Diamela Eltit

Thirty-five years after her death, this book reassesses the Argentinian poet Alejandra Pizarnik (1936-72) in the light of recent publications of her 'complete' poetry and prose, diaries, and previously unavailable archive material.The essays in this volume explore Pizarnik's work from new angles: they examine her production as a literary critic, revealing her intense identificatory strategies as a reader, and the impact of such activities upon her own creative process. They also weigh up the influence of her ambiguous attitudes towards sexuality on her poetic personae, as well as the ways in which her concern with sex inspires her experimentation with humorous prose. New approaches are taken to key texts and themes: in the case of the much-studied work, 'La condesa sangrienta', through a detailed philosophical reading involving comparisons with Kafka, and, in the case of the theme of the split subject, through the lens of translation.By broadening the scope of Pizarnik studies, this book will act as a catalyst for further research into the work of this compelling poet.

Diamela Eltit’s literary work emerged on the Chilean cultural scene in the 1980s when the Pinochet regime (1973-1990) had consolidated its project of extermination, censorship, and neoliberal shock therapy. Forced to write in a suffocating atmosphere of restriction and violence, Eltit boldly cultivated a radical, insurrectional poetics aimed at questioning the very underpinnings of authoritarian power and discourse. While Eltit’s novels, published between 1983 and the present, provide a remarkable vision of Chile that has evolved over the past decades, she offers a different vantage point through her prolific and rigorous cultivation of literary essays. Translated for the first time into English, this collection of Eltit’s essays allows readers to delve into her key concerns as a writer and intellectual: the neoliberal marketplace; the marginalization of bodies in society; questions of gender and power; struggles for memory, truth, and justice after dictatorship; and the ever-complex relationships among politics, ethics, and aesthetics.

Chile's prize-winning novel of rebellious defiance in revolutionary prose--a feminist triumph of Joycean stature.

A victimized woman victimizes by identical means: alienating surveillance, of her son and herself.

"Gerdes' brief but informative introduction makes clear that he has been a sensitive reader of El cuarto mundo. The two narrators, although twins - one male, one female, tell different tales and use language very differently. Translation is competent, but Gerdes' own language lacks the dynamic energy of Eltit's, perhaps because he follows the Spanish structures so closely"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.

"This collection of essays, written in clear critical discourse, is a practical tool for first-time or hesitant Eltit readers who seek discussion of a particular book or books and are not familiar with the author's entire production."--BOOK JACKET.

DIVTranslations of texts by important Latin American women playwrights, and performance artists, together with essays about their work./div

Ana spent one perfect night with Manuel. She told me about it quite unexpectedly, knowing in advance how hopelessly caught up I would become in her reminiscences. She went into a detailed description of her expensive, provocative outfit, and I could visualise her walking forward, her legs deliberately restricted by her shiny black dress. Ana confessed that she was so driven by her depraved desire that night that she consciously sought to focus people's looks on the violent rippling of her thighs, barely disguised beneath the shiny black material. I watched her smiling and it hurt.'As the forces of political repression encircle Santiago, the capital of Chile, the narrator raises the question of the relationship between her sexual cravings and fantasies and the domination of women in Chilean society. Sacred Cow is an intense, erotic unveiling of the human psyche.