José Donoso | |
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José Donoso (1981).
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Born | José Donoso Yáñez October 5, 1924 Santiago Chile |
Died | December 7, 1996 Santiago Chile |
(aged 72)
Occupation | Writer, journalist, professor |
Language | Spanish |
Nationality | Chilean |
Alma mater | University of Chile |
Genre | Novel, short story |
Literary movement | Latin American Boom |
Notable works |
Hell Has No Limits, The Obscene Bird of Night |
Notable awards | National Prize for Literature (Chile) 1990 |
Years active | 20th century |
Spouse | María del Pilar Serrano |
Children | Pilar Donoso |
José Donoso Yáñez (October 5, 1924 – December 7, 1996) was a Chilean writer. He lived most of his life in Chile, although he spent many years in self-imposed exile in Mexico, the United States (Iowa) and mainly Spain. Although he had left his country in the sixties for personal reasons, after 1973 he said his exile was also a form of protest against the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. He returned to Chile in 1981 and lived there until his death.
Donoso is the author of a number of remarkable stories and novels, which contributed greatly to the Latin American literary boom. The term 'Boom' was coined in his 1972 essay Historia personal del "boom".[1] His best known works include the novels Coronación, El lugar sin límites (The Place Without Limits) and El obsceno pájaro de la noche (The Obscene Bird of Night). His works deal with a number of themes, including sexuality, the duplicity of identity, psychology, and a sense of dark humor.
After his death, his personal papers at the University of Iowa revealed his homosexuality, a revelation that caused a certain controversy in Chile.[2]
Son of the doctor José Donoso Donoso and Alicia Yanez, niece of the writer Eliodoro Yanez, founder of the newspaper La Nación.(The Nation) He studied in The Grange School, where he was classmates with Luis Alberto Heiremans and Carlos Fuentes, and in Liceo José Victorino Lastarria (José Victorino Lastarria High School). Coming from a comfortable family, during his childhood he worked as a juggler and an office worker, much before he developed as a writer and teacher.