Blanca Andreu, Galicia, and the New Iberian Mysticism

From Post-Mortem to Post-Mystic

Robert Simon

This book contributes to the ongoing discussion of the place of contemporary Galician writer Blanca Andreu’s work within the 1980s post-“novísimo” movement, as part of a larger resurgence of the Surrealist in Spanish poetry and its possible placement in the more recent mystical poetry of Spain. It provides a detailed textual analysis of her poetry, and in doing so reveals not only that her work encompasses notions of the surreal and the mystical but also, although Andreu has so far written entirely in Castilian (Spanish), that her poetry utilizes a variety of traditional Galician and Portuguese symbols and images. In this way her work challenges the boundaries between what we as readers may accept as a solely Castilian, Galician, or Spanish poetic. It bases its transtheoretical framework on findings from such fields as Galician studies, Iberian studies, mysticism studies, paradigm shift studies, and regional studies over the past two decades. Ultimately, this comprehensive and unique study shows how Andreu’s multifaceted transnational work may pertain to, and expand, our knowledge of each of these areas of focus.

Lexington Books

Pages: 142 • Trim: 6¼ x 9

978-1-4985-6571-4 • Hardback • January 2019 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

978-1-4985-6572-1 • eBook • January 2019 • $105.50 • (£82.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / Modern / 20th Century, Literary Criticism / European / Spanish & Portuguese, Literary Criticism / Poetry

Blanca Andreu, Galicia, and the New Iberian Mysticism

From Post-Mortem to Post-Mystic

Hardback

eBook

Summary

This book contributes to the ongoing discussion of the place of contemporary Galician writer Blanca Andreu’s work within the 1980s post-“novísimo” movement, as part of a larger resurgence of the Surrealist in Spanish poetry and its possible placement in the more recent mystical poetry of Spain. It provides a detailed textual analysis of her poetry, and in doing so reveals not only that her work encompasses notions of the surreal and the mystical but also, although Andreu has so far written entirely in Castilian (Spanish), that her poetry utilizes a variety of traditional Galician and Portuguese symbols and images. In this way her work challenges the boundaries between what we as readers may accept as a solely Castilian, Galician, or Spanish poetic. It bases its transtheoretical framework on findings from such fields as Galician studies, Iberian studies, mysticism studies, paradigm shift studies, and regional studies over the past two decades. Ultimately, this comprehensive and unique study shows how Andreu’s multifaceted transnational work may pertain to, and expand, our knowledge of each of these areas of focus.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 142 • Trim: 6¼ x 9

978-1-4985-6571-4 • Hardback • January 2019 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

978-1-4985-6572-1 • eBook • January 2019 • $105.50 • (£82.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / Modern / 20th Century, Literary Criticism / European / Spanish & Portuguese, Literary Criticism / Poetry

Author

Robert Simon is professor of Spanish and Portuguese and coordinator of Portuguese at Kennesaw State University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Introduction: Paradigm Shifts and Iberia’s Evolution: A Transtheoretical Framework for the Poetry of Blanca Andreu

Chapter I: A New Iberian Mysticism

Chapter II: The Revived Galician Poetic

Chapter III: The Beginning of the Surrealist Mystic in De una niña de provincias que vino a vivir en un Chagall

Chapter IV: The Mystic’s World: Mystical Symbolism and Luso-Galician Identity in La tierra transparente

Chapter V: The Re-incorporation of Blanca Andreu’s poetry in the Paradigm Shift

Appendix

Works Cited

Index

About the Author

Reviews

. . .Simon reincorporates Andreu in the Iberian paradigm. Her work is successfully reframed as part of the pos-novísimo generation of female writers and within the multiple self-identities in contemporary Spain. Combining of the mystical process with deconstruction is a uniquely Iberian discourse of the 1980s and after, and the author successfully outlines the goals of the field as it addresses the inadequacies of purely national literary canons, and he demonstrates this through his study of Andreu, as there is a complexity to literary phenomena extending beyond the nation.

— Hispania

A clearly written and comprehensive analysis of Andreu’s work contextualized within trans-regional poetic spaces that both questions the place of mysticism in modern Iberian poetry and studies what elements define an artist and their work as truly “Galician.” Undoubtedly a worthwhile addition to the fields of peninsular gender studies as well as Galician cultural studies.
— María Elena Soliño, The University of Houston

A thoughtful engagement with the unique and understudied poetic voice of Blanca Andreu, placing her production at the intersection between Iberian and Galician Studies. Situated in both the postmodern and the post-mystic, yet escaping both of them, Andreu’s poetic work crosses epistemic and linguistic barriers and transcends essentialist conceptions of identity. Robert Simon shows that the semantic density of her poetry is pivotal for rethinking contemporary Spanish cultures.
— Benita Sampedro Vizcaya, Hofstra University

Blanca Andreu, Galicia, and the New Iberian Mysticism

From Post-Mortem to Post-Mystic

Robert Simon

Blanca Andreu, Galicia, and the New Iberian Mysticism

From Post-Mortem to Post-Mystic

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