New critical perspectives on the poetry of Francisco Gavidia

Abstract

The essay proposes a critical reading of the poetry of Francisco Gavidia —the first classic writer of El Salvador—, which has been little studied, and even less from contemporary literary and critical paradigms. A formal structural basis analysis of the author’s poetry collections and a selection of poems is made, and it is complemented with relationships between the texts and their various contexts. An interpretation of the texts, based on the aesthetic experience that they can bring about, is sought. The reading shows Gavidia achieved effective and innovative poems both in terms of technique and in thought proposals, but that at the same time, due to both personal and contextual factors, his poetry often loses effectiveness. Also, a new perspective is proposed on his metric innovation with the alexandrine and its importance in the Hispanic American poetry of the time and later. The essay proposes reading Gavidia from broad and updated perspectives, not seeking simple classifications or answers for him or his work, but rather, despite the complexities involved, reaching to understandings based both on the aesthetic experience of his poetry as well as in the theoretical foundation and the argumentation.