New Worlds of Fiction: Contemporary Basque Women Writers

Abstract

This special issue focuses on the work of contemporary Basque women writers with four articles dedicated to the study of selected narrative fiction by Katixa Agirre, Karmele Jaio, Edurne Portela, and Eider Rodriguez. A change in the traditionally male canon of Basque literature, represented by figures such as Bernardo Atxaga and Ramon Saizarbitoria, is underway, and female writers are offering new explorations of topics linked to their sociopolitical and affective contexts.

Keywords:

• Contemporary Basque women writers
• Katixa Agirre
• Karmele Jaio
• Edurne Portela
• Eider Rodriguez

Notes

1 The translations of the works by the authors that are included in this special issue include the following: Karmele Jaio’s Amaren eskuak has been translated into Spanish: Las manos de mi madre (Ttarttalo, 2010), English: My Mother’s Hands (Parthian, 2018), and German: Mütters Hände (Pahl-Rugenstein, 2009), among other languages. Also by Jaio, Aitaren etxea has been translated into Spanish (La casa del padre, Destino, 2020). Katixa Agirre’s Atertu arte itxaron has been published in Spanish under the title Los turistas desganados (Pre-textos, 2017). Eider Rodríguez’s Katu jendea has been translated as Un montón de gatos (Caballo de Troya, 2012) and has also been translated into French and German. Her Bihotz handegia has been translated into Spanish as Un corazón demasiado grande (Random House, 2019). In most cases the authors have translated the works into Spanish themselves.

2 “No hablamos de grupo, ni de escuela, pero sí de una presencia efectiva y notable dentro del campo.”

3 “Compartimos una mirada feminista que se ve reflejada en los temas que abordamos.”

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cristina Ortiz-Ceberio

Cristina Ortiz-Ceberio (PhD, University of Cincinnati) is Professor of Humanities and Global Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (USA) and Chair of Humanistic Studies. She received the Patricia W. Baer Professorship in Education (2015-2019). Cristina has numerous articles published on cinema and contemporary literature in academic journals in Spain and the United States. Among her most recent publications is Ellas cuentan: Representaciones artísticas de la violencia en el País Vasco desde la perspectiva de género (Madrid: Dykinson, 2020)—co-authored with María Pilar Rodríguez—which has been translated into English as Affective landscapes: Representation of Terrorism and Violence by Basque Female Authors (New York, Berlin: Peter Lang, 2021). Her current lines of research focus on gender and nationalism in contemporary literature.

María Pilar Rodríguez

María Pilar Rodríguez is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Deusto (Spain) and Director of the PhD program in Leisure, Culture and Communication for Human Development. She holds a PhD from Harvard University. Until 2002 she taught at Columbia University (New York, USA). She has published extensively on communication, film, culture, gender studies, and Basque and Hispanic studies (over one hundred publications). She is the Principal Investigator of the Communication research team, recognized by the Basque Government. She is regularly invited to teach in North American universities such as Dartmouth College, University of Chicago, and Columbia University. In 2015 she obtained the Koldo Mitxelena Chair by the Basque Government. She is an evaluator of research projects at the European level (NORDFORSK). https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5905-9152.