Piñon, Nélida (1935–)

Nélida Piñon (b. 3 May 1935), Brazilian author. Born in Rio de Janeiro into a family of devout Catholics, Piñon received a traditional education in Catholic schools. These events may have produced a paradoxical effect in her fictional construct, which possesses a mystical atmosphere while simultaneously challenging religious dogma and tradition.

Many of Piñon's life experiences have found their way, if transformed, into her fiction. At an early age she was sent by her family to spend some time in a village in Galicia, Spain, where her father and his parents had been born. That period became indelible in her literary memory and infused itself into the plot of A república dos sonhos (1984; The Republic of Dreams, 1989). Interested in ballet and opera, she imbues her fiction with the scenic arts, as in A força do destino (1978), a parody of the opera La Forza del Destino, and in A doce canção de Caetana (1987; Caetana's Sweet Song, 1992), which takes as its backdrop an itinerant Brazilian theater group.

Piñon tends to focus her work on unconventional topics, and has experimented with the linguistic possibilities of Portuguese. On both fronts, her literary expressiveness is regarded by critics as compelling, innovative, and resourceful. She was the first woman president of the Brazilian Academy of Arts and Letters, a position which she held from 1996 to 1997. In 2005, she won the Prince of Asturias Prize for literature.

See alsoBrazilian Academy of Letters; Literature: Brazil.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Giovanni Pontiero, "Notes on the Fiction of Nélida Piñon," in Review 76, no. 19 (Winter 1976): 67-71, Alan Ryan, "Chronicle of a Brazilian Family: The Republic of Dreams," in Washington Post Book World (30 July 1989): 580. Also: Vasda B. Landers, "Interview with Nélida Piñon," in Belles Lettres 6 (Winter 1991): 24-25.

Ana Rosa Núñez and Lesbia O. Varona, The World of Nélida Piñon: Partial Bibliography (1992).

Additional Bibliography

Kaz, Leonel, and Nigge Piovesan Loddi, eds. Século XX: A mulher conquista o Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: Aprazível Ediçoes, 2006.

Piñon, Nélida, and Jorge Orendáin, ed. Nélida Piñon: 1995. Guadalajara, Mexico: Editorial Universitaria; Mexico City: Alfaguara, 2006.

Rector, Monica, ed. Brazilian Writers. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2005.

                                           Regina Igel