Hopscotch!

Hopscotch! Time to Play a Different Game

Literature constructs for us scenarios and spaces in which, at least for a time, other habits and customs are in play, and which thus allow us to see that the rules of th

On Latin American literature

A conversation for SPAN 312 about teaching and reading Latin American literature. With Erin Graff Zivin and Jon Beasley-Murray. For more details, see https://span312.art

On Samanta Schweblin, Fever Dream

A conversation for SPAN 312 about Samanta Schweblin's novel of uncanny horror on the Pampas, Fever Dream. With Jordana Blejmar and Jon Beasley-Murray. For more details,

Fever Dream: Samanta Schweblin on the Force of the Hyperobject

As with a game we have started that gets out of hand, it can feel that all we can do is look on as events unfold when confronted with the seemingly irresistible force of

Cristina Rivera Garza in Conversation

A conversation for SPAN 312 about Cristina Rivera Garza's The Taiga Syndrome. With Cristina Rivera Garza and Jon Beasley-Murray. In which we talk about tone, translation,

The Taiga Syndrome: Cristina Rivera Garza in a World without Refuge

This is the wild west (wild north?) Russian style—or Swedish or Latvian, even Mexican or Argentine, it matters little, as it is the same almost everywhere now that untram

On Rita Indiana, Papi

A conversation for SPAN 312 about Rita Indiana's novel, Papi. With Arturo Victoriano and Jon Beasley-Murray. For more details, see ⁠⁠https://span312.arts.ubc.ca/ 00:00

Papi: Rita Indiana on Role-Playing, Excess, and Loss

In a world in which movies, adverts, music videos, video games, and television all blend and cross-contaminate, new cross-cultural and transnational jargons and slang ari

On Pedro Lemebel, My Tender Matador

A conversation for SPAN 312 about Chilean Pedro Lemebel's novel, My Tender Matador. With Juan Poblete and Jon Beasley-Murray. For more details, see https://span312.arts.

My Tender Matador: Pedro Lemebel on Playing the Part

We are encouraged to take surfaces or appearances seriously in their own right. By Jon Beasley-Murray, University of British Columbia 00:00 Introduction 02:56 Names, Pl

Giannina Braschi in Conversation

A conversation for SPAN 312 about Giannina Braschi's Yo-Yo Boing! With Giannina Braschi and Jon Beasley-Murray. In which we talk about language, cosmopolitanism, the coll

Yo-Yo Boing! Giannina Braschi on Translation, Temporality, and the Future

Braschi’s novel resists translation both because it is already in translation—and translation cannot be translated—and because it touches on the untranslatable, on the li

On Roberto Bolaño, Distant Star

A conversation for SPAN 312 about Roberto Bolaño's post-dictatorship novel, Distant Star. With Ryan Long and Jon Beasley-Murray. For more details, see https://span312.ar

Distant Star: Roberto Bolaño on Aesthetics, Fascism, and Judgment

Literature can never forget that it is first and foremost an index of barbarism, and only secondarily (if at all) any kind of recompense or restitution. By Jon Beasley-M

On Rigoberta Menchú, I, Rigoberta Menchú

A conversation for SPAN 312 about Rigoberta Menchú's famed but controversial testimonio, I, Rigoberta Menchú. With John Beverley and Jon Beasley-Murray. For more details

I, Rigoberta Menchú: Rigoberta Menchú on Secrets and Lies, Traps and Betrayal

However much we imagine or hope we are in solidarity with her and her struggle, we are reminded that the basis of that solidarity has to be difference and respect. Her st

On Mario Vargas Llosa, Captain Pantoja and the Special Service

A conversation for SPAN 312 about Mario Vargas Llosa's comic novel, Captain Pantoja and the Special Service. With Phil Swanson and Jon Beasley-Murray. For more details,

Captain Pantoja and the Special Service: Mario Vargas Llosa’s Comic Anarchy

In Vargas Llosa’s world, something is almost always fucked up—a death, a massacre, a marriage, a disappearance—and it is up to him or his characters to find out why and h

On Clarice Lispector, The Hour of the Star

A conversation for SPAN 312 about Clarice Lispector's last novel, The Hour of the Star. With Sonia Roncador and Jon Beasley-Murray. For more details, see https://span312

The Hour of the Star: Clarice Lispector’s Struggle with Writing and Ethics

It is about an ethics of writing, about how writing can be true to life, to “a life,” without necessarily laying claim to the truth of that life. It is about the hesitati