Clorinda Matto de Turner (11 November 1852 in Cusco – 25 October 1909) was a Peruvian writer who lived during the early years of Latin American independence. Her own independence inspired women throughout the region as her writings sparked controversy in her own culture. She was forced into exile to Argentina.

Early life and education

thumb|200px|Matto de Turner, c.1890

She was born and raised in Cuzco, Peru.

In 2022, a park in Peru was named in her honor.

The National Library of Peru declared her works as part of the cultural patrimony of Peru, honored her with a revised edition of her works, and later on their website on the 172nd anniversary of her birth in 2024.

First editions of her works

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Tradiciones y leyendas

  • Perú: Tradiciones cuzqueñas. Arequipa: "La Bolsa", 1884.
  • Tradiciones cuzqueñas. 2 vols. Lima: Torres Aguirre, 1886.
  • Leyendas y recortes. Lima: "La Equitativa", 1893.

Fiction

  • Aves sin nido. Lima: Imprenta del Universo de Carlos Prince, 1889. A first translation of the novel was published in London in 1904.
  • Índole. Lima: Imprenta Bacigalupi, 1891.
  • Herencia. Lima: Imprenta Bacigalupi, 1893.

Biography, epistolary prose, travel writing, and essays

  • Bocetos al lápiz de americanos célebres. Lima: Peter Bacigalupi, 1889.
  • Boreales, miniaturas y porcelanas. Buenos Aires: Juan A. Alsina, 1902.
  • Cuatro conferencias sobre América del Sur. Buenos Aires: Juan A. Alsina, 1909.
  • Viaje de recreo: España, Francia, Inglaterra, Italia, Suiza, Alemana. Valencia: F. Sempere, 1909.

Theatre

  • Hima-Sumac: Drama en tres actos y en prosa. Lima: "La Equitativa", 1893. This was staged in 2022 for the first time in decades.

Further reading

  • Campbell, Margaret V., The "Tradiciones Cuzquenas" of Clorinda Matto De Turner. Index of Volume 42 1959
  • Chasteen, Charles John. "Born in Blood & Fire", pp. 165-166.
  • Berg, Mary G. "Clorinda Matto de Turner". Spanish-American Women Writers. Ed. Diane E. Marting. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1990, pp. 303–315.
  • Berg, Mary G. "Writing for her Life: The Essays of Clorinda Matto de Turner", in Reinterpreting the Spanish American Essay: Women Writers of the 19th and 20th Centuries. Ed. Doris Meyer. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995.
  • Castagnaro, R. Anthony. The Early Spanish American Novel. New York: Las Américas, 1971; "The Indianist Novels", pp. 139–157.
  • Cornejo Polar, Antonio. "Foreword". Torn from the Nest. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998: xiii-xlii.
  • Davies, Catherine. "Spanish-American Interiors: Spatial Metaphors, Gender and Modernity". Romance Studies 22.1 (Mar 2004): 27–39.
  • Fox-Lockert, Lucía. "Clorinda Matto de Turner: Aves sin nido (1889)". Women Novelists in Spain and Spanish America. Metuchen, N.J: The Scarecrow Press, 1979.
  • González Pérez, Aníbal. "Novel and Journalism: Strategic Interchanges". Eds. Mario J. Valdés & Djelal Kadir. Literary Cultures of Latin America: A Comparative History. 3 Vols. Vol 2: Institutional Modes and Cultural Modalities. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004: II: 278–288.
  • Higgins, James. A History of Peruvian Literature. Liverpool: Francis Carnes, 1987, pp. 74–79.
  • Kristal, Efraín. "Clorinda Matto de Turner". Latin American Writers. Vol. I. Ed. Solé/Abreu. NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1989: pp. 305–309.
  • Kristal, Efraín. The Andes Viewed from the City. New York: Peter Lang, 1987.
  • Lindstrom, Naomi. "Foreword". Birds Without a Nest. By Clorinda Matto de Turner. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996: vi-xxi.
  • Lindstrom, Naomi. Early Spanish American Narrative. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2004; sobre Matto de Turner, 170–174.
  • Prieto, René. "The Literature of Indigenismo". The Cambridge History of Latin American Literature. Ed. Roberto González Echevarría and Enrique Pupo-Walker. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
  • Ward, Thomas. "The Royal Commentaries as a Kaleidoscopic National Archetype: The Pursuit of Post-Colonial Identities in Peru." Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas, Issue 79, Vol. 42.2 (Fall 2009): 185–194.

See also

  • Noli Ne Tángere, by Jose Rizal, a Filipino novel that explores many of the same themes and plot elements as her novels
  • Peruvian literature
  • List of Peruvian writers

References