Bárbara Aranda, M.A.

PhD Candidate in Romanic Studies (associated, DIMAS)

Contact

Universität Regensburg
DIMAS | Department for Interdisciplinary and Multiscalar Area Studies
Bajuwarenstraße 4
93049 Regensburg
Germany

+49 (0)941 / 943-68561 barbara.aranda@zea.uni-regensburg.de

Doctoral Project

Beyond the Borders of the Hero: Reimagining Travel Narratives in Contemporary Latin American Literature

Narration and travel appear deeply linked from their genesis, from the moment in which the need to narrate arises, to tell what has happened during the journey, to transmit what has been seen or learned. The paradigmatic image of the journey, from the Western European context, is the one that illustrates Odysseus’ journey to Ithaca: the hero, as the central figure of the story, stands as the human ideal (Curtius 1955) and gives rise to the heroic ethos. Yet this exact ethos and perspective supersedes others. As Le Guin (2019) discusses, to think about history is necessarily to think about the history of the hero, about narratives of magnificence, of power, of violence, narratives that are constructed from a deeply patriarchal and, in some contexts, colonial lens. The following questions then arise: What would happen if we were to change the form of this heroic ethos, with which we narrate our stories and, consequently, our journeys? What happens to travel narratives when we broaden their interpretative possibilities and when we question dominant narratives? And furthermore, what happens with narration when we shift our attention to other journeys and ways in which they are narrated?

This research project aims to contribute to the field of literary studies by offering new insights into the representation of other journeys in Latin American literature. The project will use a qualitative comparative literary analysis methodology. A selection of novels written by contemporary Latin American female authors that portray a journey will be chosen for in-depth study. The selected novels will be examined in terms of the key elements present in travel narratives as compiled from different authors. These fundamental elements will be enriched by the specificities found in the analysis of the novels, where new categories may emerge and others may be superseded.

Curriculum Vitae

Bárbara Aranda C. is a doctoral researcher at the Professorship of Spatial Dimensions of Cultural Processes at DIMAS. She holds an MA in Iberoamerican Studies from the University of Heidelberg, as well as dual BA degrees in Literature and Linguistics and Education and Educational Sciences from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. Her professional experience encompasses teaching roles in Latin American literature and culture, as well as Spanish, at various institutions in Chile and Germany. Furthermore, she has engaged in research across a range of projects, in addition to undertaking translation work between English and Spanish, as well as providing assistance with book editing.