XVIII Colloquium on Mexican Literature: True or False

Event Date: 

Thursday, November 5, 2015 - 4:30pm to 8:30pm
Friday, November 6, 2015 - 9:00am
Saturday, November 7, 2015 - 9:00am

Event Date Details: 

Conference: XVIII Colloquium on Mexican Literature

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Thursday, November 5, 2015/ 4:30 PM

Mosher Alumni

Friday, November 6, 2015/ 9:00 AM

MultiCultural Center, UCSB

Saturday, November 7, 2015/ 9:00 AM

Casa de la Guerra

This year, the colloquium will be dedicated to the theme of “Real or Fake” in history, culture, literature, cinema, and other arts in Mexico. The idea is to discern between an original and a copy, verifying when a work of art, a discourse, an action, is original or not, and how to know if it is real or fake, original or a copy. It can even be real, but not original; a fake can be extraordinary, a copy could be better than the original, and often times a replica is a bad copy.

We start by asking what constitutes originality in a work of art. Does originality exist? When is imitation (imitatio) a model of the times, and when does it become a copy or perhaps plagiarism? What happens when a piece of work is a copy of another copy of yet another one?

In the case of plagiarism in literature and other arts, as well as in academia, we consider, for example, the copying of themes, ideas, storylines, motives, topics, scenes, characters, vocabulary (lexical and syntactical), expressions, similar treatments of themes (although “spirit of the age” coincidences may exist), interpretations. But we must differentiate: dealing with the same theme is not necessarily plagiarism, but developing the theme in a similar form. Besides, the criteria to presume –decide– that some work is a copy of another one changes with time, and what used to be “natural” and correct in a later period may not be so. Currently the use of Internet favors plagiarism (mostly academic), and this same use provides plagiarized sources that were previously difficult (or almost impossible) to locate. The Mexican writer Juan José Arreola said: “Ownership of a text is relative, almost nonexistent.”

Sponsored by:

Center for Research on Women and Social Justice/ Hull Chair, Chicano Studies Institute
Comparative Literature, Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies, Department of Film and Media Studies. Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Graduate Division,
Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, Latin American and Iberian Studies, Luis Leal Endowed Chair. Office of the Associate Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Academic Policy, Office of Equal Opportunity & Sexual Harassment, The Interpreting Office of Marisa del Río, UC-Mexicanistas (Intercampus Research Program)

Casa de la Guerra
Mosher Alumni House
Multicultural Center
The Graduate Student Lounge