Author Profile

Irene Marques

Irene Marques holds the University of Toronto Ph.D. in Comparative literature. Raised in Portugal and currently living in Canada, her understanding of colonialism and discrimination is generally shaped by an academic background in social work and comparative literature with emphasis on African literatures in Portuguese, French and English, and Caribbean. Dr. Marques currently teaches world literature and Portuguese at two universities in Canada with an emphasis on African and Caribbean literatures.

Irene uses the technique of mise-en-abime very abundantly, not just in her poetry collection but in most, if not all (to a lesser or greater degree) other writings whether they are in Portuguese or English. Her first novel in Portuguese uses the mise-en-abime a great deal as there are many stories (in the form of several diaries) which are all interrelated and which refer to, and complete, one another. This technique of mise-en-abime is highly tied to the metaphoric, the use of the poetic, the hidden, the unobvious, the transcendental which are prevalent � but it is something that is done almost unconsciously since writing is also a playful exercise, a game of words, words that become things, and ideas, and moral takes even � a way to make the world anew, mysterious, to bring upon wonder, the Russian doll inside the Russian doll inside the Russian doll...

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