Martha L. Canfield (born May 28, 1949) is an Uruguayan and naturalized Italian author, poet, and university professor.
Biography She was born in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1949. Her father was an officer of the Uruguayan Navy with an Irish background, and her mother was the daughter of immigrants from the Basilicata region of Italy, because of this she speaks Spanish, English, and Italian since childhood. She studied in the Department of Humanities at the Universidad de la República (English: University of the Republic) and in the Instituto de Profesores Artigas (English: Artigas Institute for Teacher Education) in Montevideo. At the same time she frequented literary environments in her home city. At the advice of Professor José Pedro Rona, in 1968, she transferred to Colombia where she graduated in 1971 in Philosophy and Letters from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota and obtained a Master's in Latin American Literature in the Instituto Caro y Cuervo (English: Caro and Cuervo Institute) in the same city. Immediately after she began her instructional activity in the Universidad del Rosario, where she was the first woman to obtain a teaching position.Miguel Ángel Campodónico, ed. (2007). Nuevo diccionario de la cultura uruguaya. Montevideo: Linardi y Risso. p. 69.
In 1973, her sister, Susana, settled with her in Bogota after finding out they were being persecuted by the Uruguayan dictatorship. Susana was persecuted because she was considered a fugitive and Martha due to her intellectual contributions to the National Liberation Movement-Tupamaros in various publications, causing her to be on the radar of Uruguayan law enforcement.Martha Canfield, «Cómo y por qué empecé a escribir», en Perassi E., Regazzoni S. y Andruetto M.T, ed. (2006). Mujeres en el umbral. De la iniciación femenina en las escritoras hispánicas. Sevilla: Renacimiento. p. 374.
In 1974, thanks to a scholarship given by the Italian-Latin American Institute in Rome, she went to Italy to do research in Latin American literature in the University of Florence, originally under the guidance of Giovanni Meo Zilio, who later transferred to Venice, and afterwards under the guidance of new professor, Roberto Paoli. Once her scholarship ended, she returned to Colombia as the Chair of Spanish and Latin American Literature at the Xavierian Pontifical University, during which she maintained a period of intense educational activity, research, and creative writing. She came out with her first book of poems, Anunciaciones, published by the Alcaravan publishing company, founded by Arturo Alape, her friend and fellow writer. The book was well received by critics. Despite this success and other positive factors of her life in Colombia, due to personal reasons, she returned to Italy in February 1977.See: Márgara Russotto, «Entrevista a Martha Canfield», en Canfield, Martha (2011). Márgara Russotto, ed. Sonriendo en el camino. Poesía reunida (2009-1969). Montevideo: Linardi y Risso. pp. 198-245.
She settled back in Florence, resumed her collaboration with Professor Roberto Paoli, was appointed assistant (Assistente di Cattedra), and renewed her professional relationship with the Hispanic scholar, Oreste Macrí, who introduced her to the world of Florentine Hermeticism, beginning a long and affectionate friendship with Mario Luzi and Piero Bigongiari.Anna Dolfi, ed. (2016). L’Ermetismo e Firenze (in Italian). Firenze: Firenze University Press. . Archived since the original on February 2nd, 2017. Consulted June 17th, 2017, in particular the works of Martha Canfield: «Il maestro Oreste Macrí» (pp. 461-466), «Un ricordo di Mario Luzi» (pp. 253-256), «Un “ermetico” addio: Bigongiari saluta Montale» (pp. 441-450).
In 1980, when the position of university researcher (Ricercatore universitario a tempo indeterminato) was created, she was the perfect candidate and took up the position in Florence. In the 80s, both her poetic and research works intensified and she began to work in the circulation of Latin American literature in Italy through the translation of many author's works, at a lower rate she did the same for the circulation of Italian literature in the Hispanic world. During these years she repeatedly participated in Medellin's International Poem Festival, where she translated and presented Italian poets like Edoardo Sanguineti, Giuliano Scabia, Valerio Magrelli, and more. The directors of the festival name her the Italian advisor.
In 1982, she met Peruvian Jorge Eduardo Eilson, who arrived in Florence with his partner Michele Mulas at the invitation of Roberto Paoli. A strong friendship blossomed between Martha and Jorge, continuing for years and eventually leading to the founding of a Centro de Estudios [Studies Center], taking the name of the Peruvian professor and directed by Canfield.
Through a competition, in 1992 she obtained the position as an associate professor of Latin American Literature at the University of Nápoles Federico II, where she taught for 4 years, integrating herself among the teaching staff headquartered in the University of Palmero. In 1996 she transferred to the Ca' Foscari University in Venice, where she taught for 6 years while organizing the Festival Ca' Foscari Poesia every 2 years, in which many participated including the best Latin American writers and critics: Mario Benedetti (Uruguay), Álvaro Mutis (Colombia), Jorge Enrique Adoum (Ecuador), Gonzalo Rojas (Chile), Blanca Wiethüchter (Bolivia), Saúl Yurkievich (Argentina), Ernesto Cardenal (Nicaragua), Humberto Ak'abal (Guatemala), Eugenio Montejo (Venezuela), Carmen Boullosa (Mexico), José Miguel Oviedo (Peru), William Rowe (UK), and more naturally including Eielson.
During this period she founded the literary Latinoamericana collection for the editorial Le Lettere and participated in the creation of the Premio Letterario Internazionale di Poesia Pier Paolo Pasolini (English: International Pier Paolo Pasolini Literature Award for Poetry) alongside Dacia Maraini and Francesco Agresti. From 1997 until 2000, she was the Vice President of the Associazione Ispanisti Italiani (AISPI) (English: Hispanic Italian Association).
In 2000, she became the head of the Latin American Literature chair at the University of Florence while she continued her educational role in the University Ca' Foscari; after 2002 she concentrated on her Florence work. Since 1998 she has been a member of the Academia Nacional de Letras del Uruguay (English: National Academy of Letters in Uruguay).«Academia Nacional de Letras de Uruguay - Académicos correspondientes». www.academiadeletras.gub.uy. (in Spanish) Consulted June 17th, 2017.
Academic work Her academic work includes research of works by writers: Delmira Agustini, Humberto Ak'abal, Mario Benedetti, Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Jorge Eduardo Eielson, Gabriel García Márquez, Juan Gelman, Juana de Ibarbourou, Ramón López Velarde, César Moro, Álvaro Mutis, Octavio Paz, Horacio Quiroga, José Enrique Rodó, Mauricio Rosencof, Juan Rulfo, Alfonsina Storni, César Vallejo, Mario Vargas Llosa, Emilio Adolfo Westphalen, and many more. Besides stylistic and structural studies, she has continuously made an effort to establish the relationship between life and literary work while using tools from Jungian psychology. For the same reason she has participated in the group Klaros, directed by Ida Regina Zoccoli, and has collaborated with the ”Quaderni di psicologia analitica”.«Università degli Studi di Firenze - Martha Luana Canfield - Curriculum». www.unifi.it (in Italian). Consulted June 17th, 2017.«Università degli Studi di Firenze - Martha Luana Canfield - Pubblicazioni». www.unifi.it (in Italian). Consulted June 17th, 2017. In 2015, she was given the Ibero-American Ramón López VelardeSecretaría de Cultura (10 de junio de 2015). «El Premio Iberoamericano Ramón López Velarde será entregado a la escritora uruguaya Martha Canfield». Gobierno de México. Consulted June 17th, 2017. Prize for her general critical work and in particular for her book La provincia inmutable. Estudios sobre la poesía de Ramón López Velarde, published in Florence in 1981La provincia inmutable. Estudios sobre la poesía de Ramón López Velarde. Firenze: D’Anna. 1981. Consulted June 17th, 2017. and reedited in Mexico after the awarding.La provincia inmutable. Estudios sobre la poesía de Ramón López Velarde. Fernando Fernández (prólogo), Carmen Boullosa (contraportada) (2 edición). México: La Otra-Instituto Zacatecano de Cultura. 2015.
As a translator, she has created the Italian editions of many Latin American authors such as: Jorge Eduardo Eielson, Álvaro Mutis, Idea Vilariño, Mario Vargas Llosa, Carlos Germán Belli, Márgara Russotto, Carmen Boullosa, Alejandro Rossi, Darío Jaramillo, Ernesto Cardenal, Jorge Arbeleche, and others. In 2002, she won the translation award from the Institutos Cervantes in Italy for her Italian versions of Mario Benedetti ()
Furthermore, she has promoted Italian literature in the Hispanic world with her translations of Gesualdo Bufalino, Pier Paolo Pasolini,Pasolini, Pier Paolo (1992). Poesía en forma de rosa. M. Canfield edición y prólogo «Pasolini y la rosa atormentada de su lírica». Caracas: Pequeña Venecia. Valerio Magrelli,Magrelli, Valerio (1998). Poemas escogidos. M. Canfield edición y prólogo. Caracas: Angria. Dacia Maraini,Maraini, Dacia (2013). Noche de fin de año en el hospital. Medellín: Sílaba. Edoardo Sanguineti,Sanguineti, Edoardo (1996). Minitarjetas. Bogotá: Ediciones Luis Ángel Parra. Piero Bigongiari, Mario Luzi, and others. In 2001 she won the “Circe-Sabaudia” Award precisely for those translations of Italian poets.
She directed the Latinoamericana collection in the Florence editorial Le Lettere in which 30 volumes (narratives, poems, and essays) have been published, of which some 20 have been presented or curated by her directly.«Collane: Latinoamericana». www.lelettere.it (en italiano). Archived since the original on February 2nd, 2017. Consulted June 17th, 2017.
She has upheld the existence of a unique Latin American identity, beyond national divisions and local differences. She maintains that the study of Hispanic American culture must maintain a continental perspective, paying attention to pre-Columbian roots and indigenous nations, as well as more recent, innovative, and multicultural phenomena, such as Chicano literature or that of Latino communities in the United States or the neo-Indian formulations in many countries like Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Peru, Chile...«Università degli Studi di Firenze - Martha Luana Canfield - Biografia». www.unifi.it (in Italian). Consulted June 17th, 2017. With these principles in mind, she is working on Literatura hispanoamericana: historia y antología, in three volumes, the first of which has already been published.«Università degli Studi di Firenze - Martha Luana Canfield - Biografia». www.unifi.it (en italiano). Consulted June 17th, 2017.