Héctor Hoyos

Hector Hoyos

Contact Information: 

Pigott Hall 220
650 723 3291
hhoyos@stanford.edu

Office Hours: 
Fall 2009: F 10-12PM and by appointment

Professor Hoyos holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. from Cornell University. He was born in Bogotá, where he studied philosophy and literature at the Universidad de los Andes. He is preparing two book-manuscripts, entitled Gesturing toward the Global: Latin American Literature at the Turn of the 21st Century, and El deber de la travesura: César Aira y la crítica cultural. His interests include visual culture and critical theory, as well as comparative and philosophical approaches to literature. Professor Hoyos has published scholarly articles on García Márquez, Roberto Bolaño, urban fiction, and the late thought of Ludwig Wittgenstein.


Education

PhD, Cornell University, Romance Studies, 2008.
BA with honors, Universidad de los Andes, Philosophy, 2002.
BA, magna cum laude, Universidad de los Andes, Literature, 2001.


Selected Publications

Authored Books

(In progress). Gesturing toward the Global: Latin American Literature at the Turn of the 21st Century.

(In progress). El deber de la travesura: César Aira y la crítica cultural.

(2003). Bogotá en su narrativa: la fragmentación como lugar literario. Bogotá: Facultad de Artes y Humanidades de la Universidad de los Andes, 2003.

(2002). La crítica de Wittgenstein a la noción de tiempo de Agustín de Hipona. Bogotá: CESO.


Articles

(Forthcoming). "'Así se hace literatura’: historia literaria y políticas del olvido en Nocturno de Chile y Soldados de Salamina," co-auhored with Ximena Briceño. Revista iberoamericana.

(2009). "Del detective al fisgón: el policial costumbrista en Colombia." Lingüística y literatura 55: 52-71.

(2006). "García Márquez's Sublime Violence and the Eclipse of Colombian Literature." Chasqui 35.2: 3-20.

(2002). "Observaciones para una poética de la literatura urbana bogotana." Revista de Estudios Sociales 11: 66-72.

(2000). Grice and Wittgenstein on Context-Dependence. The Dualist 7.1: 21-38.

Teaching
Courses taught in current academic year: 
Borges and PhilosophyAnalysis of the Argentine author's literary renditions of philosophical ideas. Topics may include: time, free will, infinitude, authorship and self, nominalism vs. realism, empiricism vs. idealism, skepticism, peripheral modernities, postmodernism, and Eastern thought. Close reading of short stories, poems, and essays from Labyrinths paired with selections by authors such as Augustine, Berkeley, James, and Lao Tzu. The course will be conducted in English; Spanish originals will be available. Satisfies the capstone seminar requirement for the major in Philosophy and Literature. Aut
Theorizing the Novel after 1989Issues of literary historiography, canon formation, and cultural relevance through a detailed study of selected works, criticism, and theory from the last two decades. Topics may include: postnationalism, cultural synchronization, fiction as commodity, revisions of dictatorship, new media ecologies, anxiety of influence, meaning-making communities, and relations to visual culture. Readings by Latin American authors: Bolaño, Vallejo, Eltit, Bellatin and Fuguet. Critical texts by Richard, Sarlo, Rancière and Casanova. Aut
Latin America at the End of the Cold WarSystematic study of the cultural transformations in Latin America before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Comparisons between works that respond to the defining moments of the conflict (Neruda, Cardinal) and texts that reflect on its later, residual stage. Fiction: Sin remedio by Antonio Caballero, Literatura nazi en América by Roberto Bolaño, and Pasado Perfecto by Leonardo Padura. Film: Hijos de la guerra fría by Gonzalo Justiniano. Theoretical readings by Jorge Castañeda, Michael Reid, and Jean Franco. Spr
Senior Seminar: Accursed WritersExploration of the figure of the outcast in Colombian literature. After a succinct consideration of the term "maudit" in Rimbaud, we will focus on the life, poetry, and prose of José Asunción Silva (1865-1896) and Porfirio Barba-Jacob (1883-1942). We will then turn our attention to the fiction and autobiographical writing of Andrés Caicedo (1951-1977) and Fernando Vallejo (1942), who revisit outcast motifs while veering from the mainstream tradition epitomized by García Márquez. Topics: decadence, incest, homosexuality, exile, addiction, and faith.Win
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