Esther Seligson

Born: 25 October 1941, Mexico
Died: 8 February 2010
Country most active: Mexico
Also known as: NA

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Esther Seligson was born in Mexico City in 1941. She was a writer and poet with an interest in Jewish philosophy, theater, and history. Seligson is the author of more than fourteen books, including Tras la ventana de un árbol (Behind the Window of a Tree) (1969), Otros son los sueños (Others are Dreams) (1973), La morada en el tiempo (The Abode in Time) (1981), and Luz de dos (Light of Two) (1989). She was also a contributor for the magazines Cuadernos del Viento de Huberto Batis, and the Revista Mexicana de Literatura. Seligson was a renowned translator and translated into Spanish some of the works of Virginia Woolf, Emile Michel Cioran, Marguerite Yourcenar, and more. She served as a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the Center for Hebraic Studies, the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature, the National Institute of Anthropology and History, and the Metropolitan Autonomous University. She received the Xavier Villaurrutia Prize and the Magda Donato Award. Seligson died in Mexico City in 2010.

Esther Seligson belongs to the literatura de la onda (“Hip” literature) movement. Writers from this group were well versed in the postmodern literary style but rejected it in practice. The Hip literary movement was more of a passing thematic and stylistic phase, characterized by the use of base and colloquial language. Seligson’s ouvre inspired authors like Margo Glantz who studied her work and identified Seligson as part of twenty-eight young rising authors of the times, out of whom only Seligson and Margarita Dalton were women. Along with María Luisa Mendoza and Erica Jong, Seligson is representative of a new literary group that depicted the female sexual experience.

Seligson is also known for exploring identity, especially when in Luz de dos (Light of Two) (1989), where she delves deeply into her Jewish identity. She became a leading Jewish writer in Latin American literature, and her narrative form also goes beyond the established formats and experiments with genre, voice, and literary conventions. Although, Seligson did not consider herself to be a feminist, her retelling of Homer’s The Odyssey through Penelope’s perspective radically redefined traditional gender roles in literature.

Esther Seligson nació en la Ciudad de México, México en 1941. Fue escritora, poeta e historiadora con un fuerte enfoque en filosofía judía y teatro. Seligson publicó más de catorce libros, entre ellos Tras la ventana de un árbol (1969), Otros son los sueños (1973), La morada en el tiempo (1981) y Luz de dos (1989). También fue contribuidora de las revistas Cuadernos del Viento de Huberto Batis, Revista Mexicana de Literatura y Escéncia. Seligson fue adicionalmente una traductora de renombre. Tradujo obras de escritoras como Virginia Woolf, Emile Michel Cioran, Marguerite Yourcenar, entre otras. Se desempeñó como profesora en la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), en el Centro de Estudios Hebréicos, el Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura, en el Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia y en la Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana. Seligson recibió varios premios, entre ellos el Premio Xavier Villaurrutia y el Premio Magda Donato. Murió en la Ciudad de México, México en 2010.

Una imagen, persigo una imagen cuyo nombre no encuentro, persigo un nombre cuyas letras desconozco, letras impronunciables, y necesito hablar contigo, para saber si este tiempo que invento es un tiempo real, si de verdad ya no existe la espera, o únicamente ha caído en otro paréntesis desesperanzado, si no me estoy enredando en las palabras a fuerza de no poder oírmelas, a fuerza de eschucharlas sólo en mis adentros, sin encarnarlas, deshuesadas, remolinos de vapor que mi propio aliento dispersa…

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