Afterword

Summary

Owing to the wealth of material newly available, Pizarnik scholarship is now in a position to examine the poet's working methods in greater detail. As this volume shows, Pizarnik's intense activity as a reader – in particular as revealed through the notebooks of the ‘palais du vocabulaire’ and her critical essays – underpins all of her poetry, which is constantly entering into dialogue with the authors she read and reread, but which also cites itself repeatedly. As is also shown here, the diaries – both those published in 2003 and those in the Princeton archives not included in that selection – provide many useful insights into Pizarnik's reflections on her creative processes and on the relationships – literary or otherwise – which influenced her work. These diary entries have also enabled us to learn more about her ‘Borges y yo’ double, the mythologized ‘personaje alejandrino’. The essays in this volume have sought to offer a broader perspective on Pizarnik's many voices through readings focused on gender, humour, translation and philosophy. Ultimately, however, Árbol de Alejandra: Pizarnik Reassessed reflects the poet's growing stature within the canon of Latin American poetry; in so doing, it highlights the fact that the time is ripe for a full scholarly critical edition of her fascinating works.

Fiona J. Mackintosh and Karl Posso