Gilka Machado

Gilka Machado (1893–1980) was a Brazilian poet and political activist. She is known as one of the first women to write erotic poetry in Brazil; her work is usually classified as symbolist.[1] Machado was also one of the founders of the Partido Republicano Feminino (Women's Republican Party) in 1910, which advocated for the women's right to vote.[1]

Gilka Machado (1917)

Life

Machado was born in 1893, in Rio de Janeiro. She started to write poetry as a child. At age 14 she participated in a literary contest held by the newspaper A Imprensa, won three main prizes with poems under her name and pseudonyms.[1] The critics were scandalized by her poems, calling her an "immoral matron".[1]

Her first book of poems, Cristais partidos, was published in 1915. The book was prefaced by Olavo Bilac.[2] In the following years, she published the books: A revelação dos perfumes (1916), Estado de Alma (1917), Poesias (1915-1917)- (1918) and Mulher Nua, in 1922.

In 1933 she won a contest by the magazine O Malho as the greatest Brazilian woman poet of the 20th century.[3]

Personal life

In 1910, Gilka Machado married the poet Rodolfo de Melo Machado (1885-1923), with whom she had two children, Hélios and Heros. Heros would become known as the dancer Eros Volúsia.[3]

As an adult, she supported her family by working for the Rio Railway Company.[4]

Works
  • Cristais partidos [Broken Crystals], 1915
  • A revelação dos perfumes [A Revelation of Perfumes], 1916
  • Estado de alma [Condition of the Soul], 1917
  • Poesias (1915-1917) [Poems (1915-1917)], 1918
  • Mulher nua [Naked Woman], 1922
  • Meu glorioso pecado [My Glorious Sin], 1928
  • Sublimação [Sublimation], 1938
  • Velha poesia, 1965

References
  1. "Pioneira da poesia erótica, Gilka Machado tem obra relançada por jovem". O Globo (in Brazilian Portuguese). 2017-02-27. Retrieved 2017-11-16.
  2. Casarin, Rodrigo (2017-03-03). "Chamada de "matrona imoral" e alvo de racismo, Gilka Machado foi pioneira do erotismo no Brasil". UOL. Retrieved 2017-11-16.
  3. "resgate de memória: quem foi gilka machado?". OBVIOUS (in Brazilian Portuguese). 2017-04-26. Retrieved 2017-11-16.
  4. 'Machado, Gilka (1893-1980)', in Claire Buck, ed., Bloomsbury Guide to Women's Literature, 1992, p. 769

Further reading
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