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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / Until recently little attention has been paid to Latin American women writers and even less to those of them who are Jewish. This dissertation is an attempt to remedy that situation through the study of four contemporary Argentine Jewish women writers. My introduction explores theoretical issues relating to the specificity of both Jewish and women's writing. Chapter One considers the work of Alejandra Pizarnik (1936-1972). Although a Jew by birth, she shows very little overt Jewish influence in her work because she did not acknowledge her heritage. However, her background appears obliquely throughout her writing, for example, in many biblical references. Pizarnik's perspective on women is equally elusive, but nonetheless can be traced in her treatment of love and loss. Ana Maria Shua (1951- ), whose writing is the subject of the second chapter, is openly Jewish and unavowedly feminist. I study those aspects of her work that can be considered Jewish, such as her interest in the immigrant experience and her recounting of traditional Jewish folk tales. Although Shua does not admit to being a feminist, her books portray female dominance over men, particularly in El marido argentino promedio. Chapter Three centers on the writings of Manuela Fingueret (1945- ). Traditional customs, the Yiddish language and biblical references appear in her fiction and poetry. She depicts her female characters as strong and independent. Her poetry contains an element of eroticism, which she presents from a distinctively feminine perspective. The final chapter studies the work of Alicia Steimberg (1933- ). Steimberg's characters indicate contradictory feelings about being Jewish. Steimberg, like Shua, deals with the Jewish immigrant experience; she focuses on women, many of whom work outside the home. Steimberg's treatment of eroticism is idiosyncratically straightforward in its emphases. The dissertation's epilogue summarizes its conclusions and points the way for additional work to be done on Latin-American Jewish women writers. / 2999-01-01

This dissertation explores the relationship between language, sacramentality, and enchantment in three twentieth-century Argentine poets: Francisco Luis Bernárdez (1900-1976), Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), and Alejandra Pizarnik (1936-1972). It seeks to ask and answer two fundamental questions. First, to what extent might it be possible to understand the conception of poetic language characteristic of modern poetry as an articulation, however muffled and secularized, of a sacramental apprehension of language and world? Second, how might such a conception be related to what Max Weber famously called “the disenchantment of the world”? The dissertation begins with a broad overview of the development of the concept of disenchant within Western culture and then proceeds to a reading of the three poets mentioned above. Special attention is given throughout both to historical and political context and to the specific ways in which Bernárdez, Borges, and Pizarnik understand and employ poetic language. In each case, I attempt to show how, among both secular and religious poets, language retains vestiges of a sacramental understanding of the world.

This Master's thesis is mainly focused on the poetics and poetic style and language of Argentinian author Alejandra Pizarnik. The main objective here is to show that they are not only present in her poetry but also in her extensive diaristic work. The primary source of this thesis is then the newest edition of her book Diarios, Lumen: 2003 - Diaries. The present work also approximates the diary as a literary genre with special focus on the female writer's diaries, and its many examples and parallels - the primary example being the comparison between Alejandra Pizarnik's and Sylvia Plath's diaries and their poetics based on several similarities. Key words: Alejandra Pizarnik, Argentinian literature, literary diary, journal intime, Argentinian poetry, female diaries

Alejandra Pizarnik et Sylvia Plath, poètes prolifiques et figures frôlant le mythe, ont forgé au cours de leurs carrières voix uniques et œuvres riches. Elles se partagent une vaste sensibilité artistique, un goût pour la démesure, ainsi qu’une volonté, celle d’être artiste avant tout, de laisser une marque, une trace. Outre leurs œuvres narratives et poétiques, Plath et Pizarnik sont reconnues pour leurs journaux (The Unabridged Journals, 1950-1962 ; Diarios, 1954-1971). Ces textes sont fréquemment lus comme des journaux intimes, mais gagnent à être approchés autrement : comme une part intégrale de la création. Ils sont un appui à l’œuvre à venir, un lieu de travail du geste et de l’idée, un atelier. Omniprésents depuis la fin du 19e siècle, indissociables de la modernité littéraire, les journaux d’écrivain·es ont aujourd’hui encore un statut instable. Ils restent difficilement classables, empruntent à la fois les réflexes d’une longue tradition spirituelle et philosophique, tout comme des procédés uniques à la pratique écrivaine. Ce mémoire cherche à réfléchir leur rôle dans la création, prenant comme base la tradition des exercices spirituels (définis par Hadot) ou des techniques de soi (théorisées par Foucault), puis développant une réflexion grâce à l’idée d’atelier d’écriture. Telles des artistes visuelles, pour avancer jusqu’à Ariel ou Infierno musical, Plath et Pizarnik s’appuieront sur un atelier, un lieu d’expérimentation, de liberté – constellation de carnets, d’ébauches tapées à la machine, de recueils de notes. Ce lieu de langage réunit deux versants : l’entraînement (très vaste, à la manière de l’askesis antique) et l’ouverture vers la création (progression vers la poiesis, l’idée neuve). L’atelier permet d’œuvrer sur le langage et le soi. Avec toujours en vue la quête de la poésie, née de l’intime puis se dépliant, depuis la chute de la plume jusqu’à l’œuvre entière, multicolore. Dans les mots de Plath : « to invent on the drop of a feather, a whole multicolored bird » . / Alejandra Pizarnik and Sylvia Plath, prolific writers and almost mythical figures, have built throughout their careers a unique voice and a rich body of work. They share a broad artistic sensitivity, a taste for excess, and the need to become an artist above all else, to make their mark, leave a trace. Besides their narrative and poetic production, Plath and Pizarnik are known for their journals (The Unabridged Journals, 1950-1962 ; Diarios, 1954-1971), which are often interpreted as intimate texts, as diaries – but who should be primarily seen as an integral part of their creation process. They are a support, a place to work on craft and ideas, an atelier (workshop and studio). Essential since the end of the 19th century, linked to literary modernity, writers’ diaries are still today hard to categorize. They inherit from a long spiritual and philosophical tradition, as well as create their own unique methods. This thesis aims to understand their role in literary creation, with the help of the tradition of the “spiritual exercises” defined by Hadot and of the “techniques of the self” theorized by Foucault, then expanding further with the idea of atelier. Like visual artists, to progress towards Ariel or Infierno musical, Plath and Pizarnik use their atelier, a space of experiment, of freedom – a collection of notebooks, drafts and typescripts, and notes. This space made of language has two purposes : practice (a vast training, like the askesis of Antiquity) and creation (progression towards poiesis, the new idea). The atelier helps working on language and the self. Always searching for this breach that is poetry, born from an intimate place and then unfolded, from the drop of a feather to a whole, multicolored oeuvre. Or as Plath puts it : “to invent on the drop of a feather, a whole multicolored bird”.