Severo Sarduy

Severo Sarduy
Severo Sarduy
Born	February 25, 1937; Camagüey, Cuba
Died	June 8, 1993 (aged 56); Paris, France
Occupation(s)	Poet, author, playwright, literary critic, art critic
Years active	1963-1993

Severo Sarduy (February 25, 1937 – June 8, 1993) was a Cuban poet, author, playwright, and critic of Cuban literature and art. Some of his works deal explicitly with male homosexuality and transvestism.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Biography

Born in a working-class family of Spanish, African, and Chinese heritage, Sarduy was the top student in his high school, in Camagüey, and in 1956 moved to Havana, where he began a study of medicine. With the triumph of the Cuban revolution he collaborated with the Diario libre and Lunes de revolución, pro-Marxist papers. In 1960 he traveled to Paris to study at the Ecole du Louvre. There he was connected to the group of intellectuals who produced the magazine Tel Quel, particularly to philosopher François Wahl, with whom he was openly involved^[4]

Sarduy worked as a reader for Editions du Seuil and as editor and producer of the Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française. Sarduy decided not to return to Cuba when his scholarship ran out a year later. Disaffected with Castro's regime and fearful of its persecution of homosexuals and the censorship imposed on writers, Sarduy never went home.

In 1972, his novel Cobra won him the Medici Prize for best novel in translation. He was among the most brilliant essayists writing in Spanish and "a powerful baroque narrator, full of surprising resources."^[5] As a poet, he was considered one of the greatest of his time. He was also a more or less secret painter; a major retrospective of his work was held at the Reina Sofía Museum of Madrid after his death.

He died due to complications from AIDS just after finishing his autobiographical work Pájaros de la playa (translated as Beach Birds by Suzanne Jill Levine and Carol Maier). To this day, his writings are difficult to access for a Cuban audience, whereas his books are available to the French and international public.

Bibliography

Gestos. 1963. Novel
De donde son los cantantes. 1967
Escrito sobre un cuerpo. 1969. Essays
Flamenco. 1970. Poems.
Mood Indigo. 1970. Poems
La playa. 1971. Pieza radiofónica / radio play
La caída. 1971. Pieza radiofónica / radio play
Relato. 1971. Pieza radiofónica / radio play
Los matadores de Hormigas. 1971. Pieza radiofónica / radio play
Flamenco. 1971. Poems
Mood Indigo. 1971. Poems
Cobra. 1972. Novel
Barroco. 1974. Essays
Para la voz. 1977. Radio Plays ("La playa," La caida," Relato," and "Los matadores de Hormigas")
Big Bang. 1974. Poems
Maitreya. 1978. Novel
Daiquiri. 1980 . Poems
La simulación. 1982. Essay
Colibrí. 1984. Novel
Un testigo fugaz y disfrazado. 1985 Poems
El cristo de la Rue Jacob.1987. Essays
Nueva inestabilidad. 1987. Essays
Ensayos generales sobre el barroco. 1987. Essays
Cocuyo. 1990. Novel
Pájaros de la playa. 1993. Published posthumously just one month after his death.
Obra Completa, Two volumes. 1999. Edited by Francois Wahl. UNESCO. Paris.

References

^ Gosser-Esquilín, Mary Ann. "Sarduy, Severo." In David William Foster, ed., Latin American Writers on Gay and Lesbian Themes: A Bio-Critical Sourcebook, 414-418. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994. ISBN 0-313-28479-2
^ Mira, Alberto. "Sarduy, Severo." Para entendernos: Diccionario de cultura homosexual, gay y lésbica, 648-650. Barcelona: Ediciones de la Tempestad, 1999. ISBN 84-7948-959-6
^ Duno Gottberg, Luis, Solventando las diferencias: la ideología del mestizaje en Cuba. Madrid, Iberoamericana – Frankfurt am Main, Vervuert, 2003
^ Bill Marshall, France and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History (Transatlantic Relations), ABC-CLIO Ltd, 2005, p.1045 [1] Tel Quel promoted structuralism and experimental writing. He was also involved with Mundo Nuevo, a Spanish-language journal directed by Uruguayan critic Emir Rodriguez Monegal.
^ Ruy Sánchez, Alberto. "Severo Sarduy y el ritual del colibrí", in Cuatro escritores rituales. Conaculta, 2000. ISBN 970-18-7269-X

External links

(in Spanish) Site dedicated to Severo Sarduy, A Media Voz.
(in Spanish) Small biographical description of Severo Sarduy with links to some of his texts, El Poder de la Palabra.
(in Spanish) Severo Sarduy: Los tatuajes emigrantes
François Wahl collection on Severo Sarduy at Princeton University Library Special Collections

[1] Gosser-Esquilín, Mary Ann. "Sarduy, Severo." In David William Foster, ed., Latin American Writers on Gay and Lesbian Themes: A Bio-Critical Sourcebook, 414-418. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994. ISBN 0-313-28479-2

[2] Mira, Alberto. "Sarduy, Severo." Para entendernos: Diccionario de cultura homosexual, gay y lésbica, 648-650. Barcelona: Ediciones de la Tempestad, 1999. ISBN 84-7948-959-6

[3] Duno Gottberg, Luis, Solventando las diferencias: la ideología del mestizaje en Cuba. Madrid, Iberoamericana – Frankfurt am Main, Vervuert, 2003

[4] Bill Marshall, France and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History (Transatlantic Relations), ABC-CLIO Ltd, 2005, p.1045 [1] Tel Quel promoted structuralism and experimental writing. He was also involved with Mundo Nuevo, a Spanish-language journal directed by Uruguayan critic Emir Rodriguez Monegal.

[5] Ruy Sánchez, Alberto. "Severo Sarduy y el ritual del colibrí", in Cuatro escritores rituales. Conaculta, 2000. ISBN 970-18-7269-X

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Severo Sarduy

Contents

Biography

Bibliography

References

Further reading

External links

Severo Sarduy

Born	(1937-02-25)February 25, 1937 Camagüey, Cuba
Died	June 8, 1993(1993-06-08) (aged 56) Paris, France
Occupation(s)	Poet, author, playwright, literary critic, art critic
Years active	1963-1993