Clorinda Matto de Turner
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Clorinda Matto de Turner (11 November 1852 in
Early life and education
She was born and raised in
Growing up in Cuzco, the former Inca capital, Matto spent most of her days on her family's estate, Paullo Chico, which is near the village of
Career
In 1871, at the age of 19, Matto married an
In 1881, her husband died, leaving the estate
Matto de Turner eventually moved from Tinta to live in Lima, although with her political and controversial writings she often thought it would be safer to live outside of Peru. In Lima she joined many different literary organizations and publications. In 1887, Matto de Turner became director of El Peru Ilustrado, where she published many of her novels. She published three novels between 1889 and 1895: Aves Sin Nido (Birds Without a Nest), Indole (Character), and Herencia (Heredity). These novels talk about the indigenous people getting stripped of all their civil rights as well as getting persecuted by the community and the self-indulgent priests. Matto de Turner's most famous novel was Aves Sin Nido (1889). This novel was controversial because it was about a love affair between a white man and an indigenous woman, which was considered a disgrace among Latin American society during this time, and because it spoke of the immorality of the priests during that period. The reason the characters in the novel couldn't marry was because they eventually learned that they were both fathered by the same philandering priest. Aves Sin Nido was not Matto de Turner's only controversial work. She also published a controversial story written by a Brazilian writer by the name of Henrique Coelho Neto in her newspaper, El Perú Illustrado. Her controversial writings led to her excommunication by the Archbishop.
In 1895, she moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she continued her literary activities. In 1900, she wrote Boreales, Miniaturas y Porcelanas (Northerners, Miniatures, and Porcelain) a collection of essays which includes "Narraciones históricas," an important historiographical contribution that shows her deep sorrow at being exiled from Peru and her longing to return. In Buenos Aires Matto de Turner founded Búcaro Americano; she also gave numerous public lectures and wrote many articles for the press. Matto de Turner spent most of her time teaching at a local university as a professor. In 1908, when she visited Europe for the first time in her life, she made sure to carefully document this in the book Viaje de Recreo (Trip of Amusement). The book was released in newspapers upon her death in 1909.
First editions of her works
Tradiciones y leyendas
- Perú: Tradiciones cuzqueñas. Arequipa: "La Bolsa", 1884.
- Tradiciones cuzqueñas. 2 vols. Lima: Torres Aguirre, 1886.
- Leyendas y recortes. Lima: "La Equitativa", 1893.
Fiction
- Aves sin nido. Lima: Imprenta del Universo de Carlos Prince, 1889. A first translation of the novel was published in London in 1904.[1]
- Índole. Lima: Imprenta Bacigalupi, 1891.
- Herencia. Lima: Imprenta Bacigalupi, 1893.
Biography, epistolary prose, travel writing, and essays
- Bocetos al lápiz de americanos célebres. Lima: Peter Bacigalupi, 1889.
- Boreales, miniaturas y porcelanas. Buenos Aires: Juan A. Alsina, 1902.
- Cuatro conferencias sobre América del Sur. Buenos Aires: Juan A. Alsina, 1909.
- Viaje de recreo: España, Francia, Inglaterra, Italia, Suiza, Alemana. Valencia: F. Sempere, 1909.
Theatre
- Hima-Sumac: Drama en tres actos y en prosa. Lima: "La Equitativa", 1893.
Further reading
- Campbell, Margaret V., The "Tradiciones Cuzquenas" of Clorinda Matto De Turner. Index of Volume 42 1959
- Chasteen, Charles John. "Born in Blood & Fire", p165,166
- Website which includes two of Matto's important essays
- Berg, Mary G. "Clorinda Matto de Turner". Spanish-American Women Writers. Ed. Diane E. Marting. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1990, pp. 303–315.
- Berg, Mary G. "Writing for her Life: The Essays of Clorinda Matto de Turner", in Reinterpreting the Spanish American Essay: Women Writers of the 19th and 20th Centuries. Ed. Doris Meyer. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995.
- Castagnaro, R. Anthony. The Early Spanish American Novel. New York: Las Américas, 1971; "The Indianist Novels", pp. 139–157.
- Cornejo Polar, Antonio. "Foreword". Torn from the Nest. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998: xiii-xlii.
- Davies, Catherine. "Spanish-American Interiors: Spatial Metaphors, Gender and Modernity". Romance Studies 22.1 (Mar 2004): 27–39.
- Fox-Lockert, Lucía. "Clorinda Matto de Turner: Aves sin nido (1889)". Women Novelists in Spain and Spanish America. Metuchen, N.J: The Scarecrow Press, 1979.
- González Pérez, Aníbal. "Novel and Journalism: Strategic Interchanges". Eds. Mario J. Valdés & Djelal Kadir. Literary Cultures of Latin America: A Comparative History. 3 Vols. Vol 2: Institutional Modes and Cultural Modalities. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004: II: 278–288.
- Higgins, James. A History of Peruvian Literature. Liverpool: Francis Carnes, 1987, pp. 74–79.
- Kristal, Efraín. "Clorinda Matto de Turner". Latin American Writers. Vol. I. Ed. Solé/Abreu. NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1989: pp. 305–309.
- Kristal, Efraín. The Andes Viewed from the City. New York: Peter Lang, 1987.
- Lindstrom, Naomi. "Foreword". Birds Without a Nest. By Clorinda Matto de Turner. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996: vi-xxi.
- Lindstrom, Naomi. Early Spanish American Narrative. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2004; sobre Matto de Turner, 170–174.
- Prieto, René. "The Literature of Indigenismo". The Cambridge History of Latin American Literature. Ed. Roberto González Echevarría and Enrique Pupo-Walker. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
- Ward, Thomas. "The Royal Commentaries as a Kaleidoscopic National Archetype: The Pursuit of Post-Colonial Identities in Peru." Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas, Issue 79, Vol. 42.2 (Fall 2009): 185–194.
See also
References
- ^ Clorinda Matto de Turner (1904). Birds Without a Nest: A Story of Indian Life and Priestly Oppression in Peru /by Mrs. Clorinda ... unknown library. Thynne.