French Literature Reviews - 2026

Benmiloud, Karim, Tres escritoras mexicanas: Elena Poniatowska, Ana Garcia Bergua, Cristina Rivera Garza
Novel and Narrative Prose

Karim Benmiloud and Alba Lara-Alengrin (eds.), Tres escritoras mexicanas: Elena Poniatowska, Ana Garcia Bergua, Cristina Rivera Garza, Rennes, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, October 2014, 295 p.

EAN: 9782753534629, 16 euros.

This book (in Spanish) analyzes the works of three prominent Mexican female writers: Elena Poniatowska (Cervantes Prize 2013), Ana García Bergua and Cristina Rivera Garza. It opens with three texts by the authors studied, followed by three sections dedicated to each of them, featuring 19 specialized studies. Contributions include articles by Laurent Aubague, Karim Benmiloud, Rachel Bisson-Fradet, Maria Cordoba, Fanny Martinez and Virginie Ruiz (on E. Poniatowska); Dante Barrientos Tecún, Sara Calderón, Davy Desmas, Milagros Ezquerro, Marie-José Hanaï, Fabrice Parisot, Julio Zárate (on A. García Bergua); Marie-Agnès Palaisi-Robert, Véronique Pitois Pallares, Cécile Quintana, Marie-Pierre Ramouche, Berenice Reza Davila (on C. Rivera Garza); as well as a concluding article by Alba Lara-Alengrin on all three authors.

Karim Benmiloud is an alumnus of the École Normale Supérieure, holds the *agrégation* in Spanish, and has been a professor of Latin American literature at Paul Valéry University Montpellier since 2008. He served as president of the internal *agrégation* board for Spanish from 2010 to 2014 and has been a member of the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF) since 2011. Alongside Raphaël Estève, he co-edited Les astres noirs de Roberto Bolaño (PUB, 2007) and El Planeta Pitol (PUB, 2012), and he is the author of Sergio Pitol ou le carnaval des vanités (PUF, 2012).

Alba Lara-Alengrin holds the *agrégation* in Spanish and is a senior lecturer (maître de conférences) in Latin American literature at Paul Valéry University Montpellier.

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

Karim Benmiloud, Alba Lara-Alengrin Brief Genealogy of Mexican Women Writers

I. PART ONE: Three Writers – Three Poetics

1) Elena Poniatowska, Acceptance Speech for the 2013 Cervantes Prize

2) Ana García Bergua, Reconstructing History

3) Cristina Rivera Garza, Rewriting, Communality, Disappropriation

II. PART TWO: On Elena Poniatowska

1) Karim Benmiloud, Variations on Two Tales by Elena Poniatowska

2) Virginie Ruiz, All the Voices of '68. All of Them, in La noche de Tlatelolco (1971)

3) Maria Cordoba, Photographs in Tinísima: Another Way of Telling History

4) Rachel Bisson-Fradet, Images of the Body in Tinísima by Elena Poniatowska

5) Laurent Aubague, Poniatowska's *Soldaderas*: From the Imagery of Weapons to Gender Identity

6) Fanny Martinez, Elena Poniatowska's Leonora: An Initiatory Journey

III. PART THREE: On Ana García Bergua

1) Marie-José Hanaï, How a Young Provincial is Educated in the Mexican Capital: Púrpura by Ana García Bergua

2) Julio Zárate, Inversion of Codes and Romantic Novel Discourse in Púrpura

3) Sara Calderón, From History to history: The Satirical Representation of the Female Condition in the Early 20th Century in Rosas negras

4) Milagros Ezquerro, Isla de bobos: First Siege

5) Fabrice Parisot, His Majesty Crime: Saturnino A. in Isla de bobos

6) Davy Desmas, Exploring the Margins of History: The Female Condition in Isla de bobos

7) Dante Barrientos Tecún: On the Playful and Transgressive in Edificio

IV. PART FOUR: On Cristina Rivera Garza

1) Marie-Agnès Palaisi-Robert, Cristina Rivera Garza: Necrowriting and Necropolitics

2) Marie-Pierre Ramouche, The Luminous Darkness of a Madwoman's Photograph in Nadie me verá llorar

3) Berenice Eugenia Reza Dávila, Transgression and Borders in La cresta de Ilión

4) Cécile Quintana, The Construction of Poetic Voice in Los textos del Yo

5) Véronique Pitois-Pallares, Intertextuality and Self-Reflexive Writing in La muerte me da

VI. AFTERWORD

Alba Lara-Alengrin, Everyday Heroes and Symbolic Retribution in the Novels of Three Contemporary Mexican Women Writers

Mexican literature of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries has seen significant contributions from women writers exploring historical narratives, social dynamics, and experimental forms. This book analyzes the works of three prominent Mexican female writers: Elena Poniatowska, who received the Cervantes Prize in 2013, Ana García Bergua, and Cristina Rivera Garza. It opens with three texts by the authors studied, followed by three sections dedicated to each of them, featuring nineteen specialized studies.

Readers interested in contemporary Latin American literature may find this collection relevant. The volume includes contributions by various scholars focusing on individual works and features a concluding article by Alba Lara-Alengrin on all three authors, alongside biographical details regarding the editors, Karim Benmiloud and Alba Lara-Alengrin, who are affiliated with Paul Valéry University Montpellier.