Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature 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 …

The Living World, Politics, And Nation: Nature And Discourse In The Poetry Of Nicolás Guillén, Mark J. Mascia

Languages Faculty Publications

Through an analysis of key examples of Guillén's use of nature throughout his poetry, this article presents the argument that they all are fundamentally rooted in a configuration of nature as a living being and in an understanding of humanity's place as part of nature. For Guillén, nature is not simply something that he merely appreciates as a theme; rather, it is a vital element central to his view of the worid and to his development as a writer. The collections examined here are West Indies, Ltd., El son entero, and La paloma de vuelo popula.

De/Reconstructing Appearances: Lope De Vega's Inversion Of Female Beauty In The Rimas Humanas Y Divinas Del Licenciado Tome De Burguillos, Mark J. Mascia

Languages Faculty Publications

This article illustrates how Lope de Vega, in his Rimas Humanas y Divinas Del Licenciado Tome de Burguillos, subverts idealized female beauty through the glorification of a more commonplace feminine object, while the time-honored poetic conventions which favored the former are deconstructed and replaced by a new anti-norm of female objectification.

Poetry As Theory: Lope De Vega's Epistola As Arbiter Of Proper Discourse, Mark J. Mascia

Languages Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is to examine the ways in which Lope de Vega manipulates epistolas to serve his own ends with regards to language, both on a narrowly literary level and on a broader personal and even national one. What emerges is an epistola which blends both the self-evident art of poetry writing and critical speculation upon it, one which Lope consciously uses as a literary mode of vindication and defense for his ideas regarding proper discourse and as an attack on any type of discourse of which he disapproves.

Honoring Everyday Alimentation: The Case Of Pablo Neruda's Odas Elementales And Food, Mark J. Mascia

Languages Faculty Publications

This article examines the ways in which Neruda poeticizes and celebrates different foodstuffs in his Odas Elementales, and connects these ways to the larger themes present in his general corpus of work. These odes, which ennoble and glorify everyday food and drink items, are treated as animate, living entities, and are at times frequently linked to a political or social cause as well.