Patricia Felisa Barbeito (PhD, Comparative Literature, Harvard University) is Professor of American Literatures. She teaches courses on race and ethnicity in American literature; the African American literary tradition; captivity and prison narratives; magical realism; the Latin American novel; and noir fiction and film.
Currently, her research focuses on African-American literature and culture of 1940s-1960s, in particular the protest literature of the period. Based on this research, she is working on a book about African-American author Chester Himes titled, One Jump Ahead of Disaster: The Politics of Race, Interracial Sex, and Literary Style in Chester Himes’s Writing.
She is also a translator of contemporary Greek fiction and poetry. Her translations include Their Smell Makes Me Want to Cry by Menis Koumandareas (co-translated with Vangelis Calotychos; Birmingham University Press, 2004), and, most recently, Elias Maglinis’s The Interrogation (Birmingham University Press, 2013) for which she was awarded the 2013 MGSA Constantinides Memorial Translation Prize.
Courses
Summer 2024 Courses
ILLUS 1505-01 / LAS 1505-01 - *GREECE: TRUTH, BEAUTY, GOODNESS: ILLUSTRATING MYTHOLOGIES IN CONTEMPORARY GREECE
LevelUndergraduate
UnitIllustration
Subject Literary Arts and Studies
Illustration
Period Summer 2024
Credits 3
FormatSeminar
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date
ILLUS 1505-01 / LAS 1505-01
*GREECE: TRUTH, BEAUTY, GOODNESS: ILLUSTRATING MYTHOLOGIES IN CONTEMPORARY GREECE
In this combined studio/liberal arts course, three interrelated philosophical ideas—Beauty, Truth, and Goodness—frame the study of mythologies in contemporary Greece. Cornerstones of western philosophy and art, Beauty, Truth, and Goodness are concepts that hail back to classical Greek traditions of art, literature, philosophy and cosmology. For contemporary Greeks, however, this legacy is both a blessing and a curse, one that, while identifying Greek culture as central to the western tradition, both erases the complexities of their history and lived experience and dooms them to be forever overshadowed by their “glorious” classical past. This class therefore examines the rich history of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness as particularly complex and thorny myths that continue to be addressed and problematized in the contemporary Greek literary and visual lexicon. We will do so by looking at a range of material that attests to the enduring influence of classical models in the contemporary arts – from theater to statues and unique folk tales of good and evil on the Cyclades islands— set against the backdrop of some of the country’s greatest monuments and natural surroundings. By framing Athens, Delphi, and Naxos in discussions and illustration projects about three great ideas of western philosophy, the course considers the intersection of mythology, philosophy, literature and visual art.
Students must complete an application through RISD Global to be added to this course. A minimum GPA of 2.5 is required, good conduct standing, and permission of the instructor. GPA, Student Conduct Standing, and standing with Equity and Compliance will be verified and may preclude a student from participation, either before or during the term. Most courses are open to first year students with approval from the Dean of Experimental and Foundation Studies.
Elective
ILLUS 1505-01 / LAS 1505-01 - *GREECE: TRUTH, BEAUTY, GOODNESS: ILLUSTRATING MYTHOLOGIES IN CONTEMPORARY GREECE
LevelUndergraduate
UnitIllustration
Subject Literary Arts and Studies
Illustration
Period Summer 2024
Credits 3
FormatSeminar
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date
ILLUS 1505-01 / LAS 1505-01
*GREECE: TRUTH, BEAUTY, GOODNESS: ILLUSTRATING MYTHOLOGIES IN CONTEMPORARY GREECE
In this combined studio/liberal arts course, three interrelated philosophical ideas—Beauty, Truth, and Goodness—frame the study of mythologies in contemporary Greece. Cornerstones of western philosophy and art, Beauty, Truth, and Goodness are concepts that hail back to classical Greek traditions of art, literature, philosophy and cosmology. For contemporary Greeks, however, this legacy is both a blessing and a curse, one that, while identifying Greek culture as central to the western tradition, both erases the complexities of their history and lived experience and dooms them to be forever overshadowed by their “glorious” classical past. This class therefore examines the rich history of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness as particularly complex and thorny myths that continue to be addressed and problematized in the contemporary Greek literary and visual lexicon. We will do so by looking at a range of material that attests to the enduring influence of classical models in the contemporary arts – from theater to statues and unique folk tales of good and evil on the Cyclades islands— set against the backdrop of some of the country’s greatest monuments and natural surroundings. By framing Athens, Delphi, and Naxos in discussions and illustration projects about three great ideas of western philosophy, the course considers the intersection of mythology, philosophy, literature and visual art.
Students must complete an application through RISD Global to be added to this course. A minimum GPA of 2.5 is required, good conduct standing, and permission of the instructor. GPA, Student Conduct Standing, and standing with Equity and Compliance will be verified and may preclude a student from participation, either before or during the term. Most courses are open to first year students with approval from the Dean of Experimental and Foundation Studies.
