Blanca Andreu
Encyclopedia
Life
She grew up in OrihuelaOrihuela
Orihuela is a city and municipality located at the feet of the Sierra de Orihuela mountains in the province of Alicante, Spain. The city of Orihuela had a population of 32,472 inhabitants in the beginning of 2006...
, where her family still resides, and attended El Colegio de Jesus-Maria de San Agustin, followed by studies in philology
Philology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...
in Murcia
Murcia
-History:It is widely believed that Murcia's name is derived from the Latin words of Myrtea or Murtea, meaning land of Myrtle , although it may also be a derivation of the word Murtia, which would mean Murtius Village...
. At age 20, she moved to Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
without formally completing her education. Here, she met Francisco Umbral
Francisco Umbral
Francisco Umbral was a Spanish journalist, novelist, biographer and essayist.-Style:...
, who introduced her to the literati of the city.
In 1980, she was awarded the Premio Adonáis de Poesía
Premio Adonais de Poesía
The Premio Adonáis, or Adonais Prize for Poetry, is awarded annually in Spain by Ediciones RIALP to an unpublished Spanish language poem. Runners-up are also recognized....
for her work entitled, De una niña de provincias que se vino a vivir en un Chagall. Her use of surrealism is considered the beginning of the Post-Modern Generation. Her later work have tried to shy away from the surrealist tendencies of her early pieces.
In 1985, she married novelist Juan Benet
Juan Benet
-Early life:Benet was born in Madrid. At the start of the Spanish Civil War, his father died, and he left for San Sebastian with his family to find refuge. They stayed there until 1939, when they returned to the capital. In 1944, he completed his high school education and in 1948 he entered into...
. After he died in 1993, she returned to La Coruña where she now lives a semi-reclusive life.
Awards
- 1980: Premio Adonáis de Poesía
- 1981: Premio de Cuentos Gabriel Miró
- 1982: Premio Mundial de Poesía Mística, Fernando Rielo
- 1982: Premio Ícaro de Literatura
- 2001: Premio Internacional de Poesía Laureà Mela
Works
- De una niña de provincias que se vino a vivir en un Chagall (1980)
- Báculo de Babel (1982)
- Capitán Elphistone (1988)
- El sueño oscuro (1994)
- La tierra transparente (2002)
Critical studies
- "Blanca Andreu: Recovering the Lost Language", Sylvia Sherno, Hispania, Vol. 77, No. 3 (Sep., 1994), pp. 384-393
- "Between Water and Fire: Blanca Andreu's Dream Landscapes", Sylvia Sherno, Revista Hispánica Moderna, Año 47, No. 2 (Dec., 1994), pp. 533-542