A core component of CSREA is supporting faculty and advanced students in the development of cutting-edge, collaborative intellectual work. “What I Am Thinking About Now” is an informal workshop/seminar series where faculty and graduate students present recently published works and works in progress for early-stage feedback and development.
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Adrián E. Hernández Acosta, Postdoctoral Research Associate in International Humanities, Hispanic Studies and Cogut Institute
Notes on Metamorphosis in the Mortuary Poetics of Caribbean Literature
This talk presents a cross-section of my current book project, which proposes “mortuary poetics” as a framework for exploring how Caribbean literature cares for the dead and how religious practices in the region form an integral part of its literary care. With examples from Haitian, Dominican, Cuban, and Puerto Rican artistic catalogues, this talk highlights both the possibilities and limits of metamorphosis as a key tension in how Caribbean literature draws from religious practice to care for the dead.
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Adrián is an interdisciplinary humanities scholar whose research and teaching explore formations of race, gender, and sexuality through readings of African diaspora religions—broadly understood—in Hispanophone Caribbean literature and culture. Adrián’s current project provides a critical inventory of the ways in which African diaspora religions are portrayed in scenes of death and mourning within Dominican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban literature, film, and visual art. Analyzing this critical inventory leads him to propose a “mortuary poetics” as a fruitful framework for thinking about mourning, literature, and religion in a Caribbean context. This semester, Adrián is teaching a Spanish-language course on mourning and experimental form in 20th and 21st century Hispanophone Caribbean literature.