Synopses & Reviews
This collection of essays, written by a distinguished group of literary critics, explores the Jewish woman's experience in Latin America. It came about as an attempt to define the cultural experience of Jewish Latin American women writers, as well as their relationship with their various countries. Included are Ilan Stavans and Magdalena Maiz-Peña writing on Mexico, David William Foster on Argentina, Regina Igel and Nelson Vieira on Brazil, Elizabeth Ross Horan on Chile and Uruguay, Joan Friedman on Venezuela, and Ruth Behar, Ester Shapiro Rok, and Rosa Lowinger on Cuba.
As Marjorie Agosín notes, the role of memory for the writers included in this volume is a central theme. The majority of them are daughters of Sephardic or Ashkenazi immigrants, many of whom fled the Holocaust. They write openly about their identity and their hybrid condition as Jews in predominantly Catholic countries, an issue that has not, until recently, been addressed with candor.
Synopsis
A lively analysis of the major contribution of Jewish women writers in Latin America.
About the Author
Marjorie Agosín is professor of Spanish at Wellesley College. She is well-known as a poet and activist and is the author or editor of numerous books.
Table of Contents
Introduction: passion and memory: Latin American Jewish writers / Marjorie Agosâin -- On separate ground / Ilan Stavans -- Mapping the Jewish female voice in contemporary Mexican narrative / Magdalena Maâiz-Peäna -- Recent Argentine women writers of Jewish descent / David William Foster -- Brazilian Jewish women writers at the crossroads / Regina Igel -- Clarice Lispector's Jewish universe: passion in search of narrative identity / Nelson Vieira -- Emigrant memory: Jewish women writers in Chile and Uruguay / Elizabeth Rosa Horan -- Venezuelan Jewish women writers and the search for heritage / Joan Esther Friedman -- In search of the Cuban Jewish woman writer: a trialogue/un triâologo / Ruth Behar, Ester Shapiro Rok, and Rosa Lowinger -- List of contributors.