MEROPE GAUNT, VOLDEMORT’S MOTHER: NARRATIVE AS A HOUSE OF CARDS

The first novel about Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, was published by Bloomsbury on 26 June 1997, already 25 years ago today. This post looks back to that date, to celebrate it, and forward to next November, when Barcelona’s Witch Market will finally return and all of us, local […]

DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY: THE MAIN ACADEMIC KEYWORDS TODAY

In a recent teachers’ meeting the pressing issue of students’ low attendance this last semester came up. I have not been teaching but my colleagues tell me less than 50% of the students have attended classes, which is even lower than what I saw in the first semester, when we were all still wearing facemasks […]

UN GÉNERO FANTASMA: EL EXTRAÑO CASO DEL TECNOTHRILLER

El que debería escribir esta entrada hoy es mi estudiante de doctorado Pascal Lemaire ya que ha elegido tratar el tecnothriller como su tema de investigación. Sin embargo, yo misma tengo curiosidad por algunos de las cuestiones que está planteando sobre este género, así que aquí estoy. Allá por 2014 Pascal publicó en Hélice un […]

A PHANTOM GENRE: THE STRANGE CASE OF THE TECHNOTHRILLER

The one who should be writing this post today is my PhD student Pascal Lemaire since he has chosen to deal with the technothriller as his topic of research. However, I am myself curious about some of the points he is raising about this genre, so here I am. Back in 2014 Pascal published in […]

SCIENCE FICTION BEYOND THE ANGLOPHONE TERRITORY: THE CATALAN CASE

This weekend I have been participating in the IV CatCon or Catalan convention on science fiction and fantasy, celebrated like the first three in the lovely seaside town of Vilanova i la Geltrú, about 50 kms south of Barcelona. CatCon gathers together fans and writers and is also the event during which the Ictineu prize […]

GILIPOLLAS, VILLANOS, Y LA ACTUAL GUERRA EN UCRANIA

Uno de los expertos entrevistados en el volumen colectivo editado por el psicólogo Jean-François Marmion, The Psychology of Stupidity (2020; originalmente Psychologie de la Connerie, 2018), al que dediqué mi entrada del 4 de marzo, era el filósofo moral Aaron James. Después de haber leído su espléndida monografía Assholes: A Theory (2012), me gustaría usar […]

ASSHOLES, VILLAINS, AND THE CURRENT WAR IN UKRAINE

One of experts interviewed in the collective volume edited by psychologist Jean-François Marmion, The Psychology of Stupidity (2020; originally Psychologie de la Connerie, 2018; trans. Liesl Schillinger), to which I devoted my post of 4 March, was moral philosopher Aaron James. Having now read his splendid monograph Assholes: A Theory (2012), I would like to […]