Levinson, Luisa Mercedes (1914–1988)

Luisa Mercedes Levinson (b. 5 January 1914; d. 4 March 1988), Argentine writer. Born in Buenos Aires, Levinson was part of the La Nación dynasty, the oligarchic Buenos Aires daily whose literary supplement continues to be a powerful voice in Argentine letters. Perhaps best known as the mother of writer Luisa Valenzuela, Levinson exemplifies one literary alternative in Argentina during the turbulent 1950s and 1960s: the projection of an internationalist commitment to contemporary themes such as the individual against the "massification" and cultural commodification of society, the problematics for a woman of sustaining an intrinsic dignity and integrity in the wasteland of modern life, and the psychological depth of solitary lives. La pálida rosa de Soho (1959) deals in a highly poetic fashion with the experiences of a London prostitute, while the stories of La hermana de Eloísa (1955) were written in collaboration with Jorge Luis Borges, with whom she was long associated. El último zelofonte (1984) is especially notable for its psychopathic eroticism and the possibilities it presents as a political allegory of contemporary Argentina.

See alsoLiterature: Latin America; Philosophy: Feminism.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bernardo A. Chiesi, La manifestación del animus en "A la sombra del búho" (1981).

Celia Correas De Zapata, "Elementos fantásticos y mágicos-Realistas en la obra de Luisa Mercedes Levinson," in her Ensayos hispanoamericanos (1978), pp. 245-277.

Perla Giorno, Soledad y búsqueda: Dos novelas latinoamericanas (1976).

Delfín Leocadio Garasa, "Prólogo," in Luisa Mercedes Levinson, Obra completa, vol. 1 (1986), pp. 7-14.

Solomón Lipp, "Los mundos de Luisa Mercedes Levinson," in Revista Iberoamericana 45, nos. 108-109 (1979): 583-593.

Additional Bibliography

Arlt, Mirta. Luisa Mercedes Levinson: Estudios sobre su obra. Buenos Aires: Corregidor, 1995.

Sabino, Osvaldo R. Luisa Mercedes Levinson: Revolución, redención y la madre del nuevo Mesías: Alusión mítica y alegoría política en La isla de los organilleros. Buenos Aires: Corregidor, 1993.

Suárez, María del Carmen. Potencia del símbolo en la obra de Luisa Mercedes Levinson. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Ultimo Reino, 1993.

                                 David William Foster