Jean Franco

Jean Franco (born 31 March 1924) is a British-born academic and literary critic known for her pioneering work on Latin American literature. Educated at Manchester and London, she has taught at London, Essex (where she was the university's first professor of Latin American literature),^[1] and Stanford, and is currently professor emerita at Columbia University.

Research

Jean Franco's research is wide-ranging and voluminous. She was among the very first English-speaking Latin Americanists to write seriously about Latin American literature. She has particularly focused on women and women's writing and is a pioneer of Latin American cultural studies.^[2]

Awards

• In 1992 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Essex.^[3]
• In 1996 she won a PEN award for lifetime contribution to the dissemination of Latin American literature in English.^[4]
• In 2000 the Latin American Studies Association awarded her the Kalman Silvert Award for her contributions to Latin American Studies.^[5]
• In 2002 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Manchester.
• Her book The Decline and Fall of the Lettered City was awarded the Bolton-Johnson Prize by the Conference of Latin American Historians for the best work in English on the History of Latin America published in 2003.

Selected publications

• The Modern Culture of Latin America (1967)
• An Introduction to Latin American Literature (1969)
• Spanish American Literature Since Independence (1973)
• César Vallejo. The Dialectics of Poetry and Silence (1976)
• Plotting Women. Gender and Representation in Mexico (1989)
• Marcando diferencias. Cruzando Fronteras (1996)
• Critical Passions: Selected Essays, edited by Mary Louise Pratt and Kathleen Newman (1999)
• The Decline and Fall of the Lettered City: Latin America in the Cold War (2002)
• Cruel Modernity (2013)

References

1. "Jean Franco." Institute for Research on Women and Gender at Columbia University, retrieved March 31, 2013.
2. Rogers, V. Daniel. "Jean Franco's Lifetime of Critical Passions." American Quarterly 53.3 (2001): 511-517. Retrieved March 31, 2013.
3. University of Essex Calendar: Honorary Graduates, retrieved March 31, 2013.
4. "Working Group Member: Jean Franco." Vírgenes viajeras/Traveling Virgins Working Group, Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, retrieved March 31, 2013.
5. Ewell, Judith. "Critical Passions: Selected Essays (review)." The Americas 57.3 (2001): 422-24. Retrieved March 31, 2013.

External links

• Biography from Columbia University
• Jean Franco, "The Second Coming: Religion as Entertainment", text of a lecture