Summer 2001 Research Report Andrea Jeftanovic "Childhood on Chilean and Brazilian Women Contemporary Writers"

 

During the 2001 summer I had the chance to travel to Brazil and Chile support by the Center for Latin American Studies and the Humanities Research Grant. This trip had the objective to begin a research that will be part of my academic dissertation to get my doctoral degree. What I plan to do in the near future is to develop a comparative major including Chilean and Brazilian female literature work. Specifically, I am interested in a comparison among authors of these countries in relation to the representation of childhood as a narrative strategy. It happens that many of the female writers of the period of the time chosen use child characters in their books and a specific view of that phase of life. So I am very interested in finding out the meanings, conflicts and literary techniques that result from those kinds of characters and their universe. Other possible focus of to analyze, may be the writing after the experience of dictatorship, and the way that women writers reformulate their narrative discourses in their new political, social and cultural context through childish voices.

In this opportunity I did some fieldwork that consisted in reviewing literary archives, interviewed writers and literary critics. Specifically my six- week research project consisted on:

• Archive work at Casa Fundacao Rui de Barbosa in Rio de Janeiro where I reviewed press dossier with the main critic and records of Clarice Lispector and Lygia Fagundes Telles´s literary production.
  
• Interview with Lygia Fagundes Telles in Sao Paulo.
  
• Academic interview with the writer Joyce Calvancante, also Rebra Director.
  
• Academic interview with the professor Nádia Batella Gotlib, one of the most important Lispector´s biographer and critic, at the city of Riberao Preto, Sao Paulo state.
  
• Academic interview with the professor Haquira Osakabe of the Universidade de Campinhas.
  
• Archive work at Casa Museo Cora Coralina in Goiás Velho at Goiania state.
  
• Archive work at the National Library at Santiago de Chile. I reviewed material of the writers Ana María Del Río, María Luisa Bombal, Sonia Guralnik, Beatriz García Huidobro.
  
• Academic interview with the Chilean writer Diamela Eltit, Santiago de Chile.
  
• Academic interview with the professor and critic Raquel Olea, Santiago de Chile.

This research trip was a very useful instance and excellent starting point for a bigger project that will finish with my dissertation. In that sense, the chance to visit archives, interview authors, critics and professors was crucial to get closer to my academic interest. As a first tangible result of this project I participated in the last LASA Conference (Latin American Studies Association) hold at Washington DC this last September 8-10^th. There I presented a paper that had to do with Lispector and Bombal´s work and public role. And in general terms, I am sure that all the achievements done during the research will be an important source of information and critique for my future academic specialization.

I really thanks the Tinker Travel Program for the given support, without it I wouldn't be able to do all this academic work so important to my prospective life as researcher and professor.

Sincerely yours,

Andrea Jeftanovic