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Political Poetry in the Wake of the Second Spanish Republic: Rafael Alberti, Pablo Neruda, and Nicolas Guillen

Moss, Grant Daryl
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1280872939

Abstract Details

2010, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Spanish and Portuguese.
For some, it is a common conception that if a poet includes politics in his poetry then he has degraded it. For others, politics must be included in poetry or it has no purpose. The purpose of this dissertation is to debunk the myths that surround political commitment and poetry; to build up the relationship between poetry and politics. This dissertation explores the simultaneous development of politics and poetics in three Spanish-language poets: Rafael Alberti, Nicolás Guillén, and Pablo Neruda. I argue that the simultaneous development was nurtured by the Second Spanish Republic (1931-1939). Beginning in these years, Alberti, Guillén, and Neruda strove to tackle the challenge of committing to their own independent poetic projects and to their politics simultaneously. Later, these three poets maintained their Communist Party affiliation until their deaths and produced collection after collection of quality poetry. Despite the differences in their overall poetic trajectories and projects, the ability to maneuver between politics and poetry without sacrificing either one is common among them. The poetry of these three artists is not simply political propaganda nor is it “poetry for poetry’s sake.” In other words, the poetry strives to bring together issues such as communism, anti-fascism, anti-imperialism, class struggle, worker’s rights among others; yet for these three authors these topics strengthen their poetics and challenge traditional thought about what poetry is. Because of their unique experiences during the time of the Second Spanish Republic in Spain, each author explicitly turned to denounce the injustices that the opposing Franquist forces had committed against the Republic, a place that had given more rights to workers. After the fall of the Republic in 1939, Alberti, Guillén, and Neruda continued to intertwine their politics with their poems only in a less obvious manner. Therefore, the poets could solidify their position within the poetic canon while at the same time they could maintain their position as committed Communists.
Stephen Summerhill (Advisor)
Eugenia Romero (Committee Member)
Juan Zevallos-Aguilar (Committee Member)
283 p.
Latin American Literature
Second Spanish Republic; Rafael Alberti; Pablo Neruda; Nicolas Guillen; Political Poetry

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Moss, G. D. (2010). Political Poetry in the Wake of the Second Spanish Republic: Rafael Alberti, Pablo Neruda, and Nicolas Guillen [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1280872939

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Moss, Grant. Political Poetry in the Wake of the Second Spanish Republic: Rafael Alberti, Pablo Neruda, and Nicolas Guillen. 2010. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1280872939.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Moss, Grant. "Political Poetry in the Wake of the Second Spanish Republic: Rafael Alberti, Pablo Neruda, and Nicolas Guillen." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1280872939

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1280872939
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.