Elvia Ardalani
Encyclopedia
Elvia Ardalani or Elvia García Ardalani, born on June 4, 1963 in Heroica Matamoros
Tamaulipas
, Mexico
, is a Mexican writer
, poet
, and storyteller
. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Modern Languages
and Literature
s at the University of Texas–Pan American
, where she teaches Creative Writing
and Spanish Literature
.
.
Her second book, De cruz y media luna, was published
by Tierra de Libros in 1996. The poetry
in this collection approaches love
as a theme through the lens of transculturation
: the Christian
world and the Muslim world
; the Hispanic
world and the Persian
world. The poems of this collection also visit the theme of maternity
within the context of eroticism
, sensuality, and plenitude. The poetic voice lays out a cartographic map
of miscegenation
for the child. This collection underwent a second edition and resulted in a bilingual
edition, published by Claves Latinoamericanas in 2006, with the title: De cruz y media luna/From Cross and Crescent Moon. The second edition contains some changes in relation to the first edition.
Her third book, Y comerás del pan sentado junto al fuego (And You Shall Eat from the Bread While Seated by the Fire), was published by Claves Latinoamericans in 2002 and is one of the most significant within her literary works. The poems in this collection revisit the theme of love, although, this time, it appears to be within a semi-biblical context. Critical studies of the work of Ardalani revolve, generally, on the process of transculturation, as well as on the analysis of the referential language in her poetry.
Her fourth book, Miércoles de ceniza (Ash Wednesday), was published by Editorial Miguel Ángel Porrúa in 2007. According to the preface: It is a long poem of 622 verses, a profound lament which gives way to pain. It may be said that it is inspired by the Bible
given its length and we are sent in this direction by the theme of the work, which is defined as: the profound pain that the author feels at the sudden death of her father. Feelings and emotions overflow before the figure of the dead father translated into four secondary themes: reproach; reminiscence and ponderance; absence and delineation of the spiritual figure of the father, expressed in various stanzas, which tell of shock that the soul feels for the loss of a loved one. In 2008, it was nominated for the Carlos Pellicer
Iberoamerican Prize in Poetry ("Premio Iberoamericano de Poesía Carlos Pellicer, para obra publicada") for published works.
She also contributes in digital means, like the literary journal El Collar de la Paloma (The Neckring of the Dove), of which she is the editor.
Her work has been published in various journals and anthologies.
Matamoros, Tamaulipas
Matamoros, officially known as Heroica Matamoros, is a city in the northeastern part of Tamaulipas, in the country of Mexico. It is located on the southern bank of the Rio Grande, directly across the border from Brownsville, Texas, in the United States. Matamoros is the second largest and second...
Tamaulipas
Tamaulipas
Tamaulipas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Tamaulipas is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 43 municipalities and its capital city is Ciudad Victoria. The capital city was named after Guadalupe Victoria, the...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, is a Mexican writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, and storyteller
Storytelling
Storytelling is the conveying of events in words, images and sounds, often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation and in order to instill moral values...
. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Modern Languages
Modern language
A modern language is any human language that is currently in use. The term is used in language education to distinguish between languages which are used for day-to-day communication and dead classical languages such as Latin, Attic Greek, Sanskrit, and Classical Chinese, which are studied for...
and Literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
s at the University of Texas–Pan American
University of Texas–Pan American
The University of Texas–Pan American , founded as Edinberg College, is a state university located in Edinburg, Texas. Founded in 1927, it is a component institution of The University of Texas System. The university serves the Rio Grande Valley and South Texas with baccalaureate,...
, where she teaches Creative Writing
Creative writing
Creative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems...
and Spanish Literature
Spanish literature
Spanish literature generally refers to literature written in the Spanish language within the territory that presently constitutes the state of Spain...
.
Literary Work
Her first book, published in 1989, was titled Por recuerdos viejos, por esos recuerdos (For Memories of Old, for Those Memories). The book was nominated for the José Fuentes Mares Prize for Literature, making Ardalani the first woman nominated for this awardAward
An award is something given to a person or a group of people to recognize excellence in a certain field; a certificate of excellence. Awards are often signifiedby trophies, titles, certificates, commemorative plaques, medals, badges, pins, or ribbons...
.
Her second book, De cruz y media luna, was published
Publishing
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
by Tierra de Libros in 1996. The poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
in this collection approaches love
Love
Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels...
as a theme through the lens of transculturation
Transculturation
Transculturation is a term coined by Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortiz in 1940 to describe the phenomenon of merging and converging cultures....
: the Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
world and the Muslim world
Muslim world
The term Muslim world has several meanings. In a religious sense, it refers to those who adhere to the teachings of Islam, referred to as Muslims. In a cultural sense, it refers to Islamic civilization, inclusive of non-Muslims living in that civilization...
; the Hispanic
Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
world and the Persian
Persian people
The Persian people are part of the Iranian peoples who speak the modern Persian language and closely akin Iranian dialects and languages. The origin of the ethnic Iranian/Persian peoples are traced to the Ancient Iranian peoples, who were part of the ancient Indo-Iranians and themselves part of...
world. The poems of this collection also visit the theme of maternity
Maternity
Maternity or motherhood is the social and legal acknowledgment of the parental relationship between a mother and her child.It is specially related with the protection of the baby and the mother within and after the childbirth.-See also:...
within the context of eroticism
Eroticism
Eroticism is generally understood to refer to a state of sexual arousal or anticipation of such – an insistent sexual impulse, desire, or pattern of thoughts, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality and romantic love...
, sensuality, and plenitude. The poetic voice lays out a cartographic map
Map
A map is a visual representation of an area—a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of that space such as objects, regions, and themes....
of miscegenation
Miscegenation
Miscegenation is the mixing of different racial groups through marriage, cohabitation, sexual relations, and procreation....
for the child. This collection underwent a second edition and resulted in a bilingual
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition is a peer-reviewed linguistics journal, focusing on the study of multilingualism. The journal is currently published by Cambridge University Press and was cofounded by François Grosjean in 1998....
edition, published by Claves Latinoamericanas in 2006, with the title: De cruz y media luna/From Cross and Crescent Moon. The second edition contains some changes in relation to the first edition.
Her third book, Y comerás del pan sentado junto al fuego (And You Shall Eat from the Bread While Seated by the Fire), was published by Claves Latinoamericans in 2002 and is one of the most significant within her literary works. The poems in this collection revisit the theme of love, although, this time, it appears to be within a semi-biblical context. Critical studies of the work of Ardalani revolve, generally, on the process of transculturation, as well as on the analysis of the referential language in her poetry.
Her fourth book, Miércoles de ceniza (Ash Wednesday), was published by Editorial Miguel Ángel Porrúa in 2007. According to the preface: It is a long poem of 622 verses, a profound lament which gives way to pain. It may be said that it is inspired by the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
given its length and we are sent in this direction by the theme of the work, which is defined as: the profound pain that the author feels at the sudden death of her father. Feelings and emotions overflow before the figure of the dead father translated into four secondary themes: reproach; reminiscence and ponderance; absence and delineation of the spiritual figure of the father, expressed in various stanzas, which tell of shock that the soul feels for the loss of a loved one. In 2008, it was nominated for the Carlos Pellicer
Carlos Pellicer
Carlos Pellicer Cámara , born in Villahermosa, Tabasco, was part of the first wave of modernist Mexican poets and was heavily active in the promotion of Mexican art and literature...
Iberoamerican Prize in Poetry ("Premio Iberoamericano de Poesía Carlos Pellicer, para obra publicada") for published works.
She also contributes in digital means, like the literary journal El Collar de la Paloma (The Neckring of the Dove), of which she is the editor.
Her work has been published in various journals and anthologies.
Awards
- http://www.utsystem.edu/teachingawards/2010/tenuretrack.htm#eardalaniRecipient of the 2010 University of Texas SystemUniversity of Texas SystemThe University of Texas System encompasses 15 educational institutions in Texas, of which nine are academic universities and six are health institutions. The system is headquartered in Austin and has a total enrollment of over 190,000 students...
Regents' Outstanding Teaching Award]
Further reading
- Ardalani, Elvia. "El agua frente al muro: reflexiones sobre mujer, literatura y frontera". Enhebrando palabras al hilo de la escritura. Ed. Celia Vázquez García. Vigo [España]: Editorial Academia del Hispanismo, 2007. Pág. 29. ISBN 978-84-96915-03-9
- ---. “Los esbozos psicológicos de Clarín en La Regenta”. A Pilgrimage of Color: 2001 National Conference Literature Monograph Series. Houston: National Association of Hispanic and Latino Studies, 2001. Págs. 185-204.
External links
- Wikipedia (Spanish): Elvia Ardalani
- Wikipedia (Spanish): Literatura contemporánea de México
- United States Library of Congress Catalog Record
- Inciertas Geografías: Apuntes del viaje literario. Poesía de la geografía elemental y la memoria
- El Collar de la Paloma Literary Journal
- University of Wisconsin–Madison, Department of Spanish and Portuguese: Podcasts. Personalidades de la Cultura Hispánica: "Elvia Ardalani y el transculturalismo."
- Revista de literatura contemporánea: Sexto congreso de literatura mexicana contemporánea 2001. "El sujeto femenino y la poética del silencio en La muchacha que tenía la culpa de todo de Gustavo Sainz" de The University of Texas at El Paso, Department of Languages and Linguistics
- University of Texas-Pan American, Department of Modern Languages and Literature
- La Mujer Rota de Editorial Literalia Editores, Guadalajara, Jalisco
- XLIV Congreso de la Asociación Canadiense de Hispanistas, University of British Columbia
- "MIERCOLES DE CENIZA", POEMARIO NOMINADO AL PREMIO IBEROAMERICANO "CARLOS PELLICER" SE PRESENTARÁ EN POZA RICA