Cecilia Meireles
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Born
| Cecilia Benevides de Carvalho Meireles
(
1901-11-07
)
7 November 1901
Rio de Janeiro
,
Brazil
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Died
| 9 November 1964
(1964-11-09)
(aged 63)
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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Nationality
| Brazilian
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Literary movement
| Modernism
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Cecilia Benevides de Carvalho Meireles
(7 November 1901 – 9 November 1964) was a Brazilian writer and educator, known principally as a poet. She is a canonical name of Brazilian
Modernism
, one of the great female poets in the
Portuguese language
, and is widely considered the best female poet from Brazil, though she objected to the word
poetess
because of
gender discrimination
.
[1]
She traveled in the Americas in the 1940s, visiting the United States,
Mexico
,
Argentina
,
Uruguay
and
Chile
. In the summer of 1940, she gave lectures at the
University of Texas
,
Austin
.
[2]
She wrote two poems about her time in the capital of Texas, and a long (800 lines) very socially aware poem "USA 1940", which was published posthumously. As a journalist her columns (
cronicas
, or chronicles) focused most often on education, but also on her trips abroad in the western hemisphere,
Portugal
, other parts of Europe,
Israel
, and
India
(where she received an
honorary doctorate
).
As a poet, her style was mostly
neosymbolist
and her themes included ephemeral time and the contemplative life. Even though she was not concerned with local color, native vernacular, or experiments in (popular) syntax, she is considered one of the most important poets of the second phase of the Brazilian Modernism, known for
nationalistic
vanguardism
. As a teacher she did much to promote educational reforms and advocated the construction of children's
libraries
. Between 1935 and 1938, she taught at the short-lived federal-district university in Rio.
[3]
Biography
[
edit
]
Meireles was "orphaned at age three and raised by her maternal grandmother" (Tapscott 160). As a poet, she made her debut at the age of eighteen, with
Espectros
(1919). It has been described as "an airy and vague poetry, languid and fluid, set in an atmosphere of shadows and dreams." The collection of seventeen
sonnets
dealt with various historical personages. Although her next collections included lyrics in
free verse
, she still preferred traditional forms and symbolism. Between 1919 and 1927, she contributed to the magazines
Arvore Nova
and
Terra do Sol
. She was a key figure in the spiritual and transcendental magazine
Festa
. The Festa poets supported more traditional expression and universality than the
futurists
and
avant-garde
writers of
Sao Paulo
, whose
Modern Art Week
in 1922 caused much controversy. Meireles always retained
symbolist
traits. Especially
Portuguese poetry
interested her. She visited Portugal in 1934 and lectured there on Brazilian literature at the universities of
Lisbon
and
Coimbra
.
After 14 years without publishing a book of poetry, Meireles published one of her major works,
Viagem
[Voyage] (1939), which marked her poetic maturity. The book had received the annual Poetry Prize from the
Brazilian Academy of Letters
in 1938. The title refers to a spiritual journey where life and poetry join together. Meireles was a devout
Catholic
, but did not emphasize her religious or social stands. In the 1940s Meireles traveled widely and the sea became for her an important image.
Mar Absoluto
(1942) was sea poetry with the qualities of so-called pure poetry. In 1953 she participated in a symposium on the work of
Gandhi
, and India had a great influence on her work. She had taught herself both
Hindi
and
Sanskrit
.
Romanceiro da Inconfidencia
(1953) was written in the style of medieval
Iberian
ballads
. The work draws its subject from the first colonial attempt at Brazilian Independence, in
Minas Gerais
in 1789, and centers on the leader of the uprising,
Joaquim Jose da Silva Xavier
, who was hailed as another
Jesus Christ
.
Girofle, Girofla
(1956) was based on the author's journeys to India and Italy.
Meireles was a prolific contributor to Brazilian periodicals, and for a time she served as education editor of Rio's
Diario de Noticias
. She translated into Portuguese such diverse writers as
Maeterlinck
,
Federico Garcia Lorca
,
Anouilh
,
Ibsen
,
Tagore
,
Rilke
,
Virginia Woolf
, and
Pushkin
. Her other works include plays and children's books. Cecilia Meireles died of cancer in
Rio de Janeiro
on 9 November 1964, two days after her 63rd birthday. During her career Meireles was affected by many of the literary movements of her time. However, her poetry always remained intensely personal.
In October 2009 she was one of the three featured authors at the
Primeiro Congresso de Escritoras Brasileiras em Nova Iorque
(First Congress of Brazilian Women Writers in New York) at the Centro Cultural Brasil / Brazilian Endowment for the Arts in
Midtown Manhattan
.
References
[
edit
]
Sources
[
edit
]
- Karen Pena,
Poetry and the Realm of the Public Intellectual: The Alternative Destinies of Gabriela Mistral, Cecilia Meireles, and Rosario Castellanos
(2008);
- Darlene Sadlier,
Imagery and Theme in the Poetry of Cecilia Meireles
(1983);
- John Nist,
The Modernist Movement in Brazil
(Austin: University of Texas Press, 1967).
- Raymond Sayers, "The Poetic Universe of Cecilia Meireles." In
Romance Studies Offered to Francis Rogers
(1981)
- Marta Peixoto, "The Absent Body: Female Signature and Poetic Convention in Cecilia Meireles."
Bulletin of Hispanic Studies
65.1 (1988).
- Stephen Tapscott (Ed.), "Twentieth century Latin American poetry: A bilingual anthology" (160). (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996).
External links
[
edit
]
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