Cristina Peri Rossi (born 12 November 1941) is a

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspi ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

, and author of

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

. Considered a leading light of the post-1960s period of prominence of the Latin-American novel, she has written more than 37 works. She has been a pioneer and one of the female authors associated to the Latin American Boom. Peri Rossi has lived in Barcelona since 1972, after a civic-military dictatorship was established in Uruguay and censored her works. She has translated into Spanish authors such as Clarice Lispector and

Monique Wittig Monique Wittig (; July 13, 1935 – January 3, 2003) was a French author, philosopher and feminist theorist who wrote about abolition of the sex-class system and coined the phrase "heterosexual contract". Her seminal work is titled '' The Straig ...

. She has worked for several newspapers and media agencies such as '' Diario 16'', ''El Periódico'' and ''

Agencia EFE Agencia EFE, S.A. () is a Spanish international news agency, the major multimedia news agency in Spanish language and the world's fourth largest wire service after the Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse. EFE was created in 1939 ...

''. Peri Rossi won the Miguel de Cervantes Prize in 2021, the most prestigious literary award in the Spanish-speaking world.

Life

She was born in

Montevideo Montevideo () is the capital and largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . Montevideo is situated on the southern c ...

, 12 November 1941, but was exiled in 1972 after a civic-military dictatorship was established. She moved to Spain, where she became a citizen in 1975. she lives in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, where she continues to write fiction and work as a journalist. She studied at the University of the Republic.

Journalism

Cristina Peri Rossi is active as a journalist and political commentator in Barcelona. She is a radio journalist for the public Catalan station Catalunya Radio. She was fired from this position in October 2007 and accused the station of 'linguistic persecution', claiming she was fired for speaking Spanish instead of Catalan. She was later re-instated to her post after an outcry. She is well known for her defense of civil liberties and freedom of expression. She has long supported gay marriage and welcomed Spain's decision to recognize it. In an '' El Mundo'' article in March 2006, she spoke out against the rise of religious extremism in Europe, and specifically the violence that followed the 'Danish Cartoons Affair'. In the article she expresses her support to the 'Together Facing the New Totalitarianism' Manifesto, which was published in the left-leaning French weekly

Charlie Hebdo ''Charlie Hebdo'' (; meaning ''Charlie Weekly'') is a French satirical weekly magazine, featuring cartoons, reports, polemics, and jokes. Stridently non-conformist in tone, the publication has been described as Anti-racism, anti-racist, sceptica ...

in March 2006.

Literary criticism

She was part of the Latin American Boom, a movement associated with authors such as

Gabriel García Márquez Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered on ...

Mario Vargas Llosa Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa (born 28 March 1936), more commonly known as Mario Vargas Llosa (, ), is a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist and former politician, who also holds Spanish citizenship. Vargas Ll ...

Julio Cortázar Julio Florencio Cortázar (26 August 1914 – 12 February 1984; ) was an Argentine, nationalized French novelist, short story writer, essayist, and translator. Known as one of the founders of the Latin American Boom, Cortázar influenced an en ...

and

Carlos Fuentes Carlos Fuentes Macías (; ; November 11, 1928 – May 15, 2012) was a Mexican novelist and essayist. Among his works are '' The Death of Artemio Cruz'' (1962), '' Aura'' (1962), '' Terra Nostra'' (1975), '' The Old Gringo'' (1985) and ''Christop ...

. ''La nave de los locos'' (The Ship of Fools) (1984) is generally regarded by critics as Peri Rossi's most important work. It is an

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when a ...

novel which takes the form of a

pastiche A pastiche is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, music, or architecture that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche pays homage to the work it imitates, rather than mocking it ...

of travel writing. The protagonist, Equis, is a misfit who travels to a number of deliberately vague locations. By inviting the reader to see modern society through the eyes of Equis, Peri Rossi is using the technique of

defamiliarisation Defamiliarization or ''ostranenie'' ( rus, остранение, p=ɐstrɐˈnʲenʲɪjə) is the artistic technique of presenting to audiences common things in an unfamiliar or strange way so they could gain new perspectives and see the world diffe ...

to produce a biting

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...

of today's world. This includes a strong dose of

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male poi ...

: Equis eventually renounces his own sexuality, declaring that there is "harmony in impotence," which can be read as a denouncement of patriarchial and phallogocentric society. More generally, the work shows toleration and arguably even idealisation of sexualities that have been traditionally considered dissident, including

gerontophilia Gerontophilia is the primary sexual attraction to the elderly. A person with such a sexual preference is a gerontophile or gerontosexual. The word ''gerontophilia'' was coined in 1901 by psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing. It derives from Gree ...

and controversially, in the character Morris' love for a ten-year-old boy,

pedophilia Pedophilia ( alternatively spelt paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty ...

. The novel exposes the dangers of arbitrary dictatorial government in its inclusion an emotional depiction of a

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simp ...

in a country which remains unspecified, but which could be based on any of the various

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...

n dictatorships of the latter half of the twentieth century. The title of the book is taken from the Ship of Fools legend, which is reworked by Peri Rossi in the novel itself. The novel shows sympathy for those condemned to the ship of fools and there is a clear parallel between this

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

episode and the modern-day aforementioned

passage. The themes established in ''La nave de los locos'' are ones which Rossi revisits in other works. Her latest novels include ''Solitario de amor'' (Solitaire of Love) (1989), ''La última noche de Dostoievski'' (Dostoyevsky's Last Night) (1992) and ''El amor es una droga dura'' (Love is a hard drug) (1999). All of these novels are formally less experimental than Nave. They deal with male protagonists who, like Equis, gradually explore their sexualities, discovering that they have to renounce traditional gender roles both in sexual behaviour and in the real world to find fulfilment. However, there is little political commentary in these novels. Peri Rossi has also produced an impressive amount of poetry, again covering many of the ideas outlined above. The lesbian eroticism of ''Evohé'' (1971) caused a scandal when first released. In 2004, Peri Rossi published ''Por fin solos'', a collection of short stories where love is a result of eroticism and frustration. The lovers, whatever their condition or sex, seek a reason in the beloved so that they may feel saved, as is the case in "Náufragos". Peri Rossi also uses (determinedly) symbols that link with the deterioration of heterosexual relationships, such as the bottle of lye, the scarf, and flowers, among others. Peri Rossi's book ''Estrategias del Deseo'', which was also published in 2004, was found so moving and inspiring by Latina lesbian writer Tatiana de la tierra that de la tierra decided to translate the book to English (''Strategies of Desire'').

Complete list of published works

# Viviendo (1963) - "Living" (Short Story) # Los museos abandonados (1968) - "Abandoned Museums" (Short Story) # El libro de mis primos (1969) - "My Cousin's Book" (Novel) # Indicios pánicos (1970) - "Panicky Omens" (Short Story) # Evohé (1971) - (Poetry) # Descripción de un naufragio - "Description of a Shipwreck" (Poetry) # Diáspora (1976) - "Diaspora" (Poetry) # La tarde del dinosaurio (1976) - "The Dinosaur's Evening" (Short Story) # Lingüística general (1979) - "General Linguistics" (Poetry) # La rebelión de los niños (1980) - "Kids' Rebellion" (Short Story) # El museo de los esfuerzos inútiles (1983) - "Museum of The Useless Efforts" (Short Story) # La nave de los locos (1984) - "Crazies' Ship" (Novel) # Una pasión prohibida (1986) - "Forbidden Passion" (Short Story) # Europa después de la lluvia (1987) - "Post-Rain Europe" (Poetry) # Solitario de amor (1988) - "Love Solitaire" (Novel) # Cosmoagonías (1988) - "Cosmoagonies" (Short Story) # Fantasías eróticas (1990) - "Erotic Fantasies" (Essay) # Acerca de la escritura (1991) - "On Writing" (Essay) # Babel bárbara (1991) - (Poetry) # La última noche de Dostoievski (1992) - "Dostoievski's Last Night" (Novel) # La ciudad de Luzbel y otros relatos (1992) - "Luzbel's City and Other Stories" (Short Stories) # Otra vez Eros (1994) - "Eros, Again" (Poetry) # Aquella noche (1996) - "That Night" (Poetry) # Inmovilidad de los barcos (1997) - "Ships's Stiffness" (Poetry) # Desastres íntimos (1997) - "Intimate Disasters" (Short Stories) # Poemas de amor y desamor (1998) - "Poems of Love and Lovelessness" (Poetry) # Las musas inquietantes (1999) - "The Disturbing Muses" (Poetry) # El amor es una droga dura (1999) - "Love is a Hard Drug" (Novel) # Estado de exilio (2003) - "State of Exile" (Poetry) # Por fin solos (2004) - "Alone At Last" (Short Stories) # Estrategias del deseo (2004) - "Strategies of Desire" (Poetry) # ''State of Exile'' (2008)

English translations

*''A Forbidden Passion,'' Mary J. Treacy translator, Cleis Press, 1993. , *''Dostoevsky's last night'', New York : Picador USA, 1996. , *''Evohé : poemas eróticos = Erotic poems'', Washington, D.C., USA : Azul Editions, 1994. , *''Solitaire of Love,'' Robert S. Rudder; Gloria Arjona, translators, Duke University Press, 2000. , (short Stories) *''The ship of fools : a novel'', Columbia, LA : Readers International, 2000. , *''Panic Signs,'' Mercedes Rowinsky-Geurts; Angelo Augusto Borrás, translators, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Toronto, 2002. , (short stories) *''Intimate disasters, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Latin American Literary Review Press, 2014. , *''Afternoon of the Dinosaur,'' Robert S. Rudder; Gloria Arjona, translators, RSR Pub., , ;Anthologies * Majorie Agosin, (ed) ''These are Not Sweet Girls: Poetry by Latin American Women,'' White Pine Press, New York, 1998. (English translations of poetry by Cristina Peri Rossi, Gabriela Mistral, and Giannina Braschi). *''The Best of Review: Celebrating the Americas Society's 40th Anniversary,'' editors Tess O'Dwyer and Doris Sommer, Routledge, Francis & Taylor, London, 2005. (English translation excerpts of Latin American literary classics by Cristina Peri Rossi and her contemporaries Luisa Valenzuela, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Derek Walcott, and Giannina Braschi).

References

External links

Official Web site in Spanish

Cristinaperirossi.org (Unofficial Web site in English)

Profile at escritoras.com (Google translation)

Full text of her short story "Rumors" at WordsWithoutBorders.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peri Rossi, Cristina 1941 births Living people Uruguayan expatriates in Spain Uruguayan women novelists Uruguayan novelists Premio Cervantes winners 20th-century Uruguayan poets Uruguayan women short story writers Uruguayan translators Uruguayan people of Italian descent Uruguayan women poets Uruguayan activists Lesbian writers Uruguayan LGBT writers Spanish LGBT writers 20th-century novelists 20th-century translators 20th-century short story writers 20th-century Uruguayan women writers 21st-century Uruguayan women writers 21st-century Uruguayan writers Portuguese–Spanish translators Recipients of the Delmira Agustini Medal 20th-century LGBT people 21st-century LGBT people