Recorded February 18, 2004
Below is the original description of the event.
Diamela Eltit is one of Latin America’s most daring and experimental writers and is highly regarded for her avant-garde initiatives in the world of letters. Author of nine novels, Eltit began her engagement with literature during the years of Pinochet rule when she participated in the neo-vanguard, staging art actions against the dictatorship, and published her first novels, Lumpérica (1983) and Por la patria (1986), to universal acclaim. She has been honored repeatedly by international literary organizations, among them the Modern Language Association in the United States and Casa de las Americas in Havana, which last year sponsored a week long conference on her work. She has also held posts as writer-in-residence at Brown, Yale, Washington University and Columbia and came to Berkeley several years ago as a Regents’ Lecturer.