Belen Gache
Encyclopedia
Belen Gache is a Spanish-Argentinian novelist and experimental writer. Of Spanish and Gibraltarian descent, she was born in Buenos Aires in 1960. She lives in Madrid. She graduated from the University of Buenos Aires were she was professor in narratology and literary theory.
Her work has diversified into different literary forms. Departing from narrative, she became a pioneer of electronic literature
producing since 1996 various forms of expanded and hypertextual writings.
movement, her novels are characterized by fragmentation, hyper-realism and the use of unreliable narrators. Influenced by minimalism and anti-novel, her fictions are written in first person and present tense by misfit and quasi-paranoid female protagonists.
Her first novel Luna India (Indian Moon), was shortlisted in the Planeta Award Biblioteca del Sur, and was published in 1994.
Her second novel Divina Anarquia(Divine Anarchy)(1999), deals with the lack of genealogy and the imaginary histories of the narrator.
Lunas eléctricas para las noches sin luna (Electric moons for moonless nights)(2004) takes place in 1910, during the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of Argentine Independence
, in a Buenos Aires whose population was mainly composed of European immigrants. In this context a detective plot with political connotations is developed, narrated from the point of view of a mythomaniac teenager daughter of Spaniards.
, Carlos Trilnick and Jorge Haro in Buenos Aires where she put online her first interactive poems
.
In 2002 she published El libro del fin del mundo. This physical book also contained a CD-ROM and links to complementary sections on the Internet. It combined pieces of poetry, visual poetry, electronic and multimedia poetry.
In 2004, she published El blog del niño burbuja (The Bubleboy blog) one of the first experiments in fiction blogs.
In 2006 she published on the Internet the WordToys, an anthology of her net-poems produced between 1996 and 2006 and one of her most widely known pieces. Here she proposes the exercise of reading as a decoding task as well as a ludic activity. The fourteen net-poems in this anthology are rooted on the historical avant-gardes, using strategies as randomness, tautology, appropriations and are influenced by concrete and conceptual writing. A second collection made in 2011, Gongora WordToys, focuses on the figure of the Spanish Baroque
poet Luis de Gongora
deconstructing his masterpiece Soledades
(Solitudes).
Since 2010, she develops the Sultan Florvag project, an example of "distributed literature" or "literature across networks", through different media (blogs, YouTube, and other platforms 2.0) that invites the reader to reconstruct the story of the fictional character of Commander Aukan, a Panamerican revolutionary who is also an unknown poet and video artist.
and nonlinear literature, emphasizing the continuity of electronic literature strategies with those of the avant-garde and neo avant-garde literary movements as Dada
, concrete poetry
, Oulipo
, Fluxus
or conceptual writing.
Her work has diversified into different literary forms. Departing from narrative, she became a pioneer of electronic literature
Electronic literature
Electronic literature is a literary genre consisting of works of literature that originate within digital environments.-Definitions:N. Katherine Hayles discusses the topic in the online article...
producing since 1996 various forms of expanded and hypertextual writings.
Narrative
Identified with the postmodern literaturePostmodern literature
The term Postmodern literature is used to describe certain characteristics of post–World War II literature and a reaction against Enlightenment ideas implicit in Modernist literature.Postmodern literature, like postmodernism as a whole, is hard to define and there is little agreement on the exact...
movement, her novels are characterized by fragmentation, hyper-realism and the use of unreliable narrators. Influenced by minimalism and anti-novel, her fictions are written in first person and present tense by misfit and quasi-paranoid female protagonists.
Her first novel Luna India (Indian Moon), was shortlisted in the Planeta Award Biblioteca del Sur, and was published in 1994.
Her second novel Divina Anarquia(Divine Anarchy)(1999), deals with the lack of genealogy and the imaginary histories of the narrator.
Lunas eléctricas para las noches sin luna (Electric moons for moonless nights)(2004) takes place in 1910, during the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of Argentine Independence
Argentina Centennial
The Argentina Centennial was celebrated on May 25, 1910. It was the 100th anniversary of the May Revolution, when viceroy Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros was ousted from office and replaced with the Primera Junta, the first national government.-Context:...
, in a Buenos Aires whose population was mainly composed of European immigrants. In this context a detective plot with political connotations is developed, narrated from the point of view of a mythomaniac teenager daughter of Spaniards.
Experimental and electronic literature
In 1995, she created the group and website Fin del Mundo (End of the World), along with Gustavo RomanoGustavo Romano
Gustavo Romano is a Buenos Aires-born contemporary artist who works in a variety of media including actions, installations, net art, video and photography....
, Carlos Trilnick and Jorge Haro in Buenos Aires where she put online her first interactive poems
Digital poetry
Digital poetry is a form of electronic literature, displaying a wide range of approaches to poetry, with a prominent and crucial use of computers...
.
In 2002 she published El libro del fin del mundo. This physical book also contained a CD-ROM and links to complementary sections on the Internet. It combined pieces of poetry, visual poetry, electronic and multimedia poetry.
In 2004, she published El blog del niño burbuja (The Bubleboy blog) one of the first experiments in fiction blogs.
In 2006 she published on the Internet the WordToys, an anthology of her net-poems produced between 1996 and 2006 and one of her most widely known pieces. Here she proposes the exercise of reading as a decoding task as well as a ludic activity. The fourteen net-poems in this anthology are rooted on the historical avant-gardes, using strategies as randomness, tautology, appropriations and are influenced by concrete and conceptual writing. A second collection made in 2011, Gongora WordToys, focuses on the figure of the Spanish Baroque
Spanish Baroque literature
Spanish Baroque literature is the literature written in Spain during the Baroque.The literary Baroque took place in Spain in the middle of the Golden Age of Spanish Literature. Spain was governed in that period by Philip II, Philip III and Philip IV, the last reigning until 1665.During the previous...
poet Luis de Gongora
Luis de Góngora
Luis de Góngora y Argote was a Spanish Baroque lyric poet. Góngora and his lifelong rival, Francisco de Quevedo, are widely considered to be the most prominent Spanish poets of their age. His style is characterized by what was called culteranismo, also known as Gongorism...
deconstructing his masterpiece Soledades
Soledades
Las Soledades is a poem by Luis de Góngora, composed in 1613 in silva in eleven- and seven- syllable lines: hendecasyllables and heptasyllables ....
(Solitudes).
Since 2010, she develops the Sultan Florvag project, an example of "distributed literature" or "literature across networks", through different media (blogs, YouTube, and other platforms 2.0) that invites the reader to reconstruct the story of the fictional character of Commander Aukan, a Panamerican revolutionary who is also an unknown poet and video artist.
Essays
Her book of essays, Escrituras Nomades, del libro perdido al hipertexto (Nomadic Writings, from the lost book to hypertext), (Gijón, Trea 2006), contains researches in expanded, experimentalExperimental literature
Experimental literature refers to written works - often novels or magazines - that place great emphasis on innovations regarding technique and style.-Early history:...
and nonlinear literature, emphasizing the continuity of electronic literature strategies with those of the avant-garde and neo avant-garde literary movements as Dada
Dada
Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...
, concrete poetry
Concrete poetry
Concrete poetry or shape poetry is poetry in which the typographical arrangement of words is as important in conveying the intended effect as the conventional elements of the poem, such as meaning of words, rhythm, rhyme and so on....
, Oulipo
Oulipo
Oulipo is a loose gathering of French-speaking writers and mathematicians which seeks to create works using constrained writing techniques. It was founded in 1960 by Raymond Queneau and François Le Lionnais...
, Fluxus
Fluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
or conceptual writing.