- Jorge Isaacs
Jorge Isaacs Ferrer (
1 April ,1837 –April 17 ,1895 ) was aColombia nwriter ,politician andsoldier . His only novel, "María", became one of the most notable works of the Romantic movement inSpanish literature .His father was George Henry Isaacs, an English
Jew originally fromJamaica . He first settled in Chocó, Colombia, where he made a fortune fromgold mining and trade with Jamaica. He then moved toCali where he converted toChristianity , obtained Colombian citizenship and married Manuela Ferrer Scarpetta, daughter of aSpanish Navy officer. He also owned twohacienda s near Cali, called "La Manuelita" (named after his wife) and "El Paraíso". The latter would provide the setting for "María". "El Paraiso" has been preserved as a museum, with emphasis upon its relation to the novel.Jorge Isaacs was born in
Cali in 1837. Little is known about his childhood, but in some of his poems Isaacs portrays the Valley of the Cauca as an idyllic place where he spent his most of it. He was first educated in Cali, then inPopayán and, finally, inBogotá between 1848 and 1852.Isaacs returned to Cali in 1852 without finishing his
baccalaureate studies. In 1854 he fought for seven months in theCauca Campaign against the dictatorship ofGeneral José María Melo . In 1856 Isaacs married Felisa González Umaña, who was fourteen years-old at the time and with whom he had many children. During the time of the civil wars his family went through a period of economic hardship. Isaacs tried unsuccessfully to become amerchant as his father. He then turned to literature and wrote his first poems between 1859 and 1860. During that time he also wrote severaldrama s of historical theme. Isaacs took arms again in 1860, this time against GeneralTomás Cipriano de Mosquera , and saw action in theBattle of Manizales during theColombian Civil War (1860-1862) . In 1861 Isaacs' father died; when the war ended Isaacs returned to Cali to take over the administration of his father's businesses, but he found them deeply in debt. This forced him to auction off two of his father's haciendas "La Rita" and "LaManuelita ", which were bought by the industrialistSantiago Eder .Isaacs' economic hardship took him back to Bogotá, where he found that his literary efforts were being well received. The members of the reader's club "El Mosaico" offered to publish his poems after Isaacs read them in one of their sessions. This compilation was published under the name "Poesías" in 1864. That year Isaacs took a job as the supervisor of the construction of a horse-path between Buenaventura and Cali and started to write "María". Around that time he also fell ill with
malaria .When "María" was published in 1867 it became an immediate success both in Colombia and in other
Latin America n countries. As a consequence Isaacs became a well-known personality in Colombia and his newly-found fame allowed him to start a career asjournalist andpolitician . As a journalist he directed the newspaper "La República", of moderate conservative tendencies, in which he also published some articles. As a politician he first joined the Conservative Party, but later switched to the Radical Party. In 1870 he was sent toChile asconsul general . On his return to Colombia he was actively involved in the politics ofValle del Cauca , which he represented in the Colombian Congress, and in 1876 he fought in yet another civil war. However his political career ended in 1879 after an incident where he proclaimed himself political and military leader of Antioquia in response to a conservative revolt.After his retirement from politics Isaacs published in 1881 the first
canto of the poem "Saulo", although he was never able to complete it. He also explored theMagdalena Department , in the north of Colombia, where he found importantcoal andoil deposits. Isaacs spent the last years of his life in the city ofIbagué in Tolima where was planning to write a historical novel. He died of malaria onApril 17 ,1895 .References
*Arciniegas, Germán. "Genio y figura de Jorge Isaacs". Buenos Aires, 1967.
*Beane, Carol. "Black Character: Toward a Dialectical Presentation in three South American Novels". En "Voices from Under: Black Narrative in Latin America and the Caribbean". Ed. William Luis. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1984: 181-198.
*Brown, Donald F. "Chateaubriand and the Story of Feliciana in Jorge Isaacs' María." "MLN" 62 (1947): 326-329.
*Carvajal, Mario. "Vida y pasión de Jorge Isaacs". Manizales, 1937
*Embeita, María J. "El tema del amor imposible en María de Jorge Isaacs". "Revista Iberoamericana" 32 (1966): 109-112.
*Lindstrom, Naomi. "Early Spanish American Narrative". Austin: University of Texas Press, 2004; sobre Isaacs, 130-137.
*Magnarelli, Sharon. "María and History". "Hispanic Review" 49 (1981): 209-205.
*Magnarelli, Sharon. "The Diseases of Love and Discoure La tía Julia y el escribidor and María". "Hispanic Review" 54.2 (Spring 1986): 195-205.
*Magnarelli, Sharon. "The Love Story: Reading and Writing in Jorge Isaac's María". "The Lost Rib: Female Characters in the Spanish American Novel". Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1985: 19-37.
*Pupo-Walker, Enrique. "Jorge Issacs". "Latin American Writers" Vol. 1. Ed. Solé/Abreu. NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1989: pp. 247-251.
*Reyes, Alfonso. "Cartas de Jorge Isaacs". "Obras completas de Alfonso Reyes". Vol. 4. México: Fondo de Cultura Mexicana, 1955: 327-34.
*Sánchez, Luis Alberto. "Jorge Isaacs". "Escritores representativos de América". 3 vols. Segunda edición. Madrid: Gredos, 1963: II: 132-146.
*Sommer, Doris. "El Mal de María: (Con)fusión en un romance nacional". "MLN" 104.2 (1989): 439-474.
*---. "María's Disease: A National Romance (Con)Founded". Foundational Fictions. "The National Romances of Latin America". Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.
*Trigo, Benigno. "Weaning the Virile Subject: Gender and Crisis in
José María Samper y Jorge Isaacs". "Subjects of Crisis: Race and Gender as Disease in Latin America". Hanover: Wesleyan University Press/University Press of New England, 2000: 47-68.*Williams, Raymond Leslie. "The Problem of Unity in Fiction: Narrator and Self in María." "MLN" 101.2 (1986): 342-353.
*Williams, Raymond Leslie. "The Greater Cauca Tradition: From María (1867) to El bazar de los idiotas (1974)". "The Colombian Novel, 1844-1987". Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991.
External links
* [http://www.lablaa.org/blaavirtual/biografias/isaajorg.htm Biography] - In Spanish.
* [http://www.analitica.com/bitblioteca/isaacs/maria.asp Online edition of "María"] - In Spanish.
* [http://www.aabcomp.com/photo/paraiso "El Paraíso" Museum photo gallery ]
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