New Readings of Silvina Ocampo

The critical essays in this volume are dedicated to the works of Argentine writer Silvina Ocampo (1903-1993) and introduce readers more fully to a figure who has long been a kind of insider's secret among intellectuals of her country. As the title suggests, the purpose of the volume is to move beyond the codification of Ocampo's use of the supernatural, an early oversimplification of her work. The essays address the quirkiness, cruelty, violence, and overt sexuality of her works, elements which have impeded a full understanding of her creative vision. Here it becomes clear that Silvina Ocampo was a co-contributor to the literary enterprise of the Sur generation, which produced Jorge Luis Borges, Adolfo Bioy Casares, and Victoria Ocampo, and had a profound influence on writers of the younger generation, such as Alejandra Pizarnik, Sylvia Molloy, Marjorie Agosin and others. Patricia N. Klingenberg is Professor of Latin American literature at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. Fernanda Zullo-Ruiz is Associate Professor of Spanish at Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana.