A dream of light & shadow: portraits of Latin American women writers

642 Pages·1995·1.38 MB·English

by  Marjorie Agosín

A Dream of Light & Shadow : Portraits of
title:
Latin American Women Writers
author: Agosin, Marjorie.
publisher: University of New Mexico
isbn10 | asin: 0826316336
print isbn13: 9780826316332
ebook isbn13: 9780585187198
language: English
Women authors, Latin American--
Biography, Latin American literature--
subject
Women authors--History and criticism,
Women and literature--Latin America.
publication date: 1995
lcc: PQ7081.3.D74 1995eb
ddc: 860.9/9287/098
Women authors, Latin American--
Biography, Latin American literature--
subject: Women authors--History and criticism,
Women and literature--Latin America.
Page iii
A Dream of Light & Shadow
Portraits of Latin American Women Writers
Edited by Marjorie Agosín
UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO PRESS
Albuquerque
Page iv
Library Of Congress Cataloging-In-Publication Data
A Dream Of Light And Shadows : Portraits Of Latin American
Women Writers / Edited By Marjorie Agosin. 1st Ed. P. Cm.
Includes Bibliographical References.
ISBN 0-8263-1633-6
1. Women Authors, Latin AmericanBiography. 2. Latin
American LiteratureWomen AuthorsHistory And Criticism.
3. Women And LiteratureLatin America. 1. Agosín, Marjorie.
PQ7081.3.D74 1995 860.9192871098Dc20 94-48679 CIP
© 1995 by the University of New Mexico Press.
All rights reserved.
First edition
Many of the essays were translated from the Spanish by Nancy
Abraham Hall.
designed by linda mae tratechaud
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Contents
Introduction: 1
From a Room of One's Own to the Garden
Marjorie Agosín
1 41
Sofía Ospina de Navarro:
Wise Advice from an Optimistic Grandmother
Mary G. Berg
2 55
Victoria Ocampo & Spiritual Energy
Doris Meyer
3 75
Clementina Suárez: Poetry & Womanhood
Janet Gold
4 95
The Creation of Alfonsina Storni
Gwen Kirkpatrick
5 119
Gabriela Mistral: Language Is the Only Homeland
Elizabeth Horan
6 143
Violeta Parra: Singer of Life
Inés Dölz-Blackburn
7 159
Cecilia Ansaldo: Woman between the Private and Public
Space
Patricia Varas
8 179
Marta Traba: A Life of Images & Words
Gloria Bautista Gutiérrez
9 195
Carmen Naranjo: From Poet to Minister
Patricia Rubio
10 207
Rigoberta Menchú: The Art of Rebellion
Mary Jane Treacy
11 221
Julia de Burgos: Woman, Poet, Legend
Carmen Esteves
12 237
Elena Poniatowska: Search for the Voiceless
Kay S. García
13 253
Delmira Agustini: Portraits & Reflections
Renée Scott
14 271
Clarice Lispector: Dreams of Language
Giovanni Pontiero
15 291
Alejandra Pizarnik: The Self & Its Impossible Landscapes
Alicia Borinsky
16 303
Marosa Di Giorgio: Uruguay's Sacred Poet of the Garden
Teresa Porzecanski
Notes 315
Bibliography 329
Page 1
Introduction
From a Room of One's Own to the Garden
Marjorie Agosín
Translated By Nancy Abraham Hall
A Dream Of Light And Shadow: Portraits of Latin American Women
Writers is a unique collection of essays about the most outstanding
female figures in Latin American culture. Like all anthologies, this
one is arbitrary, the product of my own readings, and to a certain
extent, my personal selection and vision. By design I have included
many prominent voices, as well as some that have yet to receive the
recognition they deserve. Rather than simply selecting authors by
country and placing them in chronological order, I have focused on
women who have forged a destiny and contributed a sense of vision to
the cultural landscape of Latin America.
Each woman profiled in this book is vitally aware of the artistry,
obsessions, and voices through which she creates her own sense of
identity and reaches out to other women. None ever acts as a guardian
or promoter of male culture. By bringing these authors together in a
single collection, I hope to shed light on a shared tradition, and to
show how each woman's individual vision responds
Page 2
to a feminine form of expression, a certain way of looking at writing
and at the society in which she chooses to live.
A common thread unites these writers. Each creates her own culture in
keeping with a distinctly feminine sensibility. From Sofía Ospina's
recipes and books about Antioquian culture to Violeta Parra's
autobiography in verse, each writer constructs a creative space in
defiance of the limits imposed by society and is able to find freedom
through creative imagination. Thus, in order to escape the confines of
home and country, Delmira Agustini forges a dual identity for herself,
breaking all of society's rules and setting herself free through her
erotic poetry. Alejandra Pizarnik also chooses the violence of desire,
as well as the liberating power of surrealism, in a stunning journey
across the hallucinatory space of poetic language and imaginative
discourse.
It would appear that several creative women from the Southern Cone,
and more specifically from the River Plate areawomen such as
Agustini, Pizarnik, and Di Giorgioresort to a series of "personae," or
creative masks, that allow them to invent alternate ways of being and
to pursue their true vocation, the search for creative possibilities. We
read, for example, in Teresa Porzcekanski's article about Marosa Di
Giorgio, of the poet's haunting appearance on a Montevideo stage, and
of her secret place of honor, the garden of the imagination.
Porzcekanski points out the essential elementsthe garden, Di Giorgio's
personality, and the kitchen, that feminine realm of magical altars and
potionsthat fuse to form the essence of Marosa's poetic stage: "[The]
altar appeared made of nothing but Bromelias, kitchens, beds. The
country brides carried [snails] in baskets . . . stiff as rocks, as eggs,
their white shells and bulging rose-colored eyes."
Despite the deep prejudices all the women in this anthology faced
during their lifetimes, each was able to overcome obstacles and claim
a legitimate place as a writer on the cultural stage. The prejudice was
notorious in the case of Gabriela Mistral, who received recognition in
her homeland only after she was awarded the