Poetry
Pirotecnia
Not translated into English
Hilda Mundy · 1936
Synopsis
Sixty short pieces, somewhere between prose poem, poetic prose and newspaper column, which take up the satirical tone of the author's columns in Oruro. A female "I" with a transgressive gaze roams the modern city and its technology, from trams to machines, plays with words, attacks tradition and desecrates the symbols of power, with a humour that constantly calls out to the reader.
Context
The book, subtitled "Ensayo miedoso de literatura ultraísta", appeared in La Paz in 1936; it is the only one the author published. Long forgotten, it was reissued in 2004 in La Paz, with an introduction by Virginia Ayllón, then in 2015 in Santiago de Chile, and included in 2016 in the author's collected work, edited by Rocío Zavala for the Bicentennial Library of Bolivia, together with her impressions of the Chaco War. It has been translated into neither French nor English.
Who it is for
To discover the Bolivian avant-garde of the thirties through the ironic, free voice of a woman journalist.
Prizes and reception
Forgotten for decades, the book is today at the centre of studies on women's writing in Bolivia.