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Fernando Plata, Professor of Spanish
My research focuses on issues of textual scholarship and literary history in Francisco de Quevedo and Calderón de la Barca. Textual scholarship as a discipline views all editing as an act of interpretation, to borrow McGann’s formulation.
In other words, the study and analysis of the textual transmission of a poem is itself a hermeneutic activity, not just the mechanical application of an ecdotic methodology.
In my publications, textual criticism opens the door to the examination of larger theoretical and practical issues: the modus operandi of the Spanish Inquisition regarding book censorship; the reception of the classics; books and libraries in 17th-century Spain; theories of translation; and the fascination that Calderón shows for a pre-cinematic artifact, the mundinovo or raree-show, to give just a few examples.
Contact Information
Mail: 212 Lawrence Hall
Office: Romance Languages
Phone: 315 2287088
Email: Fplata@colgate.edu
Department Affiliation
Romance Languages
Teaching & Research
Title
Professor of Spanish
Degree
Licenciado, Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain 1987; MA, PhD University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 1989,1994
Teaching Experience
Colgate University; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Graduate Seminars: Universidad de Santiago; Universidad de Navarra.
Specialities
Renaissance and Baroque Spanish literature, Spanish language
Interests
Golden Age literature; Quevedo; Calderón; satirical literature; textual criticism; rhetoric and poetics; Early Modern Europe
Publications
Books:
Critical editions, Calderón de la Barca, La vida es sueño. (Kassel, forthcoming)
——, Calderón de la Barca, El pastor Fido. (Kassel, 2003)
——, Calderón de la Barca, La primer flor del Carmelo (Kassel, 1998)
Ocho poemas satíricos de Quevedo (Pamplona, 1997)
Edited volumes:
Guest-editor, La imagen de la mujer y el amor en Quevedo (La Perinola. Revista de investigación quevediana, 2005)
Co-editor, Estudios de Filología y Retórica en Homenaje a Luisa López Grigera (Bilbao, 2000)
Selected Articles:
«De tártaros, arcos y flechas: los cinco sentidos y la fe en una loa barroca de Calderón.» In Entre Cielos e Infiernos. Memoria del V Encuentro Internacional sobre Barroco (La Paz, 2010)
«Mundinovos y espejos deformantes: el mundo al revés en una mojiganga inédita de Calderón» (Criticón, 2009)
«Lorca y el auto La vida es sueño de Calderón.» In Teatro español. Autores clásicos y modernos. Homenaje a Ricardo Doménech (Madrid, 2008).
«On Love and Occasion: A Reading of the "Tale of Inappropriate Curiosity."» In Cervantes and don Quixote. Proceedings of the Delhi Conference on Miguel de Cervantes (Hyderabad, 2008).
«El "jocoso numen" de Sor Juana desde la teoría de los géneros satíricos en el renacimiento» (Rilce. Revista de Filología Hispánica, 2007)
«Edición de las Controversias de Séneca, texto inédito de Francisco de Quevedo» (La Perinola. Revista de investigación quevediana, 2001)
«Una nota sobre Lope de Vega y las 'líneas del amor' de Terencio» (Romance Notes, 1992).Travel
Talks delivered in universities in India, Bolivia, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Germany, Holland, and the United States.
Archival research conducted in libraries in Argentina, Spain, Portugal, the UK, and the US.
Professional Experience
Chair of the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, 2002-2005.
Director, Vassar-Wesleyan-Colgate Program in Spain, 2000-2001
Director, Colgate's Madrid Study Group, 2004, 2005, 2009.
Distinctions
Associate Faculty Leave. Colgate University Research Council 2006; Hearst Fellowship. Colgate University Research Council 2002-2003; Interfraternity and Panhellenic Councils, Colgate University Faculty Award 2000; Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship, University of Michigan 1992-1993.
Board Membership
Member, Editorial Board of La Perinola. Revista de Investigación Quevediana.
Book Review Editor, Rilce. Revista de Filología Hispánica.