization.” AATSP, Rio de Janeiro, August 2002.
“O passado, o presente e o futuro da ficção científica brasileira.” Organizer and Moderator, AATSP, Rio de Janeiro, August 2002
“Tupinipunk or Brazilian Cyberpunk.” Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, April 2002.
“Cyborg as Racial Other Continuity and Change in Brazilian Science Fiction.” SAMLA, Atlanta, GA, November 2001.
“Alien-Nation The Alien as Other in Brazilian Society.” Narrative: An International Conference. Atlanta, Georgia. April 2000.
“Unrealized, Unreconciled and Unredeemed Miscegenation in O mulato.” LASA, Miami, FL. March 2000.
“Researching Brazilian Science Fiction.” Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials. Nashville, Tennessee. June 1999.
“Writing Against American Science Fiction Paradigms.” Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington, KY, April 1999
“Rewriting the Masters and the Slaves: Brazilian Science Fiction 1960-1963.” Modern Language Association, San Francisco, December, 1999.
“The Eugenics Movement and Utopian Literature in Brazil 1909-1929.” South Atlantic Modern Language Association, Atlanta, Georgia, Nov. 1997.
“Portuguese Language Consortium in Florida Recruitment.” Portuguese Language Development Group, AATSP, Orlando, Florida, August, 1996
“The Monstrous Tenement Aluísio Azevedo’s O cortiço.” AATSP, San Diego, California, August, 1995.
“Transformations of Myth in Caminha’s Bom-Crioulo.” AATSP, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, August, 1994.
“Uma leitura mítica de Luzia-Homem.” Mountain Interstate Foreign Language Conference,
Clemson, South Carolina, October, 1993.
“Eça e o Naturalismo no Brasil.” AATSP, Phoenix, Arizona, August 1993.
“Censorship and Identity the Quest Myth in Adaptação do Funcionário Ruam.” SAMLA, Knoxville, Tennessee, November, 1992.
“An Overview of Technology in Contemporary Brazilian Fiction.” Northeast Regional Meeting, AATSP Manchester, New Hampshire, September, 1992.
“Continuity and Change in Brazilian Science Fiction: the Case of Jorge Luiz Calife.” The Fantastic and the Arts, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, March 1992.
“Brazilian Dystopias.” AATSP, Chicago, Illinois, August, 1991.
“Brazilian Science Fiction The Bureaucrat’s Adaptation and Zamyatin’s We.” The Fantastic in the Arts, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, March 1991.
“Benjamin Péret in Brazil Cultural Criticism or Cultural Exoticism?” Modern Language Association, Chicago, Illinois, December, 1990.
“Technological Fiction and Two Women Writers Maria Alice Barroso and Ruth Bueno.” AATSP, Miami, Florida, March 1990.
“Two Brazilian Dystopias of the 1970s.” Louisiana Conference on Hispanic Languages and Literatures. Baton Rouge, Louisiana, February, 1990.
“A Mechanical World Erotic Force in Rubem Fonseca’s O Caso Morel.” Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington, Kentucky, April, 1989.
“The Metaphor of Engineering in J. Veiga and Murilo Rubião.” Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington, Kentucky, April, 1988.
“Universe in Crisis The Role of Technology in J. Veiga.” Mountain Interstate Foreign Language Conference, Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina, October, 1985.
“Benjamin Péret and Brazilian Modernism.” Mountain Interstate Foreign Language Conference, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee, 1984.
