The image of ruin in "Los elementos de la noche [1958-1962]" by José Emilio Pacheco

Abstract

The image of ruin is one of recurring figurations, through which the reconstruction of what has been lost is validated in José Emilio Pacheco’s poetry (1939-2014). By means of the remains, for example, of buildings or places wrecked by conquerors (as the case of the pre- Hispanic city of Tenochtitlan), a net is elaborated, linking the losses and absences with their subsequent oblivion. Facing a history made from the linkage of a series of unfortunate events, the poet’s figure counteracts past destructions with his poetic creations. Despite meaning, sometimes, a glorious and prestigious past —that of pre-Columbian peoples—, the ruins mark the violence and indolence with which the conquerors acted on Latin American soil. This work proposes to identify, analyse and explain the poetic images and literary resources used by José Emilio Pacheco when defining and diagramming the spaces in the ruin, destruction and devastation in the Mexican environment. In order to do that, we have selected a group of poems from Los elementos de la noche [1958-1962] (1963).