Miradas transatlánticas: el periodismo literario de Elena Poniatowska y Rosa Montero

Alicia Rita Rueda-Acedo

Women’s voices routinely have been muted or omitted entirely when a nation assembles its historical narrative. In Miradas transatlánticas: el periodismo literario de Elena Poniatowska y Rosa Montero, Alicia Rita Rueda-Acedo examines the relationship between the journalistic and literary work of the two writers named in the title as they utilize a distinct combination of journalism and fiction to create new spaces where women’s voices and experiences may be situated prominently in their nations’ historical narratives.

Rueda-Acedo analyzes the works of the two writers from the perspectives of both gender and genre studies, extending the notion of genre from the literary tradition and applying it to journalistic production. Each of the chapters rethinks and revises the concept of literary genres by arguing for the inclusion of the interview, the reportage, the article, and the chronicle within the category of literature. In her study of Las siete cabritas by Poniatowska and Historias de mujeres by Montero, Rueda-Acedo argues successfully that these are works of homage to women who have influenced history. By interpreting and subverting patriarchal models, the writers draw attention to the ways in which women have engaged Mexican, Spanish, and Universal history. Rueda-Acedo focuses on the characteristics of the journalistic interview and proposes its interpretation as a literary text. A poetics of this genre is also proposed.

Rueda-Acedo’s study explores how Poniatowska and Montero represent women who have marked history as part of the feminist agenda that the two writers have promoted in their journalistic and literary production. The book also emphasizes the role of the two writers as researchers and critics and deepens the vibrant debate about the relationship between literature and journalism currently being discussed on both sides of the Atlantic.

"Por su examen del periodismo literario de Elena Poniatowska y Rosa Montero, probablemente las periodistas-autoras más conocidas en México y España respectivamente, este estudio se sitúa en el floreciente campo de los estudios transatlánticos." —Ignacio Corona, Ohio State University

“…ofrece una perspectiva a la que no se había recurrido anteriormente: el análisis de la producción periodístico-literaria de la entrevista y el ensayo-reportaje de ambas autoras a partir de un ‘andamiaje teórico [que] se cimienta tanto en la crítica literaria como en la periodística’ (Rueda Acedo 5).” —María Inés Canto, Textos Híbridos 3.1 (July 2013): 48-50

“La crítica demuestra que las entrevistas y reportajes de Elena Poniatowska y Rosa Montero son un género literario … ha inscrito los reportajes y las entrevistas de [las dos] en la historia de la literatura.”—Carlos Gutiérrez Alfonzo, Romance Notes 54.1 (2014): 131-33

“Este volumen de Rueda-Acedo será de interés a un amplio círculo de lectores, tanto para los deseosos de profundizar en el terreno de las relaciones entre periodismo y literatura … como para aquellos que busquen reevaluar el papel activo y transformador de ciertas mujeres que reclaman, a ambas orillas del Atlántico, reinscribir sus voces y sus miradas dentro de una hisoria dominada casi en su totalidad por un punto de vista masculino.” —Chrystian Zegarra, Hispania 97.2 (2014): 333-35

“Miradas Transatlánticas es un libro que merece ser leído por el valor inexcusable de las vidas de las mujeres representadas, porque pensar la práctica periodística con metodologías retóricas y de teoría y crítica literarias es iluminador, y porque la información presentada por Rueda-Acedo abre brecha en los estudios transatlánticos sobre el periodismo literario de dos voces obligadas: Elena Poniatowska y Rosa Montero.” —Alán José, Symposium 68.2 (2014): 115-17

For more reviews, see
Reference and Research Book News, Feb. 2013

"El libro realiza un bosquejo del trabajo de las escritoras Elena Poniatowska y Rosa Montero," by Carlos Marroquín, El Heraldo de Chiapas, accessed 5 Aug. 2013, http://fundacionelenaponiatowska.org

Alicia Rita Rueda-Acedo, University of Texas at Arlington, focuses on Contemporary Peninsular and Mexican Literatures, particularly women’s authors, as well as the relations between literature and journalism and literature and history. She has published in journals such as ALEC and Hispania, and is one of the editors of Independencias, revoluciones y revelaciones: doscientos años de literatura mexicana.

PSRL 55. 2012. viii, 242 pp. ISBN 978-1-55753-626-6 Paper $45.00; ePDF 978-1-61249-245-2 $22.99; EPUB 978-1-61249-246-9 $22.99. In Spanish.

Display window in Stanley Coulter Hall, October 24 to October 31, 2012.

Author Alicia Rueda-Acedo, presenting her book to Elena Poniatowska, at the XV Colloquium on Mexican Literature: Dedicated to Elena Poniatowsksa and Carlos Fuentes, November 1, 2, and 3, 2012 at the University of California, Santa Barbara.