For Immediate Release
September 21, 2005

UMass, Amherst, and Mount Holyoke to
Host Conference on Cervantes

Presentations and performance celebrate 400th
anniversary of the novel Don Quixote

SOUTH HADLEY, Mass.--UMass, Amherst College, and Mount Holyoke College will host “Cervantes /in/on/and the New World,” Oct. 8-9, a conference that will celebrate the 400th anniversary of the publication of the first part of Miguel de Cervantes’ foundational novel, Don Quixote. The Five College celebration will focus on aspects of Quixote itself and the text’s ongoing influence and reception in the Americas.

Keynote speakers at the conference will include professors Diana de Armas Wilson from Denver University, Tom Lathrop from Delaware University, and Ilan Stavans from Amherst College. Other participants include James Iffland from Boston University, Daniel Eisenberg from Excelsior College, Mary Gaylord from Harvard University, and Alberto Sandoval from Mount Holyoke College.

The presentations will deal with topics such as teaching Don Quijote in the United States, Don Quijote in Spanglish, Don Quijote on Broadway, and the influence of Cervantes’ writings in the contemporary writers of the Americas.

The symposium will close with a performance of The UnPossesed, based on Don Quijote, by the theater group The Double Edge Ensemble.

The conference is open to the public. The performance will be at the Double Edge’s Farm in Ashfield, Mass. A bus will be leaving from Willitts Hallowell at Mount Holyoke College at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 9 (space available for 25 people).

For more information about the conference, go to: http://www.people.umass.edu/arbesufe/cervantes.