In 1875, Juana Manuela Gorriti hurried to finish her new novel,
Peregrinaciones de una alma triste, in order to include it in the
two-volume collection, Panoramas de la vida, published in 1876,
dedicated to the women of Buenos Aires. Peregrinaciones is both the
story of a young woman's dramatic liberation and self-discovery,
and a critical travelogue of conditions in southern South America.
The narrator, Laura, tells a close woman friend about her escape
from her home in Lima, where she was dying of tuberculosis, and the
series of adventures that stimulated her into health, independence
and energetic engagement with the welfare of others. As she
travels, she witnesses the horrors and glories of 19th century
society, from bandit attacks, civil wars, and indigeneous
rebellions to the cruelties of slavery. She journeys through varied
terrain, from mountain peaks to the jungle, where she dresses in
male clothing for self-protection. At this time when national
identity was being defined, Laura assesses the populations and
problems of the Southern Cone nations, with the help of the friends
she makes during the course of her travels. Juana Manuela Gorriti
(1818-1892) is one of the best known and most eloquent 19th century
writers of fiction. Born in Argentina, she went to Bolivia with her
family after her Unitarian father was defeated by Juan Facundo
Quiroga in 1831. She settled in Peru, began to publish stories and
novels, and established a literary salon attended by Lima's leading
intellectuals. Ever restless, like the protagonist of
Peregrinaciones, she traveled frequently and wrote about it, very
aware of changing conditions as Peru, Chile and Argentina
modernized. She died in Buenos Aires, where many of her books were
first published, including Sueos y realidades, Panoramas de la
vida, El mundo de los recuerdos, and many others. This edition of
Peregrinaciones has been updated with plentiful footnotes and a
critical introduction by Mary G. Berg, author of many studies of
Latin American women writers and their times. This novel would fit
well into courses on Latin American narrative, women writers,
Southern Cone history, gender and cultural studies, and
nation-building in the nineteenth century.
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