SELIGSON, ESTHER

SELIGSON, ESTHER (1941– ), Mexican author. Born in Mexico City, she studied French and Hispanic literature at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma. Seligson was an accomplished translator into Spanish of such authors as Edmond Jabés. Her writing covers a broad spectrum of genres that include poetry, essay, novel, short story, and literary criticism. Her creative work is characterized by a profound introspection, lyrical quality, and relationship to diverse literary traditions. Many of her early works – Luz de dos (1978), Diálogos con el cuerpo (1981), Sed de mar (1987), among others – have been collected in one volume titled Toda la luz (2002). Similarly, her novel La morada en el tiempo (1981) has been reissued (2004). It is her most well-known work and is a singular example of her style and contribution to Mexican letters. The novel is clearly influenced by the author's own spirituality as well as kabbalism. In general, her narrative fiction can be said to be lacking in traditional plot and character development. Seligson is much more interested in writing narrative that serves as a form of meditation, a way to unravel the mysteries of the human condition through poetics. This is clear from her first book, Otros son los sueños (1973), to her later Simiente (2004), which is a meditative collage on suicide and is based on a personal experience. As a literary critic Seligson examines the work of authors as diverse as Elena Garro, Virginia Woolf, Clarice Lispector, Marguerite Yourcenar, and Franz Kafka in her book La fugacidad como método de escritura (1988). In 2005 Seligson lived in Israel. (Darrell B. Lockhart (2nd ed.)