Manuela Barney Seidel, born in Cali, Colombia, is a doctoral candidate at Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School for Literary Studies, where she is working on a dissertation project on the Colombian Caribbean writer Marvel Moreno (1939–1995). She also works as a researcher at the chair of Prof. Dr. Anita Traninger and is a lecturer at the Institute of Romance Philology at Freie Universität Berlin.

She holds a BA in German Literature and Social Sciences from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. In her MA, she studied European Literature also at the Humboldt-Universität and at Sorbonne Université in Paris. She completed her Master’s degree with a thesis titled Oriane's female counterworld – An examination of the short story “Oriane, Tía Oriane” (1975) by Marvel Moreno and its film adaptation “Oriana” (1985) by Fina Torres. From 2017 to 2022 she worked as a student assistant at the chair of Prof. Dr. Steffen Martus at the Institute for German Literature at Humboldt-Universität.

Summer 2024: A Literary Memorial for Feminicide – Translating the Short Story Soñarán en el jardín (2015), Fri 10–2

In this seminar, participants will collaboratively translate the short story Soñarán en el jardín (2015) by Mexican author Gabriela Damián Miravete into German. Focusing on speculative science fiction, the narrative honors the victims of feminicides. The setting is a future Mexico where feminicides no longer occur, a country that has healed and become a violence-free place through the memory of the killed women.

Students will have the opportunity to gain initial insights into the field of literary translation, as they will be involved in the process of creating a collective translation from the very beginning: starting with initial joint readings of the original text, reflections on the theory of feminicides (term by Marcela Lagarde) and translation, to the actual translation practice and subsequent editing by an experienced translator, culminating in publication by alba.edition.

The author of the short story will also be present at the end of the seminar. This is made possible by funding for women's empowerment and gender equality from the Faculty of Philosophy and Humanities at Freie Universität Berlin.

Winter 2023/2024: Introduction to Spanish Literary Studies, Fri 2–4

Winter 2023/2024: Haunted Houses. The Uncanny in Spanish and Latin American Literature, Wed 4–6

Houses in literature (and film) are often more than just the setting or a simple backdrop. This is especially true for haunted houses. There is even an etymological connection in German between the house and the sinister, as Freud noted in 1919, pointing out that the “Heim” (home) is embedded in the “Un[heim]lich” (uncanny), but also in “ge[heim]” (secret) and the “[Heim]suchung” (haunting). No wonder famous Gothic novels, from Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto to Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, frequently feature castles or houses haunted by ghosts or seemingly possessing a life of their own.

In this seminar, we aim to focus on the phenomenon of haunted houses in the Spanish and Latin American context. While Gothic novels and horror stories have enjoyed popularity in English literature since the 18th century, we currently observe a certain trend in Latin American women writers towards this genre. Terms like gótico andino or gótico tropical also reflect this trend. Together, we will examine how the uncanny house is constructed in literature and what it represents in different contexts. After an introductory reflection on the house in literature, we will delve into the concept of the uncanny by Freud before turning to specific texts, from García Lorca's La casa de Bernarda Alba to Carlos Fuentes' Aura and Isabel Allende's La casa de los espíritus.

Summer 2023: Gabriel García Márquez between Journalism and Magical Realism, Thu 10–12

The Colombian Nobel Prize laureate Gabriel García Márquez is one of the most prominent figures in Latin American literature, best known internationally for his 1967 novel Cien años de soledad, a world bestseller that traces the tragic family history of the Buendías over several generations in the fictional town of Macondo. The novel's magical elements, such as the yellow butterflies surrounding Mauricio Babilonia or the levitating Remedios, quickly established García Márquez as the leading representative of the so-called Magical Realism. Less known, however, is his work as a journalist. In his 1996 speech before the Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa, Gabo (as he is affectionately known in his homeland Colombia) called journalism the best job in the world (El mejor oficio del mundo), and indeed, journalistic writing accompanied him throughout his whole life.

This seminar will examine García Márquez as a boundary-pusher between literary genres. His journalistic works provide a valuable foundation for approaching the renowned author from a different perspective. In addition to reflecting on magical realism from a postcolonial viewpoint and in relation to Cien años de soledad, we will also engage with other works such as Relato de un náufrago (1955/1970), Noticia de un secuestro (1996), and Crónica de una muerte anunciada (1981). The seminar will focus on the fusion of literary and journalistic techniques in the author's work, particularly evident in genres like reportage and chronicle. The goal is to investigate how García Márquez blurs the lines between fiction and fact, as well as magic and realism.

Winter 2022/2023: Marvel Moreno in the Context of the Latin American Boom, Thu 10–12

This seminar is dedicated to the transnational phenomenon of the so-called Latin American Boom, which saw (initially male) authors from Latin America emerge suddenly on the European literary scene in the 1960s and 1970s. The seminar will begin by focusing on the boom itself, examining key novels and authors (Julio Cortázar, Carlos Fuentes, Mario Vargas Llosa, Gabriel García Márquez, and others). These authors will be critically discussed: Who decides which authors belong to the boom and which do not? Does the boom not reproduce a Eurocentric perspective that homogenizes rich and diverse literatures? Or are there indeed resemblances and parallels between the authors and their works that justify such categorization, like their shared belief in the values of the Cuban Revolution?

To further discuss these questions, the seminar will present the lesser-known but remarkable Colombian author Marvel Moreno (1939–1995), whose first novel En diciembre llegaban las brisas was published in 1987. As a female author, Moreno is often categorized within the subgenres of the boom femenino and the post-boom. By shifting the focus from the macro to the micro level, we aim to gain a more nuanced understanding of her position within and in relation to the boom.

Manuela Barney Seidel's doctoral thesis with the working title “Vivir en la incertidumbre” - An Approach to the Uncertain in Marvel Moreno's Work focuses on two short stories and the two novels En diciembre llegaban las brisas (1987) and El tiempo de las Amazonas (2020) by the Colombian Caribbean writer Marvel Moreno (1939–1995).

Her research is particularly interested in the concept of uncertainty, which seems to play a central role at various levels of the author's work. Her preliminary research suggests that events or characters relevant to the plot are frequently either omitted or merely alluded to, yet continue to haunt the characters' present. The prevailing sense of uncertainty is achieved narratively through the use of internal focalisation, which is a predominant feature of Moreno's work, and also through references hidden in details, such as flora and fauna, names, religious references or behavioural patterns. The narrator gives no specific information while the focalised character tries to suppress thoughts of the past, so that the reader is unable to gain a clear understanding of what is happening – the events remain uncertain. The resulting enigma, however, is not intended to be solved. Instead, Moreno places herself in a modern tradition that aims for an aesthetic effect on the reader rather than a solution.

• Gabriela Damián Miravete: Im Garten werden sie träumen / Soñarán en el jardín. Ed. Manuela Barney Seidel. Berlin: alba.edition 2024. (Editor and Preface)

Other publications

• „Marvel Moreno, Schriftstellerin“, in: Publishing brochure for Marvel Moreno, Im Dezember der Wind. Roman, Berlin: Wagenbach 2023.
•  Collaboration on the edition of the correspondence between Günter Eich and Rainer Brambach

Roland Berbig (Ed.): «Nichts und niemand kann dich ersetzen». Rainer Brambach – Günter Eich. Der Briefwechsel. Wädenswil am Zürichsee: Nimbus 2021.

Invited talks and guest lectures

• 29.10.2024: Book launch of ‘Im Garten werden sie träumen’ at the Literaturforum im Brecht-Haus, moderated by the students Catharina Deege and Carla Wendte. A recording of the event can be found here. (Organisation of the event and introduction in German)
• 13.07.2024: Discussion and reading “Un monumento literario para los feminicidios” with Cristina Rivera Garza und Gabriela Damián Miravete in the latin american bookshop Andenbuch in Berlin (Organisation of the event and moderation in Spanish)
• 07.05.2024: Book launch of the translation of the novel “Conjunto vacío” by Verónica Gerber Bicceci in the Literaturhaus Berlin (Consecutive moderation in Spanish and German)
• 30.11.2022: Guest lecture at the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena. Title of the lecture: “Marvel Moreno, an author from the Colombian Caribbean. Sexuality and power in ‘En diciembre llegaban las brisas’”
• 11.03.2021: Reading at the event "Ruth Klüger: Continuer à vivre et à écrire" at Maison Heinrich Heine in Paris
• 24.02.2021: Panelist at the event: "Ronya Othmann: Die Sommer (Les Étés)" at Maison Heinrich Heine in Paris