José María Andrés Fernando Lezama Lima (December 19, 1910 – August 9, 1976) was a

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

n writer, poet and essayist. He is considered one of the most influential figures in Cuban and

Latin American literature Latin American literature consists of the oral and written literature of Latin America in several languages, particularly in Spanish, Portuguese, and the indigenous languages of Latin America. Latin American literature rose to particular pro ...

. His novel '' Paradiso'' is one of the most important works in Spanish and one of the best novels of the 20th Century according to the Spanish newspaper '' El Mundo.'' Lezama is a prominent referent of American Neo-Baroque literature. He created a mature poetic system characterized by its lyricism. His work features a wide variety of

metaphors A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide, or obscure, clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to cr ...

, allusions and

allegories As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory throughou ...

which he developed in essays such as ''Analecta del reloj'' (1953), ''La expresión americana'' (1957), ''Tratados en La Habana'' (1958) o ''La cantidad hechizada'' (1970).

Biography

Born in the Columbia Military Encampment close to

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Machado dictatorship. His literary output includes the semi-autobiographical, baroque novel '' Paradiso'' (1966), the story of a young man and his struggles with his mysterious illness, the death of his father, and his developing sensuality and poetic sensibilities. Lezama Lima also edited several anthologies of Cuban poetry and the magazines ''Verbum'' and ''Orígenes'', presiding as the patriarch of Cuban letters for most of his later years. Lezama Lima spent little time outside of his home country, making a trip to Mexico in 1949 and Jamaica in 1950). Nevertheless, Lezama's poetry, essays and two novels draw images and ideas from a vast array of world cultures and historical time periods. The Baroque style that he forged relied equally upon his Góngora-influenced syntax and his stunning constellations of unlikely images, which often drew from Ancient Chinese and Egyptian philosophical texts and mythological narratives. Lezama Lima's first published work, the long poem "Muerte de Narciso," brought him national acclaim at the age of twenty-seven and established his well-wrought style and classical subject matter. In addition to his poems and novels, Lezama wrote many essays on figures of world literature such as

Stéphane Mallarmé Stéphane Mallarmé ( , ; ; 18 March 1842 – 9 September 1898), pen name of Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French Symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools o ...

, Valéry, Góngora and Rimbaud as well as on Latin American baroque aesthetics. Most notably the essays published as ''La Expresión Americana'' lay out his vision of the European baroque, its relation to the classical, and the American baroque. Lezama Lima died in 1976 at age 65 and was buried in the Colon Cemetery, Havana. He was influential for Cuban and Puerto Rican writers of his generation and the next, such as Virgilio Piñera, Reinaldo Arenas, Fernando Velázquez Medina,

René Marqués René Marqués (October 4, 1919 – March 22, 1979) was a Puerto Rican people, Puerto Rican short story writer and playwright. Early years Marqués was born, raised and educated in the city of Arecibo. He developed an interest in writing at a ...

, and

Giannina Braschi Giannina Braschi (born February 5, 1953) is a Puerto Rican poet, novelist, dramatist, and scholar. Her notable works include '' Empire of Dreams'' (1988), '' Yo-Yo Boing!'' (1998), '' United States of Banana'' (2011), and '' Putinoika'' (2024). ...

, who depict his life and works in their writing.

Works

Poetry

* ''Muerte de Narciso'' (1937) * ''Enemigo rumor'' (1941) * ''Aventuras sigilosas'' (1945) * ''La fijeza'' (1949) * ''Dador'' (1960) * ''Fragmentos a su imán'' (1978)

Novels

* '' Paradiso'' (1966) * ''Oppiano Licario'' (1977)

Essays

* ''Analecta del reloj'' (1953) * ''La expresión americana'' (1957) * ''Tratados en La Habana'' (1958) * ''La cantidad hechizada'' (1970)

References

External links

José Lezama Lima Digital Collection
at th

at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...

*Voces on PBS
"Letters to Eloisa" recounts the life of Cuban literary great José Lezama Lima
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lima, Jose Lezama 1910 births 1976 deaths 20th-century Cuban essayists 20th-century Cuban male writers 20th-century Cuban novelists 20th-century Cuban poets Cuban gay writers Cuban LGBTQ poets Cuban LGBTQ novelists Magic realism writers Cuban male essayists Gay poets Gay novelists Cuban male novelists Cuban male poets Writers from Havana University of Havana alumni 20th-century Cuban LGBTQ people