Angel, Albalucía (1939–)

Albalucía Angel (b. 7 September 1939), Colombian novelist. Angel is one of Colombia's most important writers since Gabriel García Márquez. Following an independent narrative style, she has produced four distinct novels. Los girasoles en invierno (1970) is an experiment in radical feminism, and Dos veces Alicia (1972) plays on the Lewis Carroll text of Alice in Wonderland. The later novels delve into deeper issues of Colombian history and cultural values. Estaba la pájara pinta sentada en el verde limón (1975), her most significant novel, deals with the period of Colombian history known as La Violencia (1948–1956) and intriguingly reconstructs the era through two parallel but opposing perspectives: on the one hand, the unseen violence perpetrated by a young female adolescent who is not allowed to leave her house, and on the other, the quoted firsthand descriptions of actual grotesque political killings as reported in journals and books.

Misiá Señora (1982) looks at the relationship of a daughter, mother, and grandmother. Through erotic imagery, soliloquy, and monologue, the novel captures what was once the ideal of femininity, which encompassed sensuality, decency, courage, inner strength, and a feeling of fulfillment. The four novels show not only the author's search for innovation through language and theme and creativeness in her early period but also her successful later efforts to transform the literary act into a profound social and cultural commentary on her native land.

Other works include the poetry collection Cantos y encantamiento de la lluvia (2004) and the publication of "Out of Silence," a lecture given in 1998 at the Inter-American Development Bank Cultural Center.

See alsoLiterature: Spanish America .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dick Gerdes, "Estaba la pájara pinta sentada en el verde limón: Novela testimonial/documental de 'La Violencia' en Colombia," Revista de Estudios Colombianos 2 (1987): 14-19; Manual de literatura colombiana, vol. 2 (1988).

Additional Bibliography

Lindsay, Claire. Locating Latin American Women Writers: Cristina Peri Rossi, Rosario Ferré, Albalucía Angel, and Isabel Allende. New York: Peter Lang, 2003.

Taylor, Claire. Bodies and Texts: Configurations of Identity in the Works of Griselda Gambaro, Albalucía Angel, and Laura Esquivel. Leeds: Maney Pub. for the Modern Humanities Research Association, 2003.

                                             Dick Gerdes