• 1990: Ph.D., Harvard University
• 1983: A.M., Harvard University
• 1981: M.A., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
• 1979: Licenciatura en Letras, Universidad de Chile

• Chilean Literature and Film
• Contemporary Spanish-American Narrative Fiction
• Colonial Spanish-American Literature

• “El cine chileno de los sesenta: clave para una cultura moderna,”, with Manfred Engelbert, Arpillera sobre Chile: Cine, teatro y liteeratura antes y después de 1973. Eds, Annette Paatz and Janet Reinstädler. Berlin: Edition Tranvía, 2013. 13-59.
• La tristeza de los tigres y los misterios de Raúl Ruiz, with Manfred Engelbert. Santiago: Editorial Cuarto Propio, 2011.
• “¿Se habla español?: The Challenge of the Hispanic Wor(l)d,” Hispanorama. Zeitschrift des Deutschen Spanischlehrerverbandes 130 (Nov. 2010): 79-90.
• “Granas e lanas: Memoria de los orígenes en Bernal,” Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica LVIII.1 (2010): 257-68.
• “No pasarse de la raya: Una estética cinematográfica de la transición en El chacotero sentimental,” Memoria, duelo y narración. Chile después de Pinochet: literatura, cine, sociedad, eds. Roland Spiller et al. Frankfurt am Main: Vervuert Verlag, 2004. 81-97.
• “Retratos de mujeres, con Violeta: Mijita de Sergio Castilla,” Texto social: Estudios pragmáticos sobre literatura y cine, eds. Annette Paatz and Burkhard Pohl. Berlin: Edition Tranvía, 2003. 123-37.
• “El siglo de Borges,” Taller de Letras 33 (2003): 63-82.
  
• “Macondo versus McOndo: La teoría de la aldea global,” La literatura iberoamericana en el 2000: balances, perspectivas y prospectivas, eds. Carmen Ruiz Barrionuevo et al. Salamanca: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca, 2003. 279-85.
• “Poemas inéditos de Jorge Teillier,” Revista Hispánica Moderna LV.1 (June 2002): 159-67.
• “Isabel Allende,” Latin American Writers. Supplement I. Ed. Carlos Solé. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002. 1-13.
• Cine a la chilena: Las peripecias de Sergio Castilla. Santiago: RIL Editores, 2001.
• Memoria original de Bernal Díaz del Castillo. México: Oak Editorial. Estudios de Cultura Iberoamericana Colonial, 2000.
• Albricia: La novela chilena del fin de siglo, editor. Santiago: Editorial Cuarto Propio, 2000.

Selected Courses

Spanish 241A: El cuento hispanoamericano

A critical review of the theory and practice of the short story in Latin America from its costumbrista beginnings to the latest trends of the McOndo generation, with due reference to the masters of the genre, such as Quiroga, Borges, Cortázar, Rulfo, and Peri Rossi. Special attention will be given to Poe as the international founding father.

Spanish 244A: Gestación y autogestión del boom

The course tries to answer the apparently simple question: What is the boom? The socio-aesthetic complex which allows for the international birth of the Latin American novel in the 60s will be examined first through the agencies responsible for the phenomenon: publishers, journals, critics, and the authors themselves. Second, we will analyze some of the major novels to see how aesthetic and politics fit together. Third, a special place will be given to José Donoso as retroactive critic of and metafictional writer on the boom.

Spanish 290: Medio siglo de cultura chilena: 1960-2010

The matrix of Twentieth-Century Chilean culture has been described by sociologist Manuel Antonio Garretón as national, state driven, democratic, and popular. The seminar will explore how this comprehensive formula applies to the reform years from Frei to Allende (1964-1973) and how it was affected by the military dictatorship and the democratic normalization since 1990. Special attention will be given to cinema as the medium that combines different cultural phenomena, such as folklore and pop music, religious traditions from the countryside, urban theater, national sports, social documents, and historical icons.