Nicanor Parra: el proyecto antipoético

Abstract

This study proposes to read anti-poetry as a writing project developed in three stages and whose conclusion is sealed with the books Sermones y Prédicas del Cristo de Elqui (Sermons and Preaching by the Christ of Elqui, 1976) and Nuevos Sermones y Prédicas del Cristo de Elqui (New Sermons and Preaching by the Christ of Elqui, 1979). This paper builds up the genealogy of the anti-poetry project from the starting point of two critical positions: from the local ‘scene’ (Chilean poetry during the 1940s and its reception) and from the European and America scene during the twentieth century first decades (Dadaism, Duchamp, the ‘linguistic turn’ produced in theories coming from English speaking countries after Wittgenstein).