Seymour Menton
marked his fiftieth year of teaching with the publication of Historia
verdadera del realismo mágico (Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura
Económica, 1998). It complements Menton's art history book Magic
Realism Rediscovered, 1918-1981 (New Brunswick, NJ: Associated University
Presses, 1983). A specialist in the Latin American short story and novel,
Menton has published 84 articles, 84 reviews and twelve other books
between 1948 and 1998: Saga de México (1955, 1992), El cuento
hispanoamericano (1964) with several updated editions (the lastest one
in 2003), Historia crítica de la novela guatemalteca (1960, 1985),
El cuento costarricense (1964), Teatro Brasileiro Contemporâneo
(1966, 1969), Edition of Tomás Carrasquilla's Frutos de mi tierra
(1972), Prose Fiction of the Cuban Revolution (1975, 1978, 1982), La
novela colombiana: planetas y satélites (1978), Narrativa mexicana
desde "Los de abajo" hasta "Noticias del imperio"" (1991), Translation
of Alvaro Cepeda Samudio's La casa grande (1991), Critical edition of
Mariano Azuela's Los de abajo (1992), and Latin America's New Historical
Novel (1993), Historia verdadera del realismo mágico (1998),
Caminata por la narrativa latinoamericana (2002).
On October
9, 1997, Menton was awarded the Orden Miguel Angel Asturias in Guatemala's
Palacio Nacional. Previously he received the Orden Andrés Bello
(1991) and the Orden Francisco de Miranda (1996) in Caracas. He was
also honored by the Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores
en Monterrey, Mexico (1994). He has taught, lectured or given conference
papers in almost every Latin American country and Spain.
Menton has
taught at U.C.I. since 1965 and was the founding chair of the Department
of Foreign Languages and Literatures, and later of the Department of
Spanish and Portuguese. He previously taught at Dartmouth College (1952-1954)
and the University of Kansas (1954-1965). He holds a B.A. from City
College of New York (1948), an M.A. from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma
de México (1949), and a Ph.D. from New York University.
Since retiring
officially in June 1994, Menton has taught at least one graduate course
every year. In addition to continuing his research in Latin American
fiction, Menton has published several chapters of his somewhat fictionalized
autobiography.
| TEACHING AND RESEARCH INTERESTS |
|
|
Spanish
American prose fiction. |
| Contemporary
Spanish American novel and short story. Historical novel. |
| EDUCATION |
|
| 1952 |
NEW
YORK UNIVERSITY. Doctor of Philosophy. |
| 1949 |
UNIVERSIDAD
NACIONAL AUTÓNOMA DE MÉXICO. Master of Arts. |
| 1948 |
CITY
COLLEGE OF NEW YORK. Bachelor of Arts. |
RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS
| RESEARCH
- BOOKS |
|
| 1.
1992 |
Saga
de México. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1955,
245 pp. The new revised and updated edition of this second-year
college reader, in collaboration with María Herrera Sobek,
was published by the Bilingual Press in early 1992. |
| 2.
1985 |
Historia
crítica de la novela guatemalteca. Guatemala City:
Universidad de San Carlos Press, 1960, 332 pp.; a second revised
and updated edition was published in Guatemala City in August
1985. |
| 3.
|
El
cuento hispanoamericano. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica,
1964, 2 vols., 553 pp.; revised and updated editions in 1970,
1986, and 1991. The Spanish American Short Story. A Critical
Anthology. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980,
hard cover and paperback editions. |
| 4.
1964 |
El cuento costarricense. Historia, antología y bibliografía.
Mexico City: Studium, August 1964, 200 pp. |
| 5.
1969 |
Teatro Brasileiro Contemporâneo, in collaboration
with Wilson Martins, New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1966;
second revised edition, 1969. |
| 6.
|
Prose Fiction of the Cuban Revolution. Austin: University
of Texas Press, August 1975; updated Spanish translation: La
narrativa de la revolución cubana. Madrid: Playor, 1978;
Mexico City: Plaza y Janés, 1982. |
| 7.
1978 |
La
novela colombiana: planetas y satélites. Bogotá:
Plaza y Janés, 1978. 394 pp. |
| 8.
1983 |
Magic
Realism Rediscovered, 1918-1981. East Brunswick, NJ: Associated
University Presses and Philadelphia Art Alliance Press, Jan.
1983. |
| 9.
1991 |
Translation
of Alvaro Cepeda Samudio, La casa grande. Austin:
University of Texas Press, 1991. |
| 10.
1991 |
La
narrativa mexicana desde "Los de abajo" hasta "Noticias
del imperio". Tlaxcala: Universidad Autónoma
de Tlaxcala, 1991. |
| 11.
|
Latin
America's New Historical Novel, 1979-1992. Austin: University
of Texas Press, October 1993. La nueva novela histórica
de la América Latina, 1979-1992. Translated by Seymour
Menton. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, January
1994. |
| 12.
1992 |
Coordinator,
Critical edition of Mariano Azuela's The Underdogs.
Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992. |
| 13.
1998 |
Historia
verdadera del realismo mágico. Mexico City: Fondo
de Cultura Económica, 1998. |
| 14.
|
Caminata
por la narrativa latinoamericana. Mexico City: Fondo de
Cultura Económica, 2002, 800 pages. |
| RESEARCH
- SELECTED ARTICLES |
|
|
Juan
José Arreola and the Twentieth-Century Short Story. Read
at the M.L.A. meeting in Madison, Wisc., Sept. 1957, and later
published in Hispania, XLII, 3 (Sept. 1959), 295-308.
Republished in Spanish in Iberoamérica (Mexico
City: Studium, 1962), a collection of the best Hispania
articles on Latin America, and by the Casa de las Américas
in Havana, 1963. Arreola later dedicated the first part of his
Confabulario total to me. |
| La
novela experimental y la república comprensiva de Hispanoamérica:
estudio analítico y comparativo de Nostromo, Le Dictateur,
Tirano Banderas y El Señor Presidente. Humanitas,
anuario del Centro de Estudios Humanísticos de la Universidad
de Nuevo León, México, I, 1 (1960), 409-464. |
| La
estructura épica de Los de abajo y un prólogo
especulativo. Hispania, L, 4 (Dec. 1967), 1001-1011;
reprinted in La novela iberoamericana contemporánea.
Caracas: Univ. Central de Venezuela, 1968, 215-222; in La
Gaceta, Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica,
1970, 2-8; Letras del Ecuador, no. 148, dic. de 1970,
22-25; La Semana de Bellas Artes, 80, June 13, 1979;
in Aurora Ocampo, ed. La crítica de la novela mexicana
contemporánea. Mexico City: Univ. Nacional Autónoma
de México, 1981; Luis Leal, Mariano Azuela: el hombre,
el médico, el novelista.México:Conaculta, 2001;
a revised version entitled "Texturas épicas de Los
de abajo" appeared in Jorge Ruffinelli, ed. Mariano
Azuela, "Los de abajo". Madrid: Colección
Archivos, 1988. |
| Respirando
el verano, fuente colombiana de Cien años de soledad.
Revista Iberoamericana, XLI, 91 (April-June 1975), 203-217. |
| La
vorágine, Circling the Triangle. Hispania, LIX, 3
(Sept. 1976), 418-434. Reprinted in Montserrat Ordóñez
Vila, La vorágine:textos críticos, Bogotá,
Alianza Editorial, 1987, 199-228. |
| Jorge
Luis Borges, Magic Realist. Hispanic Review, 50 (1982),
411-426. Lectures in Spanish: Colegio de Costa Rica, Aug. 10,
1988; Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, Aug. 30, 1988; Bogotá,
Aug. 10, 1994. |
| The
Last of the Just: Between Borges and García Márquez.
World Literature Today, LIX, 4 (Autumn 1985), 517-524.
Lecture: Puterbaugh Conference, University of Oklahoma, April
19, 1985; U.C. Berkeley, May 1986. |
| Y
la cortina de humo se derrumbó en pedazos (un inmodesto
prólogo posmoderno). La Experiencia Literaria,
Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, UNAM, primavera de 1994,
9-13. |
| Rey
del albor. Madrugada de Julio Escoto: la última novela
nacional y la primera novela cibernética. Cultura
de Guatemala, 22, 2 (mayo-agosto de 201), 59-80. |
LECTURES/CONFERENCES
(most
recent only)
|
|
| 1.
May 24-25, 2002 |
"Tendencias
generales y variantes nacionales: la novela histórica
centroamericana en la época posrevolucionaria, 1989-2002",
Conference on Challenges of Central American Literatures, U.C.L.A. |
| 2.
February 23, 2002 |
"Margarita
está linda la mar y la Nueva Novela Histórica
en la época posrevolucionaria, 1989-2000" in ALEPH
annual conference, Ghent, Belgium. Also gave three other lectures
on the Central American and Caribbean historical novel at the
Universities of Ghent, Antwerp, and Liege, Feb. 19-25, 2002. |
| 3.
March 1-3, 2000 |
March
1-3, 2000: "Sol y sombra: la narrativa postsandinista"
in the Congreso Internacional de Literatura Centroamericana
(CILCA), Antigua, Guatemala. |
| EDITORIAL
POSITIONS |
|
| 1.
1963-1965 |
Editor
of Hispania. |
| 2.
1959-1973 |
Associate
Editor of the Handbook of Latin American Studies for
Central American and Caribbean prose fiction. |
| 3.
1987- |
Member
of the Board of Advisors or Advisory Council of: Hispanic
Review. |
| 4.
1987- |
Revista
Hispánica Moderna |
| 5.
1984- |
Revista
de Estudios Colombianos |
| 6.
1985- |
Hispanic
Journal |
| 7.
1986- |
Estudios
Mexicanos/Mexican Studies |
| 8.
1989- |
Alba
de América |
| 9.
April 1984 |
Journal
of Language for International Business, American Graduate
School of International Management, Arizona |
| PROFESSIONAL
HONORS |
|
| |
Smith-Mundt
Grant for travel and research in Brazil, Dec.1960-Jan. 1961 |
| President
of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese,
1971 |
| Member
of the Executive Committee of the Latin American Studies Association,
1970-1972 |
| Organization
of American States Research Fellowship in Colombia, summer of
1977 |
| University
of California, Irvine Distinguished Faculty Lecturer, 1980 |
| Judge,
Plaza y Janés Colombian Novel Competition, 1981 |
| Judge,
Guatemalan Novel Competition (Concurso Rin), 1983 |
| University
of California, Irvine, Chair of the Academic Senate, 1984-1986 |
| Vice-president
of the Asociación Norteamericana de Colombianistas, 1987-1989,
and President, 1989-1993 |
| President
of the Local Organizing Committee for the August 1992 meeting
at UCI of the Asociación Internacional de Hispanistas |
| Orden
Andrés Bello, cultural award given by the Venezuelan
government, July 1991 |
| Judge,
Juan Rulfo International Prize for Literature, Guadalajara,
Mexico City, June-July 1992, June-July 1993, and June-July 1999 |
| Medal
from the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores
de Monterrey (ITESM) in recognition for contributions to Spanish
American literature, October 1994 |
| Orden
Francisco de Miranda, cultural award given by the Venezuelan
government, June 1996 |
| Orden
Miguel Angel Asturias, cultural award given by the Guatemalan
government, October, 1997 |
|
