University of Kentucky UKnowledge Spanish Literature European Languages and Literatures 1982 Poetry of Discovery: The Spanish Generation of 1956-1971 Andrew Debicki University of Kansas Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Debicki, Andrew, "Poetry of Discovery: The Spanish Generation of 1956-1971" (1982). Spanish Literature. 2. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_spanish_literature/2 Poetry of Discovery This page intentionally left blank Poetry of Discovery The Spanish Generation of 1956-1971 ANDREW P. DEBICKI THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY Copyright © 1982 by The University Press of Kentucky Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. All rights reserved. Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky 663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008 www.kentuckypress.com Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN 978-0-8131-1461-3 (cloth: alk. paper) This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials. Manufactured in the United States of America. Member of the Association of American University Presses Contents Preface vii 1. The Generation of 1956-1971 1 2. Francisco Brines: Text and Reader 20 3. Claudio Rodriguez: Language Codes and Their Effects 40 4. Angel Gonzalez: Transformation and Perspective 59 5. Gloria Fuertes: Intertextuality and Reversal of Expectations 81 6. Jose Angel Valente: Reading and Rereading 102 7. Jaime Gil de Biedma: The Theme of Illusion 123 8. Carlos SahagUn: Metaphoric Transformation 142 9. EladioCabaftero: Imagery, Style, and Effect 165 10. Angel Crespo and Manuel Mantero 183 Afterword 200 Selected Bibliography 203 Notes 215 Index 229 This page intentionally left blank Preface This book grew out of perceptions developed over a period of several years during which I read and taught Spanish poetry of the 1950s and 1960s. In so doing, I realized the importance of this poetry and some of the ways in which it represented a departure from the styles and canons of earlier post-Civil War verse. Above all, I came to see that these more recent poets were using everyday language and narrative techniques in highly inventive ways. Though some of their works superficially resem­ bled the IIrealistic" verse of their predecessors, they exhibited original­ ity and a novel artistic control, and conveyed a wealth of meanings and perspectives. Meanwhile, little critical work was being done on this poetry and many writers tended to place it in the context of earlier work and to ignore its special features. In dealing with these writers, it soon became clear that traditional thematic and analytic approaches to poetry were of limited value. The themes they dealt with, for one, tended to be themes common to poetry of many periods and rarely gave a clear indication of the novelty or significance of their works. (Their tendency to philosophic as opposed to social or historical topics did signal a shift from the immediately preceding period, but did not reveal the value of their production.) Commonly used methods of analysis and close reading likewise proved of limited value. In sharp contrast to the poetry of the 1920s, for exam­ ple, that of the 1950s and 1960s did not exhibit complex patterns of imagery or elaborate formal structures, and rarely revealed its unique­ ness when examined by conventional stylistic and IINew Critical" tech­ niques. In attempting to find more effective methods of inquiry, I discov­ ered that I could often make useful statements about ways in which these works established certain points of view for their speakers, adopted certain perspectives, and also elicited certain responses in their readers. They did so less through traditional poetic devices than through tone, intertextual references, and patterns of development that build up and modify reader expectations. In pursuing these discoveries, I was able to gain insights from recent theory on reader response as well as viii Preface from some criticism of fiction, as will become clear throughout this book. One of my greatest difficulties arose in trying to find objective grounding to reader-response studies. In several chapters, especially those devoted to Francisco Brines, Gaudio Rodriguez, and Jose Angel Valente, I was able to support my insights by critical approaches derived from semiotic and formalist works; in others (those on Carlos SahagUn and Eladio Cabaiiero) I used imagery patterns to pin down my conclu­ sions; in yet others (Gloria Fuertes, Angel Gonzruez) I employed inter­ textual schemes. In all cases, I tried to confirm my insights on reader reactions by careful examination of textual patterns. Even so, the nature of much of this poetry as well as the problems raised by reader-response criticism (chiefly the difficulty of defining accurately the "implied reader" and describing one set meaning for a given text) brought into question a premise of my previous criticism, that of the integrity and permanence of an individual poem. I began to place less emphasis on finding the most accurate interpretation for every work and more emphasis on considering how these works raised funda­ mental questions about reading and about lntertextual relationships. As I did so, I was helped by "deconstructive" criticism, especially regarding the "traces" present in a literary sign, the reversibility of figures, and the ways in which texts evolve in successive readings. In the final analysis, my work is still centered on interpretation, if only because the poetry I study has not been often interpreted systematically and because my main goal is to help others understand it better. Nonetheless, I have on the one hand avoided the assumption that my analyses should be abso­ lute and exclusive, and on the other used these analyses to explore some underlying questions concerning the reading process and the diverse factors which influence it. I started work on this book several years ago, and the chapters on Rodriguez and Brines constitute substantially expanded and changed versions of studies previously published in Spanish. Parts of the chapter on Fuertes and most of the chapter on Gonzalez have appeared as articles; the rest of this book has not been published before. But all of it was conceived as a single project, a sustained inquiry into the poetry of what I see as a single generation and into a set of critical approaches which to my mind illuminate this poetry and are in tum illuminated by it. At the same time, I have not tried to make this book a history of a period of Spanish poetry. In chapter I, I have examined the general developments of post-Civil War Spanish poetry insofar as they consti­ tute a background for the understanding of the major poets of the generation of the 1950s and 1960s; all other chapters attempt to eluci- Preface ix date the works of those poets, the approaches they elicit, and the result­ ing view of an extremely valuable corpus of poetry. I have adopted one stylistic convention in order to avoid the awk­ wardness of double pronouns (hel she") when referring to the reader. I am arbitrarily assuming a male reader for poems written by male authors, and a female reader for poems written by female authors, and leaving it to my reader to make the necessary adjustments. Minimal background information on each author and hislher poetry is provided in an unnumbered note placed at the beginning of the note section for the relevant chapter. This book could not have been written without the aid of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, which made possible a year's leave devoted to developing and writing it. It was also facilitated by the National Humanities Center, which invited me to work in its ideal setting and created circumstances suited to reading, learning, and writ­ ing, as well as by the financial support given to me by the University of Kansas. and its General Research Fund. I am most grateful to the Guggenheim Foundation, to William Bennett and the whole staff at the National Humanities Center, and to Frances Horowitz, Ronald Calg­ aard, and Robert Cobb of the University of Kansas. I also owe a great debt to many friends and colleagues: to Robert Magliola, Emory Elliott, John Brushwood, and Robert Spires for their critical insights and their reading of parts of the manuscript; and to my friends Nancy Denney, Nancy and David Dinneen, Susan Kemper, and Judith Uskin-Gasparro. My students and the participants in my NEH summer seminars, especially Douglas Benson, Carole Bradford, San­ tiago Daydi, Nancy Mandlove, Martha LaFollette Miller, and Margaret Persin, taught me a great deal of what I needed to know to write this book. Susan Brown's and Margaret Mohatt's research help and the typing of Jan Paxton, Gretchen Nolle, Vicki Melton, and Joy Zinn were indispensable to its completion. My daughters Margaret and Mary Beth proved patient and supportive at key moments. I thank them all. This page intentionally left blank Poetry of Discovery This page intentionally left blank 1 The Generation of 1956-1971 Beginning in the late 1950s and extending through the 1960s, there appeared in Spain several young poets whose work reveals a high degree of originality, coupled with significant value.