Mary Beth Tierney-Tello

Professor of Hispanic Studies

Contact

Phone: 508-286-3625

Education

Ph.D., Hispanic Studies, Brown University
A.M., Hispanic Studies, Brown University
B.A., Wellesley College

About

Main Interests

My main areas of specialization are twentieth-century Latin American narrative, Latin American women’s writing, literature and culture under dictatorship, and verbal and visual collaborations.

Publications

Books

Reimaginar la niñez: memoria y sujeto nacional en las narrativas de infancia del Perú, Fondo Editorial de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, (2022)

Mining Memory: Reimagining Self and Nation through Narratives of Childhood in PeruBucknell University Press, (2017)

Photography and Writing in Latin America: Double Exposures. Co-edited with Marcy Schwartz. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, (2006).

Allegories of Transgression and Transformation: Experimental Fiction by Women Writing Under Dictatorship, SUNY Press, Albany, New York (1996).

Articles

“Remembering Childhood: Critical Memory Through Text and Image in Miguel Gutiérrez’s La destrucción del reino”. Mosaic. 41.2. ( June 2008).

“‘Lo nuestro y lo femenino: la identidad local y la mujer en País de Jauja de Edgardo Rivera Martínez”. In Edgardo Rivera Martínez: nuevas lecturas. César Ferreira, ed. Lima: Fondo Editorial de la Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos ( 2006).

“On Making Images Speak: Writing and Photography in Three Texts from Chile.” In Photography and Writing in Latin America: Double Exposures. Co-edited with Marcy Schwartz. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, (2006).

“Reading and Writing a Feminist Poetics: Reina Roffés La rompiente,” in Teoría y práctica de la narrativa de mujeres en Latinoamérica en la condición postmoderna y postcolonial, ed. Sara Castro-Klarén, Proyecto IAFSL-DFG Pluralidad de discursos, University of Leipzig, Germany (2003).

“Through a Child’s Eyes: Narrative and Social Critique in Laura Riesco’s Ximena de dos caminos.” Revista de estudios hispánicos XXXIII. 2 (May, 1999): 237-264.

“Testimony, Ethics, and the Aesthetic in Diamela Eltit.” PMLA 114.1 (January 1999): 78-96.

“Política, estética y sexualidad: algunas escritoras latinoamericanas frente al autoritarismo” in Perspectivas sobre la cultura hispánica: XV aniversario de una colaboración interuniversitaria, John P. Gabriele and Andreina Bianchini, coords. Córdoba: Universidad de Córdoba, 1997 (383-404).

Lectures

“Exclusiones sociales y ciudadanía cultural en Las malas intenciones de Rocío García-Montero”. LASA 2015. San Juan, Puerto Rico. May 27-30, 2015.

“Memoria y desmemoria: texto y fotografía en Los cachorros de Mario Vargas Llosa”. LASA 2009. Río de Janeiro, Brazil. June 11-14, 2009.

“Recordando lo local: El retorno a lo subjetivo en Entre el amor y la furia de Maruja Martínez” XVI Congreso de la Asociación Internacional de Literatura Femenina Hispánica (AILFH), Ogden, Utah, October 5-8, 2006.

“Entre la memoria crítica y la nostalgia: las memorias de la infancia en el Perú,” JALLA 2006 (Jornadas Andinas de Literatura Latinoamericana). Bogotá, Colombia, August 14-18, 2006.

“Crónicas de la niñez: entre la nostalgia y la memoria crítica,” LASA 2006. San Juan, Puerto Rico. March 15-18, 2006.

“Memorias de la ciudad habitada: El paisaje urbano entre fotografía y texto en Guía negra de Santiago y San Felipe Blues” LASA 2004. 25th International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, Las Vegas, Nevada, October 2004.

“Lo nuestro” y lo femenino: la representación de la mujer en País de Jauja de Edgardo Rivera Martínez,” JALLA 2004 (Jornadas Andinas de Literatura Latinoamericana). Lima, Peru, August 9-13, 2004.

“Geografías de la niñez: Territorios de utopía y mestizaje en la ficción peruana,” LASA 2003, 24th International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, Dallas, Texas, March 27-29, 2003.

“Between Word and Image: Writing and Photography in Four Chilean Texts,” Invited lecture. Harvard University, December 5, 2002.

“Entre la palabra y la imagen en El infarto del alma,” XIII Congreso de la Asociación Internacional de Literatura Femenina Hispánica, Santo Domingo, República Dominicana, 24 al 27 de octubre del 2002.

“Paradise Imagined / Paradise Lost: Children and Space in Peruvian Narrative,” 55th Annual Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, University of Kentucky, April 18-20, 2002.

“On Making Images Speak: Writing and Photography in Chile,” Binghamton University, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, 13th Annual Conference, March 15-16, 2002.

“On Making Images Speak: Photographic/Literary Collaborations in Chile.” Latin American Studies Association congress, LASA 2000, 22nd International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, Miami, Florida, March, 2000.

“Testimony and Two Texts by Diamela Eltit,” José Amor y Vasquez Lecture in Hispanic Studies, Invited lecture. Brown University, December 7, 1998.

“La política, la aestética y la sexualidad: algunas escritoras latinoamericanas frente al autoritarismo,” PRESHCO y la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Córdoba, Spain, March 20, 1996.

Teaching Interests

In addition to courses in Spanish language, I also teach a variety of literature and culture courses including a survey course on twentieth century Latin American literature, a multi-disciplinary course in Latin American culture and civilization, and a First Year Seminar in English entitled “Art and Social Change in Latin America.” I have also taught the following senior seminars since coming to Wheaton: “Verbal and Visual Memory in Latin America,” “Rites of Representation: Text and Image in Latin America,” “Latin American Women’s Writing and Art,” “Narratives of Childhood and Coming of Age in Latin American, Spanish and Latino Fiction and Film,” “The Cultural (Re)production of the Mexican Revolution,” and “The Fantastic in Latin American Literature.”

Research Interests

Text and image, particularly in relation to the political uses of memory, in Latin America.

My current book-length research project looks at representations of childhood and memory in twentieth century Peruvian narratives.