En este ensayo me propongo arrojar nueva luz sobre la poética vallejiana mediante una interpretación del poema «¡Oh botella sin vino! ¡Oh vino que enviudó de esta botella!...». En la primera parte me enfoco en la relación conflictiva que Vallejo tuvo con el surrealismo, y sobre todo la célebre noción del «cadáver exquisito». Analizo una faceta de la técnica composicional de Vallejo, la cual se puede vislumbrar en cuatro de los primeros borradores «autógrafos» de los Poemas humanos (1938), publicados en la edición Fló-Hart de 2003. Propongo que, en «¡Oh botella sin vino! ¡Oh vino que enviudó de esta botella!...», Vallejo reconoce que la vanguardia —incluyendo el surrealismo— formó parte de su formación artística, pero finalmente el poeta peruano rechaza el «vino muerto» del surrealismo. En la segunda parte de la ponencia evalúo la proyección que, especí...

Running counter to the focus on «blackness» and «pessimism» that some critics emphasise in their assessment of César Vallejo’s first published collection of poems, in this essay I use an eco-critical approach in order to focus on the role played by greenness in Vallejo’s 1919 collection, The Black Heralds. I start with the early poems such as «Phosphorence» and «Vegetal Transpiration» and argue that they are important for an understanding of Vallejo’s primordial reliance on nature, as are those poems in The Black Heralds that focus on greenness. I then pass to an analysis of the ways in which Vallejo portrays his incestuous relationship with his niece via the heretical account of Christ’s sexual relationship with Mary Magdalene in poems such as «Nervy Frenzy of Anguish», «Comunion» and «September», and suggest that these reveal a «green» side to Vallejo’s poeti...

This essay focuses on the biographical, social, cultural, and literary overlaps and coincidences that exist between the lives and works of two great twentieth-century writers, the Irish novelist James Joyce (1882-1941) and the Peruvian poet César Vallejo (1892-1938). Although they never met, both lived in Paris during the 1920s and 1930s; and although neither read the other’s writings, there are striking similarities between their respective works. Both shared an anguished relationship with Catholicism, were also involved in left-wing politics, and were fascinated by the creative possibilities of wordplay (both are known for their extensive use of neologisms). This led both Joyce and Vallejo to rely on the «ear» —rather than the «eye»— in writing their masterpieces. Finally, their works demonstrate a coincidence in the use of certain topics, such as the focus on the contrast b...