Espacio de transformacion : (meta)poesia de Jenaro Talens : entre teoria y practica : en torno a "El vuelo excede el ala"

Abstract

The present book analyses the poetry of Spanish author Jenaro Talens Carmona, one of the representatives of Generation of Novísimos, also called Generation of the 70s. In the 1970s the author’s lyrical and theoretical works were published, which is why literary critics have considered Talens to be not only a poet but also a literary theorist. Throughout the decade the author published such collections of poetry as Una perenne aurora, Víspera de la destrucción, Ritual para un artificio, El cuerpo fragmentario and Reincidencias. The most notable theoretical works from this period include El espacio y las máscaras, El texto plural (1975), La escritura como teatralidad (1977) or Elementos para una semiótica del texto artístico (1978). Since 1980s he has published numerous collections of poems, as well as a number of theoretical texts. It is also important to mention the publications in which Talens gathers almost all of his previous writings, such as El vuelo excede el ala (1973), Cenizas de sentido. Poesía 1962—1975 (1989), El largo aprendizaje. Poesía 1975—1991 (1991) and, more recently, Puntos cardinales. Poesía 1991—2006 (2006). In the creation of the Generation of Novísimos scholars distinguish different aesthetic trends among which we find metapoetry (self-consciousness and self-reflection). In this regard, Jenaro Talens is seen as one of the leaders of his Generation and has been referred to as the “metapoet.” Interestingly, Talens himself has frequently spoken against this label. His negative attitude towards metapoetry prompts me to ask two important questions: first, whether Talens is a metapoet or not, and second, why he contradicts the opinion of numerous literary critics about metapoetry. To answer these two questions is the main purpose of this book. On the one hand, therefore, I discuss Talens’s work which has not yet received enough attention from scholars; on the other, I try to answer the two questions mentioned above. To accomplish the former, I focus on El vuelo excede el ala, the first compilation of his poetry, published in 1973, which is, in my opinion, the most appropriate book to show the author’s poetic aesthetics. The compilation includes the author’s initial work which appeared before 1973 (volumes such as En el umbral del hombre, Ámbitos, Víspera de la destrucción, Una perenne aurora and Ritual para un artificio), making it feasible to demonstrate his poetic development. More importantly, the collection contains a section entitled Taller (“Workshop”), written between 1972 and 1973, whose name contributes to the metapoetic character of the work. Moreover, El vuelo excede el ala opens with a prologue entitled “Espacio del poema” (“Space of a Poem”) which becomes a theoretical proposal on the act of creation of a poem. Consequently, the recompiling volume can be considered a summary of the method of Talens’s creation and seen as a testimony to the Spanish author’s development. The first, theoretical part of the book is the presentation of the “new poetic aesthetic” that emerges in Spain during the period after Spanish civil war. The poetic-generational division in Spanish poetry is presented and, more specifically, the Generation of the 50s and the Generation of Novísimos are discussed. Some characteristic elements can be seen in the works of the representatives of these groups, which create the new poetic aesthetic. Followingly, metapoetry is defined and discussed in the context of the Novísimos. The second chapter is mostly concerned with Jenaro Talens’s theoretical postulates about poetry and the act of its creation, as presented in the prologue to El vuelo excede el ala. The most important thesis by Talens is that a poem is a space of transformation. Moreover, this part of the book contains the analysis of the poem which follows the prologue, in which Talens puts his theoretical postulates into practice. The third chapter comprises the analysis of Talens’s poetry included in his first three volumes, which also are the first three parts of El vuelo excede el ala. The poems are analysed in chronological order, with attention being paid to chosen motives, such as loneliness, death, love, and the symbol of the mirror. What is more, the last two sections of this part are dedicated to the construction of lyrical subject and poetic language. In the fourth chapter of my thesis I analyse the last part of El vuelo excede el ala, entitled “Taller” (“Workshop”) and confirm its metapoetic character by analysing the topics included in it. Jenaro Talens describes in it the three elements which create the signification of the poem: the text, the author, and the reader. In the “Conclusion,” I answer the questions posed at the beginning of this book (if Jenaro Talens is a metapoet and why he disagrees with literary critics who view him as such). Taking into consideration the analyses performed in the previous chapters, I see Talens as a metapoet, and his entire creation as a well-planned poetic project whose main purpose is to present a novel perspective on poetic creation.