Flora Alejandra Pizarnik (29 April 1936 – 25 September 1972) was an

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

poet. Her idiosyncratic and thematically introspective poetry has been considered "one of the most unusual bodies of work in Latin American literature", and has been recognized and celebrated for its fixation on "the limitation of language, silence, the body, night, the nature of intimacy, madness, nddeath". Pizarnik studied philosophy at the

University of Buenos Aires The University of Buenos Aires (, UBA) is a public university, public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is the second-oldest university in the country, and the largest university of the country by enrollment. Established in 1821 ...

and worked as a writer and a literary critic for several publishers and magazines. She lived in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

between 1960 and 1964, where she translated authors such as

Antonin Artaud Antoine Maria Joseph Paul Artaud (; ; 4September 18964March 1948), better known as Antonin Artaud, was a French artist who worked across a variety of media. He is best known for his writings, as well as his work in the theatre and cinema. Widely ...

, Henri Michaux,

Aimé Césaire Aimé Fernand David Césaire (; ; 26 June 1913 – 17 April 2008) was a French poet, author, and politician from Martinique. He was "one of the founders of the Négritude movement in Francophone literature" and coined the word in French. He ...

and

Yves Bonnefoy Yves Jean Bonnefoy (24 June 1923, Tours – 1 July 2016, Paris) was a French poet and art historian. He also published a number of translations, most notably the plays of William Shakespeare which are considered among the best in French. He was a ...

. She also studied history of religion and French literature at the Sorbonne. Back in Buenos Aires, Pizarnik published three of her major works: ''Works and Nights'', ''Extracting the Stone of Madness'', and ''The Musical Hell'' as well as a prose work titled ''The Bloody Countess''. In 1969 she received a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

and later, in 1971, a

Fulbright Fellowship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people o ...

. On 25 September 1972, she died by suicide after ingesting an overdose of

secobarbital Secobarbital, sold under the brand name Seconal among others, is a short-acting barbiturate drug originally used for the treatment of insomnia. It was patented by Eli Lilly and Company in 1934 in the United States. It possesses anesthetic, antic ...

. Her work has influenced generations of authors in Latin America.

Biography

Early life

Flora Pizarnik was born on 29 April 1936, in

Avellaneda Avellaneda (, ) is a port city in the provinces of Argentina, province of Buenos Aires Province, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the seat of the Avellaneda Partido, whose population was 342,677 as per the . Avellaneda is located within the Greater B ...

in the

Greater Buenos Aires Greater Buenos Aires (, GBA), also known as the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (, AMBA), refers to the urban agglomeration comprising the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of B ...

metropolitan area A metropolitan area or metro is a region consisting of a densely populated urban area, urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories which share Industry (economics), industries, commercial areas, Transport infrastructure, transport network ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, to Jewish immigrant parents from Rovno in the Russian Empire (now Rivne,

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

), Elías Pizarnik (Pozharnik) and Rejzla Bromiker. Her parents had arrived in 1934; her older sister, Myriam, was born that same year. She had a difficult childhood, struggling with acne and self-esteem issues, as well as having a

stutter Stuttering, also known as stammering, is a speech disorder characterized externally by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words, or phrases as well as involuntary silent pauses called blocks in which the person who ...

. She adopted the name Alejandra as a teenager. As an adult, she had a clinical diagnosis of

schizophrenia Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...

Career

A year after entering the

, Pizarnik published her first book of poetry, ''The Most Foreign Country'' (1955). She took courses in literature, journalism, and philosophy, but dropped out in order to pursue painting with Juan Batlle Planas. Pizarnik followed her debut work with two more volumes of poems, ''The Last Innocence'' (1956) and ''The Lost Adventures'' (1958). She was an avid reader of fiction and poetry. Beginning with novels, she delved into more literature with similar topics to learn from different points of view. This sparked an early interest in literature and also for the unconscious, which in turn gave rise to her interest in psychoanalysis. Pizarnik’s involvement in Surrealist methods of expression was represented by her

automatic writing Automatic writing, also called psychography, is a claimed psychic ability allowing a person to produce written words without consciously writing. Practitioners engage in automatic writing by holding a writing instrument and allowing alleged sp ...

techniques. Her lyricism was influenced by Antonio Porchia, French symbolists—especially Arthur Rimbaud and

Stéphane Mallarmé Stéphane Mallarmé ( , ; ; 18 March 1842 – 9 September 1898), pen name of Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French Symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools o ...

—, the spirit of romanticism and by the surrealists. She wrote prose poems, in the spirit of

Octavio Paz Octavio Paz Lozano (March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998) was a Mexican poet and diplomat. For his body of work, he was awarded the 1977 Jerusalem Prize, the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, a ...

, but from a woman's perspective on issues ranging from loneliness, childhood, and death. Pizarnik was bisexual/lesbian but in much of her work references to relationships with women were self-censored due to the oppressive nature of the Argentine dictatorship she lived under. Between 1960 and 1964 Pizarnik lived in Paris, where she worked for the magazine '' Cuadernos'' and other French editorials. She published poems and criticism in many newspapers, translated

, Henri Michaux,

and

Marguerite Duras Marguerite Germaine Marie Donnadieu (, 4 April 1914 – 3 March 1996), known as Marguerite Duras (), was a French novelist, playwright, screenwriter, essayist, and experimental filmmaker. Her script for the film ''Hiroshima mon amour'' (1959) ea ...

. She also studied French religious history and literature at the Sorbonne. There she became friends with Julio Cortázar, Rosa Chacel, Silvina Ocampo and

. Paz even wrote the prologue for her fourth poetry book, ''Diana's Tree'' (1962). A famous sequence on Diana reads: "I jumped from myself to dawn/I left my body next to the light/and sang the sadness of being born." She returned to Buenos Aires in 1964, and published her best-known books of poetry: ''Works and Nights'' (1965), ''Extracting the Stone of Madness'' (1968) and ''The Musical Hell'' (1971). She was awarded a

in 1968, and in 1971 a

Fulbright Scholarship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

Death

Pizarnik died by suicide on 25 September 1972 after overdosing on

, at the age of 36, on the same weekend she left the hospital where she had been institutionalized. She is buried at the Cementerio Israelita in La Tablada,

Buenos Aires Province Buenos Aires, officially the Buenos Aires Province, is the largest and most populous Provinces of Argentina, Argentine province. It takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, which used to be part of the province an ...

Books

*''Alejandra Pizarnik: Selected Poems'' **translated by Cecilia Rossi, Waterloo Press, 2010. *''The Most Foreign Country'' (1955) **translated by Yvette Siegert (Ugly Duckling Presse, October 2015) *''The Last Innocence/The Lost Adventures'' (1956/1958) **translated by Cecilia Rossi (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2019) *''Diana's Tree'' (1962) **translated by Yvette Siegert (Ugly Duckling Presse, October 2014); translated by Anna Deeny Morales (Shearsman Books, 2020) *''Works and Nights'' (1965) **translated by Yvette Siegert (in ''Extracting the Stone of Madness: Poems 1962-1972'', New Directions, September 2015) *''Extracting the Stone of Madness'' (1968) **translated by Yvette Siegert (in ''Extracting the Stone of Madness: Poems 1962-1972'', New Directions, September 2015) *''A Musical Hell'' (1971) **translated by Yvette Siegert (New Directions, July 2013; reprinted in ''Extracting the Stone of Madness: Poems 1962-1972'' by New Directions, September 2015) *''The Bloody Countess'' (1971) **''Exchanging Lives: Poems and Translations'', Translator Susan Bassnett, Peepal Tree, 2002.

References

," White Pine Press, 2000. . *"La Disolucion En La Obra de Alejandra Pizarnik: Ensombrecimiento de La Existencia y Ocultamiento del Ser," by Ana Maria Rodriguez Francia, 2003. . *"Unmothered Americas: Poetry and universality, Charles Simic, Alejandra Pizarnik, Giannina Braschi", Jaime Rodriguez Matos, dissertation, Columbia University; Faculty Advisor: Gustavo Perez-Firmat, 2005. *“The Sadean Poetics of Solitude in Paz and Pizarnik.” ''Latin American Literary Review'' / Rolando Pérez, 2005 *Review: Art & Literature of the Americas: The 40th anniversary Edition", featuring Alejandra Pizarnik, Christina Peri Rossi, Octavio Paz, Giannina Braschi," edited by Doris Sommer and Tess O'Dwyer, 2006. *"Arbol de Alejandra: Pizarnik Reassessed," (monograph) by Karl Posso and Fiona J. Mackintosh, 2007. *''Alejandra'', special issue of ''Point of Contact'', edited by Ivonne Bordelois and Pedro Cuperman, vol. 10, no. 1-2, 2010. . *"Cornerstone," from ''A Musical Hell'', Alejandra Pizarnik, trans. Yvette Siegert, in ''Guernica: A Journal of Literature and Art'' (online; April 15, 2013). * Chávez-Silverman, Susana. “Trac(k)ing Gender and Sexuality in the Writing of Alejandra Pizarnik.” ''Chasqui: revista de literatura latinoamericana,'' vol. 35, no. 2, 2006, pp. 89–108. *Chávez-Silverman, Susana. “Alejandra Pizarnik.” ''Who’s Who in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian History: From World War II to the Present Day,'' edited by Robert Aldrich and Gary Wotherspoon, Routledge, 2001, pp. 331–33. *Chávez-Silverman, Susana. “The Autobiographical as Horror in the Poetry of Alejandra Pizarnik.” ''Critical Studies onn the Feminist Subject in the Americas,'' edited by Giovanna Covi, 1997, pp. 1–17. *Chávez-Silverman, Susana. “The Look that Kills: The ‘Unacceptable Beauty’ of Alejandra Pizarnik’s ''La condesa sangrienta,” Entiendes?: Queer Readings, Hispanic Writings,'' edited by Emilie L. Bergmann and Paul Julian Smith, Duke University Press, 1995, pp 281-305 *Chávez-Silverman, Susana. “The Discourse of Madness in the Poetry of Alejandra Pizarnik.” ''Monographic Review/Revista Monográfica,'' no. 6, 1991, 274-81.

External links

ODP Directory of Pizarnik's sites
(English)
CVC.Alejandra Pizarnik
(Spanish)

(English) {{DEFAULTSORT:Pizarnik, Alejandra 1936 births 1972 deaths 1972 suicides 20th-century Argentine Jews 20th-century Argentine poets 20th-century diarists 20th-century Argentine LGBTQ people 20th-century Argentine translators 20th-century Argentine women writers Argentine diarists Lesbian poets Argentine people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Argentine people of Russian-Jewish descent Argentine people of Slovak-Jewish descent Argentine women poets Drug-related suicides in Argentina Jewish Argentine writers Jewish poets Lesbian Jews Argentine LGBTQ poets Poets from Buenos Aires People with schizophrenia Poètes maudits Postmodern writers University of Buenos Aires alumni University of Paris alumni