Sultana Wahnón Bensusan (born 8 May 1960) is a Spanish essayist and literary critic, a professor at the

University of Granada The University of Granada (, UGR) is a public university located in the city of Granada, Spain, and founded in 1531 by Emperor Charles V. With more than 60,000 students, it is the fourth largest university in Spain. Apart from the city of Granad ...

specializing in

literary theory Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, m ...

and

comparative literature Comparative literature studies is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across language, linguistic, national, geographic, and discipline, disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role ...

Academic activity

Sultana Wahnón graduated in Spanish Philology in 1982, with a licentiate in the poetry of the National Literature Prize winner , a Melillan author to whom she has dedicated two books. Her doctoral thesis, defended in 1987 and published by Rodopi in 1998, consists of a description of the Spanish fascist aesthetic system and the analysis of its progressive dissolution in postwar literary criticism. Specializing in literary theory, she has written books such as ''Introducción a la historia de las teorías literarias'' (1991) and ''Teoría de la literatura y de la interpretación literaria'' (2008). In 1995 she began a line of research on the theater of García Lorca, a subject on which she continues to work today. In 1995 her book ''Lenguaje y literatura'' was released, in which she talks with the main representatives of the

linguistic turn The linguistic turn was a major development in Western philosophy during the early 20th century, the most important characteristic of which is the focusing of philosophy primarily on the relations between language, language users, and the world. ...

and

hermeneutic Hermeneutics () is the theory and methodology of interpretation, especially the interpretation of biblical texts, wisdom literature, and philosophical texts. As necessary, hermeneutics may include the art of understanding and communication. ...

skepticism. In 2000 she presented her hypothesis on the innocence of Josef K. in ''

The Trial ''The Trial'' () is a novel written by Franz Kafka in 1914 and 1915 and published posthumously on 26 April 1925. One of his best-known works, it tells the story of Josef K., a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, wi ...

'', which she developed extensively in the book ''Kafka y la tragedia judía'' (2003). The hermeneutic discussion contained in this book is continued in more recent publications such as ''El problema de la interpretación literaria. Fuentes y bases teóricas para una hermenéutica constructiva'' (2009) and ''Perspectivas actuales de hermenéutica literaria. Para otra ética de la interpretación'' (2014). In 1992 Wahnón entered the field of Cultural and Jewish Studies with a work on the Hebrew poetics of

Moses ibn Ezra Moses ben Jacob ibn Ezra, known as Ha-Sallaḥ ("writer of penitential prayers") (, ) was an Andalusi Jewish rabbi, philosopher, linguist, and poet. He was born in Granada about 1055–1060, and died after 1138. Ibn Ezra is considered to hav ...

, and another on the role of the

Wandering Jew The Wandering Jew (occasionally referred to as the Eternal Jew, a calque from German ) is a mythical immortal man whose legend began to spread in Europe in the 13th century. In the original legend, a Jew who taunted Jesus on the way to the Cruc ...

in ''

One Hundred Years of Solitude ''One Hundred Years of Solitude'' (, ) is a 1967 in literature, 1967 novel by Colombian people, Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez that tells the Family saga, multi-generational story of the Buendía family, whose patriarch, José Arcadio ...

''. Beginning in 1995, within the framework of the research project Philosophy After the Holocaust, she began a line of research on thought and literature of the Shoah, for which she authored papers on

Hannah Arendt Hannah Arendt (born Johanna Arendt; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a German and American historian and philosopher. She was one of the most influential political theory, political theorists of the twentieth century. Her work ...

and

Elias Canetti Elias Canetti (; 25 July 1905 – 14 August 1994; ; ) was a German-language writer, known as a Literary modernism, modernist novelist, playwright, memoirist, and nonfiction writer. Born in Ruse, Bulgaria, to a Sephardi Jews, Sephardic Jewish fam ...

, and the monograph that she coordinated with for the journal ''Anthropos''. Her most recent work in this line, from 2010, deals with the images of the Holocaust in post-war Spanish poetry. In this same period she participated in debates on

anti-Zionism Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. Although anti-Zionism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, all its proponents agree that the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, and the movement to create a sovereign Jewish state in the Palestine (region) ...

and

antisemitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

. From 2006 to 2007 she contributed to the national newspaper ''

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

'' with a series of articles on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In recent years she has continued to develop this critical activity in some articles on the current university model. In 2014 she published ''En fuga irrevocable. Un ensayo de crítica de la cultura'', which deals with textual proliferation in the cultural and university spheres. She has dedicated several articles and reviews to contemporary poets and narrators, including

Iris M. Zavala Iris M. Zavala (27 December 1936 – 10 April 2020) was a Puerto Rican people, Puerto Rican author, scholar, and poet, who later lived in Barcelona, Spain. She had over 50 works to her name, plus hundreds of articles, dissertations, and conferenc ...

Luis García Montero Luis García Montero is a Spanish poet, literary critic and academic. He is a professor of Spanish Literature at the University of Granada. Early life and education Descended from a '' granadina'' family that was very active in the communit ...

, José Gutiérrez, , , Gregorio Morales, Francisco Díaz de Castro, Rosa Regàs, and .

Professional career

In 1977 Wahnón began her studies in Hispanic Philology at the

, where she has developed most of her professional and teaching activities. In 1990, she obtained a position as professor of the Department of General Linguistics and Literary Theory. In 2003 she directed the

Instituto Cervantes Instituto Cervantes (, the Cervantes Institute) is a worldwide nonprofit organization created by the Spanish government in 1991. It is named after Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616), the author of ''Don Quixote'' and perhaps the most important fi ...

of Utrecht. In 2004 she obtained the chair of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature. From 2008 to 2011 she directed ''Afinidades. Revista de literatura y pensamiento'', a publication of comparative and pro-European character. In 2009 she was elected president of the Spanish Association of Literary Theory (ASETEL), a position she held until 2013. During her presidency, the association's First International Congress was held. In March 2010 she took office as a member of the , with the reading of ''El campo y las cenizas. Imágenes del Holocausto en la poesía española de posguerra''.

Books

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wahnon Bensusan, Sultana 1960 births 20th-century Spanish women writers 21st-century Spanish women writers Comparative literature academics Literary theorists Living people People from Melilla Spanish literary critics Spanish women literary critics Spanish philologists Spanish women philologists Spanish women academics Spanish essayists Spanish women essayists University of Granada alumni Academic staff of the University of Granada