Respected Spanish Scholars Present Lecture at TAMIU Monday

Two of the nation's most respected Spanish literature scholars will present a special lecture Monday evening, April 22 at Texas A&M International University's Great Room of the Sue and Radcliffe Killam Library at 6:30 p.m.

Willard F. King, Professor Emeritus and former Chair of the Department of Spanish at Bryn Mawr College and Edmund L. King, present Professor Emeritus and former Chair of the Department of Romance Languages at Princeton University, will each offer a lecture. The lecture is free of charge and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

Dr. Willard King's topic will be 'The Importance of Endings: The Second Death of Don Quijote.' Dr. Edmund King's topic will be ' Spanish Poetry in English: Examples from the Great Masters.' The Kings were former professors of TAMIU Associate Professor of Spanish Dr. Ray Keck.

Dr. Willard F. King, originally from Big Spring, Texas, completed her graduate work at Brown University. Her doctoral dissertation, Prosa novelistica y academias literarias del S. XVII was published in 1963 by the Real Academia Espanola. She has written and lectured widely on Spanish literature, especially works of the Golden Age. Her recent book on Ruiz de Alarcon has become the definitive study of Alarcon. In addition to writing about Spanish literature, Dr. King was co-translator of Americo Castro's The Spaniards, published by the University of California in 1971. Her Monday lecture will include a discussion of how authors bring to conclusion famous works, including Shakespeare's King Lear and Perez Galdos' Doña Perfecta.

Dr. Edmund L. King is also a native Texan who was born in Austin. His graduate work was undertaken at the University of Texas at Austin and his doctoral dissertation became his first book, Gustavo Adolfo Becquer: From Painter to Poet. He has authored countless articles and studies on the 20th century Spanish novelist Miro and is considered an international authority on all matters related to Miro's life and literary remains. His Monday lecture will include reading from his translations into English of famous Spanish poems, and comment about the special problems of translation as a poetic and artistic endeavor. As a translator, Professor King became the first to make available to an English audience Castro's highly controversial synthesis of Spanish culture, La realidad historica de Espana.

Both Professors King have served terms as Director of the International Institute in Madrid, an academy founded by American women hispanists for American students studying in Spain.

For additional information on the lecture, please contact the Office of Public Affairs and Information Services at (210) - 326 - 2180.

17 April 1996