Un linaje propiola búsqueda de la pertenencia literaria en Chantal Maillard
- 1 University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg; Universidad Nebrija, Madrid
ISSN: 1475-3820, 1478-3428
Year of publication: 2019
Volume: 96
Issue: 9
Pages: 1499-1524
Type: Article
More publications in: Bulletin of Spanish Studies
Abstract
Chantal Maillard achieved literary recognition when she obtained the 2004 Premio Nacional de Poesía for Matar a Platón. Since then, her influence over young writers has steadily grown, both in Spain and in Latin America. However, her position within the Spanish literary system is problematic, because her main influences are not clearly established. Mapping the hierarchy of her influences is essential. In so doing, inexact interpretations of her work will be avoided, such as considering Maillard a disciple of María Zambrano, in spite of the author’s own warnings against such interpretation. In this article, the figure of the painter and poet Henri Michaux is posited as the key influence in Maillard’s literary development. By means of textual analysis, interviews and translations, the importance of this ‘fellow’ man in Maillard is established. A chronological approach establishes the preceding influences, correcting inadequate appreciations and framing Maillard’s discovery of Michaux in its correct time sequence.