![Rory O'Bryen Rory O'Bryen](/sites/www.mmll.cam.ac.uk/files/styles/leading/public/img_3960_0.jpeg?itok=StmjYnDa)
King's College King's Parade °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼ CB2 1ST
Rory O'BryenÌýteaches and researches onÌýmodernÌýLatin American culture, and has particular researchÌýinterests in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Colombian culture and history. He is the author ofÌýLiterature, Testimony and Cinema in Contemporary Colombian Culture: Spectres of "La Violencia"Ìý(Woodridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2008), which explores the role of violence in the production of urban space and the urbanizing dimensions of memory discourses on violence in Colombia. He has co-editedÌýand contributedÌýtoÌýLatin American Popular Culture: Politics, Media, AffectÌý(New York: Boydell and Brewer, 2013), Latin American Cultural Studies: A ReaderÌý(Routledge, 2017), andÌýTransnational SpanishÌýStudiesÌý(Liverpool, 2020), and was contributing editor of theÌýdossierÌý'Colombia - Violence in War and Peace' (Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies.ÌýVol. 27, No. 4). HeÌýhas also published stand-alone articlesÌýon Borges, Fernando Vallejo, the ‘McOndo’ group, Roberto Bolaño,ÌýSantiago Gamboa, the poetry of Candelario Obeso,site-specific art, and Latin American ecology.Ìý
His current research explores the representation of the Magdalena River in Colombian culture between 1850 and the present day. It engages with a range of works, including mid-nineteenth-century regional romances, late nineteenth-century Afro-Colombian poetry, representations of leprosy in early twentieth-century literature, music and silent film, the ‘novela de laÌýViolencia’ of the 1950s, and late twentieth-century engagements withÌý²Ô²¹°ù³¦´Ç³Ù°ùá´Ú¾±³¦´Ç. In doing so it uses the river as a conduit into the fragile interplay between nation-formation and global political and economic processes.Ìý
He is one of the editors of theÌýJournal of Latin American Cultural Studies.Ìý
Dr O'BryenÌýwelcomes inquiries from potentialÌýMPhilÌýand PhD studentsÌýwith research interests in Latin American literary and cultural studies. His doctoral supervision has covered the following topics:Ìýliterature and film of the Cuban Revolution; C19th Latin American Romanticism; the short story in Latin America; prison writing in Latin America; the novels of Roberto Bolaño and Enrique Vila-Matas;Ìýpoetry and politics from the Southern Cone;ÌýLatin American literary engagements with Nazism and WWII; Ìýimaginaries of the state in post-conflict Colombia and Peru; the writing of errancy/erranciaÌýin post-1960s Latin America; Afro-Latin Americanism and popular music; state-making and genocide in Guatemalan narrative and poetry; early photography in Latin America; the poetics of the remnant in literature and visual art from Argentina and Peru; C19th Puerto Rican poetry and politics; and horrorism in the contemporary Latin American novel.ÌýÌý
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Monograph
O’Bryen, Rory (2008),ÌýLiterature, Testimony and Cinema in Contemporary Colombian Culture:ÌýSpectresÌýofÌýLaÌýViolenciaÌý(Woodbridge:ÌýBoydellÌýand Brewer) 222 pages.
Edited books
With Geoffrey Kantaris (2013),ÌýLatin American Popular Culture: ÌýPolitics, Media, AffectÌý(New York/Woodbridge:ÌýBoydellÌýand Brewer) 300 pages.Ìý
With JensÌýAndermann, Ben Bollig, Lorraine Leu, Daniel Mosquera,Ìýand David M.JÌýWoodÌý(2017),ÌýLatin American Cultural Studies: A ReaderÌý(New York/London: Routledge) 486 pages.
With Catherine Davies (2020),ÌýTransnationalÌýSpanish StudiesÌý(Liverpool: Liverpool University Press). 368 pages.Ìý
Articles and book chapters
O'Bryen, Rory; MartÃnez Medina, Santiago;ÌýCottyn, Hanne;ÌýGarrido, Ana MarÃa; andÌýKirshner, Joshua (2024), 'Water factories of the high Colombian mountains: Páramo as 'infrastructural nature'. : 167-186.Ìý
O'Bryen, Rory, (2023),ÌýReview ofÌýDominique Jullien,ÌýBorges, Buddhism and World Literature: A Morphology of Renunciation TalesÌý(Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019),ÌýÌý20.2-3: 381–385.Ìý
O'Bryen, Rory and David M. J. Wood (2023), .ÌýJournal of Latin American Cultural StudiesÌýVol. 31, No.4, pp. 493-497.Ìý
O'Bryen, Rory (2022), 'Transnational Currents: Europe and the Americas', in Jonathan B. Monroe Ed.ÌýRoberto BolañoÌýin ContextÌý(°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼: CUP), pp. 88-98.
O'Bryen, Rory (2020), 'Luca Zanetti, Colombia: al borde del paraÃso, with an introduction by Alfredo Molano Bravo and texts by AnamarÃa Bedoya Builes'. Revista de Estudios ColombianosÌýNo.55 (enero-junio), pp. 107-108. Review.Ìý
O'Bryen, Rory, and Catherine Davies (2020), Introduction toÌýTransnational Spanish StudiesÌý(Liverpool: Liverpool University Press), pp. 1-34.Ìý
O'Bryen, Rory (2020), 'Untangling the Mangrove: Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of Poor in the Colombian Caribbean' in LilianaÌýGómez-Popescu andÌýLisa BlackmoreÌýeds. Liquid EcologiesÌýin Latin American and CaribbeanÌýArt'. Book chapter.ÌýÌý
O'Bryen, Rory (2018), , pp. 417-432 Article.Ìý
O'Bryen, Rory (2018), 'On the Shores of Politics: Popular Republicanism and the Magdalena River in Candelario Obeso'sÌýCantos populares de mi tierra'.ÌýBulletin of Latin American Research Vol 37, No. 4, pp. 464-478. Article (published online 2017).Ìý
O’Bryen, Rory (2016), ‘Literature, Culture and Society of the Magdalena River’ in Raymond L. Williams ed. A History of Colombian Literature (°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼: CUP) pp 215-237. Book chapter
O’Bryen, Rory (2015) ‘Writing with the Ghost of Pierre Menard: Authorship, Responsibility and Justice in Roberto Bolaño’s Distant Star’, in Ignacio Lópezcalvo ed., Bolaño, A Less Distant Star (New York: Palgrave), pp. 17-34. Book chapter.
O’Bryen, Rory (2014) Suárez, Juana. Critical Essays on Colombian Cinema and Culture: Cinembargo Colombia. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Print. Revista de Estudios Hispánicos. October. Review.Ìý
O’Bryen, Rory (2013) ‘Tierradentro’ and ‘Guayabero Rock Art, Sierra de Chiribiquete’ in Art and Place: Site-Specific Art of the Americas (London: Phaidon Press). Book chapters.
O’Bryen, Rory (2013) Martin, Deborah. Painting, Literature and Film in Colombian Feminine Culture, 1940-2005. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer/Tamesis. Print. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies. Review.
O’Bryen, Rory (2013) ‘Santiago Gamboa’, in Will H. Corral, Nicholas Birns and Juan E. de Castro (Eds), The Contemporary Spanish American Novel: Bolaño and After (London: Bloomsbury, pp. 243-247. Book chapter.Ìý
O’Bryen, Rory and Geoffrey Kantaris (2013) ‘The Fragile Contemporaneity of the Popular’, in Geoffrey Kantaris and Rory O’Bryen eds. Latin American Popular Culture: Politics, Media, Affect (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer), pp. 1–42. Book chapter.Ìý
O’Bryen, Rory (2013) ‘Affect, Politics and the Production of The People: Meditations on the RÃo Magdalena’, in Geoffrey Kantaris and Rory O’Bryen eds. Latin American Popular Culture: Politics, Media, Affect (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2013), pp. 227–248. Book chapter.Ìý
O’Bryen, Rory (2011) ‘Memory, Melancholia and Political Transition in Amuleto and Nocturno de Chile by Roberto Bolaño’, Bulletin of Latin American Research Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 473–487. Article.Ìý
O’Bryen, Rory (2011) ‘McOndo, Magical Neoliberalism and Latin American Identity’, Bulletin of Latin American Research 30.1 (March): pp.158–174. Article.Ìý
O’Bryen, Rory (2009) DÃaz, Jesús. The Initials of the Earth: A Novel of the Cuban Revolution. Trans. Kathleen Ross, with a foreword by Fredric Jameson. Durham: Duke University Press. Forum for Modern Language Studies. Review.Ìý
O’Bryen, Rory (2009) Caistor, Nick. Octavio Paz. London: Reaktion Books (Critical Lives series), 2008. 144 pp.Ìý Forum for Modern Language Studies. Review.Ìý
O’Bryen, Rory (2009) Fowler, William and Peter Lambert Eds. Political Violence and the Construction of National Identity in Latin America. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. xii + 244. Forum for Modern Language Studies. Review.Ìý
O’Bryen, Rory (2005) ‘Jorge Luis Borges’ in Bill Marshall ed., France and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History (London: ABC Clio, 2005), Vol. l, pp. 170–171. Encyclopaedia entry.
O’Bryen, Rory (2004) ‘Representations of the City in the Narrative of Fernando Vallejo’, Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, 13:2, pp. 195-205. Article.Ìý
Film
Ìý(2017). AÌýcommunity-voiced film about the effects of environmental and man-made pressures on the livelihoods of communities living in and around the CiénagaÌýGrade de Santa Marta, Colombia, aboutÌýthe coping strategies they adopt, and about their hopes and fears for the future of the ecosystem and their livelihoods. Cortometraje realizado como parte del proyectoÌýBuilding reslilience in the Colombian Caribbean in the face of slow and shock environmental hazads (PI, Piran White, University of York).
Conversation with Horacio CastellanosÌýMoyaÌý()Ìý
Podcast of a discussion with Horacio Castellanos Moya about his novelsÌýInsensatez,ÌýEl asco,ÌýEl arma en el hombre,ÌýLa diabla en el espejo, andÌýTirana memoria,Ìýand about contemporary Central American and Latin American literature - June, 2017.Ìý
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