José Lezama Lima

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José Lezama-Lima
Born	December 19, 1910 Havana, Cuba
Died	August 8, 1976 Havana, Cuba

José Lezama Lima (December 19, 1910 in Havana, Cuba - August 8, 1976 in Havana, Cuba) was a Cuban writer and poet who is considered one of the most influential figures in Latin American literature.^{[citation needed]}

Born in the Columbia Military Encampment close to Havana in the city of Marianao where his father was a colonel, Lezama lived through the most turbulent times of Cuba's history, fighting first against the Machado dictatorship, and later surviving the Castro regime. A gay man himself,^[1] his literary output includes the semi-autobiographical, baroque novel Paradiso (1966), the story of a young man and his struggles with his mysterious illness, the death of his father, and his developing homosexuality and poetic sensibilities. Lima also wrote several anthologies of Cuban poetry and the magazines Verbum and Orígenes, presiding as the patriarch of Cuban letters for most of his later years.

Although he only left Cuba on at most two occasions (one trip to Jamaica and a possible trip to Mexico), Lezama's poetry, essays and two novels draw images and ideas from nearly all of the world's cultures and from all historical time periods. The baroque style that he forged relied equally upon his Góngora-influenced syntax and stunning constellations of unlikely images. Lezama Lima's first published work, a long poem called "Muerte de Narciso," released when he was only twenty-seven, made him immediately famous within Cuba^{[citation needed]} and established Lezama's well-wrought style and classical subject matter.

In addition to his poems and novels, Lezama wrote many essays on figures of world literature like Mallarmé, Valéry, Góngora and Rimbaud as well as on Latin American baroque asethetics. Most notably the essays published as La expresión americana lay out his vision of the European baroque, its relation to the classical, and of the American baroque.

José Lezama Lima died in 1976 at age 65 and was buried in the Colon Cemetery, Havana. He was influential to Cuban and Puerto Rican writers of his generation and the next, such as Virgilio Piñera, Reinaldo Arenas, René Marqués, and Giannina Braschi, who depict his life and works their writing.

[edit] Further Reading

English:

From modernism to neobaroque : Joyce and Lezama Lima / César Augusto Salgado., 2001
Assimilation/generation/resurrection : contrapuntal readings in the poetry of José Lezama Lima / B. Heller., 1997
Secondary moderns : mimesis, history, and revolution in Lezama Lima's "American expression" / B. Levinson., 1996
José Lezama Lima, poet of the image / Emilio Bejel., 1990
The American gnosis of José Lezama Lima / Rubén Ríos-Avila., 1990
José Lezama Lima's joyful vision : a study of Paradiso and other prose works / Gustavo Pellon., 1989
A theology of absence : the poetic system of José Lezama Lima / Rubén Ríos-Avila., 1986
The poetic fiction of José Lezama Lima / Raymond D Souza., 1983

Spanish:

Aldabonazo en Trocadero 162 / William Navarrete y Regina Avila, Ed. Aduana Vieja, Valencia, 2008.
Antología para un sistema poético del mundo de José Lezama Lima / Iván González Cruz., 2004
Paradiso : la aventura mítica / Margarita Mateo Palmer., 2002
La posibilidad infinita : archivo de José Lezama Lima / Iván González Cruz., 2000
La escritura de lo posible : el sistema poético de José Lezama Lima / Remedios Mataix., 2000
Narciso hermético : Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz y José Lezama Lima / Aída Beaupied., 1997
El espejo y la palabra : Mann, Borges, Proust, Lezama Lima / Jaime Valdivieso., 1997
La imagen y el cuerpo : Lezama y Sarduy / Virgilio López Lemus., 1997
Recopilación de textos sobre José Lezama Lima / Pedro Simón., 1995
El primitivo implorante : el "sistema poético del mundo" de José Lezama Lima / Arnaldo Cruz., 1994
José Lezama Lima, poeta de la imagen / Emilio Bejel., 1994
La región olvidada de José Lezama Lima / Jorge Luis Llópiz., 1994
José Lezama Lima : bases y génesis de un sistema poético / Enrique Márquez., 1991
La cosmovisión poética de José Lezama Lima en Paradiso y Oppiano Licario / Alina Gingerich., 1990
José Lezama Lima, o, El hechizo de la búsqueda / Rita Molinero., 1989
Lezama Lima / Eugenio Suárez Galbán., 1987
Las eras imaginarias de Lezama Lima / Cesia Ziona Hirshbein., 1984
Coloquio Internacional sobre la Obra de José Lezama Lima / Université de Poitiers., 1984
Lezama Lima / Rafael Humberto Moreno-Durán., 1981
José Lezama Lima, textos críticos / Justo C Ulloa., 1979
Paradiso y el sistema poético de Lezama Lima / Margarita Junco Fazzolari., 1979
Poesía y conocimiento : Borges, Lezama Lima, Octavio Paz / Ramón Xirau., 1978