From the pilgrimage of body and soul in Gonzalo de Berceo’s Milagros de Nuestra Señora and the nautical textual voyage in Columbus’ Diario de a Bordo, to representations of the migrant in modern Iberian and Latin American literatures, the trope of the “journey” has been essential in shaping literary discourse from the Middle Ages to the present. The word “journey” is understood here as a comprehensive term that can encompass all kinds of travel – physical, emotional, mental, spiritual – from one place to another, near or far, whether it be by land, sea, air, or the imagination and regardless of motives, means, and goals.
Given the importance of the concept and the metaphor of the journey in Iberian and Latin American Literatures, the Spanish graduate students of the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Chicago are organizing a conference entitled “En Route: Journeys of the Body and the Soul in Iberian and Latin American Literatures,” which will take place October 12-13, 2012 at the Franke Institute for the Humanities at the University of Chicago.
This event is free and open to the public.
