Humanities and Social Sciences

School of Historical and European Studies

Spanish Program (with Portuguese and Catalan)

Dr Lilit Thwaites

Honorary Associate Room: Humanities 3 208 Tel: (61 3) 9479 5179 Fax: (61 3) 9479 1942 Email: L.Thwaites@latrobe.edu.au Qualifications: MA Tor., PhD Tor.

A central Eropean background meant growing up surrounded by people for whom speaking lots of languages was a given. Lucky I seem to have a knack (ear) for learning them; even luckier that we arrived in the UK early enough in my life to learn English virtually as a native speaker! I started learning Spanish at McGill University in Canada. Why Spanish? I recall two main attractions: no-one else in the family spoke, or had studied Spanish; and it was only 5 contact hours a week rather than the standard six for all the other languages on offer!

Pursuing an academic career with a focus on contemporary Spanish literature was not quite as straightforward a path as the initial decision to take up Spanish, but I have (almost) never regretted it. And I have particularly enjoyed the ability to encourage others to discover the rich cultures connected with it. Twenty-six years at La Trobe, starting with a one-yr tutorship and ending as Head of the Spanish Program and Deputy Dean of the Faculty have now been replaced by an appointment as Honorary Associate in Spanish. This leaves more time for literary translation, for a few outstanding research projects, for stimulating conversations over a coffee with colleagues and students - a seriously endangered academic activity these days - and even for some non-academic pursuits, many of which still seem to have some connection to the promotion of all things Spanish.

Main areas of research: contemporary Spanish literature, in particular, the work of women writers (prose and drama), and writers of the Post Civil War period; contemporary Spanish society and cultures; (literary) translation. Other interests: women writers' commentary on their society (links between society, social attitudes to women, and the fictional and non-fictional writings of Spanish women writers); literature and/through film; Hispano-Australian and Latina writers.

Research Projects

English translation of El verano ingles by Carme Riera
The portrayal of older women in contemporary Spanish literature and film
Notions of (inner) exile
Dislocation and women writers of the periphery (Basque and Catalan in particular).

Research Publications

Seleted recent publications include:

• 'Writing from the periphery: Basque writer Luisa Etxenike and her novel Efectos secundarios (1996)'. In A. Horno-Delgado & J. Gold, eds. Mujeres y Cambio desde la Letra. Santo Domingo: Secretaria de Estado de La Mujer, 2005, pp. 391-401
• 'Limpiaculos, cucarachas and marujas: Pilar Pombo’s monólogos and the Older Spanish Woman.' In King, S. & J. Browitt, The Space of Culture. Critical readings in Hispanic Studies. Newark: Univ. of Delaware Press, 2004, pp. 29-38
• 'The search for identity, the search for place in Olga Lorenzo’s The Rooms in My Mother’s House.' In S. Ballyn et al., eds, Changing Geographies: Essays on Australia. Barcelona: Promocions I Publicacions, 2001, pp. 211-220

Selected conference papers and lectures

• 'Frida Kahlo and La Malinche: Two Key Women of Mexico'. Lecture at CWA Study Weekend on Mexico, Armidale
• 'Crossing Boundaries, Establishing Links: Aspects of the Work of the (Catalan-Chilean) Artist Roser Bru.' AILCFH 2007 International Conference, Sevilla
• 'The Sleep of Reason': Human Folly, Francisco de Goya and Antonio Buero Vallejo.” Lecture at National Gallery of Victoria (Goya Exhibition)

Associations

Member of AILASA, AILCFH, ACH. Currently on the editorial board of the Journal of the Association of Iberian and Latin American Reserach (JILAR) and a founding member of the Association of Iberian and Latin American Studies of Australasia. Participant (as interviewer/panellist) in writers’ festivals and (Spanish) film festivals.