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Irene Chico-Wyatt

Research Interests:
Spanish Language, Literature & Culture
Contemporary Poetry
Spanish Peninsular Theater
Golden Age Poetry and Drama
Phonetics
Education

Ph.D., Contemporary Spanish Peninsular Poetry, University of Kentucky, 2001

MA Spanish Studies, University of Kentucky

BA Filología Inglesa, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Research

Dr. Chico-Wyatt specializes in Spanish Poetry with emphasis in 20th Century Peninsular Poetry, and especially the poetic group known as The Generation of 1927. My research focuses on the influence of avant-garde movements in the creation of Spanish poetry of that period, and I am particularly interested in the women poets of that generation, who have been traditionally ignored by the canon. Since most students are generally scared of poetry, in my classes I try to dissipate their fears by establishing the connections between poetry and music.

Biography

Irene Chico-Wyatt, born in Madrid, Spain, earned her B.A. in English from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Worked several years for the Vanderbilt-in-Spain Program in Madrid and served for one year as the Director of The Casa de España y las Américas at the University of The South, in Sewanee, Tennessee (1991-1992). In 1993 she came to the University of Kentucky, where she earned her Master of Arts and Ph. D. degrees. In August 2003 she moved to Charleston, South Carolina. There she taught at the College of Charleston where she worked as Assistant Professor of Spanish and served as Study Abroad Advisor.

Selected Publications:
  • Book review of The Colonial City in Spanish-America: Urban Life in the Age of Atlantic Capitalism. Jay Kinsbruner. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005. In The Sixteenth Century Journal (Forthcoming).
  • Book review of Homenaje a María Zambrano. James Valender ed. México: El Colegio de México, 1998. In Romance Quarterly 49.4 (Fall 2002): 312-313.
  • Introduction to Gregory Keith Cole’s Spanish Women Poets of the Generation of 1927. New York: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2002.

Recommended works

One of my favorite books of all times is actually in English; it is Monsignor Quixote by Graham Greene. In Spanish, there are so many that I do not even know where to start. I mainly read poetry, therefore, I would recommend all the poets of the Generation of 1927, but especially the women, Concha Méndez, Ana María Martínez Saggi, Pilar Valderrama and Ernestina Champourcin –among others. An insightful book on the life of all these women is Concha Méndez: Memorias habladas, memorias armadas, by Paloma Ulacia Altolaguirre.