Alfonsina Storni

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Alfonsina Storni
Monument to Alfonsina Storni on Playa la Perla in Mar del Plata.

Alfonsina Storni Martignoni (born May 29, 1892 in Sala Capriasca , Lugano district , Switzerland ; † October 25, 1938 in Mar del Plata , Argentina ) was a poet and writer of the Argentine avant-garde .

Life

Alfonsina Storni was born in Switzerland in 1892, where her parents who had emigrated to Argentina were visiting relatives, and was named after her father Alfonso.

In 1896 the family returned to Argentina, where they lived in very poor conditions at the foot of the Andes in San Juan . In 1901 they left San Juan and moved to Rosario . The father, formerly a wealthy brewer and owner of a soda factory, became an alcoholic. He went bankrupt with his coffee house, the "Café Suizo". The mother, who had brought a teacher’s diploma with her from Switzerland, opened a small private school in her own house. She also tried sewing to keep the family afloat.

Her father died in 1906 and Alfonsina began working in a hat factory at the age of 13; on May 1, she distributed anarchist leaflets at the demonstrations. At “ Semana Santa ” her mother played in a passion play ; when an actress fell ill, Alfonsina stepped in. A short time later, the traveling theater company of Spanish actor José Tallaví came to the city, Alfonsina seized the opportunity, traveled around with the company for a year and performed in the plays Gespenster ( Henrik Ibsen ), La loca de la casa ( Benito Pérez Galdós ) and Los muertos ( Florencio Sánchez ).

In 1909 she went to Coronda to study there at a teacher training college ("Escuela Normal Mixta de Maestros Rurales"); at the weekend she worked as a singer in a theater until her double life was exposed and a scandal broke out at the school - the reason for her first suicide attempt . In 1910 she received her teaching diploma and a year later she began teaching at a school in Rosario (Escuela Elemental Nº 65); first poems appeared in the city newspapers. At this time she met a married politician, Carlos Tercero Arguimbau, from whom she was expecting a child soon; to avoid the 'shame' in the province, she moved to Buenos Aires , where her son Alejandro was born on April 21, 1912, who did not bear his father's name. For a living she had to take on all sorts of jobs, including working as a cashier in a pharmacy and as a correspondent for a trading company.

In 1913 she published her first poems in the magazine Caras y Caretas (for which she received 25 pesos each time). In 1916 she published her first volume of poetry, La inquietud del rosal , the printing of which she financed herself; She paid off the cost of 500 pesos for a lifetime.

She knew José Enrique Rodó , Amado Nervo , José Ingenieros and Manuel Ugarte . She was close friends with the last two. She often traveled to Montevideo , Uruguay , where she met the poet Juana de Ibarbourou and the writer Horacio Quiroga .

Alfonsina Storni - 24 años de edad.jpg

In 1917 she received the Premio Anual del Consejo Nacional de Mujeres for her Canto a los niños . In the same year she was appointed director of the Marcos Paz boarding school of the Asociación Protectora de Hijos de Policías y Bomberos. There she took care of the library and got back to writing more. But another nervous crisis forced her to withdraw from the boarding school; For a while she worked as a guard in a school for mentally handicapped children (Escuela de Niños Débiles del Parque Chacabuco), who calmed her down with stories and songs. She also recited her poems again and again in the small libraries of the Partido Socialista, with which she sympathized but never became a member.

On November 9, 1919, she finally became an Argentine citizen. In 1920 she traveled to Montevideo at the invitation of the university, where she gave several lectures, including on Delmira Agustini , whom she admired and to whom she also dedicated a poem. After the recognition she had received in Uruguay, she felt lonely and misunderstood again in Buenos Aires and suffered from severe depression . She wrote at every opportunity: while correcting her students' notebooks, in the coffee house, on the tram, on telegram forms.

At the age of 28, she published Languidez (1920), her third collection of poetry, with the dedication: “Those who, like me, could not realize a single dream.” The criticism was rapt, the book was soon out of print, and it was awarded two literary prizes . In 1921, friends helped her out of her unfortunate financial situation by creating a post especially for her at the Teatro Infantil Labardén, where she gave acting lessons to children and wrote several dramas for children herself. At that time she began to paranoia to suffer.

In 1922 she was awarded the Premio Nacional (Argentine State Prize for Literature). In 1923, her friend and admirer, who later became Minister of Education Antonio Sagarna, got her a position as professor of declamation at the Escuela Normal de Lenguas Vivas. In 1925 the poetry book Ocre appeared , which represented a new direction in her work. She organized the Primera Fiesta de la Poesía in Mar del Plata , where she performed with other poets and was very successful. In 1926 she received a chair at the Conservatory of Music and taught Spanish and arithmetic at a school for adults. That year she also published her only prose work, Poemas de amor , which was printed in three editions and translated into French. In 1927 her play El amo del mundo was premiered in the presence of the president and other high dignitaries , but was canceled after three evenings for lack of success. She was accused of criticizing the men too sharply.

In 1930 she traveled to Europe and gave lectures and readings in Spain with great success. She also makes a quick visit to her place of birth in Switzerland. After her return she published Dos farsas pirotécnicas (1931). In 1933 she met Federico García Lorca in Buenos Aires; she also dedicated a poem to him. A second trip to Europe followed in 1934, together with their son Alejandro; she was invited to cultural associations and academies and was very popular. In this year a new creative epoch began with Mundo de siete pozos (the title refers to the human head with its seven openings); her style became more and more sarcastic and provocative.

In 1935 she developed breast cancer . She had an operation, but did not last long after the chemotherapy treatment. In 1937/38, two of her best friends, the poets Horacio Quiroga and Leopoldo Lugones , died by suicide. In January 1938, Storni was invited again to Montevideo, where, together with Gabriela Mistral and Juana de Ibarbourou, she formed the great “female triumvirate” of Latin American poetry. She herself gave her lecture “Entre un par de maletas a medio abrir y las manecillas del reloj” (Between half-open suitcases and clock hands). In her last poems there are already concrete thoughts of suicide.

On October 22, 1938, she wrote the poem “Voy a dormir” (I'm going to sleep) in a guesthouse in Mar del Plata, which she brought to the post office and which was published by the La Nación newspaper two days after her death . On October 25, 1938, Storni found death in the sea on La Perla beach. Her grave is on the Cementerio de la Chacarita in Buenos Aires.

Her suicide is the motif of the poem "Alfonsina y el Mar" by Félix Luna , which was set to music by Ariel Ramírez and is one of the most famous Latin American songs (recorded by Mercedes Sosa , among others ).

Works

Alfonsina Storni is now considered one of the great pioneers of modern Latin American women's literature, especially because of her expressly feminist subject matter, her original, at times sarcastic style, which turns against traditional stereotypes of the feminine as the 'gentle, submissive element'. She stands out precisely because of her rebellious spirit and her non-conformist attitude, especially in her late, urban “antisonettes”.

She celebrated the desolation of the big city and the loneliness of modern life. Some of her poems became a scandal because no poet in Buenos Aires had dared to make the disillusionment of love a subject. Your topics were too new and also unusually critical for the time. From 1925 she broke with the dominant, still romantic or symbolist poetry. (see Schmitt 2000: 24f.)

As a journalist, too, she was unequivocally committed to the rights of women, insisting on the diversity of the sexes, but equal social treatment. (cf. Schmitt 2000: 26)

poetry

Wikisource Wikisource: Alfonsina Storni
  • 1916 - La inquietud del rosal
  • 1918 - El dulce daño
  • 1919 - Irremediablemente
  • 1920 - Languidez
  • 1925 - Ocre
  • 1926 - Poemas de amor
  • 1934 - Mundo de siete pozos
  • 1938 - Mascarilla y trébol
  • 1938 - Antología poética
  • 1968 - Poesías completas

theatre

  • 1927 - El amo del mundo : Comedy in three acts.
  • La debilidad de Mister Dougall (started in 1927, finished in 1931, unpublished during his lifetime)
  • 1932 - Dos farsas pirotécnicas : "Cimbelina en 1900 y pico" and "Polixena y la cocinerita" (written in 1931, published in 1932, only performed posthumously ).
  • She also wrote six pieces for children that were unpublished during their lifetime, with music composed by herself.

essay

  • 1998 - Nosotras y la piel: selección de ensayos

Translations into German

  • My soul has no gender : stories, columns, provocations. Edited, translated and introduced by Hildegard Elisabeth Keller . With a foreword by Elke Heidenreich . Zurich: Limmat Verlag , 2013. ISBN 978-3-85791-717-2
  • El murciélago azul de la tristeza / Blue bat of mourning : poems bilingual Spanish-German. Selected, translated from Spanish and with an afterword by Reinhard Streit. Zurich: teamart-Verlag, 2009. ISBN 978-3-908126-34-8
  • Poemas de amor : Spanish and German = love poems. Translated and with an afterword by Reinhard Streit. With texts by Christoph Kuhn and Alberto Nessi . Zurich: Limmat Verlag, 2003. ISBN 3-85791-437-8
  • Verses to sadness : [Poems Spanish - German]. Translated from Spanish by Hans Erich Lampl. Zurich; Zelg (Wolfhalden): Orte-Verlag, 1995. ISBN 3-85830-069-1
  • Transform your feet : selected poems; Spanish-German [Authorized transfer from Waldtrud Kappeler]. Zurich: Verlag der Arche [1984] ISBN 3-7160-1915-1

literature

  • Adler, Heidrun / Röttger, Kati (1998) (eds.): Gender: Performance Pathos Politics. The post-colonial theater of Latin American women authors . Frankfurt: Vervuert. (= Theater in Latin America; 1).
  • Andreola, Carlos A .: Alfonsina Storni: vida - talento - soledad. Primera biografía integral y documentada que reúne antecedentes estrictamente desconocidos y revela aspectos apostamente vedados hasta hoy; guía cronológia, práctica y fundamental, destinada a las escuelas, colegios y universidades. Buenos Aires: Ed. Plus Ultra, 1976.
  • Atorresi, Ana: Un amor a la deriva - Horacio Quiroga y Alfonsina Storni . Montevideo: Solaris, 1997. (Colección «Personajes de la historia») ISBN 987-9172-11-6
  • Bula Píriz, Roberto: Alfonsina en mi recuerdo: con una noticia bio-bibliográfica y poesía comentada de Alfonsina Storni . Montevideo: Ed. El Galeón, 1997. (Colección Literaria; 6). ISBN 9974-553-14-8
  • Stefano Barelli: Alfonsina Storni. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . June 11, 2012 , accessed February 11, 2020 .
  • Keller, Hildegard Elisabeth (2013): “The world is wide, and there is room for everyone in it.” On the work of Alfonsina Storni (1892–1938). In: Literary Month 3/2013.
  • Mizraje, María Gabriela (1999): Argentinas de Rosas a Perón . Buenos Aires: Editorial Biblos.
  • Nalé Roxlo, Conrado / Mármol, Mabel (1966): Genio y figura de Alfonsina Storni . Buenos Aires: Editorial Universitaria. (Biblioteca de América: Colección genio y figura)
  • Schmitt, Hans-Jürgen (2000): Like with a knife drawn in the night. Delmira Agustini, Alfonsina Storni, Alejandra Pizarnik . Zurich: Ammann. ISBN 3-250-30004-7

Settings

  • In 2009 the composer Juan María Solare composed the song cycle Viejas palabras (“Old Words”) for voice and piano based on poems by Alfonsina Storni ( Viaje, El sueño, Cuadrados y ángulos & ¿Qué diría la gente? ). The cycle lasts just under 15 minutes.
  • Saúl Cosentino set Cuadrados y Ángulos to music.

Movies

Web links

Commons : Alfonsina Storni  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Storni, Alfonsina
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Storni Martignoni, Alfonsina (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Poet and writer of the Argentine avant-garde
DATE OF BIRTH May 29, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Sala Capriasca , Lugano District , Switzerland
DATE OF DEATH October 25, 1938
Place of death Mar del Plata , Argentina