{"id":251,"date":"2014-12-09T11:20:03","date_gmt":"2014-12-09T16:20:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/spanishandportuguese\/?p=251"},"modified":"2014-12-12T10:59:31","modified_gmt":"2014-12-12T15:59:31","slug":"antonio-soler-on-contemporary-spanish-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/spanishandportuguese\/2014\/12\/09\/antonio-soler-on-contemporary-spanish-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Antonio Soler on Contemporary Spanish Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, December 3, Spanish novelist Antonio Soler gave a lecture entitled “Contemporary Spanish Culture: 39 years of democracy after 39 years of dictatorship<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

Among other topics, Soler spoke about the recent history of Spain in relation to Spanish literature and culture and how the major publishing houses, driven by demands to be profitable,\u00a0<\/span>have encouraged\u00a0authors to create uncomplicated, easily read literature that doesn’t require much thought from the reader.<\/p>\n

The talk was in Spanish with an English translation by Giulia Pagano ’17.\u00a0 The translation was projected on a screen behind the speaker so that all audience members could understand.<\/p>\n

A question and answer session followed the talk, where Prof. Aldrich and Prof. Margaret Frohlich translated Soler’s answers into English as he spoke.<\/p>\n

Student Kathryn Cargill ’16 said of the lecture, “Soler’s talk was highly informative and thought-provoking. He seemed a bit pessimistic about the route that Spanish literature is taking, but his answers to audience questions proved that he does have hope for the future.”<\/p>\n

Soler is the Fall 2014 Writer-in-Residence for the Spanish and Portuguese department. He has been working with Prof. Aldrich’s SPAN 340 class<\/a>, “Spanish Literature of the Transition (1968-1998): Encounters with the Imagination and the Other” this semester. Also, on November 13, he gave a reading of and talk about his short story, “Lil\u00ed<\/a>.”<\/p>\n\n\t\t