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First SLLC Research Forum
November 19, 2007
The First School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Research Forum, initiated by Professors Peter Beicken, Sandra Cypess and Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, featured Professor Carmen Benito-Vessels, Chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. After a general introduction by Peter Beicken, Sandra Cypess introduced her colleague Benito-Vessels as an accomplished scholar/teacher whose vibrant scholarship has contributed significantly and profoundly to a number of research specialties.
A specialist in Medieval Spanish Literature and Cultures, Medieval Historiography, Women and Ethnic Diversity in Medieval Spain, and History of the Spanish Language, Prof. Benito-Vessels presented: "Crafting Words and Carving Meaning: Heterodox Language Theoreticians in Medieval and Golden Age Spanish Literature." This presentation reflected the most relevant findings of her recent book publication and outlined a new project on conceptual metaphors in medieval Spanish and their impact on modern language use.
In her latest book Prof. Benito-Vessels examines, from a multi- disciplinary perspective, the perception and interpretation of language in Spanish literature, from the middle ages to modern times: "La palabra en el tiempo de las letras. Una historia heterodoxa." ('The Word in the Time of Letters. An Unorthodox History,' 2007) While this study forges a bridge between classical philosophy, Judeo-Christian tradition and contemporary philosophy, Judeidad (Jewishness) is revealed as an essential element of Spanish language and culture.
Prof. Benito-Vessels’ talk, supported by a multi-faceted power point presentation, addressed the intertwined nature of medieval Spanish reflection of language and language theories that incorporate antique and biblical notions of the origin and function of language. Theories of a universal language informed the 13th century Castilian school of translators and scribes who used elaborate pictorial representations to explain texts and language uses. In the Golden Age, Cervantes created a model of the novel revealing how language is also a form of life that enables us to be one with the other. This encompassing notion of language developed further into the modern period where poets and philosophers, e.g. Antonio Machado and Miguel de Unamuno, enhance the concept of language as a form of life that provides access to truth and is a pristine vehicle for thought.
In her new project, Prof. Benito-Vessels will focus again on medieval Spanish to explore how conceptual metaphors reveal the poesis of everyday language. Placing language use, in particular the use of conceptual metaphors, into the cultural productivity of the time, Prof. Benito-Vessels will examine the creative dimensions that are germane to medieval Spanish in order to better understand today’s language uses. This project also entails a close look at factors that reveal diverse cultural influences within the language community. After her well-received presentation Prof. Benito-Vessels addressed, in the lively discussion period, issues of interdisciplinarity, intermediality and cross-over such as the relationship of peninsula Spanish to the language developments overseas or the impact of Arabic on medieval Spanish. This splendid presentation inaugurated the well-attended SLLC Research Forum as an arena for interdisciplinary scholarly exchange and synergy in the SLLC. Future speakers will be Dr. Karimi-Hakkak in March and Dr. Sandra Cypess in April.
