The course Global Literature: Modern Writings from Women of the Non-Western World was one of the most important college classes I’ve ever taken as a writer. Dr. Jo Dulan at Salem College taught this literature course. It allowed me the ability to break out of US literature and explore books on a more global scale from the vital perspective of a woman writer.
María Luisa Bombal
María Luisa Bombal was a novelist and short story writer born in Viña del Mar, Chile. Her writing was an early influencer of the magical realism genre.
Try this: House of Mist by Maria Luisa Bombal
Overview of House of Mist from barnesandnoble.com:
House of Mist stands as one of the first South American novels written in the style that was later called magical realism. Of this story of a young bride struggling with her marriage to an aloof landowner—and the mysteries surrounding their life together—in a house deep in the lush Chilean woods, Penelope Mesic wrote in the Chicago Tribune that Bombal showed “bold disregard for simple realism in favor of a heightened reality in which the external world reflects the internal truth of the characters’ feeling . . . mingling . . . fantasy, memory and event.
Learn more about Maria Luisa Bombal.
Patricia Verdugo
Patricia Verdugo was a journalist, human rights activist, and writer born in Santiago, Chile. Her investigative reporting led to the prosecution of Augusto Pinochet.
Try this: Chile, Pinochet, and the Caravan of Death by Patricia Verdugo
Overview of Chile, Pinochet, and the Caravan of Death from amazon.com:
This narrative offers evidence of the mass execution of 72 political prisoners that began General Augusto Pinochet’s 20 year dictatorship. The killings terrorized Chile. This edition includes a description of Chile’s judical hearings to strip the General of his immunity.
Learn more about Patricia Verdugo.
Lina Meruane
Lina Meruane is a novelist and essayist. She was born in Santiago, Chile.
Try this: Seeing Red by Lina Meruane
Overview of Seeing Red from barnesandnoble.com:
This powerful, profound autobiographical novel describes a young Chilean writer recently relocated to New York for doctoral work who suffers a stroke, leaving her blind and increasingly dependent on those closest to her. Fiction and autobiography intertwine in an intense, visceral, and caustic novel about the relation between the body, illness, science, and human relationships.