FACULTY
Scholarship recognized Professor fosters appreciation of Spanish literature By Lawrence Mohr
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ome of the greatest authors in the world are almost unknown to many Americans. How many have read Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, Luisa Valenzuela, Gabriel García Márquez or Isabel Allende? Their works are rich in their description of the human experience, according to Professor Sharon Magnarelli, chair of modern languages. The common thread is that all of them are from South American countries. To appreciate their works, Magnarelli says Americans first must open their eyes to other countries. “Our perception of South American countries and their literature is all wrong. I suppose it’s our commercialism that’s at fault. When people travel, they don’t really want to experience anything new,” she says. “They just want a cute spin
on what’s already familiar—‘take me to an American chain to have a hamburger and french fries with a Coca-Cola.’” Magnarelli is an international figure in Spanish-American narrative and drama and a confidant to many authors and playwrights. She is also the author of four books and more than 90 articles. This spring, she was named a recipient of the University’s Scholar of the Year award for the College of Arts and Sciences. She previously received a Fulbright Fellowship and the Armando Discépolo Prize for Excellence in Theater Research, awarded by Grupo de Estudios de Teatro Argentino e Iberoamericano in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her earlier research in literature concentrated on narrative, notably José Donoso, who writes about the disintegrating family,
Professor Sharon Magnarelli received a Scholar of the Year award.
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alienation, and the middle class. Magnarelli’s interest in theater began with a project to compare narrative and theater. After completing a book on familial metaphors used in Mexican and Argentine theater, she decided to concentrate exclusively on Argentine theater for her next book on the use of space in theatrical productions. Magnarelli’s involvement in theater has introduced her to a new, innovative generation of artists. “Most of the playwrights I’m working with now direct their own plays, and I get to go to rehearsals and see how all sorts of decisions are made. It’s exciting to see how they use space in the theater. Sometimes they use it to make sure we know it’s theater, make believe, and sometimes it’s set up to make us forget that.” But she cautions that the term “SpanishAmerica” can suggest a homogeneity that simply does not exist. “Although they share a language to some degree, the cultures of the various countries can differ considerably. For example, the culture of Argentina and that of a Central-American country or even Mexico, are worlds apart.” Magnarelli is immersed in more than one research project at a time, and each influences the others in unexpected ways. She currently is working on a project on Argentine theater, completing a paper on documentary theater that she will present at an international conference in the fall, and finalizing two other articles that take her back to two authors she has worked on since the beginning of her career: Donoso and Valenzuela. That eclecticism is reflected in her teaching at Quinnipiac. In her words, she teaches, “de todo un poco— a little of everything.” Her courses are as diverse as contemporary theater written in Spanish at one extreme and “Don Quijote” at the other. Magnarelli’s roots are very “un-Spanish.” Born in Seneca Falls, N.Y., she completed her undergraduate work at SUNY-Oswego, taught high school Spanish near Syracuse and earned her doctorate from Cornell. She is married to Louis Magnarelli, who has a doctoral degree in medical entomology and is director of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. “The irony,” she says, “is that I went to college as a math major but soon became more interested in Spanish literature.”
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JAMIE DELOMA
IN PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE