Collage: Antonio Skarmeta, Clarice Lispector, Fernando Pessoa

Introduction

After several years without publication, TINTA: Research Journal of Hispanic and Lusophone Studies is now available in electronic format. We are pleased to introduce this new version of TINTA, as it should allow for greater accessibility and wider dissemination of articles. We have elected to publish our journal using Open Journal Systems (OJS), open-source software created by the Public Knowledge Project. OJS is made freely available to journals worldwide for the purpose of making open-access publishing aviable option for more journals, as open access can increase a journal's readership as well as its contribution to the public good on a global scale.

The current issue for Autumn 2008 brings together a variety of articles in the areas of Latin American, Brazilian, Spanish and Portuguese scholarship. Our contributors explore a wide array of topics and works, including the examination and formation of self and identity. In “Catulo y su ‘Lesbia,’ una revisión: Ana Rossetti o la ilusión del deseo” Paloma Martínez-Carbajo examines the originality of Ana Rosetti’s work, not only in terms of poetic experimentation, but also in thematic innovation in her reworking of the classical tradition in order to subvert traditional conceptions of female sexuality. Paige Sweet analyzes the boundaries between forgetting and remembering and the role these play in the formation of self in her essay, “Fragments of Self: Forging a Transliteration of Forgetting in Clarice Lispector’s, A Paixão Segundo G.H.” Rubia Yatsugafu´s article, “Um Centauro? No Brasil? Algumas considerações sobre o processo de construção de identidade a partir do ‘eu’ e do ‘outro,’” centers on the search for identity and self-definition on the part of the protagonist and explores themes such as stereotypes and prejudice in Moacyr Scliar’s O Centauro no Jardim (2004).  For his part, Bajonas Teixeira de Brito Junior proposes in “Action and Death in Othello and Dom Casmurro” an innovative comparison between Shakespeare’s Othello and Dom Casmurro (1899), by Machado de Assis, highlighting the different articulations of action and death in both works. John Maddox reviews Embodying Pessoa: Corporeality, Gender, Sexuality (2008), a collection of critical essays on Fernando Pessoa featuring new interpretations of Pessoa’s life and work, including queer perspectives and analysis of Pessoa’s literary representations of women.

Included within this most recent issue is an interview with renowned Chilean novelist and scriptwriter Antonio Skármeta whose works include Ardiente paciencia (1985), El cartero de Neruda (2001), and El baile de la victoria (2003).  In his interview at the UCSB campus, Skármeta discusses his past and current projects and shares his perspectives on the nature and politics of writing and film.  

We hope that the interested scholar will find TINTA to be a forum for academic discussion and inspiration. TINTA welcomes submissions for future issues at any time. Papers should be related to the literature, language, or culture of the Hispanic and Lusophone worlds. We publish twice a year, in December and June. Articles received in December or June will be considered for publication in the next issue.

Finally, we would like to thank our guest editors Marcelo Moreschi and José del Toro for their collaboration with this issue.

TINTA Editors-in-Chief

Gloria Galindo, Marcus Welsh, Amber Workman