Jump to content

Armonía Somers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by BrownHairedGirl (talk | contribs) at 10:54, 18 July 2014 (→‎top: {{fact}}). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Armonía Liropeya Etchepare Locino (also, Armonía Etchepare de Henestrosa; better known by the pseudonym, Armonía Somers sometimes spelled Armonía Sommers; 7 October 1914 - March 1 1994) was a Uruguayan feminist, pedagogue, novelist and short story writer.[1] A member of the literary movement Generación del 45, Somers wrote in a transgressive style.[2] Cristina Peri Rossi noted that Somers was one of the most prominent contemporary storytellers from Uruguay of the 1950s.[citation needed] Her contemporaries included Silvina Ocampo, Griselda Gambaro, Luisa Valenzuela, Elena Garro, and Peri Rossi.[3]

It was thought impossible that her first novel, La mujer desnuda (The Naked Woman, 1950), could have been written by a woman because of the scandalous, over sexual content.[4] After her second novel De miedo en miedo was published, Somers moved to her new house in the summer resort Pinamar, about 30 kilometres (19 mi) from Montevideo. When not there, she lived on the 16th floor of the skyscraper Palacio Salvo.[5]

Early years

Born in Pando, Somers was the eldest of three daughters of anarchist businessman Pedro Etchepare and the deeply Catholic mother María Judith Locino.[6] Her basic studies occurred in a Spanish primary school in Pando, being her the only girl admitted there. After that, she continued her studies at the Normal school of Montevideo in 1927,[7] which was at that time the only way for a woman to have a diploma.[citation needed]

Career

In 1933, she finished her university studies in pedagogy at the University of the Republic,[8] where she became interested in the teaching of young people. She taught in different schools after that and so became aware of the problems facing different social environments,[6] which eventually led her to publishing essays such as Educación en la adolescencia (1957), winner of the Departmental Council of Montevideo. Other works related to the topic were El adolescente de novela y su valor de testimonio and Ann Sullivan Macy, la forja en noche plena.

In 1950, she was sent as a delegate of the Pedagogical Museum of Montevideo to attend the Inter-American Seminar on Primary Education.[9] Later, she was invited by the government of France to collaborate with the organization of the prison system in that country.[9] After her "scandalous" debut with the erotic novel La mujer desnuda (1950),[8] she became a delegate of the Biblioteca y Museo Pedagógico del Uruguay in 1957 to the Inter-American Seminar on primary education to the Organization of American States (OAS) and UNESCO,[10] being appointed Deputy Director of the Museum a few years later.[9] In 1953, when she took the manuscript of El derrumbamiento (1948) to the print shop for a second edition, she came to meet the publisher Roberto Henestrosa whom she married two years later.[5]

In 1960, Somers was invited by the government of France to move to that country and study the organization and operation of rehabilitation centers and correctional institutions;[10] she received a special invitation from the Secretariat of the Second Congress of the United Nations for the prevention of crime and the treatment of offenders, held in London.[10] The following year, she was invited by the Academic Exchange Service of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn (DAAD) to visit that country to advance her studies in her field.[11] She was the founder and editor of the journal Documentum in that year.[12] In 1962, she represented Montevideo at the United Nations during the Seminar on Education for Development and Social Progress; being appointed director of the Library and Pedagogical Museum in Uruguay.[10]

Between 1962 and 1971, she was director of the National Center for Educational Documentation,[8] receiving the UNESCO fellowship for studies on pedagogical documentation in Paris, Dijon, Geneva and Madrid in 1964.[10] She becomes editor of Boletín informativo de la Biblioteca y Museo Pedagógicos, Anales and Enciclopedia de Educación (1967-71).[13] From then on, she stopped teaching to devote herself to writing, perhaps because of the incompatibility of a very active life in her career and her literary ambitions. Her work grew slowly with long pauses and periods of silence, one between 1953 and 1963 and another between 1969 and 1979. She died in Montevideo in 1994.

Selected works

Somers' work is often considered part of the "45 Generation" of Uruguayan literature.[6] However, some literary critics such as Rey Garcia consider Somers as someone who was also involved in movements other than those of her generation.[citation needed] Some books that she read in the library of her father would be decisive in her literary career.[8] Somers acknowledged influence from the life of writers and thinkers like Peter Kropotkin, Giacomo LeopardiCharles DarwinDante AlighieriEdmund Spenser, and others.[citation needed] Alberto Manguel translated Somers' works.[14]

In Alberto Paganini, Alejandro Paternain, and Gabriel Saad's 1969 book Cien autores del Uruguay, Somers is described ahead of the generation to which she belonged, her artistic direction having more in common with the "Generation of Crisis." Other critics classify her, along with Juan Carlos Onetti,[6] within what Angel Rama called the "imaginative literature" that broke out the mold of realistic literature.[6] There is a long discussion whether the work of Somers belongs to the fantastic literature or not. In any case, the macabre atmosphere of the impregnated texts of violence and eroticism,[8] and its fragmented structure containing elements of intertextuality, makes reading her novels and short stories not an easy task. Her writing is innovative, subversive and irreverent, yet it contains not only archetypal elements and allegorical allusions to the Bible but also dreamlike and surreal literary items.

Novels

  • La mujer desnuda. Montevideo, 1950
  • De miedo en miedo. Montevideo, 1965
  • Un retrato para Dickens. Montevideo, 1969
  • Sólo los elefantes encuentran mandrágora. Buenos Aires, 1986

Short stories and novellas

  • El derrumbamiento. Montevideo, 1953
  • La calle del viento Norte y otros cuentos. Montevideo, 1963
  • Todos los cuentos, 1953-1967. Montevideo, 1967 (2 volumes)
  • Muerte por alacrán. Buenos Aires, 1978
  • Tríptico darwiniano. Montevideo, 1982
  • Viaje al corazón del día. Montevideo, 1986
  • La rebelión de la flor. Montevideo, 1988
  • El hacedor de girasoles. Montevideo, 1994

References

  1. ^ Rodríguez-Villamil, Ana María (1990). Elementos fantásticos en la narrativa de Armonía Somers. Montevideo: Ed. de la Banda Oriental. p. 220.
  2. ^ Sosnowski, Saúl (1996). Lectura crítica de la literatura americana: inventarios, invenciones y revisiones, Volume 1. Fundación Biblioteca Ayacuch. p. 698. ISBN 978-980-276-293-4.
  3. ^ Fishburn, Evelyn (1998). Short fiction by Spanish-American women. Manchester University Press. p. 126. ISBN 978-071-904-744-2.
  4. ^ Ledwell, p. 194
  5. ^ a b Garfield, Evelyn Picon (1988). Women's Fiction from Latin America: Selections from Twelve Contemporary Authors. Wayne State University Press. pp. 31–. ISBN 0-8143-1859-2.
  6. ^ a b c d e Cynthia Tompkins; David William Foster (2001). Notable Twentieth-century Latin American Women: A Biographical Dictionary. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 270. ISBN 0313311129.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ "Armonía Somers". Cristinadaniele.escritoresdepinamar.com. 22 August 2013.
  8. ^ a b c d e Jane Ledwell; Jean Mitchell (2013). Anne Around the World: L.M. Montgomery and Her Classi. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. p. 193. ISBN 0773541403.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. ^ a b c "El fantasma de Armonía Liropeya Etchepare Locino". Diarioalfil.com.ar. Alfil.
  10. ^ a b c d e Miramontes, Ana M. (2005). Oscilaciones Estéticas en la Narrativa de Cuatro Autoras Sudamericanas: Norah Lange, María Luisa Bombal, Armonía Somers y Clarice Linspector (PDF). University of Pittsburgh. p. 120.
  11. ^ Dalmagro, María Cristina (2002). Mujeres en el Campo Intelectual Uruguayo: Armonía Somers: Entre la Transgreción y el Seudómino (PDF). Universidad de. p. 56.
  12. ^ Misemer, Sarah M. (2010). Moving Forward, Looking Back: Trains, Literature, and the Arts in the River Plate. Bucknell University Press. p. 214. ISBN 978-0-8387-5765-9.
  13. ^ "Fotografía de la escritora uruguaya Armonía Somers (1914 - 1994)". Uruguayeduca.edu.uy. Anep.
  14. ^ Callaghan, Barry (1992). Fifteen Years in Exile. Exile Editions, Ltd. pp. 508–. ISBN 978-1-55096-025-9.