- Biography
- Birth and family
- Chacel's training and contact with the literary world
- First collaborations and marriage
- First publications of the writer
- Exile after the Civil War
- Activities in exile
- Short time in Madrid
- Last works and death of the writer
- Style
- Plays
- Novels
- Brief description of the most representative novels
- Station. Round trip
- Wonder neighborhood
- Stories
- Brief description of the most representative story
- Offering to a mad virgin
- Poetry
- Brief description of the most representative collection of poems
- Forbidden verses
- Biography and diaries
- Diaries
- essays
- Translations
- References
Rosa Clotilde Chacel Arimón (1898-1994) was a Spanish writer who belonged to the Generation of 27. Like many intellectuals of her time, after the Civil War of 1936 she was forced into exile, therefore, most of her work was conceived in distant lands.
Chacel Arimón was a writer of novels, essays, biographies, short stories, and also a translator. Her works are characterized, in most cases, by simplicity and easy understanding, as well as by the psychology of the characters and the connection with the circumstances of her time.
Portrait of Rosa Chacel. Source: Hakima El Kaddouri, via Wikimedia Commons
The time that Chacel had to live was difficult and exclusive for the female gender, which hindered his literary growth, so he chose to fight for a place among males. However, her work began to be recognized in exile, for that reason many of her works were reissued.
Biography
Birth and family
Rosa was born on June 3, 1898 in Valladolid. She came from a family with a liberal ideology that gave her the development of an independent personality, and vast literary and cultural knowledge. Due to her frequent health problems, she was educated at home by her mother, the teacher Rosa Cruz Arimón.
Chacel's training and contact with the literary world
When he was ten years old he moved with his family to Madrid. When she was eleven years old, in 1909, she began classes at the School of Arts and Crafts, and then she enrolled in the Home and Professional School for Women. Six years later she began to study sculpture, which she abandoned in 1918.
During this time, Chacel met the poet and playwright Valle-Inclán, and who would be her future husband, the painter Timoteo Pérez Rubio. At the age of seventeen, she began to attend literary meetings that took place in cafes and at the athenaeum.
First collaborations and marriage
Rosa Chacel began working and collaborating with some print media such as Ultra magazine, between 1918 and 1922. That was also the time when she met and made friends with great intellectuals such as Miguel de Unamuno, José Ortega y Gasset, and Juan Ramón Jiménez.
At the age of twenty-three, in 1921, she married Timoteo Pérez; As a result of the relationship, their only son Carlos was born. A year after they were married they went to Italy where they lived for several years, after a scholarship that the husband obtained. At the end of the poet's studies they returned to Madrid in 1927.
First publications of the writer
Chacel began his literary activity in a concrete way in 1927. In the magazine Occidente he published Chinina Migone and Game of the two corners, in 1928 and 1929 respectively. Later, in the magazine Ultra, the story The Cities came out, and in 1930 Estación was published. Round trip, his first novel.
The writer's creativity was affected after the death of her mother. So in 1933 she traveled to the German capital, Berlin, to find inspiration again. Three years later, On the edge of a well, was published in the Héroe collection, by the also writer and poet Manuel Altolaguirre.
Exile after the Civil War
When the Civil War started in 1936, Rosa was in the Spanish capital. At the same time that she manifested her leftist position, she also worked as a nurse; and her husband was involved in the removal of the paintings from the Prado Museum as a measure of protection.
In 1937 Rosa left Spain with her son Carlos, went to France, and also made a brief stay in Greece. Two years later, she met her husband in Brazil, and from there they moved to Argentina with the intention of keeping the son in contact with the mother tongue.
Activities in exile
In Buenos Aires he published the novel La Sinrazón, considered one of his greatest works. She moved back to Brazil, and there she remained active; she attended social gatherings and did some translations. However, the economic problems were accentuated.
Statue of Rosa Chacel, in the Plaza del Poniente in Valladolid. Source: Rondador, via Wikimedia Commons
Some time later, in 1959, he was awarded a scholarship to create by the Guggenheim Foundation, and for this reason he went to live in New York. Under this patronage he wrote a series of essays of a philosophical and erotic nature. During that time the writer was part of the Nouveau Roman literary movement.
Short time in Madrid
In 1961, when the scholarship ended, Rosa traveled to Spain, and stayed to live there for two years. At the end of that time she settled again in Brazil. Later she returned to her homeland, until in 1973 she returned to receive a grant from the Juan March Foundation to complete Barrio de Maravillas.
For a long period she lived between Madrid and Rio de Janeiro, until, when her husband died in 1977, she settled permanently in the Spanish capital. Although the loss was difficult, her literary output began to be appreciated just as democracy arrived, which helped her to move forward.
Last works and death of the writer
The last years of Rosa Chacel's life were moved. In 1970 he published The Confession, later he published Saturnal, one of the essays that he produced during his stay in New York. In 1976 Barrio de Maravillas came to light, works that, for many critics, meant its consecration.
Economic disagreements knocked on his door again, so he began to write for television, as was the case with a production based on his work Teresa. Her last manuscripts were Sludge and Balaam. Cardiorespiratory failure took his life on August 7, 1994.
Style
Rosa Chacel's work enjoyed a simple language, therefore, easy to understand. Most of her characters were built within an elaborate psychology, on the other hand, she developed it framed within the popular, and with abstract and imprecise features.
Most of his stories had a dubious and uncertain plot, with a high reflective content. He also highlighted in his style the ability to describe each event in a meticulous and beautiful way, as well as the way to speak in detail about the peculiarities of the landscapes and the actions of his characters.
Plays
Novels
- Station. Round trip (1930).
- Teresa (1941).
- Memories of Leticia Valle (1945).
- The unreason (1960).
- Neighborhood of wonders (1976).
- Novels before time (1981).
- Acropolis (1984).
- Natural Sciences (1988).
Brief description of the most representative novels
Station. Round trip
It was the first novel of the writer, had autobiographical nuances and also developed themes related to the performance of women during her time. The influence of José Ortega y Gasset was evidenced; the style that Chacel used was typical of the avant-garde.
Wonder neighborhood
This novel by the Spanish writer Rosa Chacel was part of Plato's School trilogy, composed of Acropolis and Natural Sciences. The work was about the author's memoirs, set in the Madrid town that gave the work its title.
The main characters are Elena and Isabel, two little girls through whom Chacel looked at and described the urban environment of the 20th century. The story tells the reader about life in Spain from the early 1900s until the Civil War broke out in 1936.
Stories
- On the sea (1952).
- Offering to a mad virgin (1961).
- Icada, Nevda, Diada (1971).
- Balaam and other stories (1989).
- Short narrative (2003, this was an edition by his son Carlos Pérez Chacel).
Brief description of the most representative story
Offering to a mad virgin
This story by Chacel was characterized by the use of symbols, and by having a load of mysticism and human reflection. It was about beauty, fertility, and hope; The writer developed an excellent work from the gesture with the hand of a woman without sanity in the Argentine capital.
Poetry
- At the edge of a well (1936).
- Forbidden verses (1978).
- Poetry 1931-1991 (1992).
Brief description of the most representative collection of poems
Forbidden verses
This collection of poems by Rosa Chacel was characterized, like much of her poetry, for being classic and passionate. In the manuscript the writer sometimes dedicated herself to making some tributes, and she also separated herself from intimacy and was unconcerned about the use of feelings.
Fragment of "Night Butterfly"
"Who could hold you, dark goddess, who would dare caress your body
to breathe the night air
through the brown hair on your face?…
from the unspoken breath of the shadow
that the forest tends on the slopes
–Broken rock, unpredictable moss–.
From trunk or ties of lianas, from the lewd voice of silence
the eyes come from your slow wings… ”.
Biography and diaries
- Since dawn (1972).
- Timoteo Pérez Rubio and his portraits of the garden (1980).
Bust of Rosa Chacel in the Campo Grande of Valladolid. Source: I, Porquenopuedo, via Wikimedia Commons
- Autobiographies (2004).
Diaries
- Piggy Bank I. Ida (1982).
- Piggy Bank II. Return (1982).
- Piggy bank, station termini (1988, posthumous work edited by his son Carlos Pérez Chacel).
- Diarios (2004, from the Jorge Guillén Foundation).
essays
- Poetry of the circumstance. How and why of the novel (1958).
- The confession (1971).
- Saturnal (1972).
- The titles (1981).
- Slice (1986).
- Reading is secret (1989).
Translations
- The plague, by Albert Camus (1951,1957, 1968, 1970, 1979, 1983, 1988, 1990, 1994, 1995, 2005, 2006).
- Antígona, Reinaldo and Armida by Jean Cocteau (1952).
- The lady is not for the stake by Christopher Fry (1955).
- Freedom or death of Nikos Kazantzakis (1957).
- Theory of avant-garde art by Renato Poggioli (1964).
- Eden term; The retamal; Cornelius by Jean Racine (1983).
References
- Rosa Chacel. (2019). Spain: Wikipedia. Recovered from: es.wikipedia.org.
- Tamaro, E. (2004-2019). Rosa Chacel. (N / a): Biographies and Lives. Recovered from: biografiasyvidas.com.
- Chacel Rosa. (2019). (N / a): Writers. Recovered from: Escriores.org.
- Leyva, R. (2015). Rosa Chacel's novels: Construction and function of her characters. Mexico: Academy. Recovered from: academia.edu.
- Moreno, V. Ramírez, M. and others. (2018). Rosa Chacel. (N / a): Search Biographies. Recovered from: Buscabiografias.com.