Obras; I. Narrativa

by Rosario Castellanos

La publicacion de las Obras de Rosario Castellanos constituye un acto de justicia a una de las grandes escritoras mexicanas del siglo XX. Su obra narrativa desterro de nuestras letras la mirada exogena y paternalista que habia caracterizado al indigenismo mexicano. Este primer volumen reune Balun Canan, Oficio de tinieblas, y los libros de cuentos Ciudad real, Los convidados de Agosto y el postumo Album de familia, asi como tres narraciones ineditas.

Genres: Fiction

984 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2005

About the author

Rosario Castellanos Figueroa (25 May 1925 – 7 August 1974) was a Mexican poet and author. Along with the other members of the Generation of 1950 (the poets who wrote following the Second World War, influenced by César Vallejo and others), she was one of Mexico's most important literary voices in the last century. Throughout her life, she wrote eloquently about issues of cultural and gender oppression, and her work has influenced feminist theory and cultural studies. Though she died young, she opened the door of Mexican literature to women, and left a legacy that still resonates today.

Throughout her career, Castellanos wrote poetry, essays, one major play, and three novels: the semi-autobiographical Balún Canán and Oficio de tinieblas (translated into English as The Book of Lamentations) depicting a Tzotzil indigenous uprising in Chiapas based on one that had occurred in the 19th century. Despite being a ladino – of mestizo, not indigenous descent – Castellanos shows considerable concern and understanding for the plight of indigenous peoples. "Cartas a Ricardo," a collection of her letters to her husband Ricardo Guerra was published after her death as was her third novel, Rito de iniciación. Rosario Castellanos said of the collection of her letters in Cartas a Ricardo that she considered them to be her autobiography. Rito de iniciación is in the bildungsroman tradition about a young woman who discovers her vocation of a writer.
Castellanos' poem, "Valium 10," is in the confessional mode, and is a great feminist poem comparable to Sylvia Plath's "Daddy."

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Ed P · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book I read was the novella "El Viudo Román," 105 pages in Spanish, but could not find it in the database so logging it here.