Gorodischer, Angélica (1928–)

Angélica Gorodischer (b. 28 July 1928), Argentine writer. Born in Buenos Aires to an upper-middle-class Spanish family, Gorodischer began writing late in life in the port town of Rosario, where she settled with her husband and children. Opus Dos (1967), her first novel, the short stories contained in Bajo las jubeas en flor (1973; Under the Jubeas in Bloom) and in Casta luna electrónica (1977; Chaste Electronic Moon), and particularly her tales of the inter-galactic trips of a traveling salesman from Rosario, Trafalgar Medrano (Trafalgar, 1979), would permit classifying her as a writer of speculative science fiction. However, these stories, together with some others, constitute what also could be labeled as "fantastic." Some could even be classed as thrillers, whodunits, and Gothic tales. She is interested in the absurd, monstrosities, dreams, myths; in the great themes that are a pretext for human beings to continue fighting to live; in the relationship between man and the universe, man and God, and power and death; in all that man does not know.

For Gorodischer, literature is a way of "unmasking" reality. In her works there is a counterpoint between the imaginary and the real worlds that gives transcendental meaning to her stories, so they end by being allegories, metaphors, or symbolic chronicles of the contemporary world and of the human condition, generally presented in a humorous vein.

Gorodischer's novel Kalpa Imperial (1983) was published in English in 2003 as Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire that Never Was. Gorodischer organized two international conferences of women writers in Rosario in 1998 and 2000 and has won numerous awards for her work. In 2007 the city of Rosario awarded her the title of Illustrious Citizen.

See alsoBuenos Aires; Literature: Spanish America.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

M. Patricia Mosier, "Communicating Transcendence in Angélica Gorodischer's Trafalgar," in Chasqui 12, no. 2-3 (1983): 63-71.

Angela B. Dellepiane, "Contar = mester de fantasía o la narrativa de Angélica Gorodischer," in Revista Iberoamericana 51, no. 132-133 (1985): 627-640, and "Narrativa fantástica y narrativa de ciencia-ficción," in Plural (Mexico), 188 (May 1987): 48-50.

Additional Bibliography

Balboa Echeverría, Miriam and Ester Gimbernat González, eds. Boca de dama: La narrativa de Angélica Gorodischer. Buenos Aires: Feminaria Editora, 1995.

Corbalán, Rafael T., Gerardo Piña-Rosales, and Nicolás Toscano. Acentos femeninos y Marco Estético del nuevo milenio. New York: City University of New York, Graduate School and University Center, 2000.

                              Angela B. Dellepiane