Carmen de Burgos

Carmen de Burgos y Seguí (pseudonyms, Colombine, Gabriel Luna, Perico el de los Palotes, Raquel, Honorine and Marianela; Almería, December 10, 1867 – Madrid, October 9, 1932) was a Spanish journalist, writer, translator and women's rights activist. Johnson describes her as a "modern" if not "modernist" writer.

Early years She was born in 1867 in Almeria to a middle-class family, in which her father owned a gold mine. Her father José de Burgos Cañizares and her uncle Ferdinand were in charge of the vice-consulate of Portugal in Almeria. Her mother, Nicosia Segui Nieto, had come to the marriage with a substantial inheritance.

Career She escaped her family when she met Arturo Asterz Bustos. He was fifteen years older than her; he was a poet, writer, and an alcoholic. Her new husband earned money as a typesetter on the family's newspaper, but she quickly discovered that this was to be her work. She and Arturo were unhappily married for 17 years, having four children - of whom only one survived. During this time she had learnt how to write for a living, she had earned her independence and she had developed a contempt for the institution of marriage. Burgos regarded herself as a feminist but her gender meant that her writings were not included when evaluations were made of Spanish (male) modernism.

However Burgos was nominally creating a number of novels for the "weekly novel" market that was popular at the start of the twentieth century. Burgos's novels however dealt with legal and political themes. Her novels dealt with taboo subjects including male and female homosexuality. She highlighted the dual values applied that blamed women who were adulterers whereas men's involvement was forgiven. Women were given responsibility for illegitimate children and the law overlooked the abuse that some women found within their marriages. It has been noted that Burgos raised controversial subjects concerning gender, the law and rights but her writing did not offer a solution. During Franco's dictatorship, Burgos was written out of the history books. El tío de todos, 1925. Quiero vivir mi vida, 1931. Los anticuarios.

Short stories

Ensayos literarios, 1900. Alucinación, 1905 El anhelo El abogado El artículo 438 Cuentos: El tesoro del castillo Cuentos de Colombine En la guerra Honor de familia

Translations

Historia de mi vida (muda, sorda y ciega), 1904 La guerra ruso-japonesa, 1904. La inferioridad mental de la mujer, 1904. Loca por razón de Estado, 1904. Los Evangelios y la segunda generación cristiana, 1904 La Iglesia cristiana, 1905 Diez y seis años en Siberia, 1906. En el mundo de las mujeres, 1906. El rey sin corona, 1908. La conquista de un Imperio, 1911. Los misterios de la india, 1911. La corona de olivo silvestre, 1911-1913. Fisiología del placer, 1913. Las mañanas en Florencia, 1913 Las piedras de Venecia, 1913. Las siete lámparas de la arquitectura, 1913. Los pintores modernos. El paisaje, 1913. Cuentos a Maxa, 1914. El reposo de San Marcos. Historia de Venecia, 1915. La Biblia de Amiens, 1916. La decisión, 1917. Una idea de parisiense por página, 1917. La perseverancia, 1919. Defnis y Cloe, 1910. Los últimos filibusteros, 1913. La princesa muda, s.a. El tío Geromo (Crainqueville). Cuentistas italianos.

Translations into English Take Six: Six Spanish Women Writers, edited and translated by Kathryn Phillips-Miles and Simon Deefholts, Dedalus Books, 2022: Contains a selection of her stories in English translation.