Bernardo Atxaga Chair at the CUNY: a new look at the works of Arantxa Urretabizkaia

The 2015 edition of the Bernardo Atxaga Chair at the CUNY, City University of New York, concluded yesterday, October 8. The Basque writer Arantxa Urretabizkaia and the UPV / EHU professor Mari Jose Olaziregi were in charge of teaching the program this year, entitled "Dormant Voices: narration and transgression in the current Basque literature (1975 - 2010)".

From her experience and background as a writer in Basque language, Arantxa Urretabizkaia has studied the obsessions that have marked the Basque literary life in recent decades and has placed special emphasis on three main themes: Franco and literature; women in Basque literature and the narrative of the conflict.

Thirteen doctorate students of the CUNY participated in the course. "The student participation has been exemplary. Not only were they very interested in the subject, but they were also very active, and the exchange with them was really fruitful" said Mari Jose Olaziregi, Professor and Director of the Promotion and Dissemination of the Basque Language at the Etxepare Basque Institute .

The writer Arantxa Urretabizkaia said that this experience gave her the chance to teach, but also to learn from the students. "I´ve known other visions and looks of my own work, both through the analysis offered by Olaziregi during the seminars, and through the feedback from the students," she said yesterday, at the end of the academic program.

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The 2015 edition of the Bernardo Atxaga Chair at the CUNY, City University of New York, concluded yesterday, October 8. The Basque writer Arantxa Urretabizkaia and the UPV / EHU professor Mari Jose Olaziregi were in charge of teaching the program this year, entitled "Dormant Voices: narration and transgression in the current Basque literature (1975 - 2010)".

From her experience and background as a writer in Basque language, Arantxa Urretabizkaia has studied the obsessions that have marked the Basque literary life in recent decades and has placed special emphasis on three main themes: Franco and literature; women in Basque literature and the narrative of the conflict.

Thirteen doctorate students of the CUNY participated in the course. "The student participation has been exemplary. Not only were they very interested in the subject, but they were also very active, and the exchange with them was really fruitful" said Mari Jose Olaziregi, Professor and Director of the Promotion and Dissemination of the Basque Language at the Etxepare Basque Institute .

The writer Arantxa Urretabizkaia said that this experience gave her the chance to teach, but also to learn from the students. "I´ve known other visions and looks of my own work, both through the analysis offered by Olaziregi during the seminars, and through the feedback from the students," she said yesterday, at the end of the academic program.

The main purpose of this chair, created by the Etxepare Basque Institute in 2011, is to promote the research and study of the Basque language and literature among students of CUNY. "Besides being a very interesting class agenda, I was surprised by the closeness with which Urretabizkaia explained her work. I especially liked the study on the connection between the gender and the Basque literature" said Natalia Castro, student at CUNY and finalist for the National Youth Poetry Prize Miguel Hernández.