Essays on Hilda Hilst

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-viii

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2. Introduction: Who’s Afraid of Hilda Hilst? An Author Between Brazil and “World Literature.”

   • Adam Morris, Bruno Carvalho

   Pages 1-16

3. Hilst on Stage

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 17-17

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   2. A Brazilian Teorema: Queering the Family in Hilda Hilst’s O Visitante (The Visitor)

      • David William Foster

      Pages 19-32

   3. Is the Word Alive? An Inquiry into Poetics and Theater in As Aves da Noite (Nightbirds) by Hilda Hilst

      • Tatiana Franca Rodrigues Zanirato

      Pages 33-55

4. Obscenity and the Human Condition

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 57-57

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   2. Figurations of Eros in Hilda Hilst

      • Eliane Robert Moraes

      Pages 59-74

   3. Hilda Hilst, Metaphysician

      • Adam Morris

      Pages 75-91

5. Hilst in National and Global Context

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 93-93

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   2. A Nation on the Ground Floor: The Face of Brazil, Drawn with Hilda Hilst’s Political Pen

      • Deneval Siqueira de Azevedo Filho

      Pages 95-114

   3. When “the Life of Sentiments Is Extremely Bourgeois”: Ideal Love and Nonconformism in the Love Poems of Hilda Hilst

      • Alva Martínez Teixeiro

      Pages 115-131

6. Hilst in Translation

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 133-133

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   2. Translating Brazil’s Marquise de Sade

      • John Keene

      Pages 135-150

   3. Derelict of Duty

      • Nathanaël

      Pages 151-157

   4. Hilst on Hilst: Excerpts from Interviews with the Author, 1952–2003

      • Hilda Hilst

      Pages 159-173

7. Back Matter

   Pages 175-177

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This book is the first collection of critical essays on Hilda Hilst (1930-2004) published in English. It brings together a variety of perspectives on one of Latin America’s most inventive and innovative authors.  Nine essays by scholars and translators reflect about various aspects of her work, placing it in the context of Brazil and world literature. During her lifetime, Hilst won several major national literary awards and attracted legions of devoted readers. Her writing spanned styles and genres, encompassing poetry, theatre, and experimental fiction. She was also considered to be “a writer’s writer,” and her literary achievements eluded both mainstream acclaim and international recognition. In recent years, Hilst’s books have enjoyed increased visibility in Brazil and beyond. A host of translators (including three contributors to this volume) have finally made some of her masterpieces available in English. This pioneering collection of essays should excite longtime readers andintroduce her to a new audience.

• Brazilian Studies
• experimental fiction
• World literature
• poetry
• critical companion

• San Francisco, USA

  Adam Morris

• Brooklyn, USA

  Bruno Carvalho

Adam Morris is a translator and scholar, most recently at the University of Rochester Humanities Center, USA. He has translated Hilda Hilst, João Gilberto Noll, Machado de Assis, Carol Bensimon, and others. 

Bruno Carvalho is Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese and Associated Faculty in Comparative Literature at Princeton University, USA. He is the author of Porous City: A Cultural History of Rio de Janeiro (2013), and has published widely on Brazilian literature and urban cultures.

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