Neruda’s Ekphrastic Experience

Notes:

In this 1999 book, Mendez-Ramirez argues that when Pablo Neruda’s writing changes radically in its form of expression in the nineteen-forties, this was in part influenced by the Mexican Mural movement and the work of Jose Clemente Orozso, Diego Rivera and David Aloro Siquieiros. Neruda wrote of them: “Mexican painters covered the city with history and geography, with civil strife, with fierce controversies.”

Mendez-Ramirez presents a compelling account, citing particular elements in Murals of the time and their corresponding literary styles in Neruda’s work, in particular ‘Canto general’. One example is the way Neruda juxtaposes past, present and future tenses as Rivera presents past and present personalities and ideas spatially.

Neruda’s Ekphrastic Experience, Mural Art and Canto General