US/EN
Lilus Kikus and Other Stories by Elena Poniatowska
Description
Elena Poniatowska is recognized today as one of Mexico's greatest writers. Lilus Kikus, published in 1954, was her first book. However, it was labeled a children's book because it had a young girl as protagonist, it included illustrations, and the author was an unknown woman. Lilus Kikus has not received the critical attention or a translation into English it deserved, until now. Accompanying Lilus Kikus in this first American edition are four of Poniatowska's short stories with female protagonists, only one of which has been previously published in English. Poniatowska is admired today as a feminist, but in 1954, when Lilus Kikus appeared, feminism didn't have broad appeal. Twenty-first-century readers will be fascinated by the way Poniatowska uses her child protagonist to point out the flaws in adult society. Each of the drawings by the great surrealist Leonora Carrington that accompany the chapters in Lilus Kikus expresses a subjective, interiorized vision of the child character's contemplations on life. "A tantalizingly complex feminist author, whose importance and originality have yet to be appreciated in this country."--Cynthia Steele, author of Politics, Gender, and the Mexican Novel, 1968-1988Product Details
Price
$41.70
Publisher
University of New Mexico Press
Publish Date
October 01, 2005
Pages
135
Dimensions
5.56 X 8.58 X 0.41 inches | 0.41 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9780826335821
BISAC Categories:
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About the Author
Elena Poniatowska is the award-winning author of over fifty books. Born in France to a Mexican citizen of French ancestry, she now lives in Mexico City. In 2004, she was honored with the Legion de Honor del Gobierno de Francia. Poniatowska has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and an Emeritus Fellowship from Mexico's National Council of Culture and Arts. In 1979, she became the first woman to win the Mexican National Award for Journalism.
Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) was a key figure in the Surrealist movement and an artist of remarkable individuality. She was born to a wealthy English family in 1917, expelled from two convents as a girl, and presented to the king's court in 1933. Four years later, she ran off with Max Ernst and became a darling of the art world in Paris: serving guests hair omelets at one party, arriving naked to another. After Ernst was taken from their home to a Nazi internment camp in 1940, Carrington fled France. Nearly mad with grief and terror, she was thrown into a lunatic asylum in Spain, and, after escaping, married a Mexican diplomat, fleeing Europe for New York City then Mexico City, where she lived for the rest of her life. Throughout her long career, Carrington published novels, stories, and plays, in addition to making paintings, sculptures, and tapestries.
Elizabeth Coonrod Martínez is professor of Latin American literature and chair of Chicano and Latino studies at Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, California.
Reviews
""Lilus Kikus" is a rich feast of inspired and original writing."
"Elizabeth Coonrod Martinez' translation is immensely readable and the prose feels natural."
These translations offer a welcome chance to become familiar with Poniatowski and her distinctly rendered perspective. Recommended for public and academic libraries."
"Elizabeth Coonrod Martinez' translation captures both the spirit and the rhythm of Poniatowska's original novella about the coming-of-age of a girl in Mexico's moneyed society after World War II."
"Elizabeth Coonrod Martinez' translation is immensely readable and the prose feels natural."
These translations offer a welcome chance to become familiar with Poniatowski and her distinctly rendered perspective. Recommended for public and academic libraries."
"Elizabeth Coonrod Martinez' translation captures both the spirit and the rhythm of Poniatowska's original novella about the coming-of-age of a girl in Mexico's moneyed society after World War II."
