Still life and"vanitas" in contemporary Spanish poetry

Abstract

This article focuses on the analysis of various contemporary Spanish poems that recreate the theme of Still Lifes, in the specific variant of Vanitas. Although these poems can be inserted within the literary tradition of elegiac poetry, they follow more closely the pictorial tradition of Still Lifes, especially developed during the baroque era. These specific poems highlight the visual aspects of the Still Lifes represented, using detailed and accurate descriptions of the objects and the procedure of rhetorical ecfrasis. For example, the descriptions are so vivid one could imagine the degeneration or the corruption of the objects. Based on this idea, the article attempts to explain or justify the possible causes of this thematic recurrence in the current Spanish poetry, and then analyzes the selection of these poems in its fundamental characteristics.