"Brilliant and captivating, Chiliean poet and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature (1945) Gabriela Mistral presents to us a complex series of poems in Madwomen. One interested in South American poetry would remiss to not read this fascinating collection, given Mistral's genius and influence in South American literature."
Publisher University Of Chicago Press
Publication Date 2009-10-15
Section Poetry / All Staff Suggestions / Fiction Suggestions / Nonfiction Suggestions / Michael R.
Format Paperback
ISBN 9780226531915
A schoolteacher whose poetry catapulted her to early fame in her native Chile and an international diplomat whose boundary-defying sexuality still challenges scholars, Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957) is one of the most important and enigmatic figures in Latin American literature of the last century. The Locas mujeres poems collected here are among Mistral's most complex and compelling, exploring facets of the self in extremis—poems marked by the wound of blazing catastrophe and its aftermath of mourning.
From disquieting humor to ballad-like lyricism to folkloric wisdom, these pieces enact a tragic sense of life, depicting "madwomen" who are anything but mad. Strong and intensely human, Mistral's poetic women confront impossible situations to which no sane response exists. This groundbreaking collection presents poems from Mistral's final published volume as well as new editions of posthumous work, featuring the first English-language appearance of many essential poems. Madwomen promises to reveal a profound poet to a new generation of Anglophone readers while reacquainting Spanish readers with a stranger, more complicated "madwoman" than most have ever known.
