Faculty Research Fellows Talk with Hèctor Hoyos

Hèctor Hoyos: "Stateswomanship and the Narrativity of the Law in García Márquez’s Early Macondo Cycle"

In the masterful 1961 short story “Big Mama’s Funeral,” by the Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, a rural matriarch agonizes, dictates her will, passes, and ultimately gets memorialized in a raucous party of worldwide repute. What does this whirlwind absurdist tale have to tell us about the narrativity of the law (per Peter Brooks) when wills and testaments are concerned? And what resources does fiction have to interrogate such legal instruments? The talk, cognate to a co-authored book manuscript in progress, explores these dilemmas.

Hèctor Hoyos is Professor of Iberian and Latin American Cultures.

Clayman Faculty Affiliates are welcome to attend the lunch seminars.  All Stanford academics are eligible to become Clayman Institute Faculty Affiliates. Please RSVP to Lea Gottlieb (lgottlie [at] stanford.edu (lgottlie[at]stanford[dot]edu)) if you wish to attend.