Liliana Heker

Liliana Heker (born February 9, 1943 in Buenos Aires ) is an Argentine journalist and writer .

Heker began to write as a teenager. When she met the writer Abelardo Castillo in 1960 , he was so enthusiastic about her texts that he immediately offered her a position in the editorial office of his literary magazine "El grillo de papel".

In the following year Heker changed to the editorial office of the magazine "El escarabajo de oro" and stayed there until 1974. Between 1977 and 1986 she worked as editor of the magazine "El Ornitorrinco". In addition to her journalistic work, with which she influenced the last decades of the Argentine literary scene, she also presented considerable - albeit sometimes controversial - own literary works.

reception

In her literary and journalistic works, Heker repeatedly addressed political life in her homeland. In her novel “El fin de historia” she manages the balancing act of various political positions during the dictatorship. The disappearance of many people during the process of national reorganization is the subject of a complex argument and the henchmen of this regime also have their say on various occasions.

Her collection of essays “Las hermanas de Shakespeare” deals in general with the situation of women who write. Heker sees the great challenge of a writer in the permanent confrontation and reflection on herself and her gender (quote: “If a woman is able to look to the bottom of herself, she is also able to recognize men and empathize with others, as for example Katherine Mansfield did. A narrator who accepts her own ill will, her contradictions and her special relationship with her body is able to encounter herself and other women and men ”).

Honors

• 1966 Premio Casa de las Américas for “Los que vieron la zarza”.

Works (selection)

• Acuario . Editorial América, Buenos Aires 1972.
• Los bordes de lo real .
• El fin de la historia. Novela . Alfaguara, Buenos Aires 2004, ISBN 987-1106-77-7 .
• Las hermanas de Shakespeare . Editorial Aguilar, Buenos Aires 1999.
• El partido rubado .
• Los que vieron la zarza .
• Zona de clivaje. Novela . Legasa, Buenos Aires 1990.

literature

• Gwendolyn Díaz: Women and Power in Argentine Literature. Stories, Interviews and Critical Essays. University of Texas Press, Austin TX 2007, ISBN 978-0-292-71649-0 ( Texas Pan-American Literature in Translation Series ).

Web links

• Liliana Heker on culturebase.net