Vincent Barletta

Vincent Barletta

Contact Information: 

Pigott Hall 225
650 723 4921
vbarletta@stanford.edu

Office Hours
Fall 2009: By appointment


Vincent Barletta specializes in Iberian literatures and cultures of the medieval and early modern periods. He is the author of Covert Gestures: Crypto-Islamic Literature as Cultural Practice in Early Modern Spain (U of Minnesota P, 2005), for which he was awarded the 2007 La corónica International Book Award. He is also the editor and translator of Francisco Núñez Muley's A Memorandum for the President of the Royal Audiencia and Chancery Court of the City and Kingdom of Granada (U of Chicago P, 2007).


Professor Barletta's most recent book is entitled Death in Babylon: Alexander the Great and Iberian Empire in the Muslim Orient (U of Chicago P, 2010). This book examines the complex and often conflicting image of Alexander the Great in late medieval and early modern narrative works that deal (in varying ways) with imperial expansion into Muslim North Africa and Asia. The book analyzes selected texts in Catalan, Portuguese, and Spanish, as well as Greek and Latin texts from antiquity and works in aljamiado. He is currently working on a book that focuses on Portugal's capital, Lisbon.


Education

Post-doctoral study, UCLA, Linguistic Anthropology, 1999-2001.
Ph.D., UCLA, Hispanic Languages and Literature, 1998.
BA with honors, Saint Mary's College of CA, English, 1989.


Selected Publications

Authored Books

(2010). Death in Babylon: Alexander the Great and Iberian Empire in the Muslim Orient. Chicago: U of Chicago P.

(2005). Covert Gestures: Crypto-Islamic Literature as Cultural Practice in Early Modern Spain. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P.

(2005). Gestos clandestinos: La literatura aljamiado-morisca como práctica cultural. Zaragoza: Instituto de Estudios Islámicos y del Oriente Próximo. (Spanish edition of Covert Gestures)

Edited Books and Special Issues

(2007). English translation/critical edition of Francisco Núñez Muley’s (ca. 1490-1570) Memorandum for the President of the Royal Audiencia and Chancery Court of the City and Kingdom of Granada. Chicago: U of Chicago P.

(1999). "El libro del caballero Zifar." A special issue of La corónica (co-edited with Michael Harney).

Teaching
Courses taught in current academic year: 
Renaissance/Early Modern SeminarFocus is on how authors and readers from this period theorize various historical processes: the rise of European imperialism; religious conflicts and revolutions; new understandings of the self and the world; and the rise of the novel. Authors: Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Núñez Muley, Martorell, Rabelais, Camões, Cervantes, Montaigne, and Shakespeare. (Same as HUMNTIES 323)Spr
Intro to Medieval/Early Modern Iberian Literatures(Same as Portlit 157) Topics may include: lyric and epic poetry; Jewish and Muslim literatures; the development of Castilian, Catalan, and Portuguese prose; the Valencian golden age; texts of the Renaissance and Baroque; the literature of imperial expansion into Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Win