Del espacio deshumanizado al espacio de la memoria: trayectorias de los poetas del veintisiete

Abstract

This work was born as an attempt to answer the following questions: what happens to the members of a literary generation when this generation’s time is over? Do they stray on their own personal path or do they maintain some consistent bonds that witness the road they have walked together? In order to answer these questions we analysed some of the works by Dámaso Alonso, Vicente Aleixandre and Luis Cernuda, focusing on some key moments of their production, in particular: the phase of the “poesía pura”, surrealism, exile and memory. This chronological approach allowed us, on one hand, to shed new light on longacquired critical evaluations –especially regarding the earlier works of these poets–; and, on the other hand, to pinpoint how, despite the distance that grew between some of them in their life experiences, these authors still shared a common sensibility, which led them to develop similar answers to similar problems. This analysis was performed with special attention to the element of space. In fact, since the introduction of the concept of chronotope by Bakhtin, space and time have become useful categories for the analysis of literary works; yet, traditionally, they have been associated most frequently with prose. For this reason, the análisis of the poetical space is a kind of novelty, which provides an exceptional point of observation on texts, offering, with contributions from linguistics and traditional critical studies, new readings of classical works. This way, a correspondence can be established between the changes the concept of space itself experiments in these authors and the evolution of their poetical world. We start from the artificial, claustrophobic space that is typical of the “poesía pura”, where the young poet keeps a separate stance from the outside world, lingering in his room in strict meditation, only to later assist to its definitive breakthrough, when the chaotic agglomerate of irrational objects floating into nothingness, which is the trademark of the surrealist period, takes over. Afterwards, the painful occurrence of the exile, experienced both inside and outside the Spanish peninsula, contributes in transforming again the concept of space, pointing out a severe division of its physical environment, which is somehow mended by resorting to a partly-metaphysical, partly-psychological reconstruction. The last modification of this poetical chronotope, induced by the increasing proximity of the end of these poets’ lives, is represented by a further dwelling on the idea of limit, both from a temporal and spatial point of view, which puts in peril the same possibility of writing poetry. The risk of this poetical aporía is finally eluded by Aleixandre’s appeal to dialogue, which doubles the space available, allowing a new configuration that comprises, in the counterpoint of two poetical voices, the finite and the infinite aspects of reality. Thanks to this achievement, we can answer affirmatively to our initial question, and thus recognize in Aleixandre the point of equilibrium of this complex triangle of friendship and jealousy, where the emulation and the desire to surpass the other shaped marvellous spaces of poetical beauty.