1. Neruda: Lecture 2

• Overview:

• Nerudas poetry of existential crisis

• Neruda as a surrealist?

• Pure and impure poetry

• Influence of the Spanish Civil War

• Social Poetry

• Nerudas Stalinism.

2. Neruda: AfterVeinte poemas

1920s: Consul in Burma and other diplomatic roles in Far East

Relationship with Josie Bliss

Poetry

• Tentativa del hombre infinito(1926)

• Residencia en la tierra

• Poetry of existential crisis and hermeticism (de Costa 1979: x)

3. Neruda:Residencia en la tierraI and II

Shift from yo-loved one relationship to yo-mundo or yo-Naturaleza

Poetry of solitude and crisis

• Galope muerto (1926)

• • Unordered similes, unconnected elements, incomplete images;

• • Free verse, lengthy sentences and enjambment;

• • Poetry of contradiction and alienation.

4. Neruda:Residencia en la tierraI and II

Tango del viudo (1929/1933)

• After relationship with Josie Bliss

• Love as violence and jealousy

• Tango solitario

• Existential crisis

Walking around (1935)

• Note: English title

• Irregular form

• Striking images of desire and violence

• Uncanny images from the everyday

• Poeticising of the unpoetic?

5. Neruda: Surrealism

Origins of the term and movement:

• Apollinaire describing Cocteaus playParade(1917)

• Sur-realism: The truth beyond realism

• Tristan Tzara: Dada art as rebellion against established order post WW I

Andre Breton:

• Manifestos of surrealism

• Surrealism as avant-garde group

• Internal struggles

• • Expulsion of Desnos, Artaud, Bataille

• Politics: links to French Communist Party.

6. Neruda: Surrealism

Key characteristics:

• Free up the unconscious that is repressed and chained by the modern world;

• Investigation of dreams, the unconscious and desire;

• Importance of sexual desire Influence of Freud;

• Literary techniques:

• • automatic writing;

• • group writing: exquisite corpse;

• • freeing up the unconscious.

• Art that aims to reconnect with the praxis of everyday life: scandal and provocation.

7. Neruda: Surrealism

Picasso: Three Dancers (1925)

8. Neruda: Surrealism

Dali: The Temptation of St Anthony

9. Neruda: Surrealism

Surrealism in Latin America

• Aldo Pellegrini in Buenos Aires: translations of French works; publication of local surrealist works

• Importance of Maria Luisa Bombal:La amortajada(1938)

• • Exploration of subconscious and dreams (life after death)

• • Presentation of female desire.

10. Neruda: Surrealism

Roberto Matta (Chi): Untitled watercolour (1937)

11. Neruda: Surrealism

Neruda as a surrealist?

• Salvador (2004):

• • Residenciapuede considerarse un texto surrealista no porque sea automatismo irracional o simple ejercicio creacionista*, sino porque es la persecuci n de una articulaci n arraigada que busca sus fundamentos en la estructura misma de lo que llamamos inconsciente. (225)

• • • * Nb: creacionismo: term coined by Vicente Huidobro to describe his own poetry.

• • El poeta chileno ser , sin duda, uno de los primeros cultivadores de lo que m s tarde la cr tica denomin surrealismo hisp nico (231)

• Presence within any surrealist groups?

• Political role of his activities in late 1920s and early 30s in contrast to surrealist groups?

• Contrast between French and Lat Am surrealism:

• • literary and political surrealism?

12. Neruda: The avant-garde

Neruda in Spain

• Spains Generation of 1927

• • Rediscovery of Gongora by Lorca, Alberti, Hernandez and others

• • Lorcas surrealist poetry ( Poeta en Nueva York )

• Dominant contemporary styles:

• • Modernismo / simbolismo

• • Antonio Machado; Juan Ram n Jim nez

• • • Gesamtkunstwerk (Wagner: all arts together)

• • Importance of French poets

• • • Mallarm (pure poetry)

• • • Baudelaire (symbolism)

• • Ruben Dario as keymodernista

13. Neruda: The avant-garde

Neruda in Spain

• Editor ofCaballo verde para la poesia

• • Title: suggests surrealist agenda

• • Publication of manifestos

• • • Sobre una poes a sin pureza (1935); Los temas (1935)

• • Rebellion against pure poetry: poesia sin pureza; poesia impura.

• Basis for poetry with social themes

• Possibility of poetic commitment

• • Vs. art for arts sake (arte por el arte; art pour lart)

• Poetry associated with the world of work and technology

• Poetry not strictly limited to the aesthetic (Salvador 2004: 235)

• Manifesto attacked by Juan Ram n Jim nez

14. Neruda: 1936 and beyond

Neruda as Picasso of poetry

• Links with avant-garde groups

• Constant changes and development

• Importance of Spanish Civil War

1936: Franco and the Nationalist uprising

• Civil War until 1939

• End of the Second Republic

• Murder of poets and artists including Federico Garc a Lorca

Neruda resigns consular post: France and then Chile

• Raises funds to help Republican cause

• Organises boat, Winnipeg, to ship Republicans from danger

15. Neruda: 1936 and beyond 16. Neruda: 1936 and beyond

Poetry post-1936

• Los poetas del mundo defienden Espa a(1936)

• • Poetry to raise consciousness of Spanish situation

• • Poets involved in pro-Republican fundraising

• Tercera residencia: Espa a en el corazn.

• • Explico algunas cosas

• • • Poem announces change in aesthetic and theme

• • • Attack on Nationalists

• • • Breakdown of certain poetic models

• • Canto sobre unas ruinas

• • • Ruins as ruins of Spain and of certain poetic models

• • • • End of uncommitted poetry, pure artistic realms?

• • • Existential solitudepoetic solidarity

• • • Need for poetic communication

17. Neruda: 1936 and beyond

Picasso:Guernica

• Surrealist techniques with communicative/political aims?

• Art of denunciation

18. Neruda: 1936 and beyond

Poetry post-1936

• Sanjurjo en los infiernos

• • Polemic poetry

• • Attack on Spanish Nationalists and conservative establishment

• • Violent and shocking imagery: portrayal of shock of war?

• • Risks of poetry as propaganda?

• BenedettiLos poetas comunicantes

• • Poesia comprometida/committed poetry

• • • Sacrifice of artistic concerns

• • • Poetry to communicate needs of the worker

• • • Poetry of emergency

19. Neruda: 1936 and beyond

Poetry post-1936

• Work becomes hondamente americana (Rodriguez Monegal 1977: 25)

• Salvador 2004: 226

• • Comienza a adquirir una conciencia social radical y a cambiar sustancialmente sus presupuestos esteticos

• Commitment to Stalinism from 1940 (member of CP)

• • Role of Socialist Writers Conference

• • Commitment to progress, technology, and other communist goals.

• 1942 Canto a Stalingrado

• • Poetry in support of defence of Stalingrad

• • Published as poster on the streets of Mexico

• Poetry increasingly in support of Soviet system

20. Neruda: Lecture 2 Summary

Nerudas poetry of existential crisis

Neruda as a surrealist?

Pure and impure poetry

Influence of the Spanish Civil War

Nerudas Stalinism?

Any questions?