Felisberto Hernández
Encyclopedia
Felisberto Hernandez was an Uruguayan
writer.
, Uruguay
. His father was from Tenerife (Canary Island). He was a talented self-taught pianist who earned a living playing in the silent-screen theaters and cafés of Uruguay.
What is interesting in Hernández’s fiction is the magic by-product of his anonymous first-person tales whose obsessive and deranged narrators have knocked down the wall between their minds and the empirical world and injected their obsessions into everyday life. He often used the events surrounding him as fodder for his fiction.
He is considered to be the forefather of fabulism, predating writers such as Gabriel García Márquez
, Italo Calvino
and Julio Cortázar
, who all note Hernández as a major influence.
His fiction often attempts to exploit the secret vitality contained in inanimate objects.
Some of his most famous stories are: "The Balcony," "My First Concert," and "Daisy Dolls".
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
writer.
Background
Hernández was born in MontevideoMontevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
, Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
. His father was from Tenerife (Canary Island). He was a talented self-taught pianist who earned a living playing in the silent-screen theaters and cafés of Uruguay.
Short stories
He is one of the greatest yet least known Latin American short-story writers.What is interesting in Hernández’s fiction is the magic by-product of his anonymous first-person tales whose obsessive and deranged narrators have knocked down the wall between their minds and the empirical world and injected their obsessions into everyday life. He often used the events surrounding him as fodder for his fiction.
He is considered to be the forefather of fabulism, predating writers such as Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. He is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in...
, Italo Calvino
Italo Calvino
Italo Calvino was an Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the Our Ancestors trilogy , the Cosmicomics collection of short stories , and the novels Invisible Cities and If on a winter's night a traveler .Lionised in Britain and the United States,...
and Julio Cortázar
Julio Cortázar
Julio Cortázar, born Jules Florencio Cortázar, was an Argentine writer. Cortázar, known as one of the founders of the Latin American Boom, influenced an entire generation of Spanish speaking readers and writers in the Americas and Europe.-Early life:Cortázar's parents, Julio José Cortázar and...
, who all note Hernández as a major influence.
His fiction often attempts to exploit the secret vitality contained in inanimate objects.
Some of his most famous stories are: "The Balcony," "My First Concert," and "Daisy Dolls".
Selected works translated into English
- Piano Stories, translated by Luis Harss, Marsilio Publishers, 1993
- Lands of Memory, translated by Esther Allen, New Directions Press, 2002