Spanish Women Writers

Combining assiduous attention to biography and bibliography with original literary criticism oriented toward feminist theory, this volume profiles and analyzes fifty significant women writers of Spain--some celebrated and some overlooked--from the fourteenth century to the present. The work includes poets, fiction writers, dramatists, and essayists. Lives and works are examined with reference to complex issues surrounding gender, creativity, and social mores. Partly informed by findings of the fifty contributing scholars, Levine and Marson have also provided a volume introduction interpreting herstory in terms of Spanish culture, likening the struggle for identity and artistic expression in an engendered world to balancing on a tightrope. Extensive bibliographies for each writer document original works, modern editions and translations, and criticism; and a general bibliography selects valuable sources pertaining to Spanish women writers and gender-related topics.

LINDA GOULD LEVINE is Professor of Spanish at Montclair State College, New Jersey, where she also teaches Women's Studies. She has published critical studies on the Spanish novelist, Juan Goytisolo as well as feminist criticism on numerous contemporary women authors of Spain and Latin America, including Ana Maria Moix, Carmen Martin Gaite, Esther Tusquests, and Isabel Allende. With Gloria Feiman Waldman, she is coauthor of Feminismo ante el franguismo: Entrevistas con feministas de Espana.

ELLEN ENGELSON MARSON is Associate Professor of Spanish at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY. She has published articles on contemporary Spanish poets, among them, Jose Angel Valente, Ana Maria Moix, and the novisimos, and is the author of Poesia poetica de Jose Angel Valente. Her current work explores the relationship between gender consciousness and poetic expression in contemporary women poets from Spain.

GLORIA FEIMAN WALDMAN is Chair of the Foreign Languages Department and Professor of Spanish at York College, CUNY, where she also teaches Women's Studies and Latin American Studies. She has published a critical study on the Puerto Rican writer, Luis Radael Sanchez, and translations and articles on feminist criticism and contemporary Latin American theater. With Nora Glickman, she has competed an anthology on the presence of the Jew in the Argentine theater.