Latin American History Commons^™

Redefining Civilization: Historical Polarities And Mythologizing In Los Con Quistadores Of Pablo Neruda's Canto General, Mark J. Mascia

Languages Faculty Publications

The article analyzes the book Canto General, by Pablo Neruda.

Pablo Neruda's poetic history of Latin America, Canto General (1950), is perhaps best known for its lyricized defense of oppressed and subjugated peoples throughout Latin America, as the author had perceived them. This collection, organized into fifteen sections (often, though not always, linear in its chronicling of Latin American history), treats this social theme from Pre-Columbian times through the mid-Twentieth Century. In addition, the collection is clearly infused with a profoundly Marxist ideology, as well as a call to arms against powers which Neruda had perceived as aggressors, namely …