Research

In my current extended research project, which forms the basis for a future book, I undertake a critical examination of the interrelation between the body, its secretions, and poetic form within the context of post- Spanish Civil War literature in relation to the Latin American context. By focusing on the term presentificación of the body in poetry, I investigate how Spanish Republican exile poets deploy linguistic structures to infuse their works with a distinctly poetic, ethical, and queer political function. This study represents a biopolitical and biopoetic analysis of formal literary phenomena, revealing the intricate ways in which these texts bear witness to the encroachment of the welfare state, systemic violence, and forced deterritorialization during the various stages of Francisco Franco's dictatorship (1939-1975).

​

By establishing a po-ethical framework centered on the body, I argue that poetic texts equate to the corporeal, embodying a somatized existence that both segregates and unfolds through their aesthetic configurations. This formal exploration engenders a visibility of political urgency and agency within the exile experience. Drawing from Karen Elizabeth Bishop's assertion that literary texts produce new organizing forms of historical knowledge and production, I contend that the po-ethics of secretion in Spanish Republican exile poetry articulates an ahistorical communication of the body, deeply entwined with political repression, thereby foregrounding a model of queer existence. The presence of the body and its secretions is not an exclusively exilic phenomenon; rather, the corporeal has been a longstanding subject within the canon of Spanish literature. However, the Spanish Republican exile poets' unique conditions engender an unprecedented exploration of corporeality, catalyzed by the existential crises following the Desastre del 98 and the unparalleled expression of the body during the republic. This project situates itself within the broader historical discourse of bodily representation, emphasizing the critical transition between the 19th and 20th centuries and how these poets navigate their exilic circumstances after the avant-garde.

​

My dissertation centers on the works of Luis Cernuda, Juan Gil-Albert, and Agustín Gómez Arcos, as they represent distinct geographical locations and varying stages of Spanish exile in relation to Francoism, while employing diverse poetic techniques. Luis Cernuda's poetics illustrates the intricate interplay between enjambment, spatiality, and temporality, reflecting the body’s temporal incapacity as a potential site for emotional regeneration and resistance against normative temporalities. In contrast, Juan Gil-Albert's lyric poetry constructs a queer space of affirmation through the timeless realm of myth, politicizing and reconfiguring the poetic genre to celebrate LGBTQ+ identity. On the other hand, Agustín Gómez Arcos advances this exploration by employing lyrical techniques such as parentheses and desdoblamiento, which foreground the significance of bodily secretions—blood, sweat, and semen—as oblique confessional processes. These secretions embody a rejection of established models of existence in (post-)Franco Spain, revealing the hidden struggles and desires that inform queer identity. Collectively, I assert that the works of Cernuda, Gil-Albert, and Gómez Arcos underscore the profound connections between corporeality, temporality, and queer identity, expanding the boundaries of lyrical theory while articulating the complexities of the body as a site of vulnerability and strength, emotional and political expression, and resistance against normative frameworks.

​

I am currently submitting two articles for review that highlight the significance of the body in societal contexts. One article examines the gay gaze and the desiring image in the film La piel quemada (1967) by Josep Maria Forn, aiming to illustrate the plurality and coexistence of homoerotic narratives derived from the observation of the body during Francoism. Additionally, I am engaged in a field project focusing on latrinalia, exploring university restrooms as more than mundane spaces. This project positions these environments as sites of social and literary interaction, revealed through graffiti. By examining literature in public restrooms, I investigate how these 'privately public' spaces serve as contested grounds for identity, resistance, and control. Furthermore, I am compiling an anthology of poetry texts in exile that deserve to be rediscovered, while I am working on translating Agustín Gómez Arcos's work Poesías into English, which aims to bring new voices and perspectives to a wider audience.

​

​

PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS

- “Vampirismo, sangre y perversidad: tensiones sociales, económicas e ideológicas en las obras ‘La exangüe’ (1899) y ‘Vampiro’ (1901) de Emilia Pardo Bazán.” Revista Ímpetu, no. 5, November 2020, pp. 71-87.

- “Nueva York y Federico García Lorca. Una aproximación al superrealismo y a lo erótico en ‘Poeta en Nueva York’.” Revista Ímpetu, no. 3, July 2020, pp. 161-78.

- “Simbolismo, mito y fantasía: la concepción y la imagen del unicornio a través de los textos bajomedievales (1300-1500).” Revista Ímpetu, no. 2, May 2020, pp. 16-39.

- “Humanidad contaminada: memoria y conflicto en la obra Matria (2018) de Raquel Lanseros.” Revista Ímpetu, no. 1, March 2020, pp. 143-57.

​

BOOK REVIEWS

- “Reseña de Grafitis para neandertales de Jorge Riechmann.” Revista Ímpetu, no. 6, 2021.

- “Reseña de Matria de Raquel Lanseros.” Revista Hispano Americana. Publicación de la Real Academia Hispano Americana de Ciencias, Artes y Letras, no. 9, 2019.

​​

WORKS IN PROGRESS

- “Diasporic Skins: Gay Male Gaze and The Desiring Image in La piel quemada (Burnt Skin) (1967) by Josep Maria Forn i Costa (1928-2021).” Article manuscript in progress, to be submitted for publication in fall 2024.

- "Dialécticas de lo “público” en los baños universitarios: del trazo a una redefinición del espacio autoimpuesto.” Data collected and analyzed during fall 2022. Article manuscript in progress, to be submitted for publication in fall 2024.

​

SCHOLARLY PRESENTATIONS

- “Palpable (in)visibilities:  Addressing Cernuda’s Time and Poetics in Exile,” to be presented at the Modern Language Association Convention in January 2025, New Orleans, LA.

- “Antígona González (2016). Po-ética de una herida palpitante,” presented at the I Congreso Internacional de Teoría de la Lírica y Poéticas Comparadas on July 3-5, 2024, Universidad de Salamanca, Spain.

- “La poética de Sara Uribe en Antígona González (2016),” presented at the Spanish & Portuguese Department, Rutgers the State University of New Jersey on December 7, 2022, New Brunswick, NJ.

- “La poesía femenina en el S.XXI: Raquel Lanseros,” presented at I Jornadas de Poesía Contemporánea on March 26, 2019, Cádiz, Spain.

- “El mundo de Federico,” presented at VI Semana de las letras de la UCA on March 8, 2016, Cádiz, Spain.

- “Don Quijote nos habla de Cervantes,” presented at V Semana de las letras de la UCA on March 10, 2016, Cádiz, Spain.

​