Berenguer, Amanda (1921–)

Amanda Berenguer (b. 1921), Uruguayan poet. Born in Montevideo, she began her literary career in earnest with the publication of her third book of poems, Elegía por la muerte de Paul Valéry (1945). Her first two publications, A través de los tiempos que llevan a la gran calma (Through the Times That Lead to the Great Calm, 1940) and Canto hermético (1941), had very limited circulation. With El río (1952) and La invitación (1957), Berenguer begins to develop a personal and original poetic voice; Contracanto (1961) is a collection of brief poems. With Quehaceres e invenciones (Chores and Inventions, 1963), Berenguer reaches linguistic and lyrical precision in poems of oneiric and enigmatic landscapes.

She is considered a representative of a new and daring voice in Uruguayan poetry. In Declaración conjunta (Joint Statement, 1964), Materia prima (Raw Material, 1966), and Composición de lugar (To Lay One's Plans, 1976), the lyric voice searches for a vision of the world that rejects tradition through the creation of new poetic structures. Her Poesía 1949–1979 (1980) includes her complete works up to that time, except for the first three books of poems. Identidad de ciertas frutas (The Identity of Certain Fruits, 1983) continues to construct peculiar and innovative imagery. In 1986 Berenguer received the Reencuentro de Poesía Award granted by the University of the Republic in Montevideo. She is considered one of the main poets of contemporary Uruguay by Angel Rama, Mario Benedetti, and others. In 2006, she was named an honorary member of the Uruguayan National Academy of Letters.

See alsoLiterature: Spanish Americaxml .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Emir Rodríguez Monegal, Literatura uruguaya de medio siglo (1966).

Alejandro Paternain, Treinta y seis años de poesía uruguaya (1967).

Additional Bibliography

Scott, Renée Sum. Escritoras uruguayas: Una antología crítica. Montevideo, Uruguay: Ediciones Trilce, 2002.

Sosnowski, Saúl and Louise B. Popkin, eds., trans. Louise B. Popkin. Repression, Exile, and Democracy: Uruguayan Culture. Durham, NC: Duke University, 1993.

                            Magdalena GarcÍa Pinto