Poets of Contemporary Latin America

Who are the important poets of Latin America since the 1950s? What are the key features of their work? Providing substantial excerpts from the work of Ernesto Cardenal, Nicanor Parra, Carmen Olle, and others, together with translations and detailed readings, this is a guide to the new poetry of Latin America.

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What came after Neruda and Vallejo? This is the first book to answer that question, presenting the new movements in Latin American poetry since 1950. Eight poets are selected, with substantial excerpts from their work and parallel translations in English: the test for inclusion is whether their writing expands the possibilities of poetry. Some - for example Juan L. Ortiz, Nicanor Parra, Gonzalo Rojas, Ana Enriqueta Terán - reached maturity well before mid-century, but have continued to explore new poetic expression in the decades since; the younger generation of poets chosen includes Ernesto Cardenal as well as lesser-known figures: Jorge Eduardo Eielson, Carmen Ollé, and Raúl Zurita. Together they display the new forms and languages of poetry which have been emerging in contemporary Latin America.

Revealing the freshness of the poems, as they invite new perceptions of the world and of language, is paramount in this study. Its method is to bring together poetics with cultural studies, presenting detailed readings of the work of each poet, as well as exposition and discussion of their poetics, especially where they grapple with the tensions between the inner self and history in the later twentieth century.