Roberto G. Fernández

Infobox writer
name = Roberto G. Fernández


imagesize =
caption =
pseudonym =
birthname =
birthdate = Birth date and age|1951|09|24
birthplace = Sagua la Grande
deathdate =
deathplace =
occupation = novelist, short story writer
nationality = Cuban, American
period = 1974-
genre = satire
subject =
movement =
notableworks = "Raining Backwards" "Holy Radishes!"
spouse =
partner =
children =
relatives =
influences =
influenced =
awards =


website =
portaldisp = yes

Roberto G. Fernández (b. 24 September 1951) is a Cuban American novelist and short story writer. He is noted for his grotesque satires of the Cuban American community, especially in his English-language novels, "Raining Backwards" and "Holy Radishes!" He is currently the Dorothy Lois Breen Hoffman Professor of Modern Languages and Linguistics at Florida State University. [ [http://www.fsu.edu/~modlang/divisions/spanish/fernandez.html FSU website] (accessed March 2008)]

Biography

Early life

Fernández's family immigrated to the States in 1961, when Fernández was ten. He grew up in Miami, Florida, which he now considers his home, although he lives and teaches in Tallahassee, Florida.

Literary work

Fernández has been said to be part of the Cuban American avant-garde. [Isabel Alvarez-Borland, "Cuban-American Literature of Exile: From Person to Persona", U of Virginia P, 1998. p.97] His writing is said to

engage the links among history, exile, personal, and collective identity, and simultaneously defamiliarize them through parody and pastiche, counteracting in such a move the underlying poignancy of the diasporic experience. [Jelena Šesnić, "From Shadow to Presence", Rodopi, 2007. p. 194.]

Fernández is known for the way he satirizes the Cuban community in Miami. One critic says that he "has mastered like no other the carnivalesque art of portraying grotesquely a community in a perpetual state of crisis." [Jorge Febles, "Am I Whom I Am? Identity Games in US Cuban Literature," in Caulfield and Davis, "A Companion to US Latino Literatures," Boydell & Brewer: 2007. p.80] For instance, "Raining Backwards" depicts a generation "caught between two cultural worlds that they do not fully undersand and to which they do not fully belong." [Alvarez-Borland p.99]

Although Fernández's first two books, written in Spanish, were "well received within the Cuban exile literary community" [Gabriella Ibieta, "Transcending the Culture of Exile: "Raining Backwards"," in Bevan, "Literature and Exile." Amsterdam:Rodopi; 1990. p.74] , he did not gain wide critical attention until he published in English.

Marriage and children

Philosophical and/or political views

Published works

* "Cuentos sin rumbo" ["Aimless Tales"] (story collection; 1975)
* "La vida es un special" ["Life Is on/a Special"] (1982)
* "La montaña rusa" ["The Russian Mountain" or "The Roller Coaster"] (story cycle; 1985)
* "Raining Backwards" (1988)
* "Holy Radishes!" (1995)
* "En la ocho y la doce" ["The Corner of Eighth and Twelfth"] (2001)
* Published short stories include “Wrong Channel”, “The Brewery”, “Is in the Stars” and “It’s not Easy”

Awards

* [http://www.cintasfoundation.org/fellows_writers.htm Cintas Foundation] Fellowship (1986-87)
*Florida Arts Council Fellowship (1993)

References

Critical studies in English

as of March 2008:
#Treacherous Pilgr

#Memory and Desire in Exile: The Narrative Strategies of "Raining Backwards" By: Arlene Guerrero-Watanabe; "Caribe: Revista de Cultura y Literatura," 2004 Summer; 7 (1): 25-42.
#La tríada Belle Glade, Miami, Xawa: Tres nombres, tres culturas y un solo espacio novelesco en la narrativa de Roberto G. Fernández By: Jorge Febles, "Hispanic Journal," 2004 Spring-Fall; 25 (1-2): 225-41.
#Roberto G. Fernández (1951-) By: Guillermo B. Irizarry, IN: West-Durán, Herrera-Sobek, and Salgado, "Latino and Latina Writers, I: Introductory Essays, Chicano and Chicana Authors; II: Cuban and Cuban American Authors, Dominican and Other Authors, Puerto Rican Authors." New York, NY: Scribner's; 2004. pp. 591-611
#"Janus Identities and Forked Tongues: Two Caribbean Writers in the United States" By: Rosanna Rivero Marín. New York, NY: Peter Lang; 2004. viii, 153 pp. (book)
#Is Memory the Amnesia You Like? Some Remarks on Self-Invention and the Presence of Caribbean Literature in North America By: Wolfgang Binder, "GRAAT: Publication des Groupes de Recherches Anglo-Américaines de l'Université François Rabelais de Tours," 2003; 27: 293-99.
#Geographies of Identity in Cuban American Narrative By: Antonia Domínguez Miguela, IN: Alonso Gallo and Domínguez Miguela, "Evolving Origins, Transplanting Cultures: Literary Legacies of the New Americans." Huelva, Spain: Universidad de Huelva; 2002. pp. 267-75
#The Intercepted Space: Desired and Summed Identity in "Holly [Holy] Radishes" by Cuban American Writer, Roberto G. Fernández By: Clementina R. Adams, "Diáspora: Journal of the Annual Afro-Hispanic Literature and Culture Conference," 2001; 11: 66-71.
#Generational Conflicts in "Raining Backwards" by Roberto G. Fernández By: Henry Pérez, "Publications of the Arkansas Philological Association," 2000 Fall; 26 (2): 33-44.
#Memories of Cuba in Roberto G. Fernández's "Raining Backwards" By: Henry Pérez, "Publications of the Arkansas Philological Association," 1998 Fall; 24 (2): 47-57.
#Intimate Dwellings: Meditations on Shelter and Sheltered Meditations in Roberto G. Fernández's "Coquina House" By: William O. Deaver, Jr.; "RLA: Romance Languages Annual," 1998; 10 (2): 529-33.
#"Holy Radishes!" Image is Everything By: William O., Deaver, Jr.. IN: Berry, "NAHLS Bringing the World Together." Ann Arbor, MI: UMI; 1997. pp. 218-29
#From to Disglossia: Defining Chronotope, Authority, and Subversion in "Raining Backwards" By: William O. Deaver, Jr.; "RLA: Romance Languages Annual," 1997; 9: 448-52.
#The Prodigal Son in the Structure of "Raining Backwards", "Crazy Love", and "Latin Jazz" By: William O. Deaver, Jr.; "Americas Review: A Review of Hispanic Literature and Art of the USA," 1996 Fall-Winter; 24 (3-4): 179-90.
#A Technological Novelty in "Raining Backwards": The Creation of a Virtual Reality By: Humberto López Cruz, "Americas Review: A Review of Hispanic Literature and Art of the USA," 1996 Fall-Winter; 24 (3-4): 191-200.
#Menippean Satire and Skaz in "Raining Backwards" By: William O. Deaver, Jr.; "Confluencia: Revista Hispánica de Cultura y Literatura," 1996 Fall; 12 (1): 168-77.
#Structure, Theme, Motif, and Dialogue in "Raining Backwards" By: William O. Deaver, Jr.; "Chattahoochee Review: The DeKalb College Literary Quarterly," 1996 Summer; 16 (4): 100-12.
#"Raining Backwards": Stylization and Mimicry By: William O. Deaver, Jr.; "RLA: Romance Languages Annual," 1995; 7: 446-49.
#"American Contradictions: Interviews with Nine American Writers" By: Wolfgang Binder (ed.). Hanover, NH: UP of New England; 1995.
#A Connecticut Yankee in Cuban Miami: Reflections on the Meaning of Underdevelopment and Cultural Change By: Juan Leon, "Michigan Quarterly Review," 1994 Fall; 33 (4): 690-701.
#A Character's Indictment of Authorial Subterfuge: The Parody of Texts in Roberto G. Fernandez's Fiction By: Jorge Febles, IN: Cancalon and Spacagna, "Intertextuality in Literature and Film." Gainesville: UP of Florida; 1994. pp. 21-35
#"Raining Backwards": Colonization and the Death of a Culture By: William O. Deaver, Jr.; "The Americas Review: A Review of Hispanic Literature and Art of the USA," 1993 Spring; 21 (1): 112-18.
#English and Spanish Pop Songs as Part of Character Speech: Cultural Hybridity in Roberto G. Fernández's "Raining Backwards" By: Jorge Febles, IN: Ryan-Ransom, "Imagination, Emblems and Expressions: Essays on Latin American, Caribbean, and Continental Culture and Identity." Bowling Green, OH: Popular; 1993. pp. 99-108
#Gender in Exile: Mothers and Daughters in Roberto G. Fernández's "Raining Backwards" By: Mary S. Vásquez, IN: Whitlark and Aycock, "The Literature of Emigration and Exile." Lubbock: Texas Tech UP; 1992. pp. 79-85
#Family, Generation, and Gender in Two Novels of Cuban Exile: Into the Mainstream? By: Mary S. Vásquez, "The Bilingual Review/La revista bilingüe," 1991 Jan-Apr; 16 (1): 23-34.
#The Fantastic and the Grotesque in the Fiction of Roberto Fernández: The Case of "Raining Backwards" By: Mary S. Vásquez, "Confluencia: Revista Hispanica de Cultura y Literatura," 1990 Fall; 6 (1): 75-84.
#Parody, Intertextuality and Cultural Values in Roberto G. Fernández' "Raining Backwards" By: Mary S. Vásquez, "The Americas Review: A Review of Hispanic Literature and Art of the USA," 1990 Summer; 18 (2): 92-102.
#Transcending the Culture of Exile: "Raining Backwards" By: Gabriella Ibieta, IN: Bevan, "Literature and Exile." Amsterdam: Rodopi; 1990. pp. 67-76

See also

*List of Cuban American writers
*List of Famous Cuban-Americans.

External links

* [http://www.arte.uh.edu/view_book_creator.aspx?CreatorID=165 Arte Público bio]
* [http://www.hsu.edu/default.aspx?id=3480 Henry Pérez] , "Culture and Sexuality: Women in "Raining Backwards"

Persondata
NAME=Roberto G. Fernández
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=novelist
DATE OF BIRTH=
PLACE OF BIRTH=
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=