Acta Hispanica

The Symbolic-Hermeneutic Concept of the Labyrinth of Fortune by Juan de Mena

2024-05-31T15:25:23+02:00

Juan de Mena's masterpiece is classified in the literature of visions. In the concepts that the author exposes expressly or through allusions, symbols, and metaphors, one can see the scholastic philosophical-theological tradition of the Middle Ages and, naturally, the biblical knowledge of the author. Rather than repeating the thoughts of the great scholastics, he applies the philosophical-theological concepts with some particular variation in his work. Accordingly, he introduces the idea that free will is a possible cause of a person's loss of privileged position and his fall from the wheel of Fortune. Much more peculiar is, however, the description of his rapture and his interior and mystical experience. Not only the narration of this scene and the concluding image of the vision demonstrate the profound theological knowledge of the poet, but also the entire conception and structure of the work that transforms the labyrinth, a symbol of horizontal extension that represents the chaos at that time in Castile, in a symbol of vertical extension, a traditional allegory of the unpredictability of fate. In this manner, Juan de Mena is not only a predecessor of the mystical literature of the later century, but he presents us in the Laberinto de Fortuna a philosophical-theological treatise in the form of a poem.

Cervantes and the Classic Reminiscences of Don Quixote

2024-02-08T07:44:16+01:00

Taking as a sample chapters XXV, XXVI and XXVII of the second part, the article makes a philological study of the Cervantes text to bring to light the possible literary components of the classical tradition, which from the hand of Cervantes gain new life and powerfully structure the most universal work of all time. This allows us not only to unravel the creative technique that the Alcalaino uses, but also to penetrate the secret of his continued success for four hundred years to the present day.

Focusing Processes in Spanish and English with Special Attention to Word Order

2024-06-27T12:45:15+02:00

The main objective of this study is to examine the focus marking devices in Spanish and English with special attention to how these devices influence the word order in both languages. Such contrastive analysis is justified because the word order in Spanish can be determined by the information structure, while in English it depends more strictly on the syntactic functions. First, we will present the theoretical framework related to the focus marking methods in general and in the two languages, then a contrastive analysis of parallel corpora of the two languages will be presented. The corpora are two equivalent texts, as they are the translations of the same (originally French) text in Spanish and English. The work examined is the novel called The Little Prince. The comparison will be carried out by comparing specific examples of the texts. Among the main results, we must highlight, on the one hand, that in the Spanish corpus there were not as many cases of focalization through the modification of the word order as we would expect in the case of a language with free word order. On the other hand, the use of lexical focus marking devices and passive structures predominated in the English corpus, especially in the descriptive, non-dialogic parts.

The Use of the Hungarian Definite Conjugation in Hungarian as a Foreign Language by Speakers of Spanish

2024-02-29T19:18:51+01:00

This paper investigates the use of Hungarian as a foreign language by native speakers of Spanish. The results of an analysis of a spoken corpus are compared with data from previous research which used written texts and grammatical tests. Following a brief summary of the relevant key concepts of language acquisition the Hungarian definite conjugation is presented and data is analyzed to evaluate two main assumptions. The first assumption is that the most frequent errors can be associated with certain definite objects and that the errors found in a written corpus are identical with the ones that can be observed in speaking. Although the first assumption has not been confirmed the results draw the attention to the relevance of data collection methods. Our findings seem to support the second assumption which is based on the observation that the avoidance of grammatical structures may also be considered as a type of error, however, due to certain subresults it is not appropriate to draw conclusions.

Securitization of Migration as an Expression of Transpolitical Violence and the UN Human Security Approach as a Desecuritization Alternative

2024-08-18T06:48:30+02:00

In a scenario of profound social and economic inequity on a global scale, particularly in Latin America, for many migrants, moving from their country is the best or even the only alternative for accessing a decent living. Regarding the reception of Venezuelans, the region has experienced changes in migration policies, with some countries making their entry more difficult, which has led to an increase in the use of dangerous routes and informal border crossings. The text criticizes the securitization of immigration and introduces Human Security as an approach that includes in the definition of security areas centered on people and social groups (threats such as hunger, disease and repression) and not only those linked to national security and the defense of territory by military means. It stresses the importance of desecuritizing migration and adopting inclusive and humanitarian policies that recognize not only the productive contribution of migration but especially the dignity and rights of the migrant population.

Răzvan Bran: Subordinate Sentences and Complex Syntactic Constructions in Spanish. Theoretical Considerations and Practical Exercises

2024-08-14T18:45:29+02:00

Review of the book Subordinate Sentences and Complex Syntactic Constructions in Spanish. Theoretical Considerations and Practical Exercises by Răzvan Bran.

Juan Vaccaro – Francesc Sánchez Barba: The Long Road to the European Community I

2024-07-01T16:45:32+02:00

Review of the book The Long Road to the European Community I by Juan Vaccaro and Francesc Sánchez Barba.

Viktória Semsey: Parallels and Connections in the Histories of Spanish and Hungarian Political Emigration 1849–1873

2024-09-09T18:28:10+02:00

Review of the book Parallels and Connections in the Histories of Spanish and Hungarian Political Emigration 1849–1873 by Viktória Semsey.

Mária Dornbach: Wonderful? Real! - The Labyrinth of Existence

2024-11-25T13:20:13+01:00

Review of the book Wonderful? Real! - The Labyrinth of Existence by Mária Dornbach.

Preface

2024-12-11T19:30:34+01:00

Preface

In memoriam Mária Dornbach

2024-12-11T19:35:55+01:00

In memoriam Mária Dornbach