Presentation of the book “The Generation of Leaves” by Marta Blanco
- Hall of Honor, Central House of the Catholic University, Av. Bernardo O’Higgins 340, second floor, Metro UC.
- Wednesday, April 17 – 6:00 p.m.
With the publication of “The Generation of Leaves”, a novel that in 1965 marked the debut of Marta Blanco (1938-2020) in Chilean literature, the Arbolee-UC Collection was born, the result of a collaboration agreement signed by both entities, the one that seeks to rescue and disseminate the Chilean literary heritage.
The writer Andrea Jeftanovic and the literary critic Javier Edwards will participate in the book presentation. There will also be a dramatized reading, by actress Shlomit Baytelman.
The Arbolee Foundation’s mission is to rescue, safeguard and promote the literary work and career of contemporary writers who have been forgotten, in order to guarantee access for all audiences to a valuable and little-disseminated heritage. That is why, within its lines of action, it signed this collaboration agreement with the Catholic University which, among other initiatives, allowed this alliance with Ediciones UC, a seal of great national relevance.
The generation of the sheets takes place in the early sixties; Her protagonist, Pilar, is married to an architect, lives in a wealthy environment and observes her world and her own feelings. As the writer Ana María del Río says, “Pilar is the opposite of what is expected of her. A sniper who is hurt by her world without her landscape, the world of misfits. A woman who thinks too much and feels deep inside her passing the seasons, time… and herself. The fatigue of excessive springs, the discovery of autumns, the silence of winters occur on her skin.
Trajectory
Born on January 20, 1938, the prominent Chilean journalist and writer Marta Blanco published this first novel at the age of 27, almost the same age as Pilar, her main character.
“It is surprising, considering her youth, the clarity and maturity of her writing, as well as the acute penetration of the conflicts that affect a young, married, bourgeois woman; a woman who expects something very different from love than what she finds in marriage; a somewhat melancholic, reflective, dissatisfied young woman who questions reality as it is presented to her and refuses to accept it as those around her do. Similar themes were then addressed by older authors, such as Mercedes Valdivieso and Elisa Serrana, before whom Marta Blanco’s novel does not detract in the slightest. On the contrary, she comes out very strengthened,” she reads in the presentation.
Arbolee Collection- UC
“The publication of books is one of the lines of action that we have proposed to develop together to materialize our commitment to the rescue, dissemination and enhancement of Chilean literary heritage. In this way, we recognize the key contribution of its authors in the construction of the country’s cultural memory. An unavoidable memory when evaluating our present and projecting ourselves into the future,” say María Teresa Cárdenas, president of the Arbolee Foundation, and Ignacio Sánchez, rector of the Catholic University, to present this collection.
“Just as History illustrates us regarding events, processes, data and verifiable dates, fiction offers, along with the literary quality that makes reading pleasurable, a certain spirit of the times, the knowledge of our society through private lives, the depth of the human being faced with his particular circumstances, given by his gender, his character or the social and cultural context in which he lives,” they add later.
“It is a special joy to already have this book in your hands. For several reasons, the title we launch today gives value to the depths of our editorial work. First, of course, because of what it means to highlight the work and figure of Marta Blanco; also because its publication will allow it to be available to all readers in printed and digital format and, furthermore, because The Generation of Leaves inaugurates a collection that we will soon continue to feed with more forgotten gems of Chilean literary heritage,” comments Patricia Corona, editor General of UC Editions.
Marta Blanco made her writing debut in 1965 with The Generation of Leaves. Narrator, journalist and teacher, she is also the author of the novels Maradentro (1997), La emperrada (2001), Memoria de whales (2009) and El peso del corazón (2015), as well as the stories collected in Everything is a lie (1974 ), For the Left Hand (1990) and in several anthologies. In Interviews (1988) she brought together her conversations with nine Chilean personalities published in El Mercurio, where she also collaborated with reports and chronicles. From 2003, and until her death, she wrote in El Periodista. She was director of the television channel of the University of Chile (1983-1984) and then cultural attaché at the Chilean embassy in Paris. From 1993 to 2005 she taught at the Faculty of Communications of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.