{"id":303,"date":"2014-06-10T18:31:16","date_gmt":"2014-06-10T18:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/postcolonialstudies\/?p=303"},"modified":"2017-05-26T17:55:24","modified_gmt":"2017-05-26T17:55:24","slug":"huidobro-vicente","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/postcolonialstudies\/2014\/06\/10\/huidobro-vicente\/","title":{"rendered":"Huidobro, Vicente"},"content":{"rendered":"

Biography<\/h3>\n
\"Image<\/a>
Image by Dcoetzee\/Public Domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Vicente Garc\u00eda Huidobro Fern\u00e1ndez was born to a distinguished aristocrat family in Santiago, Chile in 1893.\u00a0In his teenage and early adult years, the works of modernist Chilean writer and poet\u00a0Rub\u00e9n Dar\u00edo<\/a>\u00a0inspired him.\u00a0He praised Dar\u00edo as \u201ca renovator of poetry\u201d (Camurati 29) and as an homage to him, he began to publish his own work through the pages of Azula<\/em> magazine, which he founded in 1913. Three years later, Huidobro parted for Europe; in Paris, he met other minds of the vanguard such as Pablo Picasso, Guillame Apollinaire, and Pierre Reverdy. Huidobro\u2019s poems, written in both French and Spanish, built\u00a0upon the Cubist poetry of Apollonaire and Reverdy.<\/p>\n

He ushered in a new style or school of writing which he termed as creacionismo (\u2018creationism\u2019) which fused many of the contemporary movements of the early 20th century with other ideas of neo-platonism and the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson. In 1925, he returned to Chile to become a newspaper editor, during which time he also ran unsuccessfully for the presidency of Chile. Throughout this time, he continued to write works of prose and poetry, building upon his ideas of creacionsimo. In 1931, he published Altazor<\/em>, which most consider to be his definitive poetic work. In 1948, he died in Cartagena, Chile at the age of 56.<\/p>\n

Vanguard Movement<\/h3>\n

Following the modernist movement, the world of art and literature entered a phase termed as the \u2018Vanguard\u2019, or \u2018avant-garde\u2019 movement (Good). This complex movement attempted to step away from the literary and aesthetic norms of the past and to chart new horizons of expression for the artist. It is believed that Italian writer Fillippo Tomaso Marinetti initiated the movement through the manifesto of \u2018Futurism\u2019.\u00a0 In this essay he declares:<\/p>\n

To admire an old picture is to pour our sensitivity
\ninto a funeral urn, instead of casting it forward in
\nviolent gushes of creation and action – Marinetti, \u201cFoundation Manifesto of Futurism\u201d, 1909\u00a0 (qtd. inRye 9).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The twilight of this global artistic movement is considered to have arrived with the advent of the Surrealist movement of the \u00a01930\u2032s. Within the span of those decades, many sub-movements were spawned, including expressionism, Dadaism, cubism, and ultraism. All of these vanguard sub-movements had similar motivation to create new artistic bounds, through either exploiting the institutions of the past or creating whole new ones.<\/p>\n

Creacionismo<\/h3>\n

Creacionismo was\u00a0 the apotheosis for Huidobro, a space where the poet could assume a role as the divine. In his poem \u201cArte po\u00e9tica\u201d (Poetic Art), the final verse reads:\u00a0 \u201cEl poeta es un peque\u00f1o Dios,\u201d or, \u2018The poet is a small God\u2019 (Huidobro 69).\u00a0This verse was the epitaph for his movement. Creacionismo licensed the poet to become the Creator within their poetic space, where the world of subjectivity was merged into the reality that the poet created. Huidobro maintained that the rise of Creacionismo was solely attributed to him, free of any direct influence. He describes his poetry as not singularly influenced, \u201cbut only by the universe of poetry that has been studied and felt\u201d (Perdig\u00f3 42). It is argued that aside from his contemporaries, Huidobro\u2019s greatest influences are the neo-platonists of the 16th century and the ideas of American writer Ralph Waldo Emerson.<\/p>\n

According to the neo-platonists, the conception of God is as follows:<\/p>\n

God was Beauty and the source of Beauty.
\nGod\u2019s image is Man.
\nTherefore, the ideally beautiful Man is the
\nclosest approximation of God on this Earth
\n(Summary of Renaissance).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This conception was a precedent that man\u2019s ability could be equal to God\u2019s, as the created had been endowed with the powers of the Creator.\u00a0Huidobro aimed for the idea of understanding the world at its most essential parts, in order to invigorate his own world of poetic subjectivity.\u00a0In his manifesto \u201cCreacionismo\u201d, Huidobro describes this idea by saying:\u00a0 \u201cA living thought, like the spirit of an animal or a plant, has its own architecture, and embellishes nature with something new\u201d (41).\u00a0 Emerson also echoed the idea of a mortal Creator, stating,\u00a0\u201cman has access to the entire mind of the creator, is himself the creator in the finite\u201d (Perdig\u00f389). Huidobro perpetuated this idea that \u201cwhere the artist from being a craftsman become a creator; and the poet, of all men, compared to God\u201d\u00a0(Peridg\u00f3 189).\u00a0 One of his poetic innovations was the calligram, or \u201cpainted poems\u201d (Kahnweiler 75). Apollinaire initially popularized this style of verse somewhat similar to Japanese haiku. However, Huidobro added an element of \u201cgeometrization and stylization of form\u201d (Ogden 46).\u00a0In particular, his poem\u2019s, \u201cPaisaje\u201d [Landscape], the first and last verses create a separation of consciousnesses where in-between a realm of subjectivity words convert into visual images. The poem actually seems to take the shape of a mosaic in its own \u201cnew and autonomous world\u201d (Bary54).<\/p>\n

Though the evidence is debated, the certainty remains that \u201cCreacionsimo is exclusively applied to Huidobro\u2019s work\u201d (Perdig\u00f3 21) (see Magical Realism<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Works<\/h3>\n

Translations:<\/h4>\n

Poetic Art<\/h4>\n

Verse is like a key
\nThat opens a thousand doors
\nA page turns, something takes flight
\nHow many believing eyes look
\nAnd the hearing soul remains trembling<\/p>\n

Invent new worlds and care for their word
\nThe adjective, when it does not give life, kills
\nWe are in a cycle of nerves
\nThe muscle cluster,
\nLike I remember, in the museums;
\nNo more do but we have less force;
\nThe true vigor
\nResides in the mind<\/p>\n

Why do you the rose, oh poets!
\nIt will flourish in the poem<\/p>\n

Only for us
\nLive all things under the sun<\/p>\n

The poet is a small god.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Landscape<\/h4>\n

In darkness we pass through parallel routes
\nThe moon is where you see it
\nThe tree is taller than the mountain
\nBut the mountain is so wide that it exceeds the extremes of the land
\nThe river runs but carries no fish
\nCareful at play in the grass recently painted
\nA song that drives sheep to the sheepfold<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Works Cited<\/h4>\n
    \n
  • Apollinaire, Guillame.\u00a0Selected Writings.<\/em>\u00a0Trans.\u00a0Roger Shattuck. Paris:\u00a0 New Directions, 1971.<\/li>\n
  • Bary, David.\u00a0\u00a0Huidobro o la vocaci\u00f3n po\u00e9tica<\/em>.\u00a0Granada:\u00a0 Universidad de Granada, 1963.<\/li>\n
  • Camurati, Mireya.\u00a0\u00a0Poes\u00eda y po\u00e9tica de Vicente Huidobro<\/em>. Buneos Aires:\u00a0 Garc\u00eda Cambeiro, 1980.<\/li>\n
  • Dawes, Greg.\u00a0Poetas ante la modernidad: las ideas esteticas y politicas de Vallero, Huidobro, Neruda y Paz.\u00a0<\/em>Madrid: Editorial Fundamentos, 2009.<\/li>\n
  • Good, Carl.\u00a0 \u201cHuidobro, Altazor y las vanguaradias\u201d. Atlanta: Emory University, March 19, 2001.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
      \n
    • Huidobro, Vicente.\u00a0Manifestos Manifest<\/em>.\u00a0 Trans.\u00a0Gilbert Alter-Gilbert. Los Angeles:\u00a0 Green Integer, 1999.<\/li>\n
    • Huidobro, Vicente.\u00a0Obra selecta<\/em>. Ed. Luis Navarrete Orta.\u00a0Caracas: Biblioteca ayacucho, 1991.<\/li>\n
    • Kahnweiler, Daniel-Henry.\u00a0The Rise of Cubism<\/em>.\u00a0 Trans. Aronson, New York: Wittenborn, Schultz, Inc., 1949.<\/li>\n
    • Ogden, Estrella Busto.\u00a0El creacionismo de Vicente Huidobroen sus relaciones con la est\u00e9tica cubista<\/em>.\u00a0Madrid:\u00a0Editorial playor, 1983.<\/li>\n
    • Perdig\u00f3, Luisa Marina.\u00a0The Origins of Vicente Huidobro\u2019s\u201dCreacionismo\u201d and its Evolution<\/em>.\u00a0New York: Mellen University Press, 1994.<\/li>\n
    • Reyes, Alfonso and Carlos Garcia.\u00a0Correspondencia: Alfonso Reyes, Vicente Huidobro, 1914-1928.\u00a0<\/em>Mexico D.F.: El Colegio National, 2005.<\/li>\n
    • Rye, Jane. \u201cSummary of the Renaissance: \u201cNeo Platonism.\u201d”\u00a0Futurism.<\/em>\u00a0London:\u00a0 Studio Vista,1972. <http:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ah361\/resources\/summary.html><\/li>\n
    • Schopf, Federico.\u00a0El desorden de las imagenes: Vicente Huidobro, Pablo Neruda, Nicanor Parra.\u00a0<\/em>Santiago: JH Fondo Juvenal Hernandez Jaque: Editorial Unversitaria, 2010.<\/li>\n
    • Sema, Mercedes.\u00a0Del modernismo y la vanguardia: Jose Marti, Julio Herrera y Riessig, Vicente Huidobro, Nicanor Parra.\u00a0<\/em>Lima: Ediciones El Santo Oficio, 2002.<\/li>\n
    • Willis, Bruce Dean.\u00a0Aesthetics of equilibrium: the vanguard poetics of Vicente Huidobro and Mario de Andrade.<\/em>\u00a0West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 2006.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Selected Bibliography<\/h3>\n
        \n
      • Huidobro, Vicente.\u00a0\u00a0Altazor or A Voyage in A Parachute<\/em>.\u00a0Trans.\u00a0 Eliot Weinberger.\u00a0 St. Paul:\u00a0 Graywolf Press, 1988.<\/li>\n
      • Reverdy, Pierre.\u00a0\u00a0Selected Poems<\/em>.\u00a0 Trans. John Ashberry.\u00a0Winston-Salem:\u00a0 Wake Forest University Press, 1991.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        Author: Adam Dunshee, Fall 2001
        \nLast edited:\u00a0May 2017<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Biography Vicente Garc\u00eda Huidobro Fern\u00e1ndez was born to a distinguished aristocrat family in Santiago, Chile in 1893.\u00a0In his teenage and early adult years, the works of modernist Chilean writer and poet\u00a0Rub\u00e9n Dar\u00edo\u00a0inspired him.\u00a0He praised Dar\u00edo as \u201ca renovator of poetry\u201d (Camurati 29) and as an homage to him, he began to publish his own work<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":326,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[84,32,12,53,45,41,104,15,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-303","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-authors-and-artists","7":"tag-aesthetics","8":"tag-chile","9":"tag-diaspora","10":"tag-france","11":"tag-hybridity","12":"tag-identity","13":"tag-latin-america","14":"tag-poetry","15":"tag-religion"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paWL6U-4T","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/postcolonialstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/postcolonialstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/postcolonialstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/postcolonialstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/326"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/postcolonialstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/postcolonialstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2783,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/postcolonialstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303\/revisions\/2783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/postcolonialstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/postcolonialstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/postcolonialstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}