Full Description
The first Latin American to receive a Nobel Prize for Literature, the Chilean writer Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957) is often characterized as a healing, maternal voice who spoke on behalf of women, indigenous peoples, the disenfranchised, children, and the rural poor. She is that political poet and more: a poet of philosophical meditation, self-consciousness, and daring. This is a book full of surprises and paradoxes. The complexity and structural boldness of these prose-poems, especially the female-erotic prose pieces of her first book, make them an important moment in the history of literary modernism in a tradition that runs from Baudelaire, the North American moderns, and the South American postmodernistas. It's a book that will be eye-opening and informative to the general reader as well as to students of gender studies, cultural studies, literary history, and poetry. This Spanish-English bilingual volume gathers the most famous and representative prose writings of Gabriela Mistral, which have not been as readily available to English-only readers as her poetry. The pieces are grouped into four sections."Fables, Elegies, and Things of the Earth" includes fifteen of Mistral's most accessible prose-poems. "Prose and Prose-Poems from Desolacion / Desolation [1922]" presents all the prose from Mistral's first important book. "Lyrical Biographies" are Mistral's poetic meditations on Saint Francis and Sor Juana de la Cruz. "Literary Essays, Journalism, 'Messages'" collects pieces that reveal Mistral's opinions on a wide range of subjects, including the practice of teaching; the writers Alfonso Reyes, Alfonsina Storni, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Pablo Neruda; Mistral's own writing practices; and her social beliefs. Editor/translator Stephen Tapscott rounds out the volume with a chronology of Mistral's life and a brief introduction to her career and prose.
Contents
Biographical Data; Principal Publications; I. Fables, Elegies, and Things of the Earth; El mar; The Sea; La cebra; The Zebra; El faison dorado; The Golden Pheasant; La harina; Flour; Elogio de la sal; In Praise of Salt; El higo; The Fig; La pica; The Pineapple; La tortuga; The Tortoise; Pan; Bread; La jirafa; The Giraffe; La alpaca; The Alpaca; El girasol; The Sunflower; Elogio del crystal; In Praise of Glass; Elogio de la arena; In Praise of Sand; Segundo elogio de la arena; Second Praise-Song for the Sand; II. Prose and Prose-Poems from Desolacion/Desolation (1922); La oracion de la maestro; The Teacher's Prayer; Los cabellos de los nios; Children's Hair; Poemas de las madres; Poems of the Mothers; I. Poemas de las madres; I. Poems of the Mothers; II. Poemas de la madre mas triste; II. Poems of the Saddest Mother; Nota; Note; Canciones de cuna; Lullabies; Motivos del barro; Motifs of Clay; La flor de cuatro p talos; The Four-Petaled Flower; Poemas del Extasis; Poems of Ecstasy; El arte; Art; Decalogo del artista; Decalogue of the Artist; Comentarios a poemas de Rabindranath Tagore; Commentary on Poems by Rabindranath Tagore; Lecturas espirituales; Spiritual Readings; Motivos de la Pasion; Motifs of the Passion; Poemas del hogar; Poems of the Home; Prosa escolar/Cuentos escolares; Scholarly Prose/Stories for Schools; Por qua las ca-as son huecas; Why Bamboo Canes Are Hollow; Por qua las rosas tienen espinas; Why Roses Have Thorns; La raiz del rosal; The Root of the Rosebush; El cardo; The Thistle; La charka; The Puddle; III. Lyrical Biographies; Canto a San Francisco; Song to Saint Francis; Silueta de Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz; Profile of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz; IV. Literary Essays, Journalism, "Messages"; Decir el sueo; To Declare the Dream; Pensamientos pedagogicos; Thoughts on Teaching; Silueta de la india mexicana; Profile of the Mexican Indian Woman; Chile; Chile; Un hombre de Mexico: Alfonso Reyes; A Man of Mexico: Alfonso Reyes; Alfonsina Storni; Alfonsina Storni; Invitacion a la lectura de Rainer Maria Rilke; An Invitation to Read Rainer Maria Rilke; Si Napoleon no hubiese existido; If Napoleon Had Never Existed; Jose Marti; Jose Marti'; Recado sobre Pablo Neruda; A Message about Pablo Neruda; Como escribo; How I Write; Sobre cuatro sorbos de agua; On Four Sips of Water; La palabra maldita; The Forbidden Word; Mis ideas socials; My Social Beliefs; Translator's Remarks; Index of Titles
