Translating and Reimagining - Recovering Pizarnik in her late Prose Works

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2011 in the subject Literature - Latin America, grade: Pass, , course: Poetry and Prose Poems of Alejandra Pizarnik, language: English, abstract: This senior thesis thesis examines the authorial image of Argentine-Jewish poet, Alejandra Pizarnik (1936-1972). Long thought of as a modern poet with minimal connection to any one tradition, I re-imagine her as a poet of Judaism, language and childhood through close readings of works, many poemas en prosa, written late in her life and after her father's death. This thesis has three chapters: (1) Images of the Artist; (2) New Readings of Pizarnik (Prose) Poems; and (3) Translating Pizarnik (Prose) Poems. In the first chapter I examine notions of Pizarnik created by critics and by the public, then move to re-imagining her as a poet in a new lens. In chapter 2, close-readings of prose poems substantiate those claims made in my re-imagining. Finally, chapter 3 provides annotated translations of five poems, four previously untranslated-Los muertos y la lluvia (The Dead and the Rain), Dificultades barrocas (Baroque Difficulties), Desconfianza (Distrust), Devocin (Devotion), and the only poem in verse, Poema para el padre (Poem for my Father). My interpretation of Pizarnik is influenced by concepts including, J. Lacan's 'desire,' Bachelard's 'poetics of internal space,' Turner's 'liminality,' and Borges' 'infidelity in translation,' amongst others. Ultimately, I hope this reading of the complicated poet succeeds in recovering essential aspects of her cuerpo poetico (poetic body of work).