Blowing up the Parnassus

Avant-garde and poetic tradition in Nicanor

Parras Manifiesto

Nicanor Parra and Manifiesto

(Anti)Poet, physic and

mathematician.
Antipoetics
Obra gruesa (Universitaria 1969)

Thesis
Nicanor Parras Manifiesto can be seen as a poem that
encapsulates one of the main components of revolution:
questioning, which cannot exist without having recognized
a counterpart. Therefore, three bakhtinian concepts will
be used to recognize how such interaction happens:
language as a social product, alterity in speech and
menippean satire.

Bakhtin and polyphony

Russian literary theorist
Posthumously recognized for his
contributions in linguistics and
literary theory.
Problems of Dostoievskys Poetics
Rabelais and Folk Culture of the
Middle Ages and Renaissance

1.-Language as a social product

The artistic text is more than a mere
sign.
The artist, his life and values become
the object of representation.
Ethical, epistemological and esthetic
contents.
Francisco de Goya. Capricho 50: Los Chinchillas (1799).

2.-Speech and alterity

The other appears in a
statement looking for dialogue
and as a discursive subject.
Even in our everyday
statements we can find some
degree of alterity.

Hieronymus Bosch. Christ carrying the Cross

3.-Menippean satire
According to Bakhtin, it comes
from the collapse of the Socratic
dialogue.
Derives from the cynic satirist
Menippus (III C. BCE).
Characterized by sharp contrasts,
inappropriate words and, among
others, the use of mythological
symbols.
Diego de Velsquez. Menipo (1639)

1.-Manifiesto: language as a social product

Para nuestros mayores

La poesa fue un objeto de lujo
Pero para nosotros
Es un artculo de primera necesidad:
No podemos vivir sin poesa.
(Parra lines 5-9)

2.-Manifiesto: Speech and alterity

La situacin es sta:
Mientras ellos estaban
Por una poesa del crepsculo
Por una poesa de la noche
Nosotros propugnamos
La poesa del amanecer
(92-97)

3.-Manifiesto: Menippean satire

Nosotros condenamos
-Y esto s que lo digo con respetoLa poesa de pequeo dios
La poesa de vaca sagrada
La poesa de toro furioso.
(103-107)

Contra la poesa de las nubes

Nosotros oponemos
La poesa de la tierra firme
-Cabeza fra, corazn caliente
Somos tierrafirmistas decididos-.
(108-112)

Thanks!