Education

since 2014	PhD in Hispanic Literature, El Colegio de México (current)
2013	Specialization in Mexican Literature, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana
2008	Bachelor in Latin American Studies, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico

Professional Experience

08/2013 - 07/2014	Teacher of “Introduction to literary translation”, Centro de Creación Literaria Xavier Villaurrutia Instituto Nacional de las Bellas Artes
08/2011 - 01/2013	Translator of portuguese-spanish, spanish-portuguese, CitiTraductores, Intérpretes y Editores S.C.
08/2010 - 07/2011	Assistant professor for Cultural Theory, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
08/2008 - 07/2012	Coordinator of the Library and Information Services, Centro Cultural Brasil-México
06/2008 - 06/2010	Teacher of Language and Literature, nstituto de Educación Media Superior D. F.

"Theatrical resources as narratives strategies in La morada en el tiempo by Esther Seligson and Los puentes de Königsberg by David Toscana"

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Supervisor: Dr. Luz Elena Gutiérrez de Velasco Romo (Colmex)

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Many novels have been adapted to the theatre, but a few dramatic texts have become novels. Although at first glance it seems an unequal relationship, ties between narrative and drama theatre overstep generic models. Adaptation is not the only way to link these genres: just as there are plays that take shape based on narrative elements, there are novels that are configured based on specific theatrical elements. My research project is going to focus on structuring of the story based on the use of theatrical resources in a couple of hybrid novels from two contemporary Mexican authors: Esther Seligson and David Toscana.

La morada en el tiempo and Los puentes de Königsberg do not have the same thematic or chronological line which could be associate them. However, the narrative construction of the two works is quite similar, because they integrate elements from other genres in a fragmentary speech. Seligson and Toscana use scenic resources in the configuration of the characters, the space and time of narration which provides a theatrical effect of the narrated events. For this reason, I start off the concept of the novel as an open subgenre that allows the inclusion of other types of text. The work of Seligson is built on the reprocessing of a passage from the Torah, where Jeremiah is presented as the guiding thread of this fragmentary tale that wanders between the dream and the myth. In contrast, the romance by Toscana is located in the city of Monterrey during the Second World War, but his characters constantly referred to the destruction of Königsberg (current Kaliningrad, Russia), by the Englis army in 1945. So, they recreate warlike scenarios in a neutral country. These romances reinvent the mythical stories as historical events starting from the use of theatrical elements in their prose.

The use of theatrical resources in the narrative presupposes the representation of an image of the written word in the mind of the reader. Description plays a fundamental role, since the events are recounted as if they happen within a theatrical stage, i.e., they could be part of the storyline of a dramatic text. In this current research, I argue that theatricality not only concerns the scenic fact, since there are theatrical resources that can presented in narrative texts. Thus, the theatrical resources appear in the story as strategies of construction of the speech, where the mental representation of the written text replaces the representation on the stage.

Models of theatricality, that come from the scenic resources used in narrative, have varied sources from classical theatre to the most innovative proposals of contemporary theatre. One of the currents theatrical models that revolutionized the international scene and left deep traces in Mexican dramaturgy and narrative, was the epic theatre of Bertolt Brecht. Brecht opposed the Aristotelian dramatic model to epic theater, since in his works he did not seek the clash between opposing characters. Nevertheless, he was trying to show the social environment as a result of the people actions. Brechtian theatricality is based on the estrangement effect, i.e., it prevents the identification with the character so that the viewer will remain active in scene, instead of being just a spectator. The Brecht’s theatre looks forward encouraging the social transformation of the public’s reality through the estrangement. This theatrical mechanism was assimilated in the contemporary Mexican narrative, a proof of that are La morada en el tiempo and Los puentes de Königsberg.

 

Articles:

“Traslación y reelaboración poética en "Saudade" y "Machado de Assis" de Julio Torri”, NRFH, (en prensa).

"Variantes y reelaboración del exemplum del hombre y el ave en el Barlaam y Josafat, la Disciplina clericalis y el Libro del caballero Zifar", Medievalia, (en prensa).

“La nieve como ‘hábito del asombro’ en Tedi López Mills y José Lezama Lima”, Texto crítico, 35 (2014), pp. 23-30.

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Translations:

Susana Bassnet, “Jugar con palabras”, trad. Sulemi Bermúdez, en Susana Bassnet, Reflexiones sobre traducción, México, CONACULTA, (en prensa).

Afonso Henriques de Lima Barreto, El triste fin de Policarpo Quaresma, trad. Sulemi Bermúdez, México, CONACULTA, (en prensa).

Antonio Carlos de Souza Lima y Virginia García-Acosta, “Márgenes de la violencia. Subsidios al estudio del problema de la violencia en los contextos mexicano y brasileño”, trad. Sulemi Bermúdez, en Antonio Carlos de Souza Lima y Virginia García-Acosta (orgs.), Margens da violencia. Subsídios ao estudo do problema da violência nos contextos mexicano e brasileiro, Brasilia, ABBA, 2014, pp. 19-24.

Roberto Cardoso de Oliveira, El indio y el mundo de los blancos.Una interpretación sociológica de la situación de los tukuna, trad. Sulemi Bermúdez,México, CIESAS – Embajada de Brasil, 2014.

Heloísa Seixas, “Vitrales”, “Las moscas”, trad. Sulemi Bermúdez, en Consuelo Rodríguez Muñoz y Carlos López Márquez (selecc.), Nado libre. Narrativa brasileña contemporánea, México, UNAM, 2013, pp. 121-136.

Adriana Lisboa, “Botánica”, “Reencuentro”, “Corte y confección”, trad. Sulemi Bermúdez, en Consuelo Rodríguez Muñoz y Carlos López Márquez (selecc.), Nado libre. Narrativa brasileña contemporánea, México, UNAM, 2013, pp. 233-238.

Joaquim MariaMachado de Assis, “El pasado, el presente y el futuro de la literatura”, trad. Sulemi Bermúdez,en J. M.Machado de Assis, Antología de ensayos, México, UNAM, 2011.

Davi Arrigucci Jr, “Movimientos de un lector (ensayos e investigación crítica en Antonio Candido)”, trad. Sulemi Bermúdez,en Davi Arrigucci Jr, La literatura en Brasil e Hispanoamérica. Antología de ensayos, México, UNAM, 2009.

Bruno Reis, “El mercado y la norma: el Estado moderno y la intervención pública en la economía”, trad. Sulemi Bermúdez, Polis, México, UAM, 2009.