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Nicolas Guillen in the 1980s: A Guide to Recent Scholarship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 October 2022

Richard Jackson
Richard Jackson*
Affiliation:
Carleton University
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Born in 1902, Nicolás Guillén is almost as old as this century. A flourish of publishing activity occurred in 1972 and again in 1982 celebrating his longevity. Few writers who began as Modernists are still alive to tell about the movement, as does Guillén in his memoirs, Páginas vueltas (published in Havana in 1982 in honor of his eightieth birthday). After a long and distinguished career in poetry, journalism, and politics, Cuba's national poet is becoming increasingly visible in the English-speaking world, where his candidacy for the Nobel prize for literature is encouraged annually and books, articles, dissertations, bibliographies, and translations of his work continue to appear.

Type
Research Reports and Notes
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , 1988 , pp. 110 - 122
Copyright
Copyright © 1988 by Latin American Research Review

References

Notes

1. For examples of these critical positions and commentary on many of them through 1979, see the section on Nicolás Guillén in Richard Jackson, The Afro-Spanish American Author: An Annotated Bibliography of Criticism (New York: Garland Publishing, 1980), 57–84.

2. Stephanie Davis-Lett, “Revisando a Nicolás Guillén,” Explicación de Textos Literarios 10, no. 1 (1981):87–94. See also her dissertation, “Development of Poetic Techniques in the Works of Nicolás Guillén,” Princeton University, 1976.

3. Angel Augier, “Evolución estético-ideológica de Nicolás Guillén,” Revista de Literatura Cubana 1 (July 1982):71–87.

4. See Josefina García-Carranza, “Síntesis bio-bibliográfica de Nicolás Guillén,” Universidad de la Habana, no. 216 (Jan.–Apr. 1982):54–121.

5. Stephanie Davis-Lett, “Literary Games in the Works of Nicolás Guillén,” Perspectives on Contemporary Literature 6 (1980):135–42.

6. Guillermo Rodríguez Rivera, “Nicolás Guillén y el vanguardismo,” Revista de Literatura Cubana 1 (July 1982):59–70.

7. Nicolá Bottiglieri, “Consideraciones y apuntes sobre El gran zoo de Nicolás Guillén,” Casa de las Américas, no. 132 (May–June 1982):108–16.

8. Jorge Marbán, “Innovaciones formales en la última poesía política de Nicolás Guillén,” Crítica Hispánica 6, no. 2 (1984):145–54.

9. See, for example, J. Kubayanda's dissertation, “Nicolás Guillén and Aimé Césaire: A Universalist Approach to the Poetics of Africanness in Latin America and the Caribbean, 1929–1961,” Washington University, 1981; and his paper, “Africa and Cuba in the Works of Nicolás Guillén: Problems of Ethnicity and Nationalism,” presented to the African Studies Association, Indiana University, Bloomington, 21–24 October 1981. See also his articles, “Polyrhythmics and African Print Poetics: Nicolás Guillén, Aimé Césaire, and Atukwei Okai,” Interdisciplinary Dimensions of African Literature, selected papers from the 1982 conference of the African Literature Association (Washington, D.C.: Three Continents Press, 1985); and “The Drum Poetics of Nicolás Guillén and Aimé Césaire,” Prismal/Cabral, nos. 7–8 (1982):37–55.

10. Lloyd King, “Nicolás Guillén and Afrocubanism,” A Celebration of Black and African Writing, edited by Bruce King and K. Ogung-Besan (Zaria and Ibadan, Nigeria: Ahmadu Bello University Press and Oxford University Press, 1975), 30–45.

11. Renée Larrier, “Racism in the United States: An Issue in Caribbean Poetry,” Journal of Caribbean Studies 2, no. 1 (Spring 1981):51–71.

12. Constance de García-Barrios, “The Black in Cuban Literature and the Poetry of Nicolás Guillén,” Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1975.

13. Constance de García-Barrios, “The Black in Post-Revolutionary Cuban Literature,” Inter-American Review 8 (1978):263–70.

14. Joseph Pereira, “Raza en la obra de Nicolás Guillén después de 1959,” Sin Nombre 13, no. 3 (1983):30–48.

15. Miriam DeCosta Willis, “Nicolás Guillén and His Poetry for Black Americans,” Black World 22 (Sept. 1973):12–16.

16. Yvonne Guillon Barett, “Nicolás Guillén y el movimiento de arte negro,” Iris 3 (1982):47–55.

17. Jesús Sabourin-Fornaris, “Del ‘Negro bembón’ a ‘El apellido’ (lectura de un poema de Nicolás Guillén),” Casa de las Américas, no. 132 (May–June 1982):91–98.

18. Ian Smart, “Mulatez and the Image of the Black mujer nueva in Guillén's Poetry,” Kentucky Romance Quarterly 4 (1982):379–90. This study and that cited in note 22 relate to Smart's dissertation, “The Creative Dialogue in the Poetry of Nicolás Guillén: Europe and Africa,” University of California, Los Angeles, 1975.

19. Angel Augier, “Hallazgos y apoteosis del poema son de Nicolás Guillén,” Casa de las Américas 132 (May–June 1982):6–53.

20. Mirta Aguirre, “El cincuentenario de Motivos de son,” in Nicolás Guillén's Motivos de son, edited by E. Dávila (Havana: Editorial Letras Cubanas, 1980), 5–22.

21. Dellita Martin, Black Music as Poetic Referent in the Poetry of Nicolás Guillén and Langston Hughes, forthcoming. This study also began as a dissertation: “Selected Poems of Nicolás Guillén and Langston Hughes: Their Use of Afro-Western Folk Music Genres,” Ohio State University, 1975.

22. Ian Smart, “Nicolás Guillén's son Poem: An African Contribution to Contemporary Caribbean Poetics,” College Language Association Journal 23, no. 4 (June 1980):352–63.

23. Antoni Turull, “Como ser poeta popular: el ejemplo de Nicolás Guillén,” Casa de las Américas no. 132 (May–June 1982):87–90.

24. See Keith Ellis, Cuba's Nicolás Guillén: Poetry and Ideology (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1983).

25. See the introduction to Nicolás Guillén, summa poética, edited by Luis Iñigo Madrigal (Madrid: Ediciones Cátedra, 1976), 15–45.

26. See Angel Augier, Nicolás Guillén: notas para un estudio biográfico-critico (Havana: Universidad Central de las Villas, Vol. 1, 1962; Vol. 2, 1964).

27. See Lorna V Williams, Self and Society in the Poetry of Nicolás Guillén (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press).

28. See Nancy Morejón, Nación y mestizaje en Nicolás Guillén (Havana: Ediciones Unión, 1982); and Mónica Mansour, Análisis textual e intertextual: Elegía a Jesús Menéndez de Nicolás Guillén (Mexico: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, 1980).

29. The Elegía a Jesús Menéndez continues to generate critical attention. Mirta Aguirre republished her study “En torno a la Elegía a Jesús Menéndez” in her book Ayer de hoy (Havana: Ediciones Unión, 1980); it first appeared in La Ultima Hora (Havana) 2 (10 July 1952):34–48. Angel Augier prepared a new article, “Notas sobre las Elegías de Nicolás Guillén,” for the special issue entitled “Homenaje a Nicolás Guillén” of Universidad de la Habana, no. 216 (Jan.–Apr. 1982). In his new study, Augier recognizes Mansour's contribution in analyzing the Elegía a Jesús Menéndez. He disagrees, however, with her assertion that Guillén deliberately used the Bible as a basis for his poem about Jesús Menéndez. See also Augier's new anthology, Nicolás Guillén: las grandes elegías y otros poemas (Caracas: Biblioteca Ayacucho, 1984), particularly his prologue, “Las grandes elegías de Nicolás Guillén,” ix–xvii.

30. J. George Irish, “The Revolutionary Focus of Nicolás Guillén's Journalism,” Caribbean Quarterly 22, no. 4 (Dec. 1976):68–77.

31. Roberto Márquez, “Racism, Culture, and Revolution: Ideology and Politics in the Poetry of Nicolás Guillén,” LARR 17, no. 1 (1982):43–68.

32. Hans Otto Dill, “De la exposición periodística a la representación artística: estudio crítico sobre Nicolás Guillén,” Revista de la Biblioteca Nacional José Martí 14, no. 2 (May–Aug. 1972):65–80.

33. Nicolás Guillén, Páginas vueltas: memorias (Havana: Ediciones Unión), 1982.

34. José Piedra, “From Monkey Tales to Cuban Songs: On Signification,” Modern Language Notes 100, no. 2 (May 1985):361–90.

35. See Martha Cobb, Harlem, Haiti, and Havana: A Comparative Critical Study of Langston Hughes, Jacques Roumain, and Nicolás Guillén (Washington, D.C.: Three Continents Press, 1979). Also see her “Concepts of Blackness in the Poetry of Nicolás Guillén, Jacques Roumain, and Langston Hughes,” College Language Association Journal 18 (Dec. 1974):262–72; and her doctoral dissertation, “The Black Experience in the Poetry of Nicolás Guillén, Jacques Roumain, and Langston Hughes,” Catholic University of America, 1974.

36. Jonathan Ngaté, “Coronation or Crucifixion? Man-Making Words and Ancestrality in Guillén, Césaire, and Senghor,” Afro-Hispanic Review 4, no. 1 (1985):5–10, 22.

37. Les Poétes latino-américains devant la guerre civile d'Espagne (Nicolás Guillén, Pablo Neruda et César Vallejo), edited by Olver Gilberto de León (Paris: L'Harmattan, 1986).

38. One critic who hopes to see such challenges is Vera M. Kutzinski. See her article, “The Miraculous Weapons of Nicolás Guillén and Aimé Césaire,” Callaloo 9, no. 4 (Fall 1986):740–48; see also her doctoral dissertation, “From American Literature to New World Writing: Myth and History in William Carlos Williams, Jay Wright, and Nicolás Guillén,” Yale University, 1985. See also her book, Against the American Grain: Myth and History in William Carlos Williams, Jay Wright, and Nicolás Guillén (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987); and the special issue on Nicolás Guillén, Callaloo 10, no. 2 (Spring 1987), for which she was the guest editor.