Landscape, Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism in Contemporary Uruguayan and Ecuadorian Poetry

Landscape, nationalism and cosmopolitanism in contemporary Uruguayan and Ecuadorian poetry The cases of Eduardo Milán, Iván Carvajal, Eduardo Espina and Fernando Nieto Cadena Juan Rodríguez Santamaría Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy The University of Leeds School of Languages, Cultures and Societies June, 2020 0 Acknowledgements I am grateful to many people for their support throughout this research. First of all, I would like to thank my advisors at the University of Leeds. I am especially indebted to Thea Pitman and Duncan Wheeler. They were committed with mentoring and encouragement to enrich this research through a constant exchange of ideas and arguments, especially to particularize my theoretical framework and my methodological tools in order to effectively interpret the complex relationships between poetry and landscape. Many thanks to César Chávez, librarian at the Centro Cultural Benjamín Carrión, indefatigable reader and literary consultant for several generations. Many thanks to my friends Andrés and Luis, who also provided me with specific information regarding the research topic. I would also like to thank Jairo Rojas, who guided me through the bookstores of Montevideo. I would like to thank my family for having supported me in so many ways, and in particular my mother Susana, for making my (virtual and real) travels between Quito and Leeds (and vice-versa) an enjoyable ritual to seek out emotional support; particularly during the first year, which was especially challenging due to various intellectual and personal circumstances. 1 Author: Juan Rodríguez Santamaría Thesis title: Landscape, nationalism and cosmopolitanism in contemporary Uruguayan and Ecuadorian poetry: Eduardo Milán, Iván Carvajal, Eduardo Espina and Fernando Nieto Cadena. Research questions: How do the selected poets express their sense of identity and belonging—national, regional, cosmopolitan or other—in their work? Why do commonalities occur between the poets’ works, and what does this tell us about poetic discourse on nation and belonging in Uruguay and Ecuador? Hypothesis of work: There is a demonstrable relationship between the linguistic and ideological expression in certain poems by Eduardo Milán, Iván Carvajal, Eduardo Espina and Fernando Nieto Cadena and, further, with the ethnic, political and historical narratives that communities (whether at a local, national or global level) have constructed to define themselves. I will make this argument on two fronts. First, the connection between linguistic and ideological expression can be shown through an examination of the circulation and reception of literary works within Latin America. In the case of minor literatures, this is especially important as a way of determining the reception’s context, in which these writings can be read, discussed (critically and uncritically), and examined in their social value. Secondly, the connection between poetry and ethnic, political and historical communities can be evidenced through examination of a dialogue between concepts of ethno- symbolism and cosmopolitanism, placing the notion of landscape at the centre of discussion. The key elements of landscape can be read stylistically, conceptually, and ideologically, as they connect the poetry of Carvajal, Milán, Espina and Nieto Cadena with broader notions of the nation and the global world. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Chapter 1. General Overview Minor literatures and small countries: The cases of Ecuador and Uruguay Uruguayan and Ecuadorian poetry in the context of Latin America from the 1970s to the present day Critical reception of the poetry of Carvajal, Milán, Espina and Nieto Cadena Dissemination of the poets’ writings via digital media Chapter 2. Theory and Methodology Metaphor and ethno-symbolism Nation, nation-building and nationalism in Latin America Minor national poets? Two Ecuadorians, two Uruguayans Ethno-symbolism and the notion of landscape in the poem Appadurai’s gaze in the context of cosmopolitanism New types of landscapes, new types of poems Poetry and ethnography of places: neighbourhood, nation, globality Towards an interdisciplinary reading of poetry: From stylistics to macroethnography The poem as a convergence of contemporary identities The poem as mechanism for critical expression of national identity Is a macroethnography of poetry possible? Chapter 3. Eduardo Milán: Migration, Forms, Mourning Minor literatures, dissemination, style and canon A nostalgic mapping of nature, countryside and homeland Identity, migration and affectivity A global poetic outlook Conclusion 3 Chapter 4. Iván Carvajal: A Reluctant National Poet Iván Carvajal: poet, essayist and philosopher Minor literatures, dissemination and canon The incomplete journeys and their reluctant national and ethno-symbolic outlooks Nature, cosmopolitan landscapes and high-modernity From the neighbourhood to the imaginary travels Conclusion Chapter 5. Eduardo Espina: Baroque Writing and National Identity Eduardo Espina: baroque poet, essayist and academic Minor literatures, dissemination and canon Baroque style, baroque geography, baroque community The baroque country: an exuberant idea of community Words as cells of a flamboyant patria Baroque language: a compensation for the imperfections of the motherland Conclusion Chapter 6. Fernando Nieto Cadena: Ironic National Identity Fernando Nieto Cadena: expatriate and poetic humourist Minor literatures, dissemination and canon Neighbourhood and colloquial style Irony against the nation-state Guayaquil as Caribbean scenery Nostalgia for the imagined city Modernity, industrialisation and imagination Conclusion Chapter 7. A Conclusion: Mapping National Identities Mapping poetic and cultural differences between two poetic traditions The Uruguayan corner: Milán versus Espina The Ecuadorian coin: Carvajal versus Nieto Cadena A literary ethnography: a broader perspective 4 Appendix: Selected Poems References 5 Introduction This thesis examines the work of four contemporary poets, two from Uruguay and two from Ecuador, as examples of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s concept of ‘minor literatures’. By focusing on references to landscape (understood broadly) in their poems, this work examines how these poets explore questions of belonging to local, national, regional and international spaces. To this end, the thesis draws upon the different ‘scapes’ that form part of Arjun Appadurai’s ‘critical ethnography’. This epistemological journey emerged from an initial question: In what way does landscape (understood in a broad sense) determine or condition the poetic writing of Latin American authors whose work exemplifies the concept of minor literature? The importance of answering this question lies in some fundamental premises: 1) any poetic writing arises from a sensitive and social experience within the author’s world (it is not an immanent, autotelic process); 2) reading poetry is an integral exercise that ranges from syntactic subtleties to reception and dissemination; 3) poetry has a social meaning, and, therefore, we find in it keys to understanding subtle aspects of human relationships in a specific community and within the globalised world; 4) the concept of minor literature is very useful to explain the development and reception of many works of the Latin American literature and; 5) a poem can recreate a social landscape which corresponds to a specific community. In addition to the main question, a series of complementary questions seek to underpin the meaning and validity of these premises: 1) What is the relationship between the concept of minor literature and the critical, editorial and media response to these works? 2) How is the relationship between poetry and landscape configured? 3) Are there textual elements in poems written by Espina, Milán, Carvajal or Nieto—or at least in certain of their poems in which landscapes are perceptible—that might be characterised as national, cosmopolitan or anything else? 4) How does this research fit within the context of broader discussions of Latin American poetry? In general terms, the argumentative development of these premises and the answers to these questions (in particular to the main question) configure the structure of this thesis. 6 The first key point is the concept of minor literature as formulated by Deleuze and Guattari—specifically, what ‘minor’ means in this context. Although the implications of this concept will be developed in later chapters, it is important to set out its fundamental aspects here. Within their schizo-analytic proposal for rethinking the relationships between individuals and power, Deleuze and Guattari use the concept of minor literature to discuss some works (like Franz Kafka’s) that shun centrality and territorialisation, that are refractory to belonging to a specific space, to a self-evident and unquestionable identity. Such works appeal instead to deterritorialisation, a process that supposes the questioning of and even the rupture with official history (Deleuze and Guattari 1986, 28). This process can be the result of various factors: power struggles, economic factors, illness or migration to a new territory. The concept of reterritorialisation, on the other hand, is linked to the reestablishment or renewal of relations with a territory. In this sense, any literary work that calls for renewal in relations with the territory, identity and sense of belonging to a human community must be crossed by a process of deterritorialisation, by a deterritorialised

Load more