All text & images copyright © 2000 Joseph Robertson
[None of the contents of this page may be reproduced or distributed without the expressed, written consent of the author, who retains all rights & privileges.]

Tintas Online Journal was created by Prof. Joseph Robertson, at Villanova University, for the purpose of publishing works of literature relevant to and expressed within a number of different languages and cultures.

'Tintas' is the Spanish word for 'inks', plural.  As pertaining to this literary venture, the word is intended to conjure the process of convergence toward which all language itself, as communicative vehicle, is moving.   It says not merely 'ink', the tool of the trade, but rather speaks of a coincidence of more than one of these modes of expression. Inks are there, having marked and explained the terrain, as we come upon them. In the experience of encountering these coded swaths of ink, be they in prehistoric caves, or on papyrus scrolls, or in some more innocent contemporary form, we encounter the human urge to speak about the experience of being human.

So 'tintas' evokes a multiplicity of purpose and of method, by which language, and in essence the human experience as such, is ever-enriching its potential.  It speaks of a process of finding, of engaging, and of remembering, in inks of varied pitch and polish.   These pages carry the name 'Tintas' because they speak in chorus of those things we keep hidden beneath our individual voices.

The human universe is comprised of structures (abstract, intimate, and in flux) and of the variable fabrics by which these structures are covered, guarded, dissembled and made possible. It is by our use of inks that shared consciousness, indeed meaning itself, is made possible. These inks inscribe every human experience, every human place, modifying all that which exists in such a way that humanity, as such, gains purpose, significance. Varied ingredients yield various textures, differing spectra, ranging durabilities, specific capacities for generative performance. It is these inks which 'Tintas' seeks to manifest, to explore, to expound, and to cultivate. A necessary part of this process is the multiplicity of media: the primary multiple medium being that of language.

Here, authors and readers can gather to explore new avenues of expression, new forks and deviations in the ever bifurcating road of literary invention.  It is our hope that such a gathering of minds and tastes might create a more solid ground on which pioneering voices can stand, echo, and reverberate. 

[ Return to Tintas Cover Page ]