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DATE DUE DATE DUE DATE DUE 2/05 cnmtm.mls ALTERNATIVE RECONFIGURATIONS or MASCULINITY IN THE POETRY or LEOPOLDO MARIA PANERO, EDUARDO HARO IBARS AND EDUARDO HERVAS By Alyssa Marie Holan A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Spanish and Portuguese 2005 ABSTRACT ALTERNATIVE RECONFIGURATIONS OF MASCULINIT Y IN THE POETRY OF LEOPOLDO MARiA PANERO, EDUARDO HARO IBARS AND EDUARDO HERVAS By Alyssa Marie Holan This study is a queer reading of the (re)negotiation of masculinity as manifest in the poetic works of Leopoldo Maria Panero (Madrid, 1948 -), Eduardo Haro Ibars (Madrid, 1948 -l988), and Eduardo Hervas (Valencia, 1950-1972), three male poets who write and/or publish in late and early post-Franco Spain -- a historical moment of social change within which gender boundaries officially instilled and propagandized by the dictatorship begin to weaken. In accord with Judith Butler’s theory of gender perforrnativity, the investigation shall contend that the representation(s) and interpretations of masculine being offered by each poet’s respective poetic subject(s) expose normative masculinity to be a phantasmic ideal rather than a natural essence, an unattainable state of being striven for and maintained through the reiterative performance of gender-appropriate comportment. Because corporeality is the medium through which gender performativity materializes, this investigation examines male bodily representation, ofien in relation to other bodies, as political text. It shall demonstrate how corporeal identity ultimately serves as a metaphor of each poet’s unique understanding and reconfiguration of the male subject. Traversing sexual boundaries through gender ambiguous comportment, the poetic subjects of Panero, Haro Ibars and Hervas reveal the inauthenticity of normative maleness and construct for themselves an alternative subjectivity. Each male’s enactment of alternative being underscores the castrative effects of social subjectivation and moreover, the possibility of self- reconfiguration through personal agency. Copyright by ALYSSA MARIE HOLAN 2005 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1 Chapter I: (Re)configuring Gender: the (De)Formation of Masculinity ................ 12 Freudian Thought on Identity and Alternative Psychoanalytical Interpretations ............................................................................................ 14 Sex Roles, the Economy of Being, and Discourse ....................................... 30 Social Theory, Gendered Corporeal Being and Queerness ........................ 37 Gay Theory, Queer Males ........................................................................... 43 Chapter II: Killing and Consuming: the Rebirth of Dionysus or the Poetic Voice of Panero ...................................................................................................................... 50 Consumed Flesh, Consumed Blood ............................................................. 56 Castrated Mind ............................................................................................ 67 Hungry for You ............................................................................................ 78 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 93 Chapter 111: Out of sight, (You 're) Out of (Your) Mind: Panero’s Appropriation of the Phallic Gaze ....................................................................................................... 96 Empty Eyes/Quest for Light ......................................................................... 102 Searching for a Looking Glass/(1n)szibility ................................................. 121 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 134 Chapter IV: Apocalyptic Eroticism or the Rebirth of the Sexed Male in the Poetry of Haro Ibars ................................................................................................................ 138 The Closet of Darkness, Man ’s Selfienwombment ...................................... 144 “Flaming ” Tendencies: The Deconstructive Reconstruction of Masculine Materiality ................................................................................................... 168 Cosmic Rain, Metabolic Tears .................................................................... 176 Conclusion ............................................................................................ 179 Chapter V: Vamping it up: Identity Performance, Homoerotics and Bloodlust in Haro Ibars’ Poetic Work ...................................................................................... 184 Penetrating the Big Screen .......................................................................... 194 Revisiting Horror Flicks .............................................................................. 207 Handling Sweet Burning Desire, Representing the Male Vamp ................. 214 Lasting Young Blood ................................................................................... 229 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 234 Chapter VI: Mind over Matter: Rethinking the Body in Eduardo Hervas’ Body Politic ............................................................................................................. 237 Sacred Packaging, Birthing a Commodified Son ........................................ 246 Detected Damaged Goods ........................................................................... 258 F ragile, Don ’t Handle with Care: Self Deconstruction .............................. 265 Reading Between the Lines: Discursive Gaps, Metapoetics and the Reconstruction of Self .................................................................................. 273 Conclusion ............................................................................................ 285 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 287 Bibliography ............................................................................................................ 295 vi Introduction El varén ha de ser de recia estirpe masculina, viril, entero, apto para afrontar los reveses de la Vida, dispuesto a hacer frente a contratiempos y adversidades, libre de pusilénimes temores. «Editorial Escuela Espafiola, Temas de pedagogia (1941) This study intends to offer a queer reading of the (re)negotiation of masculinity as manifest in the poetic works of Leopoldo Maria Panero (Madrid, 1948 -), Eduardo Haro Ibars (Madrid, 1948 -1988), and Eduardo Hervas (Valencia, 1950-1972), three male poets who write and/or publish in late and early post-Franco Spain -- a historical moment of social change within which gender boundaries officially instilled and propagandized by the dictatorship begin to weaken. In accord with Judith Butler’s theory of gender perforrnativity (Gender Trouble and Bodies that Matter), the investigation Shall contend that the representation(s) and interpretations of masculine being offered by each poet’s respective poetic subject(s) expose normative masculinity to be a phantasmic ideal rather than a natural essence, an unattainable state of being striven for and maintained through the reiterative performance of gender-appropriate comportrnent.l Traversing sexual boundaries through gender ambiguous comportment, all three poetic subjects reveal the inauthenticity of implicit limitations of maleness while constructing for themselves through personal agency an alternative interpretation of male subjectivity. Because gender indicates the political relationship between the sexes, namely that of domination of women by men (Wittig, “The Mark of Gender” 64), the reinterpretation of gendered identity constitutes a political act. Each poet, via his I As David S. Gutterrnan suggests in “Postmodernism and the Interrogation of Masculinity,” ‘performance’ should not be misconstrued as artificial but rather understood as “an explanatory framework for understanding the contingency of identity," identity being actions encoded with such things as practices, events, and desires (223). poetic subject(s)’ queer performance of masculinity, offers to his reader a unique body politic that demythifies the gender fixidity espoused by hegemonic discourses. Because corporeality is the medium through which gender perforrnativity materializes, this investigation examines male bodily representation, ofien in relation to other bodies, as political text. It shall demonstrate how corporeal identity ultimately serves as a metaphor of each poet’s unique understanding and reconfiguration of the male subject. As Paul Julian Smith states upon commenting the validity of bodily criticism as a tool of literary investigation in The Body Hispanic: “An attention to the body will stress the multiplicity of factors which determine the place from which I speak and, indeed, the manner in which I am heard by others” (2). Through queer performance, the poetic subjects of the three poets bring to light the castrative effects of social subjectivation or, borrowing Butler’s terms, of the transformation of matter (the unmarked/unread body) into materiality, into intelligible corporeal being as defined by social standards. Rather than stimulate a cohesive sense of self for the given poetic subjects, the “mark” of masculinity is seemingly fragmentary as evidenced by the multiple subjectivities that qualify each male’s personal self and his constant renegotiation of gendered being. A common interest in poetic expression is one of many threads that weave together Leopoldo Maria Panero, Eduardo Haro Ibars and Eduardo Hervas as protagonists of late Franco and/or early post-Franco Spain. The lives of all three men intersect and/or share various commonalities in their trajectories, further elucidating the rationale for the selection of the works of these particular poets in a comparative analysis of the reconfiguration of masculinity. Precocious, all three poets begin their creative production at an early age. Panero and Haro Ibars grow up as sons of writers: Leopoldo Maria is the son of the poet Leopoldo Panero (1909-1962), an official poet of the Franco regime, and Eduardo is that of Eduardo Haro Tecglen, a liberal writer who continues to write for El Pais. Concerning social reality, Panero and Hervas share an interest in the revolutionary potential of poetry as evidenced by their epistolary exchanges.2 Within their personal realm both men suffer from mental illness, Panero’s illness self-proclaimed and evidenced by his continual stays in asylums and suicide attempts,3 and that of Hervas’ incamated by his taking of his own life in 1972. This being said, the writing careers of both Hervas and Haro Ibars end abruptly due to premature deaths, Haro Ibars dying of AIDS in 1988. Although the poets themselves may not agree with such a categorization,4 all three writers are seemingly “malditos.” Each one espouses anti-Franco/antigovernment rhetoric as politically active university students inspired by Marxist ideals, communism perceived by both the Spanish intellectual and student population as the only possible means to provoke social change during the 19605 (Vilaros 23). Furthermore, each writer literally and figuratively -- via poetic expression -- experiments with subversive behaviors that include drug and alcohol intoxication, homoerotica and self annihilation. Panero and Ham Ibars become homoerotically intimate while serving jail time for drug possession (Blesa l3); Hervés, 2 See J. Benito F eméndez’s El Contorno del abismo for examples of their correspondence. 3 Fernandez recounts the poet’s attempts of suicide, the first resulting from his love no correspondido for Ana Moix. ‘ Regarding Panero, Fernandez comments: “Leopoldo Marla Panero no se considera un autor maldito, aunque es consciente que molesta y desagrada” (31). According to Pilar Ivars, Haro Ibars did not consider himself a “maldito,” although he did have a great amount of compassion for the “marginalizados” of society (interview, July 2002). as recalled by Panero, Shares an intimate relationship with the Valencian cinematographer Antonio Maenza (Fernandez 160). In regards to common shared thematics, all three poets incorporate into their poetic corpus the notion of consumption in relation to the human body -- imagery reflective of the poets’ lived experience of Spain’s evolution into a consumer society during the 19603. Consumption manifests as the activity through which one’s entity potentially materializes, transforms and self destructs. Death and disembodiment surface in each poet’s work, although rather diversely. AS this study shall demonstrate, for Hervas, the death of the individual -- and at a macro-level, of the body/society -- is the consequence of materialism, that is to say, of the passive consumption of a commodified sexed identity as individual. Self-disembodiment becomes the means through which the poetic subject begins to reconfigure for himself a more authentic sense of self. Similarly, for Panero, death results from the stinging bite of the mother- patria, her inescapable presence a constant reminder of his impotent and fragmented position under her shadow. The broken male finds temporary solace in “out of body experiences,” including homoerotica, drugs and alcohol. Finally, for Haro Ibars’ subject, self-deconstruction, often undistinguished from the ecstasy of subversive sexual experiences and drugs, becomes the ultimate rebirth, that which, under the guise of relegated masculine being, enables the male to forge a more authentic identity. In El mono del desencanto Teresa M. Vilaros utilizes the image of the fiagmented body as an allegorical representation of post-Franco Spain; the dictator’s death incamates the decapitation of the Spanish body/state, the pro-Francoists no longer having a leader, the anti-Francoists no longer having anyone against whom to unite. Correlative to the demise of the Franco state, the corporeal boundaries of the defunct father figure’s sons and daughters break and blur: “L . .] en el momento en que Franco muere, la herencia se desintegra. Desaparecen los libros y los anales, a1 mismo tiempo que los cuerpos de los hijos se rompen y/o se confunden” (45). While this study supports Vilarés’ observation of the dissolution of corporeal demarcations as a qualifier of the Spanish transitional period, it also highlights the presence of identity fragmentation, particularly in relation to the configuration of masculinity, in late Franco Spain as evidenced by the poetry of the three studied men. This is to say, the ideal of masculine subjectivity as consistently maintained by the dictatorship’s political platform ironically leaves the poetic subjects in a fragmentary state. In this sense male brokeness is symptomatic of the elusive masculine ideal, male brokeness eventually exposing itself when politically possible -- during the Spanish transition out of dictatorship. Leopoldo Maria Panero’s poetic portrayal of an impotent male child who craves physical intimacy with other men -- hoping that their masculine shadows will reflect a sense of virility onto his own being --, epitomizes the poet’s overall lack of a cohesive male subjectivity and his desperate desire to achieve some sense of it. Eduardo Hervas’ disownership of the male body, reveals to the reader the poet’s rejection of phallic position as defined by social norms. Offering the reader the ultimate performance, Haro Ibars openly celebrates his male genitalia as the source of homosexual desire, that which destroys corporeal divisions between men and provides the poet with a sense of rebirth through shared subjectivity.’ 5 Speaking of homosexuality in Spain during the early eighties, Borja Casani comments in $610 se vive una vez: “La sensibilidad homosexual, de siempre, es una sensibilidad muy cercana a lo artistico, quizas por puro feeling, [. . .] . En ese momento (los homosexuales) son [. . . ] los que realmente dan el cante, As “sons” of the Franco era, Panero, Haro Ibars and Hervas are indoctrinated in masculinism and their works are a response to that official discourse. The ideology that informs patriarchy, masculinism assumes a fundamental difference between men and women, justifies and naturalizes male domination over women, and ultimately assumes heterosexuality as the norm (Brittan 3). Overall, Franco’s implementation of socialization processes to impede dissent from the official ideology exemplifies the extent to which masculinism informed Spanish reality of the given time. As recalled in Luis Otero’s autobiographical narrative Mi mama’ me mima, state education,6 employment regulations, medical practices and teachings7 and Catholicism“ are some means through which rigid gender roles are reinforced during the Franco era. Along with the overt institutionalization of motherhood,9 men are subjected to the prescription of inflexible social roles encompassing particular familial, economic and leadership responsibilities, suggestive of an institutionalization of fatherhood, an additional societal process employed by the Franco regime through which clearly delineated gender roles are maintained. It is arguable that said definitions of sexed being and los que ponen la came en el asador en lo que es el show, el espectaculo” (20). 6 Otero reveals how various textbooks of the Franco era such as Iniciacibn and Enciclopedia escolar en dibujos stress the authoritative position of the male and the nurturing duties of the female within the family unit. 7 In Antes que te cases (1946) Dr. Vallejo Nagera comments: “La funcibn principal de la mujer es la de la maternidad, y de aqui que dijeran los antiguos que su personalidad total reside en el utero, organo femenino capital, [. . .] ” (158). 8 In regards to how the Catholic religion informs and validates the priviledged position of the man in the family unit, Antonio Garcia D. F igar declares in El hombre en el matrimonio: “(Que posicibn es la del esposo en la casa? Comentaremos, con los Padres y Doctores de la Iglesia, los textos de la divina Escritura” (147). 9 In Usos amorosos de la postguerra espafiola Martin Gaite comments: “Mediante préstamos a la nupcialidad y los famosos subsidios y leyes de proteccibn a las familias numerosas, Franco se habia propuesto remediar e1 estrago demografico de aquél millon de muertos, victirnas de una guerra que él mismo habia emprendido. Y la mujer tenia que ser la primera en pagar el pato” (S2). appropriate gender actions and interactions, do not instantaneously dissolve upon the death of the dictator. Ingrained in the collective conscious, or, borrowing imagery employed by Vilaros,lo scarred into the Spanish body as a permanent “tattoo,” relegated gendered identity -- what it means to be and a “man” versus what it means to be a “woman” -- continues to inform culturally perceived reality as revealed by the poetic subjects of this Study. All three poets’ alternative representation of both masculine and feminine being can be read as a direct response to the official discourse that shapes their very being. Throughout his work, Panero successfully demythifies the natural capacity of the female to nurture through the vicious imagery he utilizes to represent the poetic subject’s biological mother. A flesh consuming, blood sucking monstrous being, the maternal figure emasculates the poetic voice, leaving him void of any true sense of identity. Psychoanalytical innuendoes surface throughout Panero’s poetic corpus, calling into question the assumed dynamics of the mother-son relationship and the maternal role in identity formation overall. Eduardo Hervas’ poetic voice’s incapability to identify with either of his parent -- represented as physical entities in gendered spaces -- implicitly reveals his inability to conceptualize himself according to prescribed gender norms. His absent body (that which, if read by society, would give his persona significance) or self imposed disembodiment epitomizes his choice to live outside of the heterosexual matrix, his personal sacrifice of mythical masculine power for a more authentic existence as an anomaly. In regards to the normalcy of '0 Vilaros utilizes the image of a permanent body tattoo when Speaking of the scar of F rancoism on Spanish historical reality (46). heterosexuality, Monique Wittig acknowledges the implications of the rejection of such a notion: “The refusal to become (or to remain) heterosexual always meant to refuse to become a man or woman, consciously or not [. . .] . It is the refusal of the economic, ideological, and political power of a man” (“One is Not Born a Woman” 13). With Wittig’s notion in mind, the poetic voice of Eduardo Haro Ibars also relinquishes his privileged position within society as he seeks comfort and sexual intimacy from members of his same sex. In doing so, he transforms the bestiality of vampirism, imagery often used to scorn female promiscuity,” into intense lovemaking between two men. While late and post-Francoism are historical moments in which many Spaniards choose el olvido as a means of coping with Spanish reality,l2 the three studied poets choose not to censor themselves. As a student at the University of Valencia Eduardo Hervas is active in the Marxist movement of the late 605 and utilizes his poetry as a vehicle of materialist criticism and potential social revolution. The alienating effects of the industrialization of Spain -- through the commodification of the worker -- during the time period at hand resounds throughout the Valencian’s work: “la desigualdad nos enclava en los ejes / del trabajo del deseo y del deseo del trabajo” (“‘violenta trayectoria’” [Obra Poética 102]). Written and published in the late 70S and early 805 (post Franco), the poetry of Leopoldo Maria Panero analyzed in this study and that of Eduardo Haro Ibars reflect the subversive and individualistic attitude exemplified by la H See Martin Gaite’s Usos amorosos de la postguerra espariola (134). '2 Vilarés observes: “Después de la experiencia de Franco no hay escapatoria, no hay una vita beata a la que podamos retirarnos a no ser que pase por la destruccion de la memoria, a no ser que Situe ésta después de la historia” (30). movida of Madrid, a time of societal transition in which drug, alcohol and sexual experimentation fuel creative expression. In 5610 se vive una vez, Nanye Blazquez makes evident the individualist character of la movida: Rota toda la sociologia, tanto la del mundo oficial como la de la oposicion, la sociedad misma, a travéS de la palabra movida, restaura la manera de descubrir lo que pasa. Lo que esta pasando es que la gente se mueve auténomamente, [. . .]. (Gallero 29) As previously commented, the act of consuming repeatedly manifests in the works of Panero: “y ya no tengo sangre en / las venas sino alcohol, / [. . .] / Escribir en Espafia no ’9 es llorar, es / beber, [. . . ] (“La cancion del croupier del Missisipi” [Poesia Completa 221-222] ); and in those of Haro Ibars: “ [. . .] Y nos / alimentabamos de muerte fresca” (“Esto es un arbol o tal vez un deseo” [Obra poética 172] ). Moreover, Panero’s rupture of the mother (agent of the patria) - son bond epitomizes the detachment of the individual or new sense of autonomy experienced during la movida. Likewise, Haro Ibars’ willingness to "consume" others (vamp imagery) in order to sustain his own life represents the egocentric attitude of the time. Finally, all three poets -- via their respective poetic works -- critique the Catholic Church’s role in identity formation, a foundational institution of the Franco regime that continued to define Spanish life -- gender roles -- after the death of the dictator. From a more theoretical perspective, the overall notion of gender reconceptualization remains problematic as exemplified by the continued debate within Academia over its feasibility. In Gender Trouble Butler recognizes that limitations of gender analysis exist because the instrument utilized to create alternative gender conceptualizations, namely hegemonic discourse, is constraining by nature (13). This observation provokes a series of complicated questions, one being the following: is gender reconceptualization contingent upon the superseding of established gender norms? That is to ask, can one consider the deconstruction of binary sex categories and the appropriation of gendered qualities an effective means to gender 66 reconceptualization? According to Wittig, no: [. . .] a new personal and subjective definition for all humankind can only be found beyond the categories of sex (man and woman) [. . .] ” (“One is Not Born a Woman” 19). She understands homosexual desire to be the vehicle through which one can transcend such barriers: “If desire could liberate itself, it would have nothing to do with the preliminary marking by sexes” (“Paradigm” 114). Acknowledging the restrictive nature of external forces, discursive and societal overall, Biddy Martin appears to be in general agreement with both Butler’s and Wittig’s positions. Nevertheless, in “Sexualities without Genders,” Martin also acknowledges the potential liberating force of the reconceptualization of psychic life at the individual level: “I have become more convinced that too thorough an evacuation of interiority, too total a collapse of the boundaries between public and private, and too exclusive and understanding of psychic life as the effect of normalization can impoverish the language we have available for drinking about selves and relationships, [...] ” (13-14). Keeping these questions and different perspectives in mind, among others, this investigation shall consider the seeming effectiveness of each poetic subject’s endeavor to redefine his masculine being. In regards to the innovativeness of the proposed investigation, while there are numerous studies on the manifestation of feminine writing, female desire, and 10 gynocentric vision in the works of Spanish women poets, (i.e. Ugalde, and Wilcox), there are relatively few investigations that focus primarily on masculine identity and its problematic nature as exemplified in poetry written by Spanish male poets. Critical studies of the representation of the male as a physical being -- as opposed to those of the male as poet/creator and/or voyeur -- remain few “in a culture committed to the ideological construction of maleness as the antithesis of representation” (Villena 202). In The Body Hispanic Paul Julian Smith suggests that such a naturalization of man’s body as invisible not only ensures his dominance within society, but it also impedes the male from truly knowing oneself (l 5). And so the question remains as to how one goes about representing the unrepresentable. Smith himself struggles with this very issue in the aforementioned book; although his intent was to offer The Body Hispanic (1989) to the reader as the “first contribution to men’s studies in Hispanism,” (5) he acknowledges the work’s overall return to the woman (205), which again emphasizes the complexity of the task at hand and the overall interdependence of sexed identity. While masculinity has yet to be fully explored in Spanish literature, particularly in poetry, theories of masculinity and gender have become a current interest in academic research, primarily in Great Britain and the United States. Thus the contribution of this investigation to the field of literary research is twofold: on the one hand it brings to light the work of poets who have been overlooked, marginalized and/or not fully explored due to a variety of reasons, including suicide at an early age and terminal illness, and it also considers the applicability of theories of masculinity and gender to contemporary Spanish works. 11 Chapter I: (Re)configuring Gender: the (De)Formation of Masculinity It seems to me that any account of masculinity must begin with its place in the general discussion of gender. --Brittan, Masculinities and Identities During the twentieth century, the theorization of masculinity evolves due to various historical factors including the sexual revolution and feminist movement of the 60S and 705 and gay political activism in the 705 -- movements that (in)advertently destabilize the traditional conceptualization of masculine being. The 1969 Stonewall bar incident in New York City in which homosexuals resisted a police raid and initiated a riot is considered a landmark historical moment of the phenomenon of urban homosexual grouping that symbolically marks for many the initiation of the gay -- as opposed to queer -- liberation movement (Dyer 2). Said phenomenon rapidly spreads to Western Europe in 1970-71, underscoring the need for “a new, open, homosexual politics, a revolutionary politics (in rhetoric if not in form) which has as its underlying thrust the goal of personal and sexual self-determination” (Weeks 23).l Regarding the conceptualization of masculinity, most theorists have contended that sexed identity revolves around the binary relationship, as phantasmic as it may be, between men and women. This is to say, masculinity is conventionally perceived as that whose very demarcations are determined by those excluded qualities that fall within the realm of femininity. Hence, the study of masculinity requires consideration of concepts of femininity as “‘(m)asculinity’ is simultaneously a place in gender relations, ' Historically speaking, Spain lags behind in the organization of a “gay movement,” per say. As Smith acknowledges in Vision Machines, even with the onset of the AIDS epidemic in the late 19805 and early 19905, “gay commentators could note the continuing unwillingness of the habitués of the burgeoning commercial gay ghettos of Madrid and Barcelona even to discuss the epidemic, let alone Show solidarity towards those affected most severely by it” (101). 12 the practices through which men and women engage that place in gender, and the effects of those practices in bodily experience, personality and culture” (Connell 71). More inclusively, Michael S. Kimmel extends the boundaries of the binary relation, conceding in “Masculinity as Homophobia: Fear, Shame, and Silence in the Construction of Gender Identity,” that the study of masculine being requires consideration of relations to/with all sets of ‘others’ -~ including racial and sexual minorities -- as it is through such definitions of opposition or difference that what it is to be male is established (120). Judith Butler also contends that the configuration of gendered identity is contingent upon multiple variables -- such as ethnicity and class -- that converge upon material being, influencing the experience of intelligible being as male or female. Some feminist theorists however disagree with the assessment of masculinity as relational in nature; according to both Beauvoir and Wittig only the feminine gender is marked while the masculine is equivalent to the universal person. Accepting this interpretation of maleness, a relational study of masculinity would be futile. In any event, it is immediately obvious to the reader that the masculine poetic voices of Panero, Hervas, and Haro Ibars do not represent universal personhood but rather particular gendered identities delineated and maintained through historical relationships with both sexes/others. The poets themselves put male corporeal being under microscopic scrutiny as they attempt to negotiate the significance of masculinity. Throughout the twentieth and twenty first centuries, various methodologies have been employed to explore the question of gender formation, three principle ones being psychoanalysis, sex role theory, and the social theory of gender based on anthropological, historical, and sociological investigation. What follows is a brief 13 overview of various theorizations of identity formation that utilize the above mentioned approaches of study. It does not pretend to be complete, nor does it insist upon the exclusiveness of the methodological approaches explored; many theorizations examined blur and meld a variety of approaches. Overall, the eclectic nature of the selection reflects the complexity and richness of the poetic works to be analyzed. Freudian Thought on Identity and Alternative Psychoanalytical Interpretations With the publication of his Three Essays in 1905, Sigmund Freud provides a foundational psychoanalytical interpretation of identity formation that would inspire firture investigations of the construction of selfltood. The principal organizing concept of his theorization, the "unconscious" is defined by Freud as the constant negation of painfirl feelings of loss and desire experienced in childhood though not determined by social or cultural restraints. Repressed within the individual, said internal dimension of identity serves as a permanent, nonlinguistic system of meanings that influences one’s sense of reality and self and his/her overall comportment. In this sense, personal conflict characterizes the human experience; consciousness remains in an unstable state due to the potential resurfacing of sentiments and longings buried within the individual so that he may function within cultural reality.2 Freud traces initial childhood experiences of desire and loss (i.e. the development of the unconscious) to the evolution and eventual dissolution of the mother-child bond, what he deems as the Oedipal Crisis. The Oedipal Crisis catalyzes the child’s separation from the maternal body and his/her correlative “new” existence as a gendered and autonomous being within a reality that 2 Freud’s later theory is more complex, comprised of a triadic structure -- id, ego and the superego (1923). 14 extends beyond the mother figure. Recognizing the sexual difference between himself and his mother, and the impossibility of sexual ownership of his mother due to the paternal presence and the incest taboo, the boy child experiences “symbolic castration.” In reaction to said experience of metaphoric corporeal fragmentation, the boy child represses within himself any identification with and sexual feelings towards the maternal figure and identifies with the father figure. Inevitably as an adult he satisfies his sexual desires for his mother through the presence of an alternative female.3 Regarding the girl child, she also longs to control the maternal figure by “being” what her mother desires. The realization that this is physically impossible for her causes the girl child to experience penis envy. Inevitably, she fulfills her metaphoric desire “to be” the phallus by coming into possession of one through a relationship with a male, this is to say, by identifying with the maternal figure and fulfilling the same heterosexual role. Freud’s theory of the Oedipal Crisis remains under criticism for its presumption of universality of the childhood experience it interprets, in disregard of any socio- historical and cultural specifics that shape familial relations. The presumed norm of the reactionary identification of both the boy child with the male paternal figure and the girl child with the maternal figure as suggested by the Oedipal Crisis fails to consider the possibility of either offspring’s continued desire for his/her same sex parent and/or identification with said parent due to narcissism more than the desire to proliferate the heterosexual norm. For Freud, narcissistic love is not a means to its own end; rather it marks a transitional stage between self-love and a relationship with an external person. 3 “If symbolic castration by the father is not accepted, fetishism or homosexuality may be the resulting forms of identity for the male adult. Symbolic castration involves the acceptance of both these forms of identity only in the sense of the prohibition of heterosexual desires for the mother” (Minsky 42). 15 Regarding the boy child in particular, as observed by Rosalind Minsky in Psychoanalysis and Gender, said disownership of feminine identification inevitably minimizes his potentiality of self: “The cultural requirement of ‘masculinity’ crucially depends on acceptance of symbolic castration by the father and the repression of the boy’s mother, and all she represents, into the unconscious. This severing from his ‘femininity’, half of what constituted his potential self, is the enormous price which must be paid for a ‘masculine’ identity within patriarchal cultures” (43). Minsky’s observation of the fragmentation of the male self through the appropriation of “phallic being” will serve as a pertinent point for analysis of the poetry of all three poets in the given study as each poet’s poetic subject expresses such an experience of personal fragmentation. While Freud’s interpretation of gendered identity arguably has a minimizing effect, his understanding of sexual development extends beyond the corporeal mark of genitalia and its correlative presumed urges. Regardless, his theory again reinforces the heterosexual norm. Freud once again identifies universal childhood experiences to be foundational to identity formation. This is to say, according to Freud, sexual drives are symbolic of the major sources of pleasure experienced in infancy, pleasure initially gained through an infant’s own body and his/her contact with the maternal figure. In this sense, Freudian sexuality is specific to human culture and the form of conscious and unconscious life (the latter resulting from repressed desires for the mother) that defines our reality. Freud describes four phases of the development of sexuality: the oral phase in which the infant experiences pleasure through the lips, the anal phase in which pleasure results from muscle control, the phallic phase in which the child falls in 16 love with mother and as discussed above, desires to possess her and the pleasure associated with her care, and finally genital sexuality or heterosexuality. Freud’s theorization of sexual development does not present “masculinity” and femininity” as pure, biological facts but rather as cultural experiences that, when achieved, decrease the possibility of neurosis. Nevertheless, as this study shall argue, the embracement of masculine being as defined by society can produce equally crippling effects on male selfliood, producing feelings of self inadequacy because of one’s inability to actually live up to such an idealized identity. In Ecrits (1966), Jacques Lacan utilizes a post-structuralist interpretation of psychoanalysis to manipulate principal Freudian concepts, transforming “identity” into “subjectivity” achieved through language, and the “unconscious” into language itself. For Lacan, human existence as a cohesive, complete entity is merely a mirage, an unattainable sociocultural myth reinforced and maintained through language. He contends that subjectivity, while seemingly constant and seamless, is organic and fi‘agmented, changing itself in accord with the unstable and ever shifting change of significance of language. Lacan distinguishes three different realms that interact and influence the creation of one’s sense of being: the realm of the Imaginary, the realm of the Symbolic, and the realm of the Real. The realm of the Imaginary represents the reality of infancy in which corporeal boundaries are indistinguishable, emotions remain unexpressed and fantasies of hate and love for the mother abound. Within this realm, the baby eventually achieves an initial sense of identity or self corporeality through the presence of an other body-- typically that of the maternal figure. Borrowing the looking glass metaphor of “seeing” l7 one’s own image in that of an other, the French theorist terms this moment of self recognition as “The Mirror Stage”: We have only to understand the mirror stage as an identification, in the full sense that analysis gives to the term: namely, the transformation that takes place in the subject when he assumes an image -- whose predestination to this phase-effect is sufficiently indicated by the use, in analytic theory, of this ancient term irnago. (Lacan 2) Lacan understands the sense of identity achieved at this early age to be fragile and imaginary, as a defense against the inner instability that continues to dominate the child. Moreover, because his/her conceptualization of identity depends directly on the materialization of another body, the infant is hardly autonomous. This is to say, the “other” actually forms a part of who the child is, or wishes to be. In this sense, identity is based on sameness rather than distinction from an other. Within the reahn of the Imaginary, the child places many demands on the maternal figure -- such as her complete and undivided attention. Not having been completely satisfied by her response, the child experiences desire. In general, it is the paternal figure that prevents the child from possessing full ownership of the mother. This is to say, the maternal figure’s loyalty remains with the father because he possesses what She desires -- the phallus, that to which society attributes the most esteemed value. In this sense, the greatest threat against the mother-child bond is not the mere physical presence of the father but rather the symbolic significance attributed to his place within society. Lacan distinguishes said symbolic value from the actual father figure by denominating the former as the Symbolic Father or the Name of the Father. The Name 18 of the Father -- social and cultural order as organized around the phallic symbol -- ultimately removes the child from his imaginary reality by exposing his/her lack of power before the phallus. In this sense, language symbolically castrates the child: neither the boy nor girl child will ever be that which the mother desires because of the phallus as a cultural symbol, regardless of the father’s physical presence. With this realization, both the boy and girl child are thrust into the realm of the Symbolic and at the same time, into their sexed positions within said realm. The societal norm that attributes power and privilege to the place of the father leaves the child in search of a linguistic substitution for the lost mother. The boy child, while able to physically identify with the father figure, inevitably establishes his phallic position through the desires of another woman. The girl child’s struggle for personal authentication is seemingly more complex as her “lack of genitalia” leaves her in a state of void, of non- subjectivity as the “I” of the realm of the Father revolves around the phallic signifier. Her “masquerade” or becoming that which is desirable to man allows her to establish a selfhood through the heterosexual relationship. Regardless, for both the boy and girl child, repressed desires for the maternal figure, longings to return to the satisfaction experienced within the Imaginary, continue to resurface within the gaps of language, challenging the established norm. According to Lacanian thought, such desires constitute the “unconscious.” Encapsulated by linguistic boundaries, for Lacan the unconscious does not exist outside of language. Desires, wants and images of the unconscious form part of a “Signifying chain,” each link’s meaning -- usually expressed verbally -- being based on its distinction from the others. Unlike Saussurian thought in which signs are formed 19 through the relationship between signifiers and signified, within Lacan’s unconscious, signifiers do not refer back to signifieds. This further explains the former conceptualizations’ interdependence for value through difference and also the overall instability of their meanings. The constant Shifting of meanings, of drives and desires within the unconscious, incarnate the internal chaos subjectivity attempts to combat through the concretization of a stable “I.” The child’s successful initiation into the realm of the Father does allow him/her to arrive at a more authentic -- but fragile nonetheless «sense of being as an autonomous, sexed being; in the words of Butler: Lacan insists that the body as a visual projection or imaginary formation cannot be sustained except through submitting to the name, where the ‘name’ stands for the Name of the Father the law of sexual differentiation. In “The Mirror Stage,” Lacan remarks that the ego is produced as psychic works of fiction; this fictional directionality is arrested and immobilized through the emergence of a symbolic order that legitimates sexually differentiated fictions as “positions.” (Bodies that Matter 138) Having accepted the myth of the phallus under the threat of the imagined act of castration, the boy child suppresses within his unconscious any previous feelings of identification with the feminine; likewise, the girl child, now identifying herself as a “feminine being,” represses previous desires to become the phallus -- the masculine counterpart -- of the maternal figure. In either case, as Lacan makes emphatic, sexed identity is farcical: both masculinity and femininity derive their significance from a symbol -- the phallus -- whose power has been arbitrarily assigned and reinforced by an 20 imagined act. Furthermore, as elaborated upon in the context of Freudian thought, the acquisition of sexed identity is implicitly self destructive because it requires each gender to surrender any identification either one may feel with the opposite sex. In any event, Lacan agrees with Freudian thought that the consequences of not acquiring a recognizable corporeality -- what he now interprets through language -- are seemingly more destructive: participation in the normative relationship between man and woman, the heterosexual binary as stabilized through language, requires adherence to subjectivity based on sexed identity; refusal to follow said normative leaves the subject in a state of psychosis within the realm of the Imaginary, bound to his/her fragile existence beside the maternal figure. Besides the Imaginary and the Symbolic, the third realm within Lacanian thought that shapes subjectivity is the realm of the Real. Said dimension escapes the definitions of the Symbolic, of language as known, manifestations of it being the womb experience and death itself. Comprised of the unanalyzed quality of materiality, “the real in its ‘raw’ state,” (Sheridon X) said realm’s undefined state inadvertently supports ordered reality within the reahn of the Father. This is to say, its ambiguous quality reinforces through opposition the chain of meaning within the Symbolic based on unconscious desires. Any return to this pure state predicates the disruption of cultural norms, as structured around the phallic symbol and the destruction of subjectivity as known. As Minsky summarizes: [. . .] the phallus is the primary signifier of the name of the father which sets in motion the endless Signifying chain which makes the Symbolic and subjectivity possible. If this particular signifier is repudiated and 21 expelled as it is in psychosis, Lacan suggests that the whole signifying network is thrown into chaos and all meaning is foreclosed. This collapse of meaning acts in direct opposition to subjectivity, producing a gap in the symbolic universe and throwing the fragmented subject catastrophically into the realm of the Real. (156-157) In L ’Anti-Oedipe: Capitalisme et Schizophrénie (1972), Deleuze and Guattari agree with Lacan’s notion that forms of desire are not biologically determined but rather socially created. However, they challenge his compliance with Freudian psychoanalysis and Oedipus theory, denominating the latter as a trapping of a capitalistic society as a means to control libidinal energy for economic gain. In contrast to the clearly defined and cohesive images of the human subject (male versus female) that societal norms fabricate, Deleuze and Guattari perceive the individual as constituted by “desiring machines,” mechanisms that enable unlimited possibilities of relationships. Corporeality being boundless and infinitely penetrable, fragmentation is a universal experience and not a deviant state as society would want one to presume. Because capitalist society cannot survive with such an infinite possibilities of relationships, it imposes constraints that determine permissible relationships. Heterosexuality surfaces as the culturally supported norm, the traditional family unit being an essential building block for capitalism to flourish. In this sense, the individual’s consciousness and furthermore, his/her sexuality is determined by a historical situation more than a closed family system. This being said, in accord with Deleuze and Guattari’s line of thought and in contrast to both Lacanian and Freudian theory, neurosis is a by-product of Oedipalization, the result of the sacrifice of our multifaceted nature for the sake of 22 indoctrination into a modern, capitalist society. As Jeffrey Weeks summarizes in his preface to Homosexual Desire: In modern society we can become “neurotic”, that is, accept our Oedipalisation (and use psychoanalysis); or we can reject it, by becoming what society describes as “schizophrenic’” or we can adopt a third alternative, and “schizophrenise” -- that is, we can reject the false coherence of the “molar” self, and this will lead us to an experience of the self at the “molecular” level of our desiring machines. We can set out to discover the desiring machine, a process which Deleuze and Guattari, echoing Laing, call a “voyage” of discover, and in doing so the “truth of the subject” will become clearer.” (33) Regarding the study at hand, Deleuze and Guattari’s theory of the social “Oedipalization” is quite pertinent as the poetic voices being studied attempt to negotiate a sense of identity in light of familial roles and expectations. Moreover, their theorization of being as “desiring machines” that find pleasure through unlimited connections with bodies as opposed to an appropriate sex, is seemingly the human experience explored by the poetic subjects being considered. Whereas Deleuze and Guattari disavow the validity of psychoanalysis as a means to interpret human subjectivity, Since the 19703, many French feminist theorists - - including but not limited to Helene Cixous, Luce Irigary, and Julia Kristeva -- have utilized both Freudian and Lacanian thought as springboards for further exploration of the unconscious dimensions of both history and contemporary culture. As flawed and phallocentric as it may be, psychoanalysis -- unlike the theorization of Deleuze and 23 Guattari which dissolves the notion of subjectivity» provides feminists with a female subject (phantasmic or not) with which to work. In their study of feminine being, said generation of French theorists concerns itself with the influence of motherhood and marriage on women’s subordination within society, the construction of gendered identity and its relation to sexuality, and the relationship between the unconscious and language. Their mutual recognition of poetic language as the freeing agent of unconscious desire imprisoned by patriarchal control or, by the binary categories of language, links the unique theories of these post-modernist feminists together (Minsky 179). Of particular interest to the study at hand is Kristeva’s interpretation of liberation through aestheticism, or what she denominates as the “Senriotic.” While Kristeva challenges Lacan’s assumption that cultural meaning requires the repression of the primary relationship to the maternal body, she maintains a non- essentialist feminist position. Regarding the latter, the theorist negates the existence of ’ any vacuum packed, self-contained conceptualization of feminine subjectivity as suggested by the notion of “woman”; rather, from her perspective, “being” entails an organic process more than any constant corporeal being and corresponding significance. To underscore this point, Kristeva reconceptualizes “femininity” outside of the female body, renaming it “marginality.” Such a reinterpretation explicitly acknowledges how the experience of otherness or alienation from the norm can qualify both sexed bodies, that culturally deemed “femininity” can mark both female and male sexed corporealities. Embodying the unconscious, repressed, and unspoken, marginality is only able to become interpretable through the linguistic tools of the Symbolic. However, by surfacing up from below the norms established by the Name of the Father, 24 said revived drives inevitably challenge the linguistic definitions that originally enabled their “rebirth.” In other words, while Kristeva recognizes that the Symbolic as a system of signification based on phallic privilege implicitly alienates the marginalized, impeding any authentic self-expression, she also acknowledges the impossibility of completely disengaging oneself from said structuralized reality and creating for oneself a significant existence. From her point of view, the marginalized can achieve meaningful identity through the fluidity of double discourse, that which meshes presumed masculinity « language/consciousness « with femininity «the unconscious. As Minsky summarizes: “[. . .] Kristeva argues that women should employ a double discourse which reflects the real state of all identity which must always be fluid « at the same time both ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ -- both inside and outside the boundaries of the Symbolic” (181). Kristeva presents the “Semiotic” or poetic language as the vehicle in which instinct and representation coexist and through which the boundaries of the reahn of the Father are disrupted and subverted. Unlike Lacan who perceives the repression of wants and desires as precursory to linguistic development, Kristeva contends that said drives constitute the core of the Serrriotic, poetry being “the linguistic occasion on which drives break apart the usual, univocal terms of language and reveal an irrepressible heterogeneity of multiple sounds and meanings” (Butler, Gender Trouble 104). She asserts in Revolution in Poetic Language (1974) that the complexity of human drives explains the plurivocal possibilities of poetic language. The latter’s organic signification and structure overpower, at least temporarily, the severe demarcations of Significance within the realm of the Father, enabling the recovery of the 25 maternal body, a metaphoric return to the semiotic relationship between mother and child through rhythm, assonance, intonations, and repetition. As Donna A. Stanton explains in “Difference on Trial: A Critique of the Maternal Metaphor in Cixous, Irigaray and Kristeva”: “Logically and chronologically anterior to the imposition of the symbolic (or paternal) order, the semiotic is conceptualized as the preverbal moment when the child is bound up with, and dependent on, the mother’s body, when instinctual drives are organized, and rhythmic models developed” (165-166). Kristeva’s notion of the maternal as precultural is considered problematic by Butler because it reinforces the binary construct of woman to nature and man to culture (Gender Trouble 103). She also denies Kristeva’s Semiotic any liberizing potential because its very building blocks « language « are borrowed from the realm of the Father and by constructing itself with them, the Semiotic inadvertently ultimately reinforces said repressive system: Obedient, then, to syntactical requirements, the poetic maternal practices of displacing the paternal law always remain tenuously tethered to that law. Hence, a full-scale refusal of the Symbolic is impossible, and a discourse of “emancipation” for Kristeva, is out of the question. (Gender Trouble 109) Inspite of these objections, what is of most interest to this study is Kristeva’s renaming of femininity as marginality, her recognition of otherness as an experience independent of sexed corporeality. This study shall demonstrate how the poetic voices of Panero, Haro Ibars and Hervas experience marginality in one manner or another. Furthermore, as shall be demonstrated, Hervas’ poetic work shall be interpreted as an incarnation of 26 Kristeva’s theory of the Semiotic; his poetic voice, in search of his lost femininity, utilizes poetics to metaphorically return to reconstruct a maternal bond. His longing for such harmony or existence outside of the confines of the Symbolic manifests poetically through his employment of rhythm, creation of verbal fluidity through poetic tropes and choice of words with multiple signification. Another feminist that offers a psychoanalytic interpretation of gendered being that challenges traditional Freudian ideas is American theorist Nancy Chodorow. Although her theorization has been criticized for being ahistorical,‘ in “Gender, Relation, and Difference in Psychoanalytic Perspective” (1979) Chodorow contends that psychoanalysis provides an understanding of the historical development of distinct gendered being and its corresponding life experiences. While she recognizes the obvious physiological distinction of the male sexed body from the female, Chodorow argues that one’s understanding of sexed differences is more contingent upon social and psychological factors. For her, personal experiences within one’s particular family and culture have a greater influence over the conceptualization of gendered being: “L . .] as psychoanalysis has shown us, there is nothing self-evident about [this] biology. How anyone experiences, fantasizes about, or internally represents her or his embodiment grows from experience, learning, and self-definition in the family and in the culture” (27). In the development of her non-essentialist interpretation'of gendered being, Chodorow expounds upon two key aspects of the development of self-identity: “differentiation” and “perceptions of difference.” ‘ Both Roger S. Gottlieb (“Mothering and the Reproduction of Power” ) and Arthur Brittan (Masculinity and Power) criticize her psychoanalytic interpretation of sexed identity for being ahistorical. 27 In general, differentiation describes the experience that Lacan locates in the realm of the Imaginary « “The Mirror Stage”: the realization of individuality as sensed through the presence of a recognized Other (namely the maternal figure because she is typically the primary caregiver). Chodorow interprets this process as the development of ego boundaries, both psychological and physical. However, unique to Chodorow’s interpretation of individualization is its contingency upon the child’s recognition of the Other as subject: “Differentiation, separation, and disruption of the narcissistic relation to reality are developed through learning that the mother is a separate being with separate interests and activities that do not always coincide with just what the infant wants at the time” (Chodorow 29). Furthermore, unlike Freudian thought, she maintains that the unconscious is a relational construct, blurring the boundaries between the internal and the external. Internal separateness results from the internalization of images of others in relation to self or in general, of self in relationship. Hence, the mother-child relationship has a profound effect on the child’s early sense of self and his/her later sense of identity: Images of felt good and bad aspects of the mother or primary caretaker, caretaking experiences, and the mothering relationship become part of the self, of a relational ego structure, through unconscious mental processes that appropriate and incorporate these images. With maturation, these early images and fragments of perceived experience become put together into a self. (Chodorow 31) The more comfortable one feels within his/her ego core as established by relationships with others adversely affects the individual’s need to distinguish him/herself as an 28 individual. This being said, unlike separateness which Chodorow interprets as a defensive reaction to internal insecurities, differentiation, as a relational concept, is a particular way of connecting with others through early incorporations. Regarding “perceptions of difference,” Chodorow criticizes the Freudian account of “penis envy” for being established upon unfounded presumptions « the value of the male sex « and in this sense, for its violation of basic psychoanalytical methodology: according to the theorist, Freud failed to explore the roots of said feelings due to his inability to focus on the pre-Oedipal years and the relationship of mother to child (34). Chodorow argues that “core gender identity” « a cognitive sense of gendered self « is more conflictive for men than for women because of the maternal presence during the process of individualization. This is to say, the boy child must disidentify with his mother by learning his masculine difference from her corporeality and by extension, femininity: “A boy must learn his gender identity as being not- female, or not-mother” (35). The girl child has her own unique conflict: while able to identify corporeally with the maternal figure, she struggles with her possession of an unvalued gendered. Regardless, what is essential to Chodorow’s understanding of gendered being is the non-discriminative childhood experience of maternal identification, of a feminine core of being. The embracement of the alternative interpretation -- of the longing for the phallus « as the norm is a reflection of the social power construct « patriarchal society « more than authentic childhood experiences: [. . . ] because men have power and cultural hegemony in our society, a notable thing happens. Men use and have used this hegemony to appropriate and transform these experiences. Both in everyday life and 29 in theoretical and intellectual formulations, men have come to define maleness as that which is basically human, and to define women as not- men. This transformation is first learned in, and helps to constitute, the Oedipal transition « the cultural, affective, and sexual leamings of the meaning and valuation of sex differences. Because Freud was not attentive to pre-Oedipal development (and because of his sexism), he took this meaning and valuation as a self-evident given, rather than a developmental and cultural product. (Chodorow 37) Chodorow does not absolve women from the proliferation of said reality. She recognizes that women, while less powerful within the cultural hegemony, actively proliferate the gender power construct. Overall, Chodorow’s recognition of the influence of social, cultural and economic reality on the formation of gendered identity establishes a commonality between her theorization and that of Deleuze and Guatam’ as earlier discussed; all of them acknowledge Oedipalization as established through the power of the phallus to be the by-product of a male-dominated reality, the latter theorists associating the presumed experience with capitalism in particular. Sex Roles, the Economy of Being, and Discourse Sex role theory, based in social psychology, perceives gender identity to be the result of socialization, particularly the internalization of the appropriate gender script prescribed by society. Understood to be social facts, role norms can be modified through the transmission of new expectations by agencies of socialization. But as various critics have indicated, a major problem with this approach is the fact that it does 30 not allow for individual deviance from the norm or what Butler refers to as “agency” and “transformation.” This is to say, it assumes a harmonious relationship between social institutions, sex role norms and individuals’ personalities (Conne1123). Conformity is understood to occur either because of the negative consequences of nonconformity or because of identification with normative same sex models. Whatever the reason, this model suggests the experience of sexed identity to be nothing more than an “ensemble of internalized social relationships” (Brittan 21). AS valid as the above criticism is, many theorizations of identity formation -- including those of Deluze and Guattari and Chodorow as previously discussed « suggest that ultimately, identity results from the acceptance of a particular sexed role as defined by a given society, particularly by the economic interests of those in power. This is to say, the potential for material gain determines how those in power manipulate cultural ideologies to proliferate certain types of subjectivities in the name of self interest. A theorist that expounds upon this notion in the late 19608 and early 705 is Louis Althusser. Combining psychoanalysis with Marxist thought, in Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (1970) Althusser names “ideological state apparatuses” as the proliferators of ideologies that establish and maintain the status quo by subjectifying individuals into specific social roles so that the conditions necessary for the continued reproduction of social formation « the productive forces « are secured. Distinct from the overt presence of the repressive apparatus of the state « the army, police, etc. « diverse social constructs or ideological state apparatus such as churches, schools, universities, trade unions, and political parties constitute the structure of society and inevitably determine the individual’s role within society. While Althusser 31 insists upon the relative autonomy of each social construct, he willingly admits their interconnectedness and ultimate service to the interests of those in power; “[e]ach ideology possesses its own form of discourse that calls upon the individual to appropriate a pre-established subject position, that inevitably serves the interest of the social class in power” (Abrams 244). For Althusser, ideology has a material existence as manifest in the social practices and concurrently, the human by-products of the ideological state apparatus « commodified members of society or the economic base. Althusser denominates the means through which ideology penetrates the individual transforming him or her into a commodified subjectivity “interpellation.” Utilizing the spatial metaphor of base and superstructure, he explains in “Three Notes on the Theory of Discourses” (1966): In every social formation, the base requires the support-[Trager] function as a function to be assumed, as a place to be occupied in the technical and social division of labour. [. . .] It is ideology which performs the function of designating the subject (in general) that is to occupy this function: to that end, it must interpellate it as subject, providing it with the reasons-of—a-subject for assuming the function. Ideology intepellates individuals by constituting them as subjects (ideological subjects, and therefore subjects of its discourse) and providing them with the reasons- of-a-subject (interpellated as a subject) for assuming the functions defined by the structure as functions-of—a-Triiger. (51-52) Hence, in accord with Althusser’s theorization, ideologies instill in the individual a fabricated sense of connection between him/herself and the reality that surrounds 32 him/her. In other words, having penetrated the individual, ideologies form the basis of the unconscious, determining the individual’s perception of existence and congruently, the role he or she plays within said structured reahn. Overall, ideology has the “capacity to represent to human beings an imaginary conception of their own subjectivity,” which Althusser finds to be its “greatest and most insidious power” (Payne 41). Like Althusser, Michel Foucault recognizes the influence of repressive social structures in the formation of subjectivity, particularly in sexed identity. As expounded upon in The History of Sexuality Volume I (originally published in French in 1976), sex for Foucault, whether masculine or feminine, results from a regulatory economy of sexuality, heterosexuality being the base of said system. Serving the interests of those in power, sexed identity is an instrument of control imposed on the individual that fortifies cultural norms by defining appropriate sexual experiences, behavior and desire. It is obvious that Foucault dismisses any essentialist theorization of sexed identity; moreover, because power relations are organic, he understands sexuality to be transforrnative in nature. For Foucault, the destruction of the heterosexual matrix would lead to the dismantling of sexed identity as known. In accord with Foucault’s investigations, sex has transformed from a predominantly ecclesiastical and silenced matter of the seventeenth century into a secular, multi-discursive matter revolving around such institutions as the government, education and medicine during the eighteenth century (Foucault 116). Hence, Foucault’s systematized regulation of sexed identity replaces a tradition binary construct of power with a multifaceted one as it exemplifies the various relationships of 33 force « within the family unit, groups of people, institutions, etc. « that fortify “the machinery of production” (Foucault 94). Diverse discourses of restraint and control « reflective of the economic interests of those in power « permeate society, producing and maintaining sexed bodies in accord with what is understood to be socially productive and inflicting punishment on bodies whose sexual comportment fails to adhere to said definitions. Notwithstanding, discourses in response and/or opposition to the official position of productivity also abound within society, challenging the status quo: “Discourse transmits and produces power; it reinforces it, but also undermines and exposes it, renders it fragile and makes it possible to thwart it. In a like manner, silence and secrecy are a Shelter for power, anchoring its prohibitions; but they also loosen its holds and provide for relatively obscure areas of tolerance” (101). Foucault demythifies restrictive discourses’ ability to dictate individuality by citing an increase of deviant behavior as the adverse effect of prescribed sexuality. Hence, whereas Althusser interprets ideology as that which ultimately solidifies society through its formation of commodified individuals, Foucault, in his studies of modern industrial societies, perceives an inverse relationship between the articulation of “rules of sexed being” and the enactment of “productive” human comportment. According to the theorist, it is the pleasure resulting from such disobedience that entices the individual to subvert societal power through alternative sexualities. In this sense, comportment is still determined by the power construct in place: “The pleasure that comes of exercising a power that questions, monitors, watches, spies, searches out, palpates, brings to light; and on the other hand, the pleasure that kindles at having to evade this power, flee from it, fool it, or travesty it” (45). 34 Like Foucault, materialist feminist Monique Wittig understands the notion of sex to be a cultural artifice devised by those in power for their own economic gain. Like gender, sex is attributed to corporeality by society as a means of controlling bodily comportment, its attribution made possible through language itself: “Language casts sheaves of reality upon the social body, stamping it and violently shaping it” (“The Mark of Gender” 64). While the mark of sex enables corporeal intelligibility within society through the phantasmic image of a seamless gendered being, for Wittig the act of defining materiality according to a few chosen bodily parts implicitly fragments corporeal being. This idea of fragmentation due to gender specification and marking complements the Lacanian notion of the banishment of gender ambiguities into the “abject” due to their disparate relationship to the socially intelligible body. Regardless, a principal point that distinguishes Wittig’s theorization from that of both Lacan and Foucault is her argument that prescribed heterosexuality equates the category of sex to femininity alone because it is used to distinguish « and concurrently alienate « the feminine gender from universal subjectivity, the latter equated to the normative masculine position as exemplified in hegemonic language. In this sense, for Wittig discourse is a misogynist form of materialism that remains inaccessible to those who fall outside of the heterosexual male grouping. Any Other can never truly occupy the speaking position of “I” because said position presumes authentic experience of universal subjectivity. As Butler summarizes: “Women, lesbians, and gay men, she argues, cannot assume the position of the Speaking subject within the linguistic system of compulsory heterosexuality. To speak within the system is to be deprived of the possibility of speech; hence, to speak at all in that context is a performative 35 contradiction, the linguistic assertion of a self that cannot ‘be’ within the language that asserts it” (Gender Trouble 148). Although Wittig critiques psychoanalysis for its presumption of the universality of the Oepidal experience, her observation of discourse’s inability to truly give a voice to the Other parallels the psychoanalytical interpretation of women’s denial of speech within the Lacanian Symbolic because of said system’s dependence upon the phallus as the organizing signifier. Regardless, whereas Wittig highlights the detrimental effects of hegemonic language on “s/he who is not a man” in the traditional sense, she seemingly dismisses language’s ability to emasculate the male gender through the creation of an unattainable image of masculine being. Forced silencing by hegemonic language will be further explored in relation to Eduardo Hervas’ materialist interpretation of language as a tool of oppression for both genders. Paradoxically, Wittig finds a solution to the problematic of discourse as a measure of donrination within language itself. She contends that the degendering of language holds the potential to deconstruct discourse as known and to recreate the state of equality between all bodies experienced prior to reality as defined by the marked body. For Wittig language as a repeated act produces “reality-effects” that are commonly accepted as “truths” (Butler, Gender Trouble 147). Hence the reconstruction of language can potentially lead to a reconceptualization of material reality over all: Language as a whole gives everyone the same power of becoming an absolute subject through its exercise. But gender, an element of language, works this ontological fact to annul it as far as women are concerned and corresponds to a constant attempt to strip them of the 36 most precious thing for a human being « subjectivity. [. . .] To destroy the categories of sex in politics and philosophy, to destroy gender in language (at least to modify its use) is therefore part of my work in writing, as a writer. (Wittig, "The Mark of Gender" 66-67) Social Theory, Gendered Corporeal Being and Queerness Social theory based on anthropology, history and sociology understands gender to be a culturally constructed phenomena, a relation formed through the interactions of socially constituted subjects in particular contexts (Connell 35). Such a methodological approach considers how individuals are shaped by collective practices and institutions, as well as how the psychological internalization of those institutions reproduces them (Gottlieb 45). Social theory dissolves any presumed mimetic relationship between sex and gender and the possibility of gender’s existence prior to social interaction. The perception of seamless masculine and feminine identities is replaced by personalized and transient experiences of gender reflective of lived experiences. A sociohistorical construct, gender definitions are organic and unstable, constantly being reinterpreted. As Arthur Brittan in Masculinity and Power: “My position is that we cannot talk of masculinity, only masculinities. [. . .] Since gender does not exist outside of history and culture, this means that both masculinity and femininity are continuously subject to a process of reinterpretation” (l). Brittan distinguishes three conceptualizations related to masculine being and social power: masculinity, masculinism and patriarchy. He argues that the first two concepts are commonly confused, masculinity being misinterpreted as an essential trait as opposed to a gendered identity informed by the 37 sexist ideology of masculinism: Those people who speak of masculinity as an essence, as an inborn characteristic, are confusing masculinity with masculinism, the masculine ideology. [. . .] Masculinism takes it for granted that there is a fundamental difference between men and women, it assumes that heterosexuality is normal, it accepts without question the sexual division of labour, and it sanctions the political and dominant role of men in the public and private spheres. Moreover, the masculine ideology is not subject to the vagaries of fashion - it tends to be relatively resistant to change. In general, masculinism gives primacy to the belief that gender is not negotiable [. . .]. (3) As previously mentioned, masculinism fuels the organization of the Spanish state in which all three poets begin to write, F rancoism officially enforcing rigid gender roles through « borrowing Althusser’s terminology « its repressive and ideological apparatus. Gender roles are naturalized within the Spanish culture not only through governmental control agencies and the institutionalization of motherhood and fatherhood, but also through religious doctrine, the educational system and the media. In any event, while Brittan insists that his definition of masculinism is not meant to substitute one deterministic viewpoint « gender essence « for a social and culturally constructed one, he seemingly does so by emphasizing the fixidity of masculinism which, according to his own definitions, normalizes the heterosexual matrix within society. AS evidenced by his theorization, Brittan himself is seemingly unable to escape from the masculinism that defrnes his masculinity, which leads to the resurfacing 38 question of whether or not the rethinking of gendered being outside of the traditional dichotomous construct is even feasible. Butler questions in Gender Theory: “Is the breakdown of gender binaries, for instance, so monstrous, so frightening, that it must be held to be definitionally impossible and heuristically precluded from any effort to think gender?” (viii). It is precisely the contingency of gendered being or the negation of what Petersen terms the “essentialism of the self” that informs queer theory (99). A theoretical facet within cultural studies, queer theory understands each individual’s gender experience as male or female to be shaped by the convergence of unique sets of relations, which dissolves any possibility of either an innate gendered being or an authentic cultural “norm” of maleness or femaleness. Gender is unique to the person who experiences it. As Judith Butler explains in Gender Trouble (1990): “As a shifting and contextual phenomenon, gender does not denote a substantive being, but a relative point of convergence among culturally and historically specific sets of relations” (15). Constantly under construction, “queemess” is defined by its lack of definition (J agose 131); ultimately, it is this recognition of the inherent instability of identity constructs that allows for the existence of multiple subjectivities, a notion which will be explored in the poetry under study. An extension of social theory of gender formation within the context of queer identities, Butler’s Gender Trouble provides the reader with a critical analysis of heterosexual assumptions about gendered identity. Rereading the theoretical works of various French intellectuals including Foucault, Lacan, Kristeva and Wittig, Butler debates the social construction of gender with psychoanalysis and feminism. Overall 39 the theorist perceives standard social theory of gender construction to be deterministic and develops an alternative theory of gender construction that acknowledges personal agency and transformation. Her theorization presents gender as more than mere cultural meaning inscribed on sexed bodies; gender becomes a performative act, “perforrnativity” implying repetition and ritual “which achieves its effects through its naturalization in the context of a body, understood, in part, as a culturally sustained temporal duration” (xv). The ritualized interpretation of sex is contextualized and correlatively shaped by political and cultural intersections within a specific historical context. In order to “come into being” within a given society as an intelligible corporeal being, an individual repeatedly enacts appropriate gendered behavior as defined by the specific norms of the temporal space in which S/he desires to enter. As opposed to a simplistic, internal constant, then, Butler understands gender to be a process, a continuous reproduction of bodily comportment that holds the potential for change and growth. Personal agency produces that which presumably forms an essential part of gendered being; in this sense, gender includes the “very apparatus of production whereby the sexes themselves are established” (1 1). Overall, Butler’s exposure of the distinction between gender and sex disavows the notion of an unified identity through its recognition of personal agency in gender formation. Butler however does not draw a direct correlation between sexual practice and gendered being. As she states, ambiguous gendered identity often serves to mask deviant compartment and in doing so, ultimately maintains the status quo: Sometimes gender ambiguity can operate precisely to contain or deflect non-normative sexual practice, and thereby work to keep 40 normative sexuality intact. Thus, no correlation can be drawn, for instance, between drag or transgender and sexual practice, and the distribution of hetero-, bi-, and homo-inclinations cannot be predictably mapped onto the travels of gender bending or changing” (xiv). Butler’s Bodies that Matter (1993) expounds upon how discursive practices mark and fortify sexual differences. The theorist contends that the sexed body not only functions as a norm but also as part of the regulatory practice that calls said marked body into being and that maintains the marked body as the status quo. Butler negates “sex’s” existence as a static condition of the body and underscores the reiterative enactment of societal norms as the source of the sexed body’s materialization (2). The need for such repeated gender performance gives evidence to the impossibility of a completely materialized sexed being, exposing gendered identity to be an elusive ideal. For Butler, essential to any materialization of a subject through performativity is “an identification with the normative phantasm of sex, and this takes place through a repudiation which produces a domain of abjection, a repudiation without which the subject cannot emerge” (3). Identified as a male or female, the subject performs those behaviors which are recognizable within the defining mechanism of the heterosexual matrix as appropriate compartment of his or her sex. What is apparent in Butler’s exposition of acquired gendered being is the relational quality of gendered difference, something that has consistently been recognized throughout the evolution of gender studies: man is understood to be that which woman is not and vice versa. Comportment ambiguous to either gendered mold, 41 disparities that threaten cultural recognition as a male or female body, are discarded into the realm of the Lacanian abject, the incomprehensible. Nevertheless, as seen in Gender Trouble, what distinguishes Butler’s theory from deterministic constructivism is her recognition of the role of personal agency in the materialization of gendered being.’ Through continual distinction by means of reiterated gender performance, the gendered body evolves into being: “Crucially, then, construction is neither a single act nor a casual process initiated by a subject and culminating in a set of fixed effects. Construction not only takes place in time, but is itself a temporal process which operates through the reiteration of norms; sex is both produced and destabilized in the course of this reiteration” (10). Consequential to said corporeal materialization through exclusive perforrnativity (masculine acts versus feminine acts), is the presence of undefined gaps « manifestations of being that “escape or exceed the norm” (10), said spaces of ambiguity giving further evidence to the instability of gendered being and offering the opportunity of corporeal reconfiguration. Butler disavows any clear distinction between gender as a culturally constructed concept and the materiality of sex. She argues that sex relies on gender for cultural intelligibility and that sex is seemingly “absorbed by gender,” becoming “something like a fiction, perhaps a fantasy, retroactively installed at a prelinguistic site to which there is no direct access" (5). Along the same vein, the theorist challenges the Lacanian claim that the Symbolic exists as a semiautonomous 5 There are defenders and critics of construction, who [. . .] . [. . .] often claim that there are structures that construct the subject, impersonal forces, such as Culture or Discourse or Power, where these terms occupy the grammatical site of the subject after the “human” has been dislodged from its place. [. . .] Thus, constructivism is reduced to determinism and implies the evacuation or displacement of human agency. (Butler, Bodies that Matter 9) 42 system prior to sexed positions, contending that “the power attributed to this prior and ideal power is derived and deflected from the attribution itself” (14). These laws of sexual differentiation remain intact through the continuous reiteration of gendered performance that establishes culturally recognizable corporeal boundaries « that which the laws seemingly set in place. Subjectivity as a culturally recognizable gendered being results from re-articulated practices. In Bodies that Matter Butler recognizes the possibility of gender reconfiguration through alternative, collective corporeal performance. The theorist acknowledges the potential of a collective disidentification with regulatory norms to catalyze an overall reconceptualization of intelligible corporeal being. The paternal symbolic, or heterosexual imperative, through its consequential exclusion of ambiguities ironically creates the opportunity for alternative identifications or corporeal re-territorializations, inevitably enabling the system’s own self implosion or at least reconfiguration. In this sense, Butler’s theory allows for the materialization of alternative bodies that “matter”: To speak within these classical contexts of bodies that matter is not an idle pun, for to be material means to materialize, where the principle of that materialization is precisely what “matters” about that body, its very intelligibility. In this sense, to know the significance of something is to know how and why it matters, where “to matter” means at once “to materialize” and “to mean.” (32) Gay Theory, Queer Males While Butler’s theory of gender perforrnativity is equally applicable to both 43 queer males and females and will serve as a principal point of reference throughout the investigation at hand, this study shall also consider as tools of analysis theorizations of gendered being that focus specifically on alternative masculine being(s). Deemed a classic work of gay theory, Guy Hocquenghem’s Homosexual Desire, originally published in French in 1972 and later translated to English in 1978, integrates psychoanalysis, Marxism and the theoretical work of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guitarri as a means to analyze the social and psychic phenomenon of homophobia. In concurrence with Deleuze and Guitarri’s theorization of l’Anti-Oedipe, Hocquenghem argues that the Freudian Oedipal Complex is a cultural construct that serves to maintain the interests of the capitalist society by psychically and socially binding man to a supposed natural phallic position within the heterosexual matrix. Capitalist concepts of sexuality being the pretense of Freudian psychoanalytical thought, the theorist argues that the science of the unconscious disavows man’s true existence as what Deleuze and Guattari term “desiring machines,” fiagmented beings whose infinite parts can penetrate those of others. Initiation into the family unit and other educational mechanisms removes "homosexual desires" « defined as such by the “imaginary Oedipal construct” «from childhood (Hocquenghem 49). As evidenced by the aforementioned, Hocquenghem himself denies the distinguishability of straight desire from gay, contending that said qualification has resulted from the threat of disruption of the foundation of capitalism « the nuclear family « by same sex desire. Unlike Freud who interprets paranoia as a psychic effect of homosexual desire, Hocquenghem argues that paranoia is a condition from which society as a whole suffers due to its fear of same sex desire (Moon 18). Homosexuality as a socially constructed concept manifests as a psychologically repressive category that paradoxically dominates the individual through its forbidden nature. This collective paranoia or homophobia dictates appropriate bodily interaction and in doing so, it denies the individual of limitlesss experiences of erotic satisfaction. Attributing a transcendent position to the phallus as the principal organizer of the heterosexual matrix, phallocratic society sublimates the anus, removing any pleasure potential from it through such privatization. Homosexual desire restores said desiring use to it (98) and in this sense challenges the heterosexual construct: “To reinvest the anus collectively and libidinally would involve a proportional weakening of the great phallic signifier, which dominates us constantly both in the small-scale hierarchies of the family and in the great social hierarchies. The least acceptable desiring operation (precisely because it is the most desublimating one) is that which is directed at the anus” (103). In the culture of queers (2002) Richard Dyer explores the history of queer culture through the arts and media. In his discussion of sexuality, Dyer seemingly concurs with Butler’s notion of the performativity of gender, expanding performativity to encompass not only sexual identities but authorship as well: “All authorship and all sexual identities are performances, done with greater or less facility, always problematic in relation to any self separable from the realisation of self in the discursive modes available” (33). However, while Butler’s theory of gender performativity emphasizes the ritualization of certain behaviors as a means to identify with and come into being as a particular sexed identity, Dyer interprets the fleeting nature of performance as emblematic of the instability of queemess overall, perfonnance’s fluidity and permeability negating any presumed essential identity. For Dyer, said elusiveness or 45 transformational capacity distinguishes the “Queer” from the common notion of a fixed queer being. The Queer is the undefinable, a permeable existence with varied means of expression and interpretations as exemplified by the homosexual act itself: Actual sex with another man can thus be for the individual man exclusive or occasional, permanent or temporary, and this is likely to be even more complex, fluid and variegated, fleeting and even unnoticed, in relation to sexual attraction, fantasy and speculation. A strong notion of queers runs counter to this « queer is something you are, constitutively, rather than something you might do (have done), feel (have felt), mainly sometimes, once, maybe. It is this latter range and fluidity (which goes far beyond another fixing notion, the bisexual), that analytical notions of homoeroticism and Queer seek to address. (3) Dyer’s Queer deconstruction of the category of queer examines the relationship between queemess and effemination, the notion that queer men essentially become “like” women through exhibiting sensitivity, performing camp, etc., « “from the screaming queenliness of camp taste and Charles Hawrey to the so-sensitive vampires and sad young men” (5). In essence, queemess is equated to the appropriation of the role of the Other as defined by the heterosexual matrix. Problematizing said presumption, Dyer highlights the structural disparities between queer maleness and hetero femininity: queers incarnate the grotesque whereas feminine being remains an idealized category of being; moreover, queers, while lacking true maleness, are still able to experience the masculine power position over the opposite sex that they presumably adopted as their own identity(5). Regarding camp in particular, for Dyer it is “a way of 46 being human” (as opposed to becoming female), “witty and vital, without conforming to the drabness and rigidity of the hetero male role” (49). While he underscores camp’s style for the sake of style, its lack of practical use, and its accentuation of artifice, fun and outrageous, he also recognizes the power of camp « through its excessive superficiality « to expose the performance of being as merely one interpretation of being, to remind the individual that social norms do not exemplify essential being but rather a projected, culturally constructed identity: “Camp, by drawing attention to the artifices employed by artists, can constantly remind us that what we are seeing is only a view of life. This doesn’t stop us enjoying it, but it does stop us believing what we are shown too readily. It stops us thinking that those who create the landscape of culture know more about life than we do ourselves” (60). Butler’s interpretation of drag in Bodies that Matter complements Dyer’s of camp in the sense that she also recognizes the power of imitation to expose the artificiality of gendered being: “drag is subversive to the extent that it reflects on the imitative structure by which hegemonic gender is itself produced and disputes heterosexuality’s claim on naturalness and originality” ( 125). In his chapter entitled “Coming out as Going In: the image of the Homosexual as a Sad Young Man” (the culture of queers) Dyer explores the stereotype of the queer male as a sad young man, tracing a lineage of said stereotyped men that includes Christianity, the Romantic poets, the Bildungsroman and other traditions of the male coming of age novel, the third sex or notion of a distinct bodily type, Freudianism, the invention of adolescence, and urbanism as “alienation” (119-121). Of these manifestations, three are very pertinent to the poetic representation by Panero, Haro 47 Ibars, and Hervas of alternative masculinity: Christianity, Freudianism, and urbanism. As Dyer contends, Christianity is “the adoration of a naked, suffering young man, either Jesus or one of the martyrs, [. . .] ” (119). All three poets of the study at hand make reference to Christianity, Panero and Haro Ibars overtly appropriating the Christ Figure image as a symbol of alternative masculine being. Regarding Freudianism, Dyer names the overtly intimate relationship between mother and son as a contributor to the sad young male stereotype. As shall be explored, emasculation at the hand of a maternal figure constantly resurfaces in Panero’s poetic work, the madrilefio’s poetic subject materializing as a sad young queer male searching for a sense of coherent self. Arguably so, urbanization figures into both Panero and Haro Ibar’s presentation of the male subject. Regarding the latter poet’s work, however, the alienation experienced within the fast urban reality of la movida is embraced and exploited by the male subject, distinguishing him from Dyer’s notion of a sad young man. Returning to Dyer’s Queer analysis, the common assumption that two men together constitute an intensified form of maleness is also scrutinized by the theorist as another interpretation of queemess that re-idealizes the heterosexual norm, this time through the presumed desirability of masculine being. According to Dyer, such an interpretation denies queemess any uniqueness that extends beyond established norms of being « straightrress remains that which defines queer being. The theorist contends however that sexuality, relational in nature, necessitates a referencing to maleness and/or femaleness, in order to become intelligible: “L . .] even where no gender inflection is involved, no sissiness or man-manliness, relations between men always take place in a world where distinctions are drawn between men and women -- it is 48 virtually impossible to live, imagine or represent sexuality between men if it is not informed by difference between men and women” (5). Overall, Dyer contends that Queer Theory’s and politic’s re-appropriation of the notion of queer has less to do with the desire to remove from the term negative associations attributed to it than the desire to challenge the presumption that said associations are indeed negative. Queer’s embracement of difference as desirable inverts the binary construct of good/bad, hu—man/ monstrosity, exposing through its reconceptualization the potential destructiveness of sexual identity as defined by cultural norms: “thus morality may be a challenge to repressive morality, deviance a rejection of the straight and thus narrow, and what is considered sordid and disgusting may in fact be exciting, risky, a life lived to the full on the edge” (7). In Vision Machines (1996) Paul Julian Smith analyzes Spanish select gay male writers’ and artists’ representations (including that of the fictive work of Haro Ibars) of the potential devastating consequence of the risky, “live for the moment existence” embraced by the queer « namely AIDS. He argues that, distinct from the positive and life-affirming response to the illness in the United States and Great Brittan, the Spanish emphasize the need to make peace with death, to the extent of reinforcing myths of AIDS which educators consistently strive to dismantle: “the generalized horror of the body and of physicality; the fantasy of unlimited transmission [. . .]; the obsession with decay and putrefaction” (103-104). Smith terms said embracement of the ugliest of the ugly as “fatal strategies,” the indulgence in immoral ecstasy and exploitation of the monstrous spawning “new ethics of sexual relations and of artistic representation” (104). Both Dyer’s interpetation of the Queer and Smith’s theory of fatal strategies will be taken 49 into consideration when analyzing the celebratory self-destructive acts of Haro Ibars’ poetic subject. 50 Chapter II: Killing and Consuming: the Rebirth of Dionysus or the Poetic Voice of Panero Los naipes de colores. El camaval de Niza. El circo: los ele- fantes, e1 ruido de las panteras negras, las risas de los nifios. «Leopoldo Maria Panero, “Himno a Dionisos” It seems fitting that Leopoldo Maria Panero would write a hymn to the ancient God of Madness as he himself has spent the better part of his adult life battling insanity, bouncing in and out of institutions in an attempt to deal with his own demons.l In fact, in regards to the above cited poem, the carnivalesque world, the surreal space of wild beasts and laughter that Panero describes, is a space in which his poetic subject often inhabits. Within his poetry Panero repeatedly utilizes circus imagery to make more tangible and comprehensible his psychological torment. Take for example “El circo” from Narciso en el acorde ultimo de lasflautas. Here the free movement of the trapeze artists within Panero’s soul, the “big tent,” testifies to the hollowness of the poetic subject’s inner self. The fact that he doesn’t even know the names of the performers who have taken over this private, most intimate realm brings to a greater light the inner turmoil and the overall marginalization from his own persona that he endures: “Dos atletas saltan de un lado a otro de mi alma / lanzando gritos y bromeando cerca de la lAs documented by J. Benito Fernandez in El contorno del abismo, Panero was first institutionalized in 1968 at la Clinica Nuestra Seilora de Loreto de Madrid, after attempting suicide. A plethora of other hospitals would become the poet’s temporary home including la Clinics Nuestra Senora de la Paz, de Madrid (1968); el Instituto Frenopatico de Barcelona (1968); el Hospital de San Pablo (1968); la Clinica Psiquiatrica Residencia Pedralbes (1968); la Ciudad Sanitaria Provincial Francisco Franco, de Madrid (1969); el Instituto Psiquiatrico Pedro Mata de Reus (1969); el Instituto Frenopatico de Barcelona (1969); el Hospital Psiquiatrico Provincial, the former Alonso Vega (1979, 1980, 1983, 1990), el Hospital de Dia de la Ciudad Sanitaria Provincial Francisco Franco, de Madrid (1979, 1981); el Hospital Psiquiatrico Nacional de Santa Isabel, de Leganés (1981); el Hospital Provincial de Madrid (1982); el Hospital de Guipr'rzcoa, en San Sebastian (1984); la Clinica de las Hermanas Hospitalarias Nuestra Senora de la Paz, de Elizondo (1984); el Hospital de Basurto (1984); el Sanitorio Psiquiétrico Hermanos San Juan de Dios, de Mondragon (1986, 1991); el Hospital General Gregorio Marafibn (1990); and e1 Hospital Psiquiétrico Insular de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (1997). 51 Vida: / y no Sé sus nombres. Y en mi alma vacia escucho siempre / como se balancean los trapecios. Dos / atletas saltan de un lado a otro de mi alma / contentos de que esté vacia” (PC 160). Similar imagery surfaces in “Ma mere” of the same anthology, the mockery of sacred space, « the human spirit « epitomized by the names of the three athletes: “mi espiritu como un teatro vacio / . . . / o bajo la carpa del circo/ abandonado, tres atletas / «Mozo, Bozo, Lozo « / saltaban sin descanso, moviendo/ con vanidad desesperada el trapecio” (PC 157). And so in Panero’s world, the camivalesque does not represent Bakhtin’s inversion of reality but rather the absurdity of the poetic subject’s reality itself, that which is in constant motion, haunting his every breath and pushing him further into a state of madness. In accord with Lacanian theory, the poetic subject, failing to fully integrate into the realm of the Symbolic as a “phallic male,” remains in a chaotic state of being; he lacks a coherent identity and therefore, suffers from neurosis, the state of being Dionysus endures? In “De-Sein” (Narciso en el acorde ultimo de lasflautas), the poetic subject equates himself to the ancient God of Madness. Like Dionysus, he also dreams of the destruction of existence; from his point of view, the experience of death will grant him sight « the capacity to make intelligible that which surrounds him « and allegorically speaking, an identity: en el intransigente ético perfecto inalcanzable ideal de la muerte alli estan mis ojos vi 2 According to Lacan, ”subjectivity" (his term for identity ) is acquired within the realm of the Symbolic, of language and signification. Within this sociocultural space, fixed meanings in the form of language function enable identity formation, as one identifies with certain symbols or meanings. Lacan understands the phallus to be the first signifier on which all other symbolic meanings are built because “it is the first sign that the child encounters, whose meaning, if understood, allows the child access to all the other meanings symbolized in the same way in language” (Minsky 152). 52 riillr, vivo alla en ese suefro [ .............................. ] suefio en eso, en que muera el mundo: [ ............................... ] Sofio en eso Dyonisos, el desdichado, el martir: (PC 175-176) According to Lydia F eder, such pemiciousness is a primary characteristic of the Dionysian identity; in Madness in Literature, she states: It is important to recall that Dionysus, the god known for his power to inflict madness on others, was himself once afflicted with madness by Hera [. . . ]. As an infant, [. . .] he was torn to bits and consumed, but he is also, in one of his manifestations, [. . .] the “devourer of raw flesh [. . .]” Dionysus’ experience of the very madness he was to arouse in his victims, his endurance of and participation in cannibalism, [. . .] are a projection of his creators’ conflicting instinctual drives on a being who is both subject to and master of these forces. (39-40) Taking into account the observations of F eder, this chapter examines Panero’s reconceptualization of gendered identity, as manifested through the male body, in relation to mythical overtones that are present in his works, primarily those written between 1973 and 1983: T eorz'a (1973), Narciso en el acorde ultimo de lasflautas (1979), Last River Together (1980), El que no ve (1980), Dioscuros (1982) and El ultimo hombre (1983). It argues that Panero’s poetic voice represents a Dionysian figure, due to his experiences of physical consumption and madness, his capacity to “make people mad” and his obsession with the consumption of others. As a 53 postmodern persona, the poetic subject deconstructs the victim/abuser binary, incamating both the scapegoat or sacrifice and he who ultimately causes the suffering of others for the sake of self preservation. Interestingly enough, in Chavarri’s 197 6 documentary film about the Panero family, El desencanto, the poet makes clear the parallel between the representation of his poetic subject as victim and his own familial experience as the sacrificial lamb. The published script reads: “Yo creo que he sido el chivo expiatorio de toda mi familia, Lno? Que me he convertido en el simbolo de todo lo que més detestaban de ellos mismos, pero que estaba en ellos mismos” (Chavarri 88). He also openly recognizes his culpability for the suffering of others, particularly his mother: “Pues hemos sido la causa del desastre de mi madre absoluto. . . Lno?” (Chavarri 93). But more importantly, by presenting a male being characterized by the aforementioned multiple subjectivities « a fragmented, irrational, vulnerable being « Panero disengages himself from the hegemonic conceptualization of manhood, from the veiled phallic position of the male. Whereas men traditionally gain their masculine identity through estrangement from their own bodies" and the domination of others (GaUOp 6), Panero, conversely, speaks through the male body, exposing the sexed body to criticism. He challenges masculine being as a signifier of power within society, within Lacan’s realm of the Symbolic, consequently placing himself in a position of vulnerability. Overall, the wounded and fluid male body of Panero’s poetry exemplifies the emotional instability and insanity of a male self, and this internal chaos is ultimately 3 This estrangement of the male from his body can be understood as the result of the socially accepted belref that the male body inherently incamates significance (Connell 45), principally power. Thus, with “93.8in the traditional male finds no need to question the worth of his own physical being, it remains a “”71er unexplored. 54 attributed to unrealistic societal expectations placed on the male gender. Thus the male body becomes the corpus of Panero’s counterdiscourse through which he defies the traditional family unit « the role of the patriarchal father and the phallic mother -- and Catholicism, two social institutions that defined Spanish reality throughout the Franco regime. As underscored by Alvaro Soto in La transicio'n a la democracia, while Franco’s political project evolves over time, reflecting both internal changes and changing international relations, certain ideals remain constant throughout his dictatorship, including “el convencimiento de que Espafia debe ser bastion del catolicismo” and “una imagen tradicional y autoritaria de la vida y la sociedad” (23). Aurora Morcillo Gomez comments: [. . .] National-Catholicism fused Falangist (i.e. Spanish fascist) doctrine with traditional Catholic tenets, affording Franco the political and divine sanction to govern Spain. Gender ideology became, as well, crucial in defining the state, its territory, and authority. Spiritual/Catholic values, authority, and discipline were to govern an important institution: the family. Social and gender relations blended in the family, and women « as mothers « represented an essential element in the reconstruction of the fatherland. (52) By presenting himself as a fragmented and neurotic being, Panero’s male poetic subject dismantles the masculine ideal of phallic being upheld by F rancoism. His personal incoherency gives evidence to the ellusiveness of said gendered identity, the inability to ever achieve such a clearly delineated, contained and unyeilding sense of self. Through his unintelligible corporelity he exposes “masculinity” to be a 55 phantasmic ideal, a notion theorized by Lacan and expounded upon by Butler. Lacan contends that masculine subjectivity (as defined by “having” the phallus) within the realm of the Symbolic merely creates a sense of cohesive identity, that which is always threatened by unconscious desires (Minsky 142). For Butler, the phantasmic quality of gendered being necesitates the constant (re)construction of “masculinity” or “femininity” through gender appropriate bodily enactment; without this performance, identification with a normative sexed identity cannot materialize into an intelligible corporeality (Bodies that Matter 4). Acting upon his inner longings, Panero’s male subject dissolves categories of being and the equations that sustain them through his queer performance of corporeal self-destruction. A monstrosity, he embodies that which society most fears and shuns. Consumed Flesh, Consumed Blood Like Dionysus, one of the principal characteristics that defines Panero’s poetic subject is his condition as victim of consumption. As such, he inevitably relinquishes ownership of his physical being and consequently, his consciousness, to a superior external force, an Other. His self-identity compromised, he becomes an outsider of society, an unintelligible being within an incomprehensible existence. The poetic subject’s fragmented male body no longer signifies the power normally attributed to it and as a result, the male is displaced from the phallic position. Subsequently, he occupies an ambiguous space in which he is not identifiable (as the space itself is undefined) nor with which he can identify. He seemingly forms part of the Lacanian “abject,” that which, due to its anomalousness, has been vanquished from the realm of 56 the Symbolic into the undefined realm of the Real. This notion manifests itself in a number of ways in Panero’s poetry, one being the presentation of the poetic subject as a victimized and eroticized Christ figure, a figure that Dyer deems stereotypical of the sad young queer white male in the culture of queers. Commenting Christianity he states: “L . .] at the level of dominant representation a white (and gentile) tradition, [Christianity] focuses on the suffering male body, the moral worth and erotic beauty of white male flesh always seen at the point of agony [. . .]” (124). In the case of Panero’s poetry, however, any erotic beauty white male flesh may suggest is overpowered by personal disintegration and the spilling of bodily fluids, images suggestive of masochistic acts. The male is consumed by a tortuous existence presumably controlled by the “Father” and offered up as a blood sacrifice of and for “Him.” The anguish and confusion brought on by such experiences echo through the hopeless cry of the poetic subject in “Vanitas Vanitatum” (Teoria). Here the wet, boggy ground of the earth inhabited by the male drinks the blood of his self-sacrifice. Nevertheless, his suffering does not produce the godly intervention for which he had hoped. Disillusioned, he remains isolated in the foul, anti-world of “Ningr’rn Lugar,” a realm whose lack of definition puts into doubt that of the poetic subject himself: “Y he derramado sangre, agua que permanece en tus tembladerales, / he derramado el liquido / sagrado en ese altar inmundo / esperando siempre el milagro, no sabiendo donde se hallaba, / esto es en Ningr’rn Lugar” (PC 133). “F uriosa (e inmovilmente) me arrepiento de mi vida” (Teoria) also exemplifies the poetic subject’s despair and desperation as a Christ figure. Once again, his self-construct is characterized by fragmentation, both physical and psychological. Reminiscent of the crucifixion of Christ, piercing nails mark the poetic 57 subject’s broken body. Paralleling the use of nails to secure Christ to his cross, in Panero’s work nails secure the male subject’s broken body to his personal burden « an anomic existence within a reahn of nothingness. While his fragmented body is sutured together by the nails that hold him in place (thus relieving his castration anxiety), he remains unrecognizable and worthless by any Other. It is within this empty space of being that the male’s mind wanders aimlessly. After repeatedly repenting for his life, the male pleads for mercy from the deity responsible for his psychological torment, that the silence which envelopes his unintelligible existence provide him solace: “veintitrés clavos / han anudado al fin este cuerpo a la nada / en ella nado / y que el Silencio me bendiga / sefior de mi locura” (PC 107). The unsettling image of a body pierced with nails resurges in “Aun cuando teji mi armadura de acero” (Narciso en el acorde ultimo de lasflautas), the first couple of verses immediately making evident the flawed nature of the poetic subject’s body, its inability to protect him from physical and psychological harm even with the aide of external reinforcement. His dead eyes epitomize his lack of power, his inability to perceive himself as an intelligible being, a notion that shall be expanded upon in the next chapter: “Aun cuando teji mi armadura de acero / el terror en mis ojos muertos” (PC 153). Again, the realm of silence in which the male endures his torture emphasizes his marginalization. The layer of snow covering his armored body creates one more layer of separation between the poetic subject and his surroundings, concealing to a greater extent his mental anguish. Furthermore, the whiteness of the precipitation symbolizes the male subject’s desire for pure being, underscoring his role of human sacrifice: ‘y la nieve cae ar’rn sobre mi cuerpo / pese a ello se impone un Silencio aim mas hondo / a los clavos que habian horadado mi 58 craneoz” (PC 153). In the same anthology, the poetic subject of “Spiritual I” invokes the “Almighty Father,” pleading for salvation from a world indistinguishable from hell. Here he wanders empty streets, emblematic of his state of abandonment. Lacking human contact, the male is unable to recognize his own identity « hence the notion of fragmentation once again « as evidenced by his antithetical statement that “nobody” occupies the space in which he inhabits. Since self-awareness is dialogic, solidified through relations with others (Borim and Reiss xviii), life in isolation or outside of the Lacanian realm of the Symbolic distinguishes the possibility of achieving a sense of one’s self as an autonomous, coherent being. The poem reads: Sali a la calle y no vi a nadie, sali a la calle y no vi a nadie, ioh, Sefiorl, desciende por fin porque en el Infiemo ya no hay nadie (PC 173). Reminiscent of Christ’s plea from the cross (“My God, my God, why have Thou foresaken me” [Matt 27:46]), Panero’s cry of the forsaken resounds in “El Loco” (Last River Together), the title itself revealing the psychological fragmentation of the male victim. He names his greatest sin to be his existence as a being unworthy of forgiveness: “He vivido los blancos de la vida, / sus equivocaciones, sus olvidos, su/ [. . .] Irrristerio brutal [. . .] / [. . .] / He vivido su tentacion, y he vivido e1 pecado / del que nadie cabe nunca nos absuelva” (PC 225). This is also seen in “Ora et labora, 1” (El ultimo hombre) in which the male’s very own physical being abandons him, his body turning to ashes after bearing the burden of the “Father.” Here the poetic subject 59 alludes to the subversive relationship between the paternal figure and the son as the former’s remains materialize on the latter’s neck and mouth, suggesting not only a sexual encounter but one between a vampire « the father figure « and his blood lust « his son: “Senor, largo tiempo llevo tus restos en el cuello / y aim en mi boca sola, y me arrodillo ante las tardes / y en el rezo me evaporo, / como si fuera nri casa la ceniza” (PC 306). Taking into mind Spanish historical context and the poet’s personal life, the paternal figure guilty of abandoning his son within Panero’s work could be interpreted in other ways besides the strictly religious, the most literal sense. For example, the father figure can be understood as representative of the Dictator himself, Catholicism being a primary component of his political regime, and therefore, metaphorically speaking, Franco and “God the Father” being one and the same. Thus, on a national level, abandonment becomes a consequence of the death of Franco, endured by both franquistas and antifranquistas as both groups are left to cope with the disillusionment of unfulfilled political aspirations « what Vilaros identifies as the “mono del desencanto?“ On a more personal level, through the religious persona Panero seemingly alludes to his own paternal relation: Leopoldo Panero was an absent father throughout his children’s upbringing due to his literary career, alcohol consumption, and early death (1962). In any event, these two interpretations « the father figure representative of Franco and of Leopoldo Panero -- appear to go hand in hand; the mythification of the deceased poet as documented by Chavarri’s El desencanto has made him almost indistinguishable from the Dictator. Vilaros comments: “No 5610 lo ‘ See Vilarbs’ El mono del desencanto (1998). 60 que Panero represento ejerce su ominosa fascinacién en el imaginario colectivo desde un espacio encriptado, sino que debido a1 insélito documental cinematografico que sobre la familia realizo Jaime Chavarri en 1976, se identificara su aura peculiar en la formacion de un cuerpo fantasmatico unico estrechamente asociado con la figura de Franco” (47). “Glosa a un epitafio (carta al padre)” (Narciso en el acorde ultimo de las flautas) exemplifies the possibility of such a double-edged interpretation. Here Panero addresses the defunct Leopoldo Panero, the father that has chosen alcohol over his children, acknowledging that the disillusionment he experiences due to the paternal figure’s absence is not extraordinary. In doing so, he exposes the myth of the father figure upheld by official discourse and represented by Franco himself for what it is, an illusion that is ultimately proven false by shared human experience: “obsesivamente tu boca hinchada de borracho, / danzas, danzaste/ si espacio, caido, pero / no quiero errar en la mitologia / de ese nombre del padre que a todos nos falta, / porque somos tan solo hermanos de una invasion de lo / imposible” (PC 149 -153). This demythification of the paternal figure is also apparent in “Descort” (Narciso en el acorde ultimo de lasflautas). Again, Panero’s imagery recalls biblical scenes, precisely the denunciation of the Christ figure through expectoration: “[. . .] El padre muerto/a1 que escupimos y el que escupe / una y otra vez en nuestra cara” (PC 164). Nevertheless, this exposure of the ‘truth’ does not make such a powerful position « that of the patriarchal father« any less desirable to the poetic subject. He longs for approval fiom the paternal figure, thus reaffirming the latter’s position of power and his own desire to maintain the “myth” through his own being. And so the poetic subject’s perception of existence continues to be defined by masculinism as evidenced by “El 61 beso de buenas noches” (El que no ve). Once again, paradoxical language conveys the male subject’s inability to perceive himself as in intelligible being. He qualifies his persona as a “no-body” in opposition to other intelligible bodies: “L . .] perdona, padre, que no hubiera / nadie, sino yo:” (PC 259). Panero’s most vivid and disturbing imagery of his poetic subject as victim of consumption is often related to his existence as the vulnerable prey of a cruel maternal figure, primarily his very own mother. This detail strengthens the parallel between Panero and the ancient god Dionysus; as Feder points out, in many of the Dionysiac myths, mothers are those who fall victim to Dionysus, killing and consuming their very own children (48). Taking into consideration the Spanish historical context that shapes Panero as a writer, said monstrous image of the maternal figure can be read as a symbolic reinterpretation of the Lacanian phallic mother, she who incamates power before the eyes of her children, the reinforcer of societal norm as established by the realm of the Symbolic. An agent of patriarchal society, the maternal figure’s social duty encompasses the proliferation of traditional culture through the upbringing of socially responsible offspring in accord with traditional gendered roles. In general, Panero’s poetry seemingly epitomizes the adverse effects of such a rigid upbringing, the castrative consequences of the phallic system as a whole and on the corporeal level, of the imposition of phantasmic gendered being. The representation of the maternal figure as a devouring monster can also be read as exemplary of the often conflictive relationship between the poet himself and his mother. Leopoldo Panero often being absent from his family due to his time consuming profession and social life, F elicidad Blane fulfills the role of phallic presence. Furthermore, as revealed in El Contorno del 62 abismo, Blanc remains an authoritative figure within Panero’s life throughout his adulthood, the poet continuously struggling with the dynamic of their relationship up until Blanc’s death. “Los pasos en el callejon Sin salida” (Narciso en el acorde ultimo de lasflautas) serves as an example of Panero’s utilization of the image of the mother as monstrous devourer. Unable to escape the physical boundaries in which he finds himself « a deadend street, or metaphorically, a torturous existence whose harshness leaves permanent markings on his body « not even Sleep provides him solace. The use of a third person possessive adjective in reference to his own body’s suffering reveals the male’s alienation fi'om his own skin. Fruitlessly, he exhibits his wounded flesh in an attempt to invoke the mercy of an Other. Again, Panero’s imagery of a helpless, suffering being pleading for compassion recalls Christ imagery. His lack of mobility as suggested by the image of the “potro” exemplifies his lack of personal agency overall, that which a cohesive sense of identity and self worth enable: “El suplicio de la noche y el suplicio del dia / y mi cuerpo en potro exhibiendo su tortura / como una vanidad [. . .] ” (PC 156). The image of a fragmented subject intensifies as the poem continues; in the last stanza the male subject declares that his anonymous body houses neither a mind nor a soul. Even more shocking, he reveals the principal cause of his suffering: the haunting presence of a bestial woman « namely his mother. AS opposed to providing the male subject with “the blood of life,” she slowly drains the life force from him, nourishing her own being. In this sense, she is the Anti-Mother. The maternal figure’s penetration of the poetic subject « depicted by her piercing nails and mouth « and her dominant physical posture emphasize the subject’s entrapment. 63 como una vanidad. Y avanzaré, avanzaré mi cuerpo Sin inteligencia ni alma por la calle en donde nadie me conoce, andaré por alli contoneandome y hablando solo, sin ver que llevo una mujer sobre mi espalda con Ias ufias clavadas en mis hombros y mordiéndome el cuello ebria de mi sangre. (PC 156) In “Vanitas Vanitatum” (Teoria) Panero’s maternal figure stands in striking contrast with that of Catholicism -- the Holy Virgin Mary -- as she is allied with Satan himself, who takes the forrrr of the Gnostic figure Ialdabaoth. According to Gnostic teachings, Ialdabaoth steals power from the true supreme deity and creates a physical world of evil as exemplified by the physical prison of the human body (Pagels 123). In the given work, the poetic subject confronts the demiurge verbally, blaming him for the evils of human existence. What epitomizes this miserable, shared reality is the gruesome image of the consumption of innocent lives at the mouth of a monstrous beast, an image that congruently symbolizes the “brainwashing” of the collectivity, the extinction of their capacity to reason for themselves. It is the blood hungry female who, after witnessing such a sacrificial massacre, indulges in the human remains. And so, unlike the Catholic Eucharist that serves as an atonement between God and man, the blood shed in this poem serves to sustain the evil of life on earth. Overall, the macabre portrait painted by this section of the poem recalls Goya’s etching El suerio de la razo'n produce monstruos: Largo tiempo, Ialdabaoth, he reconido tu irnperio, tu triste imperio. Y vi c6mo cabezas de nifios eran devoradas. Y vi cerrarse las fauces del mono sobre cuanto de luz habia en la tierra y una mujer enriquecida con la sangre de los martires. (PC 131) But Panero’s counternarrative in opposition to Catholic doctrine doesn’t end here; later on he identifies the Supreme Power as Satan incognito5 and the manly woman as his avenger. Her role is to propagate the myth of the Almighty, punishing those who do not live by it: “Una mujer horrible, con barba, y en su frente grabado/ <> / que vivia de la sangre derramada / por aquellos que no adoraron a la Bestia bajo el nombre de / Dios” (PC 131). Thus, Panero’s criticism appears to be two- fold: not only does he denounce the indoctrination of innocent children into a belief system based on untruths, a process that ultimately procures a miserable existence, but he also scorns the phallic mother for her role in such a socialization process. Similar social commentary resurfaces in both “Pavane pour un enfant défunt” (Narciso en el ultimo acorde de lasflautas) and “Storia” (Narciso en el acorde ultimo de lasflautas). In the former poem, Panero once more exposes the destructive nature of culturally accepted “truths.” Such lies fragment the subject sensorially, leaving him blind and metaphorically speaking, unable to think for himself. Moreover, because the victim cannot detect the dangers that surround him, his entire body is vulnerable to consumption at the hands of the cruel gods of infancy. In other words, his sense of self 5 By proposing such an idea the poetic subject not only demonstrates once again his disregard of Catholic doctrine, but also that of the Gnostic belief system as the poem suggests that there is no “true” God observing these events from a distance. 65 « that which distinguishes himself as a unique entity « is always at risk of being completely annihilated: “los dioses crueles de la infancia, los dioses / de la inocente crueldad, pensabas, que se alimentan de ciegos / y de quienes mendigan su ser en una picaresca sordida," (PC 144). The title of the latter poem « “Storia”« immediately highlights the female’s Significant role in the proliferation of hegemonic beliefs. However, the collective convictions instilled in the subject by the maternal figure do not correspond with the male’s personal experiences. In other words, that which he has been taught to perceive remains out of sight to him, empirically unsound throughout his lifetime. Inevitably, the male subject locates the source of his mental anguish in the maternal figure « here represented metonymically by her aged legs and skirt. Within his narrative of personal journey, he juxtaposes diabolic imagery with that of the mother. In doing so, he not only explicitly questions the female’s moral integrity, but moreover, he implicates her to be the true evil of evils: miras lo mismo que un ciego esa 6rbita sin creador ni firrna donde nadan perdidas en un vasto naufragio las palabras crueles del colegio los sbrdidos cuentos de hadas de la infancia: Dios, lo <> o <> el Diablo a evitar, con su pompa y sus glorias, hasta llegar ahora a estas piemas desnudas cortezas arrugadas debajo del descuido de la falda, diciendo dénde estaba la verdad de la falta. (PC 185) 66 Castrated Mind One of the ways in which Panero’s male subject deals with his anguish is by projecting his insanity onto others -- a capacity that characterizes him as a Dionysian figure. His mother is often his victim of choice as she is who he deems principally responsible for his own misery. He depicts her existence as one defined by madness, her crazed state manifesting itself through her subversive actions and behavior as seen in “Mancha azul sobre el papel” (Narciso en el acorde ultimo de lasflautas). Dwelling in a “palacio de locura,” the maternal figure partakes in questionable interaction with a condemned boy, presumably the alter ego of the poetic subject himself. She strokes him, an act that may initially be read as loving, although somewhat perverse. Eventually her sadistic intentions are exposed; her ultimate desire is not to comfort the boy but rather to see « with her hands « the tears falling from the child’s eyes: “Y mi madre / acariciaba a1 nifio de escamas, y de / vez en cuando retraia / la mano y la ponia / cerca de sus ojos, para mirar la humedad, las /gotas de agua fria deslizandose / sobre la piel [. . .]” (PC 182). It can be argued that Panero regains some phallic power over the domineering maternal figure through ultimately determining her image. Nevertheless, what remains constant and unquestionable is the inability of Panero’s poetic subject to escape the torment of his mother’s insanity. And so the Dionysian figure’s vengeance against the maternal figure « his “making her mad” « inevitably backfires against him, intensifying his very own suffering. This occurs to such an extent that not even the realm of the mind provides him solace. In other words, within the corpus of Panero’s poetry, the maternal figure’s consumption of the male subject penetrates farther than flesh deep. Like the phallic mother who instills in her offspring patriarchal values, 67 Shaping their conscious selves, so does the maternal figure of Panero’s poetry penetrate the male subject’s inner being « hence his experience of madness as endured by the ancient God Dionysus. “La maldad nace de la supresibn hipocrita del gozo” (Narciso en el acorde ultimo de lasflautas) exemplifies the maternal figure’s haunting presence within the consciousness of the male subject. Here the female materializes as a cockroach, her heady-eyed stare emblematic of her constant vigilance over the male subject, of her successful completion of her maternal duty « as an instrument of what Althusser terms the “ideological state apparatuses” «to sustain the status quo. Overall, the female’s unyeilding presence is reminiscent of that of Franco himself: although Franco’s controlling grasp over the Spanish people cases as his regime progresses, control mechanisms such as censorship and police repression remained intact until his death. But it is not only her stare that has a controlling effect over the male subject; the female’s voice functions as an instrument of penetration, a sound equated to madness itself: “Y canta, cantas por las noches parecida a la locura,” (PC 188). Fueled by pure evilness, the maternal figure’s relentless song aims to destroy any possibility of inner peace for the poetic subject, keeping him constantly aware of his wretched life: velas con tu maldicién para que no me caiga dormido, para que no me olvide y esté despierto para siempre frente a tus dos ojos, madre mia. (PC 188) Almost identical imagery resurfaces in “E1 bacarra en la noche” (Last River Together), a 68 w lhld PW at in“. ll in mm... D“ Nile F L or. ~\v Add . nit lam,“ law «h. .w W» .1. elm . k ”I.“ r IEWI...‘ poem in which the poetic subject’s sleep is once again impeded by the piercing song of the maternal figure, the woman now indistinguishable from a bird. Once more her words torment him as they echo through his mind, reminding him that he still exists. He is called to inscribe himself into being; the fact that he has yet to do so is emblematic once again of his personal torment as an unintelligible being. While he fails to penetrate the world as a phallic male « metonymically represented by the phallic gaze « the female figure once agains succeeds in penetrating the poetic subject physically, her claws piercing the flesh of his aged body. Hence, even as an adult, he is still unable to escape maternal expectations. By depicting a female figure that exaggeratedly maintains control over an infantilisized and powerless adult male, Panero destabilizes the normative male/female dichotomy and presents a queer reinterpretation of gendered relations: “z,Quién me despierta, qué hembra mortal o paj aro / para decirme / que ar'rn vivo, que aun deseo, que tengo / todavia que imprimir una ultima direccibn a mis ojos/ [. . .] ngué ufras escarban mi vejez, y qué mano que no perdona/ [. . .] / LQué mano de madre, qué oracion susurran” (PC 211). From the same anthology, the poetic subject of “Ma mere” presents his mother as a Medusa reincarnate, befriender of scavengers, identifiable by both the cackle of her laugh and her destructive gaze. While the poetic voice contemplates suicide, an action which completely negates his corporeal entity of any value, he stops to consider his mother’s reaction to his death, once again revealing to the reader her hardheartedness. Instead of coming to her son’s aide, the male imagines her indulging in voyeurism, passively witnessing the consumption of her son’s fi'agmented body by the vultures and heartlessly mocking his fear of death. Moreover, he realizes that not even the Shattering 69 of his brain will relieve him from the maternal figure’s torment; her laughter still echoes through his mind after the fact: Yo contemplaba, caido mi cerebro aplastado, pasto de serpientes, a vena de las aguilas, pasto de serpientes yo contemplaba mi cerebro para siempre aplastado y mi madre reia, mi madre reia viéndome hurgar con miedo en los depojos de mi alma aun calientes temblando siempre (PC 157) Interestingly, death and the cruel hand of life were realities that Blane wanted her children to contemplate at an early age. One particular haunting childhood memory epitomizes this life lesson, the drowning of the Panero family’s puppies at the hand of Blane, a deed Panero and his younger brother were forced to observe by their mother: “Queria que contemplarais aquello” (Chavani 52). Whether or not Panero had this particular memory of his mother’s cruel actions in mind when depicting the poetic maternal figure as an heartless observer and congruently a participant of death, the parallelisms between his real mother and the literary one are undeniable. The maternal figure as monster continues to resurface in Panero’s poetry, as evidenced, for example, by “M” (T eoria). Again, the evil mother that surfaces is in complete contrast with the maternal figure propagandized by the Francoist regime. In 70 this case, Panero’s use of a series of four letter m’s to initiate the work seemingly attacks the latter image by mocking a classic sentence in F rancoist writing primers “Mi madre me mima”: “M / m, m, m, / adre/ de los dioses, sagrada noche / mirada que perfora, mirada que destruye” (PC 99). A monstrous maternal figure epitomized by a haunting laugh resurfaces in “Eve” (Narciso en el acorde ultimo de lasflautas): “Y te reiste de mi, como mi madre / al ver que yo habia nacido de ella” (PC 186). Indistinguishable from the poetic subject’s own maternal relation because of her cruel nature, Eve heartlessly reveals to the male that his self construct « his soul, body, and thought « is worthless, that it is destined to be no more than feed for the beasts of the earth: «te pregunté entonces«: <> Y contestaste: <>. <> <>. (PC 187) By utilizing such frigid imagery to represent the maternal, Panero openly refutes the culturally accepted notion of woman’s natural capacity to nurture life. The mother figure represented in Panero’s work, Similar to his very own,‘5 fails to provide comfort and solace to the male subject: “Veias en mis ojos escenas de otros tiempos/ secuencias de casas quemadas y rumor de linchamiento / y tocabas con asco las escamas 6 Panero, confronting Blane about how she dealt with his drug problem, criticizes her capacity to mother: “Pues mira, creo que tu capa de comprensibilidad es una capa de comprensibilidad absolutamente superficial y que no hay mas de eso” (Chavarri 87). 71 / y no decias nada” (“Epilogo a aquella mujer que quise tanto” [Last River Together {PC 230} D. Through his denaturalization of maternal capacity, Panero renders what Alan Peterson deems a “‘queer’ critique of identity politics”: The ‘queer’ critique of identity politics is closely linked to the critique of the essentialism of the self « the assumption that identity can be defrned by a core set of attributes which are unvarying across time and space, such ‘natural’ sexual desire or gender-linked propensity to aggress or to care. (99) The maternal image that dominates the poetry at hand is not that of a life-giver but rather that of the Terrible Mother, the devourcr of children and the bearer of death as seen in “Glosa a un epitafio (Carta al padre)” (Narciso en el acorde ultimo de Ias flautas): “L . .] los labios canibales de nuestra madre Muerte, madre / de nuestro rezo” (PC 151); in “111 <>, Ello 0 El dice” (El ultimo hombre): “avanzara siempre, mas alla de tus ojos, una mujer vestida / de azul como el cielo apagando / Ias luces que ella misma encendio, [. . .] ” (PC 362-27); and in “El ultimo espejo” (Narciso en el acorde ultimo de lasflautas): “Todo aquel que atraviesa el corredor del Miedo / llega fatalmente a1 Ultimo Espejo / donde una mujer abrazada a tu esqueleto nos muestra / cara a cara e1 infierno [. . .]” (PC 190). The absence of the good mother from the worldly existence of the poetic subject is further exemplified by the poem “Schekina” (Narciso en el acorde ultimo de lasflautas). The title itself is revealing: taken from Hebrew mysticism, Schekina refers to the absent feminine part of Yahweh, or the Great Mother, that needed to return before there would be peace or harmony in the universe (“Tetragrammaton”). The beginning of the poem alludes to the 72 Hebrew texts in which such a feminine entity is described: “Hace falta morir para amar a la Schekina>>, decian / aquellos viejos ebrios dc saber y de misterio, aquellos / libros que leiamos juntos como con miedo de su esplandor,” (PC 146). The poetic subject reveals his own desire to bridge the distance between himself and the maternal figure through death, thus being able to love her and congruently, be loved: “hace falta morir, hace falta morir para amarte mas y mas, / [. . .] / Y heme aqui que ya he muerto, ya he gozado, merced es, / de tu caridad, en verdad la r’mica y suprema, [. . .]” (PC 147). Overall, the nature of the love « platonic versus sexual « longed for by the poetic subject remains somewhat ambiguous; while reference to the figure’s “caridad” creates a platonic impression, the poetic subject’s offering of his body to her in the name of love creates one of a sexual nature: “mi ofrenda de amor: este cadaver, este / depojo que aun asi / sabe que no es digno, no es digno aun ni nunca,” (PC 147). However, what appears clear is his hope that death and the reunion with Schekina will allow him to return to the innocence of infancy and ultimately, to find his identity as a “man:” detras de la muerte esta la infancia otra vez, y el miedo esconde coros de risas, te lo juro: he muerto y soy un hombre, porque detras de la muerte estaba mi nombre escrito. (PC 147) Thus by suggesting that the only maternal figure that inhabits the earth is the Terrible Mother, the poet exposes the naturally loving maternal figure so revered by Franco Spain as a fraud. And in doing so, he freely divulges the poetic subject’s vulnerable position in relation to his powerful mother, which from a psychoanalytic point of view, 73 suggests an unsuccessful separation of the son from his mother, a notion that mirrors Panero’s own life experience: Blanc’s inclination to control her son is exemplified by her presence during his interviews, and moreover, her tendency to interject her opinion when dissatisfied with her son’s responses: “Siempre que le preguntan por la infancia lo elude indirectamente. Yo te puedo contar algo” (Fraile 25); Panero’s own reluctance to let go of his mother, his constant dependence on her, emotionally and economically, is well documented in his biography El contorno del abismo. In the end, it is the overbearing presence of the mother, both literally and figuratively, that emasculates the poetic subject, leaving him schizophrenic, or metaphorically castrated. Such fragmentation of the poetic subject manifests itself concretely in Panero’s poetry through the image of the flaccid penis « the ultimate aphallic signifier « or the unborn child. This image is presented by the male subject as a separate entity, representative of his alter ego, his unrealized self. By detaching the phallus from the male, Panero acknowledges not only that such symbolic power is transferable but also that is not essentially male, as evidenced by the aforementioned dominance of the maternal figure. Ironically, the male subject often attempts to regain phallic power over his own identity by appropriating the female voice of the mother. That is to say, he participates in queer performance, parodying the voice and posture of the maternal figure, his alter ego becoming his symbolic disappointment-of-a-son as seen in the haiku “Mujeres venid a mi” (El ultimo hombre). Assuming a traditionally female and congruently vulnerable bodily postur « the birthing position «, the poetic subject showcases his inability to become a “true man,” his lifeless sex hanging between his legs as if it were an aborted child, to female passers-by. Thus within this 74 context, culturally constructed body politics are both inverted « men’s bodies are understood as closed entities and women’s as incomplete, open to men (Buchbinder 2) - - and Simultaneously subverted « women are “supposed” to keep their legs closed -- by the male subject. Moreover, the imitative structure of gender itself along with its contingency is revealed: Mujeres venid a mi tengo entre mis piernas a1 hijo que no nacera jamas. (PC 311) The notion of stunted growth or unfulfilled potential as symbolized by the fetus also surfaces in “El noi del Sucre” (Last River Together). Panero captures the marginalized and restrictive Space occupied by the subject’s alter ego and the alienation he endures within his own physical being. The incessant sound of internal weeping « tears being shed by both the unborn child and by a helpless god « emphasize the male’s schizophrenic state: “Tengo un idiota dentro de mi / que llora, que llora y que no sabe, y mira / Solo la luz, la luz que no sabe. / Tengo a1 nifro, a1 nifio bobo, como parado / en Dios, en un dios que no sabe / sino amar y llorar, llora por las noches / por los nifios, por los nifios dc falo” (PC 225). In “El dia en que se acaba la caneibn” (Last River Together) the poetic subject again parodies the mother/son relationship, queerly performing both the role of the scornful mother and her impotent son. Regarding the latter role, his genitalia represents said offspring and by extention, uninspired poetry. From a Lacanian slant, what is suggested is that the loss of meaning, metonymically representative of language, results in the loss of inspiration because that which inspires is only intelligible within a 75 symbolic system. Or, as Borim and Reis state: “We desire what is socially desirable because our desire, to a large extent, is also molded by cultural and social constraints” (xiv). Overall, the poetic subject interprets his existence as one of death and wasted potential because the boy/potential trapped inside of him, the waiting-to-be birthed poem, has never been allowed to live. And so his fragmented existence, his inner torment, is once again apparent: Cuando el sentido, ese anciano que te hablaba en horas de soledad, se muere entonces mira a la mujer amada como a un viejo, y lloras. Y queda huérfano cl poema, sin padre ni madre, y lo odias, aborreces a1 hijo colgando como un aborto entre las piemas, balanceandose alli como hilo que euelga o telarafra, (PC 213-214) Similar imagery manifests in “Cbpula con un cuerpo muerto” (Narciso en el acorde ultimo de lasflautas), another complex poem inundated with Lacanian innuendos. Weaving together the image of a blackened fetus «symbolic of the male sex «, the notion of castration and the power of spoken language, Panero offers a commentary on the gendered male’s unstable position within society. This time, instead of identifying with the female role, the poetic subj ect criticizes it, presenting women as nothing more 76 than phallus hungry. According to him, women do not genuinely crave the male sex for what it is, but rather for the power it encapsulates, that of the word: “[. . .] Y es $610 a la palabra a quien ama / o amb « a ese feto o bulto negro que los dos cuerpos” (PC 167). Hence Panero’s subject refirtes the essentialist interpretation of gendered being by emphasizing how symbolic Significance (as culturally attributed) more so than innate desire drives the woman’s longing for the phallus; she wants to possess the linguistic power attribute to the male sex. The insignificance of male genitalia outside of the power of the word exposed, the masculine position within society is demythified, putting into question the binary power construct of gender « male/female, powerful/powerless overall. Dispossessed of any inherent self worth as a “male,” the male gendered individual is easily disposable and replaceable. Such abandonment of him results fiom physical irnpotence« represented in the poem under consideration by the fallen fetus. The male subject is left voiceless, transformed into an undesirable, non-identity before the eyes of a female. This is to say, the woman as subject over the objectified male possesses the ultimate gaze, her priviledged position over the fallen male emphasized by her conscious choice to walk away from him and the resilience of her unspoken words. Again, such an inversion and reinterpretation of the male-female dynamic is inherently queer. While an attitude typical of a misogynist marks the woman, the male’s withered corporeal being measures his lack of worth as if he were an aged Woman: El feto cae cayo -« caeréis «-, cayb disuelto [ ....................................... ] 77 Y ella al marcharse me dijo « movie los labios Sin hablar y se oyo que decia: <> (PC 167) Hungry for You Continuing with the notion of Panero’s poetic subject as a Dionysian figure, the cannibalistic practices of the male manifest in a number of ways. For example, if one understands Panero’s poetry to be an extension of himself, the notion of the "consumption of others," of cannibalism, can be interpreted metaphorically. That is to say, the poetic subject’s assumption of other identities as well as his citation of other poets’ verses become manifestations of his tendency to consume others. Interestingly, according to Panero, such an act is unavoidable because there is no such thing as an original idea within language, hence no true “yo” or authorship: “Hablemos, pues, de esta ficcion, del <>, lugar de lo imaginario” (Teoria 77). Thus all poetry reflects the thoughts of a previous speaker, “un muerto”: “Ahora bien, puesto que todo lenguaje es un sistema de citas, como decia Borges, todo poema es un poema sobre un muerto” (T eoria del miedo 9). For various reasons, Narciso en el acorde ultimo de lasflautas’ serves as a fine example of Panero’s theoretical take on writing, his Dionysian habit of consuming others and congruently, his disbelief in the authentic self. The title itself, a 7 In El ultimo poeta, Tua Blesa names Narciso en el acorde ultimo de Iasflautas as Panero’s favorite collection of his own work and his most celebrated (17). 78 description of the moment before the arrival of death, is a translation of the final verse of “Kleins Konzert” by Georg Trakl (Blesa “Sobre un poema [. . . ], ” l).8 In the prologue, Panero breathes life once again into one of Kierkegaard’s literary alter ego, Johannes de Silentio,9 the supposed author of the work at hand. While Panero’s de Silentio does not delve into questions of ethics, he does problematize the notion of true identity, initially distinguishing himself from the imaginary writer of the poetry at hand, narrring him a hero and later a possible Ezra Pound reincamate. By the end of the selection, de Silentio blurs the lines that differentiate himself from the imaginary writer and verbally confirms his overall uncertainty of who he is: “[. . .] pero que es ya 10 (mice que me queda para preguntarle: Lquién soy yo?” (PC 143). Neither Kierkegaard nor Pound satisfies Panero’s appetite; throughout Narciso en el acorde ultimo de lasflautas the Dionysian figure feeds on other poets and philosophers as exemplied by the poem “Un poema de John Clare.” Assunring the voice of the English poet, Panero essentially offers to the reader a Spanish translation of the work, “I am,” written sometime during Clare’s confinement in the Northampton County Asylum, fi'om 1842 until his death in 1864 (“John Clare”)?0 What is a common 8 Georg Takl (1887-1914) was born in Krakow, Poland. Raised in Salzburg, he would later study pharmacology in Vienna and publish hist first poetry in expressionist magazines. He suffered poor health which was worsened by excessive drug and alcohol abuse. His poetry is characterized by its melancholy and motifs taken from classical antiquity and the imagery of Christianity (“Takl”). 9 De Silentio is the heteronym used by Kierkegaard in Fear and Trembling, a work in which the fictitious author questions whether or not a father’s sacrifice of his son in the name of God is ethical. '0 As printed in Frederick Martin’s The Life of Jane Clare, Clare’s poem reads: I am! yet what I am none cares or knows My friends forsake me like a memory lost; I am the self-consumer of my woes, They rise and vanish in oblivious host, Like shades in love and death’s oblivion lost; And ye I am! and live with shadows test 79 thread between this work and many of those already discussed in this study is the poetic subject’s self-portrayal as victim of abandonment, his excessive self-pity and his longing to return to the innocence of childhood. Once again, the male subject’s antithetical Speech reveals his existence as a non-entity, a being unrecognizable before the gaze of an other. What sustains his pathetic (non)existence are the hardships he endures: Soy «mas qué soy nadie sabe ni a nadie le interesa «mis amigos me dejaron como un recuerdo inutil que sélo se alimenta de su propia desdicha de mis penas que surgen y se van, sin mas, y para nada ejército en marcha hacia el olvido [ ................................... ] Languidezco en una morada [. . .] [ ................................... 1 Into the nothingness of seem and noise, Into the living sea of waking dreams, Where there is neither sense of life nor joys, But the vast Shipwreck of my life’s esteems; And e’en the dearest--that I loved the best-- Are strange-may, rather stranger than the rest. I long for scenes where man has never trod; A place where woman never smil’d or wept; There to abide with my creator, God, And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept; Untroubling and untroubled where I lie; The grass below--above the vaulted sky. 80 para estar a solas con Dios, e1 Creador y dormir ese suefio que dorrnia en la infancia. (PC 201-2) In “Tu sonries. -- Bien, sé, pues, amargo,” (Narciso en el ultimo acorde de las flautas) the voice of Tristan Corbiére « the maldito brought to fame by Verlaine’s naming of him as a “maldito” (Pérez l6) « addresses an unnamed male, most likely his alter ego. What makes the latter possibility quite viable is the personal history of Corbiere, particularly his problematic amorous relationship with Armida Giuseppina Cuchiani: “T ristan sufre de un amor atorrnentado por los celos, por un lado, y por la sospecha de Si todo era mas un arranque de compasion de la mujer, que un amor verdadero” (Perez 16). Likewise, Panero’s amorous history is one defined by jealous fits and insecurity.” But returning to the poem at hand, here the Tristan reincamate encourages the unnamed male to surrender himself to the temptation of alcohol consumption « an evil represented by the presence of the demon MephistophelesI2 -- and openly wallow in his state of misery, presumably caused by lost or urrreciprocated love: “[. . .] Metistbfeles fanfarrén, y ansia / que tu garganta arda por el ajenjo:” (PC 201). The poetic subject then suggests that the unnamed man reclaim his body so that he can exhibit it as an example of the destructive nature of love, the sentiment’s negative impact having materialized on it in a number of ways. Not only has love resulted in the castration of the man, stripping him of his power position, but it has also penetrated his very inner being, as evidenced by his damaged organs: “Haz de ti mismo ” See El contorno del abismo. '2 Mephistophelesis is fabled to be the demon invoked by the German scholar and magician Georgius Sabillicus Faustus (1480-1540?) upon his decision to sell his soul to the devil. The fable of Faust is recalled in Marlowe’s The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Dr. F austus and Goethe’s Faust (Tyson). 81 tu obra postuma / castra el amor [. . .] gel amor que es duracion, lentitud! / Tu pulmén cicatrizado [. . .]” (PC 201). Other times, Panero writes alternative versions of other writers’ works; that is to say, he consumes them and transforms them. This is the case with “Correccién de Yeats (Extraida del poema <>)” (Narciso en el acorde ultimo de lasflautas). The most significant change appears to be in the last stanza. Here the poetic subject, like that of William Butler Yeats, invokes God through prayer; however, the former’s request is distinct. Unlike Yeats who longs to be remembered as a passionate man, Panero hopes not be etemalized as an “hombre loco,” understood as insane. Yeats’ poem reads: I pray « for word is out/ And prayer comes round again «/ That I may seem, though I die old, / A foolish, passionate man” (“A Prayer for Old Age”). And Panero’s: “Rezo « pues las palabras vacias se marcharon / sin ser oidas y 8610 la plegaria queda / en pie--para que aun cuando tarde mucho / en morir y en escribir mi nombre / a1 fin sobre la lapida puedan / un dia decir sobre ese frio / que no estuve loco.” Panero’s consumption of other persons’ identities metonymically through their words does not always materialize as a complete poem. As noted by Blesa in his edition of Panero’s Poesia completa, sometimes the poet merely appropriates a phrase or verse for himself: in “Cbpula con un cuerpo muerto” (Narciso) the poetic subject echoes the voice of Nietzsche when addressing his impotence: “Dios esté muerto ” (PC 167); in “Vanitus Vanitatum” (Teoria), Panero embodies multiple voices including that of Eliot: “milagros en hoteles de una noche”; Scott Fitzgerald: “he visto muerto al rey 82 en medio de tus interminables avenidas lluviosas”; and the Gnostic figure Basilides" in his diatribe on life on earth as a living hell and the coming of the apocalypse: “que ha de volverlo todo a su origen, esto es a la Nada, o mejor / a aquello / que es menos que nada.” (PC 131—135). Obviously, such intertextuality testifies to the influence of various discourses « including religious, philosophical and literary « on Panero’s perception of life. What is also apparent is Panero’s selection of voices with whom he shares common personal experiences such as mental illness (Kierkegaard and Clare), substance abuse (Trakl and Corbiére), and unreciprocated and/or failed love endeavors (Corbiére and Kierkegaard). But in regards to Panero’s reconceptualization of masculinity in particular, such fluidity or appropriation of others’ voices and experiences exemplifies the overall instability and inauthenticity of the conceptualization of the male yo -- what seems to be Panero’s point all along . As the poetic subject voices in “La cancion del Croupier del Mississippi” (Last River Together), what defines him is not some inherent identity but rather multi-subjectivities that are constantly being redefined and modified: “Me digo que soy Pessoa, como Pessoa era / Alvaro de Campos" / [. . .] / y unos dias soy Cain, y otros / un jugador de pbker que bebe whisky perfectamente y otros / un cazador de dotes que por otra parte he sido” (PC 220-221). This being said, Panero seemingly recognizes what Butler '3 Basilides (c. 100 -c. 139 e.v.) was the founder of the Basilidean sect of Christian Gnostics in Alexandria during the reigns of the Roman Emperors Hadrian and Antionius Pius. As a Gnostic he believed that matter and spirit were of opposing nature, teaching that only souls were saved and that bodies were worth nothing, and that suffering was a blessing as it separated the spiritual from the material (Apiroyon l). " The Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935) played a significant role in the development of modernism in his country and utilized various pseudonyms or literary alter egos in his works, including Alberto Caeiro, Alvaro de Campos, and Ricardo Reis. “Alvaro dc Campos, an engineer, represents the ecstasy of experience in the spirit of Walt Whitman, and writes in free verse” (Liukkonen). 83 understands to be the “contingency of identity,” the notion that subjectivity is an organic construct, that it is in constant construction due to ever changing intersection of variables that define reality at a given moment and consecuently, the individual’s experience of being within it. But whereas Butler’s theorization of the transformational quality of subjectivity connotes personal empowerment (as the individual’s bodily performance shapes self conceptualization), Panero’s interpretation of fluid being emphasizes the overall farcical quality of personal identity. What inevitably results from such constant transition is the experience of uncertainty of self-identity, as heard in “Trovador fui, no sé quien soy” (El ultimo hombre) « “Tuve la voz, trovador fui / hoy ya cantar no sé / trovador, no sé hoy quién soy” (PC 299) «, among other poems. Besides taking the form of borrowed language or identity, Dionysian consumption of others in Panero’s poetry also manifests itself in a more literal, physical sense, “La oracion” (Last River Together) exemplifying this notion. Here, Panero is emphatic about the mother’s active role in the male subject’s adoption of subversive, anti-heterosexual and familial behavior; it is because of her demands that he, merely an obedient child, consumes the masculinity « the genitalia -- of a dead man, presumably his father. The use of the word “alimento” in relation to his performance of fellatio suggests that the poetic subject hopes to be nourished into a true man, to take on the paternal role, through the ingestion of the flesh of his father’s sex. Such a need would only result from his own “lack of manliness,” represented here by the youthfulness of the poetic subject and his inability to make his own decisions (the maternal figure controls his bodily movement). In any event, once again, the male’s state of insecurity, his overall struggle with sexuality, is revealed and directly linked to the maternal figure, 84 her authoritative position represented mechanically in the poem by the capital M of mother: Y la Madre reprendio al nifio, y dijo que haces que no velas e1 cadaver y él puso su boca en aquel falo, y sorbio lentamente como de un alimento. (PC 229) Thus, the title of the work « “La oracion” « appears rather ironic as well as sacrilegious because the adoration observed by the reader iS not that of the Catholic Almighty Deity but rather of a lifeless male body." The maternal figure insists that the corpse still embodies the ever so powerful paternal authority, the ultimate source of forgiveness and solace: “porque e1 muerto ese era el incienso / que purificaba los / sabidos hedores del teatro, [. . .] / [. . .] / que nos absuelva, dile, que hemos vivido mucho” (PC 229). Overall, through the performance of such extreme reverence for the dead paternal figure, Panero offers a satirical critique of the patriarchal family. But as if the poem wasn’t twisted enough up to this point, the last verse adds another dimension to its subversion. In response to his mother’s repeated requests to remain vigilant over the corpse, the boy penetrates its most private cavity of all, the anus: “y el hijo sorbia de acluel ano abierto” (PC 230). By contextualizing this unexpected act within the realm 0f incest, Panero further mocks phallic power « the male subject’s interpretation of the anus as a Significant, sexual space epitomizes how random the attribution of \ rs R"ili810us adoration of the male body also occurs in “After Gottfried Benn,” also from Narciso en el acarde ultimo de Iasflautas.” In this case religious reverence and penance takes the form of masturbation: “L . .] arrodillarse / para rezar, una vez mas, la oracibn / maldita. Y masturbarte oyendo/ en tus oldos tu propia vez que dice a / [. . .] / y diré « “golpéame, / pégame, por favor” (PC 172). 85 meaningfulness to the penis actually is « and congruently, the maternal figure’s “duty” to serve and preserve the patriarchy through the teaching of Catholic values (i.e. heterosexuality). Sexual consumption of the paternal figure resurfaces in “Glosa a un epitafio (Carta a1 padre)” (Narciso en el acorde ultimo de Iasflautas) and once again, the maternal figure is responsible for making such incestuous intimacy possible between father and son. In this case, it is her “kiss of death ” (PC 151) that unites the two lovers for eternity. Thus, once again, Panero utilizes classic vampire imagery to capture the mother’s presence and in doing so, he reveals the cyclical nature of consumption within his work. It is the consumption of the two males by the maternal figure that enables the poetic subject to sexually consume his father. Inevitably, the male wants what she has had: De ese beso, final, padre, en que desapareczcan de un soplo nuestras sombras, para asidos de ese metro irnposible y feroz, quedamos a salvo de los hombres para siempre, solos yo y tu, mi amada, aqui, bajo esta piedra.” (PC 152-153) Overall, the male’s interpretation of death as his salvation from other men brings to light the antagonism he endures during his lifetime as a monstrous anomaly, said conflictive state symptomatic of both his homosexual and incestual desires. In any case, by addressing the paternal figure as “amada,” the poetic subject reveals his 86 intention to appropriate for himself the dominant “male” role within the relationship, that of “amante.” Within the context of taboo relations, the poetic subject seemingly parodies the traditional power construct between man and woman, making evident his continued desire to be a “true” male. That is to say, he has internalized the heterosexual necessity for gender differentiation within a sexual relationship. On a biographical note, upon the death of Leopoldo Panero, Panero was not given the opportunity to fulfill the paternal role, of being the “true man” within his immediate family; it was his older brother, Juan Luis, who immediately took on the authoritative position. In El desencanto, Panero’s younger brother Michi comments on how he and Panero reject Juan Luis as the new paternal figure of the family: “Por un lado, no es tal padre, es decir, los hijos no lo aceptamos como tal padre; la mujer, que seria mi madre, lo acepta en un principio [. . .]” (60). This being said, the poetic work at hand seemingly reinterprets said monumental moment of structural change within the Panero family unit. As opposed to supporting her eldest son’s acquistion of the paternal Space, in the poetic account the maternal figure facilitates Panero « as represented by the poetic subject « to enter, although queerly, into said priviledged position. Similar to Panero’s own incestuous cravings « “lo que me gustaria hacer es acostarme con mi pa... con mi madre,” (Chavarri 89) « , those of the poetic subject also transgress gender boundaries. In other words, his desire to consume the maternal figure also manifests itself poetically. Nevertheless, as seen in “Descort” (Narciso en el acorde ultimo de lasflautas) and “El que hiriera a su madre” (Dioscuros), his want is not always realized. In the former poem, the maternal figure opposes such behavior, refusing to sexually arouse the male through physical contact. And so his sex « 87 represented here as a “black monster” rather than as an unborn child or aborted fetus «, flaccid, remains in hiding: “secreta-monstruo / negro entre nuestras dos piemas. <> Descort « <> se ponia / de manifiesto [. . .]” (PC 164). The mother’s absence in “El que hiriera a su madre” prevents the delirious but aroused male from satisfying his sexual desire, to metaphorically “wound” his mother, as the title suggests. He resigns himself to self -Stimulation in her empty bed, his fallen semen symbolizing his emotional fragility as opposed to his virility: “parecido a los dioses deliraba en la cama / y sin tunica entraba donde estuve su madre / y quemaba su cuerpo en el lecho vacio / y eran semen Ias lagrimas [. . .]” (PC 274). A more reciprocal sexual interaction between mother and son surfaces in “Bello es el incesto” (El que no ve). Here the realization of such intimacy is presented as a chivalric achievement gained through sportsmanship and celebrated with the sharing of wine: “Bello es el incesto. / Hay tomeo de lanzas, y juegos / y el vino promete su derrame / para alegrar la unidn de los eposos” (PC 243). This noble imagery stands in sharp contrast with that which follows -- the honific ritualistic slaughtering of one’s own children in the name of incest: “Se decapitara a dos niiios para saber Si es buena la sangre, y si asi augura / una unidn / de los esposos” (PC 243). Nevertheless, the poem ends with the subject’s insistence of the honorable nature of such a relationship as exemplified by the exchange of white flowers between mother and son. It is the bodily contact of a kiss that finalizes the union: “Madre e hijo se ofrecen sus dos ramos / de lirios blancos y de orquideas, y en la boca / llevan ya el beso para desposarlo.” (PC 243). 88 Such a schizophrenic juxtaposition of innocence and incestual relations does not manifest in “Proyecto de un beso” (El ultimo hombre) (74). What does, however, is a meshing of conflictive emotions « love/lust and hate«, similar to those that Panero himself experiences towards his own mother: “Hay una parte de mi mismo que la quiere y otra que la odia, que son los manicomios” (F eméndez 343).” Originally dedicated to Panero’s mother, the poem recounts the male vampire’s contemplation of the murder of his female prey, the hour and location in which he will act.'7 Although the male’s domination of the victim is unquestionable from the beginning of the poem, the destructive act is initially presented as a potentially mutually satisfying sexual encounter: “te mataré mafiana poco antes del alba / cuando estés en el lecho, perdida entre los suefios / y sera come 0 copula o semen en los labios / como beso o abrazo, 0 come accibn de gracias” (PC 300). As the poem continues, however, the enragement behind the male’s act becomes more evident. He reveals his intention to put the female victim at his mercy so that she apologize for the sex that she is, a gendered identity that evidently poses a threat to the poetic subject. Hence the brutal incision of the phallic knife « “e1 hierro”« into her sex : te mataré mafiana, y pediras perdon por esa came obscena, por ese sexo oscuro que va a tener por falo e1 brillo de este hierro ‘5 Panero’s dedication to Blane at the beginning of “Ma mere” (Narciso en el acorde ultimo de Ias flautas) makes his love/hate feelings toward Blane quite obvious also: “A mi desoladora madre, con esa extrar'ia mezcla de compasio'n y nuusea que puede sdlo experimentar quien conoce la causa, banal y so'rdida, quizu, de tanto, tanto desastre” (PC 157). '7 In the winter of 1982, Panero participates in the conference Conversaciones sobre Poesia Joven, at which, after making a dedication to the present Blane, he reads “Proyecto de un beso” (Fernandez 273). 89 que va a tener por beso e1 sepulcro, e1 olvido (PC 300) Curiously, the death of the maternal figure is the vehicle through which the poetic voice perceives his future rebirth into a phallic man. It is upon his realization of such a status that he will reclaim his incestual love for his deceased mother, transforming her gravesite into a matrimonial bed. Whereas before her death, a foreign instrument provides the male with phallic power, upon his liberation from the maternal figure through her death, the poetic subject’s own sex becomes his phallus. Thus what is suggested once again, is that the earthly presence of the maternal figure inhibits the poetic subject’s identification with “true masculinity,” his acquisition of phallic power: “te mataré mafiana y amaré tu fantasma / y correré a tu tumba las noches en que ardan/ de nuevo en ese falo tembloroso que tengo / los ensuefios del sexo, los misterios del semen / y sera asi tu lapida para mi el primer lecho” (PC 301). In “El Lamento del vampire” (Last River Together), the poetic subject’s consumption of human bodies occurs outside of the family circle; he finds nourishment in the flesh of random street wanderers: “Vosotros, todos vosotros, toda / esa came que en la calle / se apila, sois/ para mi alimento,” (PC 212). In any event, although the male subject ingests their physical essence, his own body ironically never materializes, he remains bodiless. That is to say, despite his domineering physical position over his victims, the male subject remains invisible before their empty gaze and hence, powerless. Unable to see his own reflection through the reflection of his prey’s presence, the male’s own subjectivity is further blurred. Hence, once again, Panero suggests the dialogic nature of identity construction: todos esos ojos 90 cubiertos dc legafias, como de quien no acaba jamas de despertar, como mirando sin ver [. . .] [ ......................... ] sois para mi alimento, y el espanto profundo de tener como espejo unico esos ojos de vidrio, esta niebla (PC 212) In general, the Dionysian figure’s sexual conquests entail more than the piercing of human flesh. That is to say, like the maternal figure who consumes the male subject’s soul, so does the male subject strive to possess the spiritual essence of his victims. In fact, in “Diario de un seductor” (Last River Together) coitus is presented as nothing more than a means to gain access to the other’s soul, a space defined by its innocence which the male longs to deflower and ultimately destroy. And so the tone that dominates the work is one of aggression, a socially accepted male characteristic within a socially unaccepted, even blasphemous, context. Traditional Catholic belief names reproduction as the goal of sexual intimacy, and moreover, from such a religious perspective, the desire to gain control over another’s spirituality through sex appears purely satanical: “No es tu sexo lo que en tu sexo busco / sino ensuciar tu alma: / desflorar / con todo el barro de la vida / lo que aun no ha vivido” (PC 243). “Necrofilia (prosa)” (Lost River Together) is another work that exemplifies the poetic subject’s interpretation of coitus as a vehicle for diabolical, spiritual conquests. In this case, the subject openly challenges the romanticized image of “making love,” renaming the physical act as a form of assassination. Again, what is destroyed is not the physical 91 essence of the other but rather the soul of the victim of the act. In this particular scenario, it is pulverized to nothingness by the weight of the “murderer”: E1 acto del amor es lo mas parecido a un asesinato. En la cama, en su terror gozoso, se trata de borrar e1 alma del que esté, hombre o mujer, debajo” (PC 244). The other’s soul as the lust object resurges in other poems of Panero, including “Abandono” (El que no ve) and “Urr asesino en las calles” (El que no ve). In the former work, the poetic subject brags of his abusive behavior towards his former lover, how he has absorbed his/her Spiritual essence, transfornring him/her into another anomic of society: “He sorbido tu espiritu y de él nada queda: tu rostro se parece hey a nadie, a una persona / de ésas sin ahna y rostro que vemos por la calle” (PC 264). However, in the latter, the poetic subject’s cockiness is replaced by resignation. After concluding that all human beings are inherently non-entities, the male decides to no longer pursue their souls « such endeavors lack meaning due to the insignificance of human life: “No mataré ya mas, porque los hombres S610/ son numeros o letras de mi agenda, / e intervalos Sin habla, [. . .] ”(PC 255). What resounds through the male’s voice once again is his fi'ustration with a pointless existence, a “sin” in and of itself, escapable only through death. Moreover, he labels such misery as the sadistic play of God. Thus, once again, the poetic subject, after being the sacrificer, becomes the human sacrifice. His fragmentation is what defines his schizophrenic self: No mataré ya mas las borrosas figuras 92 que esclavas de lo absurdo avanzan por la calle agarradas a1 tiempo como a oscura certeza sin salida o respuesta, como para la risa tan sélo de los dioses, o la lagrima seca [ ..................................... ] que aquello, oh Dios lo sabe, aquella sangre era para jugar tan selo. (PC 255) Conclusion What this chapter has intended to demonstrate is the complexity of Leopoldo Maria Panero’s conceptualization of male gendered identity as exemplified by his poetic work. Overall, the narrring of his poetic subject as a Dionysian figure « due to his experiences of physical consumption and madness, his capacity to “make people ma ” and his obsession with the consumption of others -- acknowledges the male’s multi-subjectivies and the overall contingency of his selflrood. The various subjectivities he embodies can be considered a reflection of and reaction to the numerous discourses « including political (masculinism and heterosexuality) and religious (primarily Catholicism) « that have informed his understanding of male selfhood. Such questioning of hegemonic beliefs can “in turn create an arena where the governing conceptions of a particular discourse suffer a sort of slippage wherein predominant roles and values lose their claims to absolute authority and subsequently can be altered” (Gutterman 1). This notion is evidenced through Panero’s poetic subject’s queer performance of masculine being, his constant reformulation and 93 renegotiation of sexed identity. The changes manifest throughout the studied poetry both empirically « through deeds -- and psychologically « through thoughts and state of mind (i.e. the appropriation of different voices)« and are often conflictive by nature. Panero’s subject both endures consumption and consumes others; he suffers from insanity and creates insanity in others; he is victim of the paternal figure but longs to mirror his image; he hates his mother but loves her; he looks for God for comfort but blames him for his misery. Often more than one of the poetic subjectivies surface in a single poem, further epitomizing how fragmented the male actually is. In the end, such contradictions pay a toll on the poetic subject’s physical being « it is wounded, castrated, or even disintegrated «, causing the male to question his selfhood to a greater extent as he no longer occupies any position sembling the veiled phallic position within society. To conclude, I quote F eder’s Madness in Literature once again: The study of myths of madness as symbolic expressions of adaptive psychic mechanisms is especially relevant to current psychoanalytic interest [. . .] [. . .] The correspondences between such symptoms « [. . .] obsessional guilt represented as an imagined pursucr, the fantasy of incorporation of a god « and the narrative structure of ancient myths of ' madness suggest that certain of these characteristic expressions of psychosis reveal a regression to earlier stages of psychic adaption. (37 -3 8) Le0poldo Maria Panero himself has equated the process of writing to a fornr of psychoanalysis. By presenting such schizophrenic imagery in the corpus of poetry 94 considered in this chapter, Panero Openly refutes the notion of masculinity « what it means to be a “true” man -- as prescribed by masculinism, and in doing so, he challenges the ideal of the traditional Spanish family unit. What becomes quite apparent is the dialogical nature of gender conceptualization; it is through analyzing his relationship with others, including the patriarchal father, the phallic mother, and other nameless persons, that the poetic subject attempts to obtain a sense of selflrood. Overall, by confi'onting the history that informs his reality, by openly challenging the values and beliefs he has inherited as a “son” of Franco, Panero refuses to participate in what Vilarés terms the Spanish pact of "e1 olvido." In fact, his poetic subject incamates the Lacanian “Cosa” that she describes, the intangible ghost from the past that so many long to forget: Entre este mafiana que no puede cscribirse y el ayer borrado se encripta e1 fantasma del pasado, convirtiéndose para el inconsciente colectivo en eco de lo que Jacques Lacan denominé la “Cosa”, evocacidn de un algo ominoso a1 que es dificil acceder porque queda siempre fuera del Significado. [. . .] Si 1a “Cosa” es una “caida”, segun la terminologia de Kristeva, un recipiente forrnado de aquello que rechazamos y desechamos; Si es “un cadere” en el que todos y todas aparecemos “desechos,” en el que todos somos “cadaveres,” en la Espaiia de la transicibn “la Cosa” puede pensarse como la representacion de la caida de nuestro pasado [. . .]. (11) 95 Chapter 111: Out of sight, (You 're) Out of (Your) Mind: Panero’s Appropriation of the Phallic Gaze Mejor e1 barco pirata que la nave de los locos Mas atroz que eso la luna en mis ojos Sé mas que un hombre «Leopoldo Maria Panero, “Mejor el barco pirata” In the above cited haiku from El ultimo hombre (PC 312), the comparison between two tortuous experiences, captivity at the hands of ruthless bandits versus captivity at the hands of an internal evil, serves as a mere prelude to the presentation of an even less desirable state of existence « that of sightlessness as depicted by the blinding moonlight in the poetic subject’s eyes. Being the celestial body that traditionally facilitates the transformation of man into animal (as seen in the typical vampire and/or wolf man storyline) and that which is commonly associated with the feminine, the image of the moon marks the anomalous existence endured by the male. While his inability to see implies an inability to reason, the poetic subject’s contention that he “knows” more than a man refutes this implication. The male’S commentary provokes other reconceptualizations as well; by vocally locating himself (a “male” body) on the Side of the Other and by placing the power of knowledge (that which is normatively perceived as “masculine”) on the anomalous side, he blurs and destabilizes the defining lines of the hu-man/monster binary. Breaking both material and ontological boundaries, the male subject presents an image of himself that is seemingly queer. His reeonceptualized corporeality extends beyond the appropriation of previously forbidden gender definitions; as a nighttime hu/animal who lacks the power 96 of the gaze while possessing more knowledge than man himself, he embodies the Shifting of the ground of being itself, that which Sue-Ellen Case asserts to be definitively queer in her article “Tracking the Vampire” (382). Overall, the consistent presence of blindness within Leopoldo Maria Panero’s work can be interpreted as an extension of infantile play. Physical maladies are an obsession of the poet long before he began to publish poetry. As a child, Panero invents illnesses and corresponding cures for them, sightlessness being one of the conditions with which the future poet preoccupies himself. His younger brother Michi recounts in El desencanto: “[. . .] escribia libros médicos [. . .] que eran todo enfermedades inventadas, pero que realmente no eran tan inventadas, porque era todo: la perdida de la inteligencia, la perdida de la vista, [. . .]” (Chavarri 76). But leaving bestiality and infantile play aside, blindness in Panero’s poetry is often emblematic of a more abstract and equally complex problem « the poetic subject’s inability to perceive for himself a genuine self- construct or gendered identity. According to Lacan, it is the acquisition of language within the realm of the Symbolic that enables one to obtain a sense of cohesive subjectivity, to become a subject. This relatively stable understanding of self surpasses imaginary identity, a fi'agile sense of being established in infancy through the recognition of one’s own reflection in the presence of an Other. Because the male gender is attributed phallic power within the Symbolic, one might assume that the stabilization of self through language would be quite natural and uncomplicated for Panero’s male poetic subject. AS Wittig contends, the speaking “1” within hegemonic discourse is indistinguishable from the masculine position and therefore it is the female rather than the male who 97 struggles to occupy said position. However, as revealed by the poetry at hand, this is not the case. To the contrary, “entitlement” to any authentic corporeality and subsequently, subjectivity « particularly that of the privileged male « escapes Panero’s poetic subject. Instead of providing the male with a cohesive sense of masculine being, language « a system based on the farcical Significance of the phallus « fragments him. Corporeal dissolution manifests not as a natural human condition as Deluze and Guatarri suggest, but rather as a consequence of the imposition of phantasmic corporeal ideals. Panero’s subject’s perceives his corporeality as incomplete because it fails to signify that which “it is supposed to,” it does not measure up to the image of masculinity ingrained in his mind. The masculine exemplar that defines intelligible corporeality remaining elusive to him, the poetic subject endures an invisible state of being while Simultaneously being unable to perceive that which surrounds him. In Ways of Seeing, John Berger summarizes the interplay of Sight and visibility in identity formation in the following manner: “Soon after we can see, we are aware that we can also be seen. The eye of the other combines with our own eye to make it fully credible that we are part of the visible world” (9). Donna Haraway concurs with Berger, recognizing the dialectical nature of identity formation, how one’s personal vision is innately incomplete but capable of joining with another to create a sense of completeness « although imperfect « for the individual, without the individual “claiming to be another” (288). Lacking the power of the gaze, the fragmented male Speaker of Panero’s poetry is incapable of participating in the harmonious exchange described above. He reverts back to the mirror stage, seeking confirmation of a coherent bodily existence and identity through external bodies. Moreover, in doing so, 98 C0] to; he often does, in fact, attempt to appropriate otherS’ identities as his own. When not doing just that, Panero’s male subject strives to find self validation through becoming the former’s object of desire. That is to say, not having the phallus « he is invisible, bodiless « the male subject attempts to become the phallus. In this sense, he queerly performs a traditionally gendered female role. The other’s gaze, then, « represented figuratively by the image of the “ojo” or the “espejo” and the sense of touch « enables the male in his attempt to reconstruct his own reflection. Whether the male subject appropriates an other’s body as his own or queerly performs the role of the female for the sake of recognition, in either scenario he as a poetic speaker inverts the traditional poet/referent relationship. It is the referent « the external body « who inevitably calls the male’s material existence into being.‘ It creates him. In any event, the male speaker’s quest for a “body of his own” can be considered revolutionary overall. In Thinking through the Body Jane Gallop comments on how recognizing masculine corporeality holds the potential to liberate the female from the confines of corporeal being: “[. . .] to insist on bodily masculinity is to work to undo heterosexist ideology which decrees the body female” (131). What Gallop appears to overlook « although her statement clearly implies it « is how the re- connection of masculinity with corporeal existence iS revolutionary in and of itself for the male sex. Exposing and exploring male corporeality fuses the masculine/feminine binary for the male persona, incorporating what is traditionally perceived as female « ' In Spanish Poetry of the Twentieth Century Debicki speaks of the liberating effects of such an inversion of the poet/ referent relationship as seen in the poetry of Talens, a contemporary of Panero: “This invites us to reexamine the relationships of subject and interpreter, of living and writing, of writing and reading” (163). 99 the body « as a essential component of his identity. Historically speaking, Teresa M. Vilaros understands this desire to “hear the body Speak” as characteristic of la movida madrileria in general, the time period in which a large fraction of the poetry being considered is written. With a new sense of liberation due to the death of Franco, Spanish youths of the rrrid seventies indulge in various forms of corporeal gratification including drug and alcohol intoxication and sexual pronriscuity. Their arguably reckless compartment fueled by a "life for the moment" attitude punctures and penetrates traditional bodily boundaries. Corporealities blur and mesh through shared needles and homoerotic experiences. While Panero is a protagonist of said cultural moment of change, his participation in deviant behavior begins prior to Spain’s transitional period. P or example, in 1968, upon being arrested for possession of haschis, Panero shares a homosexual experience with poet Eduardo Hara Ibars in their common jail cell (Blesa, Leopoldo Maria Panero: El ultimo hombre l3). Panero’s disregard for Francoist ideals through participation in such taboo compartment during the dictatorship solidifies his qualification as a maldito. Tr'ra Blesa comments in Leopoldo Maria Panero: El ultimo hombre: “Se completa asi la figura de toda la destable para la sociedad de la época (y en la de hay): subversive, dragadicto, bisexual, suicida, poeta que escribe contra las canvenciones del momenta” (13). With the corpus of analysis once again being anthologies published between 1973 and 1983,2 this chapter expounds upon the metaphoric interplay between blindness and invisibility in Panero’s poetry. It shall demonstrate how such physical maladies are 2 T eoria (I973); Narciso en el acorde ultimo de lasflautas (1979); Last River Together (1980); El que no ve (1980); Dioscuros (1982); and El ultimo hombre (1983). 100 ELL-" symptomatic of a greater ill « that of a lack of a cohesive sense of gendered identity, and subsequently, of existence as an intelligible body within society. Panero’s presentation is seemingly anti-Lacanian, as initation into the Symbolic fails to provide the male subject with an intelligible being, with phallic Signigicance as a male corporeality. AS Butler acknowledges in Gender Trouble, it is the identification of corporeality as masculine or feminine that makes personal materiality « subjectivity « intelligible within society. Corporeal ambiguity, a body that escapes the defining lines of either male or female being calls into question the very notion of personhood itself: “Inasmuch as ‘identity’ is assured through the stabilizing concepts of sex, gender, and sexuality, the very notion of ‘the person’ is called into question by the cultural emergence of those ‘incoherent’ or ‘discontinuous’ gendered beings [. . .]” (23). Material incoherencey torrnents Panero’s male subject psychologically, his often paranoid, depressed and/or neurotic tone of voice giving evidence to this. According to Guy Hocquenhem, neurosis itself is symptomatic of the homosexual’s inability to recognize his sexed body within a heterosexual world: Neurosis consists first of all in the impossibility of knowing (which is not the same thing as innocent ignorance) whether one is male or female, parent or child. And hysteria, too, is the impossibility of knowing whether one is male or female. All homosexuals are more or less hysterical, in fact they Share with women a deep identity disorder; or, to be more accurate, they have a confused identity. (101) Whereas Panero’s poetic subject does not declare himself a “homosexual,” he does participate in homosexual experiences. However, distinct from Hocquenhem’s notion 101 that an homosexual identity encompasses the experience of neurosis, this study shall argue that in Panero’s poetry, more often than not, homosexual performance surfaces as the manner through which the poetic subject attempts to appropriate a cohesive, masculine identity and by extension, to rid himself of mental anguish. Homosexual performance is seemingly not the source of the problem but rather a potential cure for corporeal ambiguity. As the male subject strives to comprehend and resolve his state of non-being, he arrives at the realization that he is not the sole victim of such an incomplete existence. Thus, the questioning of identity that surfaces in Panero’s poetry transcends the immediate, personal experience. It encompasses concerns about the human experience overall and the role of the divine in it. Likewise, blindness and invisibility as metaphors take an multidimensional Significance, symbolizing not only personal injury but epidemics bath at the national level « Spain is presented as a nation of ciegos « and the metaphysical « God himself is understood to be blind, invisible, and therefore nonexistent. The physical maladies of the male subject analogously represent the unwanted inheritances of the Francoist nation which include institutionalized gender roles and heterosexuality, an antiquated Catholic tradition, and an unspoken histbry of internal conflict. Alienated from his past, silenced and corporeally stunted in the present and uncertain about his material future, the male subject is left with no other choice than to reconstruct himself. Empty eyes/Quest for Light Upon commenting the significance of sight in Ways of Seeing, John Berger 102 d1 observes: “It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world with words, but words can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it” (7). Much of Panero’s poetry exemplifies Berger’s paint of view, although the manner in which the insight manifests itself is often contorted. The poet preoccupies himself with the adverse effects of the inability to perceive and fully comprehend that which surrounds him. Panero’s scrutiny of culturally accepted perception of reality is seemingly autobiographical considering his personal endurance of a marginalized existence within Spanish society as a maldito and having often been alienated within his very own family. Moreover, along with his fellow countrymen he shares an history defined by an incessant vigilance, Franco’s gaze serving as a constant reminder of the official perspective of his regime and the detrimental consequences of not abiding by it. In “The Persistence of Vision” Donna Haraway comments the use of the eyes within power constructs to establish authority and control: “The eyes have been used to signify a perverse capacity « honed to perfection in the history of science tied to militarism, capitalism, colonialism, and male supremacy « to distance the knowing subject fi'om everybody and everything in the interests of unfettered power” (283). General Franco’s eyes are inescapable during the dictatorship; photos of him adorn Spanish life, both public and private. In Usos amorosos de la postguerra espar‘iola Carmen Martin Gaite recalls how the dictatar’s image often appears alongside that of the Pope himself, suggestive of the farmer’s divinely willed authoratitive presence: De la misma manera habia que mirar a F ranca y al Papa. Encadenados uno a otro, apoyandose mutuamente en aquella cruzada del espiritu [. . .]. [. . .] [. . .] sus retratos aparecian con frecuencia uno cerca de otro err 103 aulas, sacristias y despachos, en el ABC, en el cuarto de estar de muchas casas. Crecimos bajo la vigilancia de aquellos dos rostros, el del casquete blanco y el del bigotito, donde no puede decirse que anidaran precisamente la temura, la compasibn ni la fantasia. (21) The dictator’s gaze permeates Spanish society through other means as well. AS previously discussed, bath what Althusser terms as “repressive apparatuses” « such as the police force and state censorship « and “ideological state apparatuses” « such as the educational system and Catholicism « further validate and mark the dictator’s official perceptive. In turn, these mechanisms shape how the Spanish nation perceives the reality in which they inhabit and their own selves. The official perceptive of reality being incongruous with his own experience of it, sightlessness weaves together much of Panero’s poetic work. Manifesting through the characterization of the poetic subject, the symbol of the eye « often empty and/or dead «, and the presentation of “ciegos,” the metaphor of blindness aides Panero in his exploration of identity formation and consequently, the (in)authenticity of social relations. Gendered identity being a relational concept, the poetic subject attempts to construct for himself a sense of being through personal connections with others. Exposing corporeal fragmentation or incoherent being to be a Shared malady, the poetic subject deconstructs the gender binary construct upon which sexed identity is based. Beginning with the manifestation of blindness through the characterization of the poetic subject, “Haiku” (Lost River Together) is one of many poems in which the speaker acknowledges his sightlessness, his lack of the phallic gaze. In this case, he matter-of-factly states his inability to perceive what is in his own hand, which, 104 metaphorically speaking, symbolizes his inability to possess or dominate over any object because of his lack of subjectivity. The male subject remains alienated from what Wittig deems the universal and implicitly masculine speaking position of “I.” Said confession of the poetic subject consequently heightens the sacrificial nature of the act he has just performed « the gifting of willows to an unnamed second party so that s/he may appreciate what he cannot: Te ofrezco en mi mano los sauces que no he vista (PC 216) The inability to see, or existence as a fragmented being, then, does not impede the poetic subject from interacting with another person « he initiates dialogue through the extension of his hand. What is left uncertain is the response to the gesture itself, whether it is acknowledged by the Other or whether a genuine dialogical exchange results. The Speaker’s need to overtly claim ownership of his body « “mi mano”« and the gesture itself can be interpreted as a Sign of his concern that they will both go unseen, that he as an unintelligible body shall go unnoticed. The outcome appears to be left up to the reader, who easily slips into the role of the unnarrred recipient of the gift. Regardless, what is left unquestionable is the fact that the male is not completely paralyzed by sightlessness or personal fragmentation; he still identifies with his corporeality and realizes that there are others who surround him. This is not always the case; take for example “Spiritual I” (Narciso en el acorde ultimo de lasflautas), a poem in which the incapacity to see symbolizes both the poetic subject’s experience of societal alienation and spiritual exile. Again, the poetic subject initially demonstrates 105 his personal agency through his control of bodily movement « he wanders into the street. However, finding himself alone within said social space, he becomes paralyzed and moreover, he doubts his. very own existence. Unable to perceive any reflection of himself through an Other, he inhabits his own private hell, a reality comparable to Lacan’s undefined and chaotic realm of the Real that, through opposition, marks meaningful existence within the Symbolic. Longing for companionship and helpless, the male subject pleas with his god to make his anticipated descendance into the male’s abyss. Hence the agency with which he begins the poem is surrendered by the end of it: “Sali a la calle y no vi a nadie, / jOh, Sefiorl, desciende par fin / porque en el Infiemo ya no hay nadie” (PC 173). Whereas in the above cited poems, Panero does not reveal the circumstances under which the male Speaker becomes blind, in many instances he does, as is the case, for example, in “La segunda esposa” (Teoria). The title of the work possibly making reference to a homosexual partner (the poetic subject himself being the first of the two “wives”), here the loss of the lover « named “Dead Lenore” « transforms the male speaker’s once functioning eyes into cold, lifeless organs. That is to say, the loss of passion leaves him metaphorically dead: “frio en los ojos donde muere amar” (PC 109).3 The poetic subject’s repetitive use of the image of a cavity or lack through the word “agujero” makes emphatic both the isolated realm in which he exists and the corporeal brokenness he endures upon the departure of his loved one, pain and anguish marking his undefined being. The lack of corporeal interaction as represented by the 3 The effects of love relationships on identity formation -- visibility versus invisibility « as manifest in Panero’s work is discussed more in depth later on in this chapter. 106 absent kiss leaves the male not only blind but also mute. This underscores identity as a relational concept: without the presence of an Other to confirm his being and moreover, his desirability as such, the male subject experiences a state of nothingness. Passion absent from his existence due to his alienation fi'om an Other, the male’s own life source « blood « transforms into a colorless, lifeless matter. The poetic subject is indistinguishable from the difunct Lenore: Agujero en el colmo del dolor la frialdad del queso una princesa mudo la zona que no existe besa donde la angustia suavemente donde la sangre blancamente cesa Agujero llamado Dead Lenore (PC 109) Lenore’s lifeless eyes no longer confirming his desirability and unable to achieve his own death wish, the male subject searches for another being capable of satisfying his hunger for self confirmation. His aimless wonder manifests as a life long journey, metaphorically representative of the contingency and constant (re)constructian of identity overall. AS Butler suggests in Bodies that Matter, gendered identity as a conceptualization is not a material constant but rather a work in progress, a reiterative performance of being within a particular social context that is influenced by the intersection of Specific cultural variables: “construction is neither a Single act nor a causal process initiated by a subject and culminating in a set of fixed effects. Construction not only takes place in time, but is itself a temporal process which operates through the reiteration of norms; sex is both produced and destabilized in the 107 course of this reiteration” (10). “Tigre” being prison slang for restroom, Panero’s use of said image suggests that his male subject searches for self conceptualization through a sexual encounter with another man. Disregarding the cultural norm of hetereosexuality, his performance of being is essentially queer. This detail lends support to the aforementioned suggestion that the title of the given work itself makes reference to a homosexual relationship: frio en los ojos unicos Abrasor la derrota triunfante en que yo insisto Siendo, pero imposible [ .............................. ] largo vagar mi vida par un tigre puesto que no espero sabre sus ojos muertos crece el trigo (PC 109) AS the poem progresses, the male Speaker makes evident his inability to regain his self identity. His lack of a self-reflection leaves him in a state of dispare and hopelessless as suggested by the comparison of mirrors to “huecas palomas” (“hollow doves”). His lover now absent, the subject’s eyes have abandoned him « he lacks the capacity to see himself « and he remains imprisoned in an incomprehensible corporeality. This is to say, paradoxically, the male’s internment results from his lack of definition, of unclear corporeal boundaries as a gendered being. Panero’s use of prison imagery in relation to anomic existence is seemingly biographical. As has been commented, Panero the poet experiences imprisonment due to forbidden compartment « such as drug possession « 108 that stigmatizes him as a social deviant.‘ The poem reads: “is different to be alone than to be lonely / sin ojos en la celda / Sin conocer nada ni siquiera a Si mismo” (PC 110). In “Le ban pasteur (Haiku)” (Narciso en el acorde ultimo de lasflautas) Panero praffers to the reader a queer reenactment of the “life is a dream paradox,” blindness being symptomatic of the overall farcical nature of the male speaker’s daily existence. In this case, the act of "living a lie" as epitomized by the life-imitating, camivalesque play of puppetry, causes his sightlessness. While the poetic subject occupies the position of puppeteer « he who through his own bodily movement controls those of others «, he finds himself to be a mere instrument of someone else’s agency « ironically, that of one of his own puppets. In other words, the role of maestro does not attribute to the male any control over his own actions « metonymically representative of his existence as a whole «, let alone over those of anyone else. What further queers or distorts the male’s performance as puppeter is the fact that it is the ballerina « the feminine « that seemingly has power over him, further emasculating his being, denying him of any inherent masculine signifance. Incapable of seeing reality, thewide-apen, vacant eyes of the male Speaker are no different than those of any of his wooden dolls (except, perhaps, those of the ballerina who pulls all of the strings). And so the satirical nature of the paem’s title « “Le ban pasteur (Haiku)” « becomes apparent; the male subject lacks the vision “to lead” himself through existence, let alone anybody else: Es duro e1 trabajo de la pesadilla, es duro " In Homosexual Desire, originally published in 1972, Hocquenghem cites the Spanish law on social diseases: “Clause 1, paragraph (i). The following categories of persons are declared to be social dangers: (1) vagrants, (2) pimps, (3) homosexuals . . . (7) the mentally sick who, for want of medical attention, constitute a peril to society . . . (9) drug peddlers . . .” (68). 109 0P1 alli ll‘jL met arrastrar de dia e1 carro de las marionetas, de noche; y ser una de ellas mafiana, cuando abran los ojos para no ver que la bailarina de cuerda danzando entre ellas mueve ella misma e1 resorte. (PC 188) Within Panero’s poetry, blindness does not solely plague the male subject; rather, it sometimes manifests as a Shared malady, bred and sustained by society as a whole. Consider, for example, “Storia,” a poem whose dedication reads as follows: “A una vieja que vi, sentada, gustando e1 fria, sobre una piedra de la Rue du Louvre, et item a Andreas Baader, in memoriam” (PC 184). What begins as the recollection of an individual’s life and suffering « that of the elderly woman « evolves into a commentary about the communal experience of sightlessness. Hence the title of the work seemingly expresses a double significance: “Storia” not only signifies a female identity but also a shared human experience, namely, history itself. Queerly identifying with the aged feminine body, the poet subject projects upon it his own feelings of marginalization and insignificance and transforms said experiences into a communal condition. Overall, Panero’s utilization of an aged woman to embody the universal is seemingly anti- Symbalic. In accord with Lacanian theory, it is masculine corporeal being « as opposed to feminine corporeal being « to which the universal speaking position is attributed. Aged feminine corporeality lacks that which gives her any significance within the reahn of the Father « desirability. By making indistinguishable the masculine from the feminine, the poetic subject underscores his personal insignificance 110 within culturally constructed reality. What initially draws the attention of the male speaker is the failure of the elderly woman to leave her mark on history. She has apparently reached the end of her journey and her unrecognized existence throughout the years has metaphorically left her in a state of corporeal invisibility. Once again the notion of life as theatrical performance (as seen in the previous poem) serves as the vehicle through which the artificial nature of human life is criticized: Tu has llegada hay al final del mundo que es ahora alga asi como una aldea fantasma a un teatro macabro e inaprehensible desnudo par completa de tu imagen (PC 184) As the poem continues, the speaker attributes the elderly woman’s vacant stare, no different than that of a true blind person, to her overall lack of understanding of that which has defined and will continue to define her destiny. Thus, here, sightlessness becomes emblematic of metaphysical uncertainty. Existence is exposed as insignificant, chaotic, seemingly more characteristic of the Lacanian realm of the Real than that of the ordered and sensible Symbolic: “miras / lo mismo que un ciego esa érbita sin creador ni firma” (PC 184). Whereas such skepticism naturally arises upon the closure of one’s earthly existence « that which the elderly woman incamates « the speaker makes evident his stance that blindness « the inability to see with clarity what is reality « is symptomatic of life itself. Cultural myths that define corporeal being, here represented metonymically by words themselves, establish unattainable goals for the individual, provoking neurosis. Alienated from intelligible corporeality, the 111 individual not only doubts his material self worth but also the validity of his conscious experience of said marginalization. Hence, the dissolution of being manifests both externally and internally, magnifying the suffering endured. The male’s unveiling of the destructive nature of words once again challenges meaningful existence within the Lacanian realm of the Father. Instead of creating a sense of cohesive identity, language as a symbolic system structured around the phantasmic ideal of phallic power fragments the individual due to his inability to ever truly embody that which the phallus signifies. Unintelligible to himself and to others, the individual remains ostracized in his own personal inferno: Ves que aquellas palabras, verdad, hacen pear tu vida ahora, porque vuelven mas irreal tu infierno, y mucho mas atroz este llegar sin palabras ni eco de otras bocas (PC 185) “Pavane pour un enfant défunt” (Narciso en el acorde ultimo de lasflautas) develops in a manner Similar to “Storia.” Imitating a eulogy, it begins with the speaker imagining how the life of a deceased would be remembered by the rest of society. Under the scrutiny of the latter’s gaze, the defunct is perceived as a stunted child, his inability to comprehend and consequently adapt to reality epitomized by the blurred vision of his teared-up eyes: “Se diria que estas aun en la balaustrada del balcon/ mirando a nadie, llamado. / Se diria que eres aun vista coma siempre / que eres ar'rn en la tierra un nifio difunto.” (PC 144). However, it is at this point in the poem that the poetic subject challenges this image of the deceased as an emotionally inept outcast that 112 he himself has created. F iguratively speaking, he brings the deceased and the rest of society onto a Shared plane of non-existence by insisting that everyone is a dead child due to unfulfilled expectations and desires, said wants and longings having been surpressed upon initiation into the realm of the Father. Rather than concretize a sense of coherent being, existence within said realm inauthenticates the experience of selfhood by alienating the individual from alternative forms of self expression: “[. . .] Todos nosotros somos / nifros muertos, clavadas a la balaustrada coma par encanto” (PC 144). Surprisingly, the poetic subject never suggests that one try to resuscitate his/her inner child. He maintains a fatalistic perspective, questioning the point of ever opening one’s eyes within a blind nation, of becoming cognizant of the farcical nature of the cultural ideals that surround him when such larowledge would only heighten his experience of personal alienation and suffering. In this manner, Panero contests the popular saying “en el pais de los ciegos el tuerto es rey.” The poem reads: y para que, te dices, abrir los ojos a1 pais de los ciegos, abrir los ojos hay, mafiana, para siempre. [. . .] (PC 145). The poet seemingly has Spain in mind when presenting the images of both the stunted child and the “pais de los ciegos.” In discussing filmmakers of the late and post F ranco era in “The Children of Franco in the New Spanish Cinema,” Marsha Kinder acknowledges how the generation of “children of Franco” fails to completely separate from the patriarchal figure and all for which he stands. Their dependence upon the dictatorship for self identification « the film industry being state supported « and their inability to escape a supressed history of violence and conflict impede the generation’s development into mature, autonomous beings: 113 They were led to see themselves as emotionally and politically stunted children who were no longer young; who, because of the imposed role as ‘silent witness’ to a tragic war that had divided country, family and self, had never been innocent and who, because of the oppressive domination of the previous generation, were obsessed with the past and might never be ready to take responsibility for changing the future. (58) Spain’s unwillingness or relunctance to acknowledge and/or challenge its own history both during and after the Franco era qualifies the nation as a blind state.’ Franco as Dictator makes official his own version of Spanish history, a version that represses internal animosity, tensions that had previously lead to the Spanish Civil. The death of Franco marks the collapse of socially enforced Francoist norms, phantasmic ideals that had been defining individual corporeal being and concurrently, the corpus of the Spanish State for so long: “L . .] en el momenta en que Franco muere, la herencia se desintegra. Desaparecen los libros y los anales, al mismo tiempo que los enemas de los hijos se rompen y/o se confunden con los de las hijas” (Vilarbs 45) . In “Pavane pour un efant défunt,” the speaker’s bleak outlook on life continues to manifest. He deems the quest for recognition, of “being seen,” as a pointless journey « whether successful or not; the pursuit of the gaze of another automatically extinguishes any possibility of self-authenticity because one becomes indistinguishable 5 Panero overtly criticizes the oppressive state within Spain in other poems, including “La cancion del croupier del Mississippi” (Lost River Together): Escribir en Espar‘la no es llorar, es beber, es beber la rabia del que no se resigrra a morir en las esquinas, es beber y mal decir, blasfemar contra Espar'la contra este pais Sin dioses pero con estatuas de dioses, [. . .] (PC 222) 114 from the rest who are searching. In this sense, everyone is defined by deadened eyes. Finally, the poetic subject identifies with the “dead” child whose description initiates the poem: Quien es vista 0 quien cae en ese rio sordo es lo mismo, es un muerto que se levanta dia tras dia para mendigar la mirada. (PC 146) Sightlessness as a Shared experience resurfaces in other poems of Panero, including “Los misteriosos sobrevivientes” (Lost River Together) and “E1 tesoro de sierra” (El que no ve). Once again, the male subject, as opposed to being empowered with the phallic gaze, lacks any authentic perception of either reality or his self. Here, the blinding and equally binding effects of phantasmic corporeal ideals is combated by the metaphoric search for homoerotic encounters or gay cruising, activities emblematic of the movida scene overall. In the first work, the nighttime hours and presence of the Lorquian moon supports this interpretation. Under the mask of obscurity, sightless male bodies « their lack of vision indicative of their inability to perceive an authentic self, of their emasculated state of being within society « strive to reconceptualize their material being through the blurring and meshing of traditional corporeal boundaries. Longing to identify with masculine corporeality, to unveil their own materiality through another man’s body, their performance is inherently queer: “pero dime / quienes son, borradas / todas las sefiales del cielo y caida / sobre la tierra una vez mas la luna, cuando / ya la noche no puede llamarse noche, y / los hombres se buscan ciegos en la 115 noche,” (PC 218). The imagery and overall message of “El tesoro de sierrra madre” (PC 256) uncannily echo those of “The misteriosos sobrevivientes.” Again, the poetic subject finds himself in the late hours of the night, observing “blind” men in their attempt to reconceptualize their corporeal being through homosexual encounters. He interprets their efforts as futile, sneering at those who assume they have succeeded. Thus the male subject’s own experience of disillusionment with the task at hand becomes quite evident. Panero’s reference to the “illusion of the mirror” makes emphatic the ellusiveness of the masculine ideal, its unattainability. As suggested by Lacan in his theorization of the Mirror Stage, identity formed through the reflection of one’s self in an other - here in the most literal sense through homosexual encounters « is inherently fragile and unstable. Said conceptualization of self provides nothing more than a false perception of cohesive being: Quiénes son los hombres que se separan del resto y andan solos y creen ver en las tinieblas [ ................................. ] Aspirando a Si mismas y pisando e1 rojo viva de los labios. Sin mancha, persiguiendo ciegos la ilusion del espejo. (PC 256) As the poem progresses, the speaker’s bitterness appears to subside. He shows a genuine concern for those who are still searching for themselves, his anxiousness revealing his desire to enlighten them with the “truth” of the Situation at hand « that their impossible quest for sight will ultimately lead them to the only certainty of life, 116 namely, death itself.6 Once again the moon manifests in the poem as symbolic of both death and the nighttime gay culture. The poetic subject’s dialogical exchange with the celestial body echoes Larca’s representation of such interaction in “Romance de la luna, luna”: “...oh dime Luna / el nombre secreto de tus fieles, y Si saben, Si saben / que a1 llegar par fin no les espera / sino en la muerte su rostro en el espejo” (PC 256). The poems analyzed thus far proffer explicit examples of how Panero perceives blindness as a societal norm. Metaphorically representative of the inability to perceive an authentic self construct, to maintain ownership of one’s own perspective of reality, sightlessness results from and is sustained by the acceptance of cultural truths. Language as the force that determines and sustains the degree of Significance of things within the realm of culture overpowers personal inclination or insight, fragmenting the individual. As Butler explains in Bodies that Matter, it is language that transforms matter, that of which stuff is made, into intelligible materiality. The transformation of matter into readable corporeality entails the exclusion of ambiguous characteristics -- of other potential expressions of self « that threaten the very defining boundaries that make the body intelligible. Thus personal loss -- the inability to perceive one’s whole self « is implicit to recognition as a gendered being. When considering the various manifestations of sightlessness in the poet’s work, it is suggested that the root of this malady extends beyond worldly comprehension. In a 6 Panero overtly criticizes the oppressive state within Spain in other poems, including “La cancién del croupier del Mississippi” (Lost River Together): Escribir en Espafia no es llorar, es beber, es beber la rabia del que no se resigna a morir en las esquinas, es beber y mal decir, blasfemar contra Espafla contra este pais sin dioses pero con estatuas de dioses, [. . .] (PC 222) 117 variety of poems, Panero seemingly attributes blindness to metaphysical or cosmic origins, thus removing the responsibility from people themselves and correlatively creating an even more hopeless sense of reality. Nevertheless, exposing his god to be indistinguishable from man himself, the poetic subject reaffirms the boundaries of the realm of the Symbolic to be the cause of his personal misery. Panero’s two versions of “Da-Sein” from Narciso en el acorde ultimo de Iasflautas exemplify this nation. In both poems the subject’s blind state results from the cruel act of a deity « a god’s use of a key to permanently lock the male’s eyes closed. The act itself can be interpreted as a metaphorical representation of the castrative effects of religious doctrine. By enforcing one particular perspective of reality, religion blinds the individual to other possible viewpoints. The word attached to the key itself « “Miento” « supports this interpretation, revealing the subject’s critical stance on the veracity of Catholic “truths.” Such questionable ideological rhetoric sustains the existence of a loving god and by extension, the false notion of a purposeful existence. Both poems read: La llave, la llave oscura del fuerte dias, del pardo dias cierra mis ojos con su fuerte llave Miento, [. . .] (PC 175 and 177) The poetic subject ultimately dreams of death as a form of rebirth that will inevitably reunite him not with his god but rather with his eyes themselves: “ciego, sofiando como el mar en el puro, / [. . .] / inalcanzable ideal de la muerte / alli estan mis ojos vi / vivo alla en ese suefro” (PC 175). The notion that corporeal demise will lead to personal “enlightrnent” dismantles and meshes together the traditional correlations and binaries 118 of light-life/darkness-deatlr, proffering to the reader a queer (re)interpretation of reality that breaks ontological barriers: the male subject imagines the recovery of his eyes « indicative of an authentic vision of self « in the darkness of the grave. He shuns the light of traditional earthly existence « understood by him to be a living death. What defines the subject’s envisioned ideal is the paradoxical notion of a living non- existence, to be truly alive through death:7 vivo alla en ese sueiio de una tumba sin hilo a otra de un interrupter exacto de la luz del mundo, alla donde no hay nada, donde no hay (“Da-Sein” [PC 175-176]). Eventually the male subject acknowledges the impossibility of achieving such a non- reality, of transgressing the boundaries of life and death alive. He draws a parallel between his own miserable state and that of God himself, fully exposing the hopelessness of his state. Not even supreme intervention can aid the male subject in his quest for authentic being. Like the male subject, the deity also struggles to separate hilnself from a prescribed identity as exemplified by the doctrine that maintains his existence. In this manner, the Christian nation of man being made in God’s image takes on a new dimension here: suffering as an all encompassing phenomena, a cosmic realitY, surfaces: 7\ , This ideal resurges in many of Panero’s other poems that include “Vinum Sabbati (espada” (T eoria): ‘NADA / excepto la muerte / para salvamos de la muerte” (PC 95) ; “Mancha azul sobre el papel” {)chiso en el acorde ultimo de las flautas): “Suicidarse y seguir vivienda,” (PC 181); and “El beso de “enas noches IV” (El que no ve): “Padre, estoy muerto, y es la tumba / una cuna mucho mejor” (PC 260). 119 nunca mus soiiaré que existe, ni daré a los Signos un sentido por su movirniento, nunca mas, dice El, porque Dias es para Si mismo una pesadilla que trata en vane, universe tras universe de arrancarse de un tajo la espina de la vida, el crucifijo y de beber e1 Vino (PC 176) The indistinguishability of man and the Supreme as will-less entities resurfaces in “El suplicio” (Narciso en el acorde ultimo de lasflautas). In this scenario, the male subject intentionally blinds himself through intoxication, the Sleep of a blurred existence providing him relief from his undesirable reality. He does not indulge alone; rather, the drinking experience takes the shape of a religious ritual, the sharing of a chalice: “Largo tiempo he bebido de un extrafio caliz / hecho de alcohol y heces / y vi en la marea de la copa los peces / atrozmente blancos del suefro” (PC 255). Mimicking the Christian consecration of wine, the speaker verbally transforms the alcohol into sacrificial blood, in this case, blood extracted from human eyes, indicating once again, the notion of shared Sightlessness. The blood itself commands the speaker to drink of it and he, lacking any self control, does so. What he anticipates as the final outcome of this act is his ultimate reunion with his Maker; that is to say, he foresees his arrival to the realm of non-existence, a place inhabited by the deity himself. Thus Panero echoes the Nietzschean cry of a dead God: y esta hostia nacida de la sangre 120 que de todos los ojos mana coma ordenandome beber, come ordenandome morir para que cuando a1 fin sea nadie sea igual a Dios. (PC 255) Again, Panero’s humanization and concurrent humiliation of God Almighty can be interpreted as a satirical affi'ont against Catholicism; imposed upon him as a “child of France,” Catholic doctrine plays an integral part in the poet’s (de)formatian of self. The poet’s ungodly God challenges the sacredness of the Spain’s Holy Father, and by extension, the validity of F rancoist ideals overall. This is to say, the facility with which Panero reconceptualizes the deity implicates the Catholic image of the Supreme to be a man made product as well. Catholic ideology is merely one more means through which the dictator remains in control of his nation-state. Searching for a Looking Glass/(In)visibility As has been expounded upon in the previously analyzed poetry, sightlessness in Panero’s poetry often escalates into other forms of self destruction including the poetic speaker’s inability to recognize and take full ownership of his personal corporeality. Marked by corporeal brokenness and neurosis, the poetic subject incamates that which the realm of the Father shuns. As an unintelligible anomaly he remains invisible before the hegemonic gaze. The male does not however relinquish in his endeavor to fashion a coherent sense of self identity through the aid of external bodies « both inanimate and animate. He attempts to create a reflection of his self in a variety of Lacanian mirrors, to recognize himself in extrinsic images of cohesive being. His efforts are often futile; 121 that which he seeks, a stable sense of self, frequently remains out of sight. A prime example of this manifests in “Majestad ultima de los pedés” (Teoria). Taking on a romantic tone, the work poises the power of nature against that of man, the former inevitably dominating the latter. A powerful windstonn prevents the subject from encountering his image in a traditional looking glass, here metonymically represented by the presence of lead. Gusts of air transform the male’s fragile persona into dust, revealing the innate instability of his being and concurrently, the unyeilding essence of masculinity as farcical, a cultural construct: “bajo la luz de plomo / par un viento inhumane barridos los harapos / y en el espejo mi rostro no esté.” (PC 124). An antagonistic relationship between man and nature resurfaces in “La cancien del indie Crow” (Narciso en el acorde ultimo de lasflautas). From the very onset of the work, both the sea and the moon « and later on in the poem, “e1 Padre Sol” himself « fail to serve as a reflecting glass for the poetic subject; before their eyes he remains invisible, an unintelligible, nan-entity. Not becoming the object of an Other’s gaze, his materiality remains unconfirmed. The male interprets this lack of acknowledgement as a deliberate choice of nature against him, a choice he equates to that which many others consciously have made on previous occasions. As Berger states: “We only see what we look at. To look is an act of choice” (8). An anomaly of man, the male subject shares an antagonistical relationship with intelligible bodies, his marginalization concretized by the vacant surroundings that he alone inhabits. His inability to recognize the physical tracks left by his very own body further underscores the material alienation he endures: “Que larga es la ribera de la noche, / que larga es. / No hay animales ya ni estrellas / [. . .] / El mar al lado, tan oscuro / ya ni la luna quiere verme / [. . .] / Tal vez 122 sea un oso lo que anda / con una piema y luego otra, / Ias huellas son coma de 030, / no de ya” (PC 261). Remaining outside of dialogical exchange, the poetic subject is incapable of distinguishing whether he is alive or dead. His eyes become purposeless, empty hollows. His mind is equally vacant, epitomizing the mental torment which accompanies his disembodiment and his bestial state as a non-human. Once again, the wind overpowers his being: No es que esté solo, es que no existe es que no hay nadie en esta playa y ya ni yo aun me acompafio, son estas ojos cual dos cuevas y en mi cabeza sopla cl viento: (PC 261) “Alba (te fuiste, dejandome sin mi)” (Narciso en el acorde ultimo de las flautas) is a work whose title immediately reveals the significant role of nature in the formation and confirmation of the poetic subject’s personal identity. The poem itself resembles a genesis story, the male subject being called into purposeful existence by the physical universe. The male’s Significant being is validated on a metaphysical level, the powerful sun naming the newly born poetic subject, providing him with an identity. The celestial body’s brillance embodies the knowledge of intent behind its creation of the male: “en el origen: Yo. El sol me llama, / el sol llama con su brillo / el fuego sabe: mas alla” (PC 168). Homosexual desire -- as evidenced by the masochistic imagery and corporeal positioning « solidifies the subject’s self conceptualization, inevitably separating him from those who have yet to experience such a transforming experience. Eager to claim the male’s experience as their own, the voyeurs, 123 characterized by their “ojos no nacidos,” hopelessly peer through the glass which separates them from the subject. And so, unlike in other poems in which the male subject as an anomaly is ignored and overlooked by others, here he becomes the object of the collectivity’s gaze; the focus of their attention. The male’s transcendence from the latter’s anonymous existence is evidenced by his name being heard by the wind. However, the resounding of it results not from the vocalization of Speech but rather from the movement of his body, the sexual act itself. Recuperating his abandoned fenrinineness by Speaking through the body, and making his presence known as a reconceptualized male, the poetic subject’s performance of being is explicitly queer. As evidenced by the dialogical exchange with natural elements, the male sense of being extends beyond the realm of the Father, beyond existence as defined by culture: azoté con deseo su torso desnudo can deseo quemando su lengua, [ ............................. ] y aqui fueron las bodas y las caras tiznadas mirando detras del cristal, los ojos no nacidos [ ............................... ] Y el viento eye mi nombre Oyo mi nombre, bramar, [ ............................... ] sin saliva, con los labios cerrados, de rodillas, De rodillas con los labios cerrados. (PC 170) 124 AS the poem progresses, the correlation between passion and self-identification becomes more apparent, the subject’s sense of being disintegrating upon the termination of his intimate relationship. Once his ally in life, the wind now takes on a role similar to that seen in “Majestad de los pedés” and “La cancien del indie Crow.” It fragments the subject’s corporeal being, its gusts transforming the male into nothingness. Thus as inconsistent and unpredictable as the forces of nature are, so too is the male’s sense of individuality: “El viento / el viento me hace crujir, y me pudro, me pudro [. . .] ” (PC 171). In the end, the falling to the ground of his empty eyes « filled only with lifelessness snow « epitomizes his ultimate destruction: “[. . .] Los ojos decantados, ya cae / dentro de ellos la nieve, ya dicen adibs” (PC 171). Panero’s poetic subject does attempt to recognize himself through external bodies other than nature itself, in ‘reflecting glass‘es’ that, due to their very essences, appear to be more reliable. In “Glosa a un epitafio” (Narciso en el acorde ultimo a los flautas), however, a self portrait -- a permanently etched, physical image of identity « fails to provide the male speaker with a concrete affirmation of his physical existence. Rather, through the subject’s eyes, the image is perceived as physical evidence of the fraudulent nature of the human body as a whole. Corporeality is as fabricated, man- made, as the painting on canvas. Not only does he reject the bodily experience as an authentic component of identity, he dismisses its purpose of housing the human soul, another mythical element of self conceptualization from his point of view. Dispossessing man of both his physical and spiritual essence, the poetic speaker once again insists on the human state of non-being: “e1 cuerpo, ese impostor en el retrato, y los dos siguiendo / ese otro juego del alma que ya a nada responde,” (PC 149). The 125 male inevitably deems the shared experience of invisibility « the inability to conceptualize and freely express an authentic sense of self « as a consequence of a reign of terror, the shunning of light emblematic of the collectivity’s nighttime deviant compartment. Again, from an historical perspective, this can be interpreted as a reference to the France era, a time in which corporeal conformity was the law and deviance from normative bodily compartment led to prosecution: rah los hermanos, los hermanos invisibles que florecen en el Terror! iAh los hermanos, los hermanos que se defienden inutilrnente de la luz del mundo con laS manos, que se guardan del mundo por el Miedo, [. . .] (PC 151) It is the destruction of known existence and rebirth that will revoke bodily limitations, symbolized here by the broken reflective glass: “joh quien nos traera la rima / la musica, e1 sonido que rompa la campana / de la asfixia, y el cristal borroso / de lo posible, [. . .]” (PC 152). Sometimes the poetic subject encounters external objects that do offer him an image of his corporeality, although the genuineness, the accuracy of such reflections remains questionable both to the reader and the subject himself. Alcohol along with the drinking vessel that holds it become the subject’s reflective agents in “Vase” (Lost River Together), which are indicative of not only the poet’s early familial dynamic « his father being an angry and violent alcoholic -- but also of his own tendency to inebriate himself throughout his own life. In the poetic work, intoxicating substances expose the bestial entity that the male has become. As the inhuman face reflected back 126 at the poetic subject is unrecognizable to him, so too does he as an anomalous corporeality remain unintelligible before the gaze of society. Incamating the anti- (hu)man, the anti-rational, his queered being estranges him from readable bodies. While the poetic subject longs to escape such a monstrous existence, in this case not even death provides him with any solace. His incessant longing for the termination of his existence and its unfulfillment have depleted him of any hopes of ever achieving such relief. The self pity expressed by the male subject echoes that heard in poems previously analyzed: “me asomo a1 pozo y veo, en la copa un rostro / grotesco de algun monstruo / que ni morir ya quiere, que es una casa Sela / que se mira y no ve, como un hombre perdida / para siempre a1 fondo de los hombres” (PC 253). In “Escrito sabre un verso de Cavafis” (Narciso en el acorde ultimo de lasflautas), the mirror utilized by the subject surprisingly reflects back to him a queered vision of himself, that of a woman. Overall, the subject’s willingness to accept this image as his own corporeal identity gives evidence to the instability of his masculine sense of self. That is to say, by claiming ownership of a feminine corpus, he acknowledges his existence as a fragmented male or a non-phallic being. In any event, this self-identification with a female body inevitably fails to provide the speaker with a stable sense of identity. Similar to the reflection seen in “Vase,” the female image here represents an individual still unknown to the speaker himself; he remains isolated from his own materiality: No me engafia e1 espejo esa mujer soy ya, la que el espejo prolonga y que vierte la copa sabre Si rrrisma 127 y canta, frente a1 espejo un himno a una mujer desconocida (PC 244). The poetic subject’s transgression of gendered boundaries manifests more profoundly in his quest for self affirmation through the gaze of an Other, often within the context of sexual intimacy. That is to say, in seeking self-recognition in the flesh of another, he takes on a traditionally feminine role « that of the object of desire. As Simone de Beauvoir contends in The Second Sex, it is through the masculine gaze that woman’s identity, traditionally synonymous with corporeality, is confirmed as desirable; likewise, the absence of the masculine gaze has detrimental effects on the female’s self conceptualization: “F or the woman, the absence of her lover is always torture; he is an eye, a judge [. . .] away from him, she is dispossessed, at once of herself and of the world” (172). Appropriating a traditionally feminine role, Panero’s poetic subject seeks confirmation of his corporeal significance through being desired by another body. Overall, the poetic subject’s compartment overtly disregards what Panero himself exhorts in his prologue to T eoria -- the impossibility of acquiring an authentic sense of identity through the eyes of another, the inevitable fallibility of the reflection produced. The poet expresses his point through an analysis of the author - reader relationship. In general, he deems the reader as an unreliable reflecting agent of his subjectivity: “Practicar el anasurma frente a un espejo, Si, pero no frente a esa opacidad, lector, la tuya” (PC 77). From Panero’s perspective, prescribed notions about himself as author « he refers to his denomination by Castellet as one of the “novisimos” -- make any true understanding of himself as poet impossible; they stunt 128 his image.8 Furthermore, he accuses his reader of never being genuinely interested in his authentic self, being only interested in his fictional existence as poet, an artificial subjectivity he refers to as his fictional “yo”: “Hablemos, pues, de esa triste ficcién, del <>, lugar de lo imaginario” (PC 77). In any event, Panero does recognize that it is through the reflection of the readers’ eyes that he as poet reinvents himself, experiencing death and rebirth with each new book written and with each new gaze that interprets his work: “Parque ese rey (e1 yo) ha muerto, se ha dejado sucumbir para renacer de nuevo, [. . .]” (PC 77).9 In this sense, then, the poet once again brings to light the contingency of identity, how subjectivities are in constant motion and experience constant transformations. Any reflection of them produced by an Other will inevitably be blurred or distorted and exhausted. In regards to the poetry analysis at hand, this sort of fleeting self affirmation is what Panero’s poetic subject often finds through his contact with an Other. For example, in “Un cadavre chante” (Narciso en el acorde ultimo de las flautas) the male subject reveals the damaging effects of his Significant other’s absence on his own persona. Alone, the subject struggles to validate his physical desirability. Tracing his flesh with the path of his hand, he both confirms his own physical presence 8 Based on such ideas, Panero’s poetic “birth” would have occurred just a short time ago: “Diriase que ese golem nacib hace unos ai'ros, con motive de una ficcibn mas amplia aun y mas burda, que llamese <> [. . .]” (PC 77). 9This is one of the ways in which Panero’s work exemplifies postmodern tendencies: [. . .] breaking traditional conventions and lines of demarcation, according to which the fiction of art lies separate from the reality of life (and of the reader), [. . .] invited a questioning of prior discourses and of prior notions of a text’s integrity. It thus ushered us fully into a world in which the poem’s meanings tend to lose their determinacy and in which reading and writing begin to conflate « a world that many theoretical critics, from various viewpoints, have called postmodern” (Debicki 163). 129 and recounts vanquished intimacy previously shared with the lost lover. Physical blemishes concretize the subject’s masochistic past, their location on his body testifying to the unconventional intimate exchange in which participated. Naming his corporeal infections as the “children” of his and his partner’s shared homosexual experience, the subject overtly mocks the heterosexual norm sexual intercourse in the name of procreation, a mandate of the Catholic Church and likewise, of F ranco himself: [. . .] la mano que se queja de ir sola ahora par la tierra del cuerpo. Un car - denal en la pantorrilla izquierda recuerda a1 chulo y hace mirar la nalga desesperada, con tres forunculos herrnosos que son nuestras tres hijos. [. . .] (PC 192). AS the male subject’s physical being responds to his lover’s presence -- rough sex leads to bruises and boils « so too does it react to his absence. His sex now a reclusive coward, a wrinkly grth adrrrist rocks and humidity, the departure of his partner depletes the subject’s sense of phallic power and overall virility. Without the other male corporeality through which to construct his own sense of masculinity, the subject experiences symbolic castration. His once vibrant corporeality transforms into a lifeless and equally useless cadaver: ‘y la poya cobarde y retraida, es ya hongo / en desfiladero de sed y rocas, [. . .] / [. . .] / He aqui el cadaver, he aqui [. . .] ” (PC 192). Embittered, the male subject accuses his former lover of abandonment after promising to him his very own life. The subject’s inability to truly recognize his own body parts- 130 particularly his sex « further demonstrates the significant impact of the ather’s departure on the male’s sense of being: “[. . .] y a pesar tuyo que olvidaste el dia a el instante en que me regalaste tu vida / y tu palabra / que me da miedo air, y hace/ retrotraer la poya, y desplomarse / mas casada 0 animal [. . .] / [. . .] / [. . .] A quien daré mi semen, [. . .] / [. . .] / Qué sera de mis ojos. Quien es este enano, este duende de -/ forme” (PC 193). In “Para A., Again (y vuelta a empezar)” (Last River Together) the poetic subject rhetorically questions the capacity of his lover’s body to house more than one soul. The subject’s own corporeality being of questionable integrity, he perceives that of his partner as a potential reflection of his own existence and is willing to share with the lover his spiritual essence in exchange for such a concrete, self-affirmation. Such a proposition highlights the speaker’s desire to overcome physical limitations and to arrive at a mutually fluid state of being between himself and the Other. Phantasnric masculinity defined by its completeness and impenetrability, the male subject « in exposing his physical state of vulnerability and incompleteness « queerly performs a traditionally female role. Nevertheless, his wanting of control over the situation, his will to maintain the traditional masculine position of power, becomes evident through his emphatic use of “digo yo.” Relentlessly speaking from the universal position of “I,” the male underscores his desire to be heard as an alternative corporeality, as an embodiment of both “feminine” and “masculine” qualities: Digo yo si este espejo vale para que tu seas frente a mi imagen arruinada, si este espejo vale para los dos [. . .] 131 [ .................................... ] digo yo si tu quieres que mi vida sea, ahora que mi alma se quiebra entre los dos, coma por un abrazo. (PC 215) “La flor de la tortura” (Last River Together) is another poem in which a sexual encounter gives the subject a new sense of gendered identity; once again, the male’s self conceptualization takes on traditionally female characteristics. Here, however, sadomasochistic experiences while being imprisoned transform the subject’s former “male” self into that of a submissive female. Whereas his compromising physical position during the sexual encounters epitomizes his newly assigned passive role, the Other’s dominance is metonymically represented by his controlling hand, the capital “M” of “Mano” emphasizing his powerful position over the subject. The speaker relies on the Other’s touch to confirm the existence of his corporeality, he strives to see himself through the Other’s touch: “Busco aun mis ojos en la Mano” (PC 291). Whereas the caress of the Hand seemingly solidifies the male subject’s materiality, it is the penetrating force of metal that seemingly fragments the male’s cohesivity, metaphorically giving evidence to the transformative or contingent nature of being, the overall instability of gendered corporeality and its corresponding prescribed signficance. The double interpretation of the “metal” that burns his body «the end of a whip or a prod striking his flesh/sexual penetration « masochistically depicts the speaker’s loss of a seamless, unyeilding masculine identity; penetrable, he acquires a new role as “the feminine” in relation to he who possesses the Hand. Now an object merely valued for its physical desirability, his soul metamorphoses into a purely carnal 132 substance: Busco aun mis ojos en la Mano en la Mano y en el suelo, y recuerdo que fui hombre, antes de que el metal hiciera arder mi cuerpo [ ................................... ] 50h los pétalos de mi vida que caen, los cristales de mi alma que ya son 5610 came, came en llamas y una mujer en los brazos de otro (PC 291) The poetic subject eventually embraces homosexual intimacy as an authentic expression of his subjectivity; as the title of the poem itself subtly suggests, the homosexual experience becomes a form of self-recreation. No longer marking the presence of his sexual partner -- the possessor of the “hand” « with a capitilized “M” « the male names he who once dominated him as his Spouse, revealing both the loyalty he feels towards him and his personal willingness to share a relationship with him. The subject’s voluntary offering of his own eyes and genitalia to his lover symbolizes his overall surrender of the privileged, phallic position he once held. Such an act is completely anti-Oedipal: instead of fearing castration, the male freely gives away his sex and the power of the gaze. His capability to do so results from the self assurance established by the Other’s touch and identification as his object of desire. Thus, the male subject successfully breaks away from the mold of masculinity as exemplified by his reference to a broken mirror: 133 [. . .] quisiera ofrecerte mi falo esta noche quemando y mis ojos también, mientras arafias con tu mane torpe la bombilla, queriéndome, [ ................................... ] Esta la came en pedazos por el suelo, por el suelo como un un espejo rote que recuerda a todos los hombres. Ya no soy yo sino eso que torturas y una sola flor en la cabeza (PC 291- 292) The imprisoned poetic subject’s transformation from a pseudo-victim of sexual aggression into a partner of homoerotica and concurrently, an authentic self, resembles the poet’s recollection of the poet’s very own personal initiation into homosexual experiences while incarcerated, and furthermore, the significance he attributes to it. Whereas Panero quickly falls in love with his first male partner, Eduardo Hare Ibars, his first homosexual experiences with him were forced upon him. In the end, Panero attributes his arrival to a better sense of self to the intimacy he Shares with Hare Ibars. F emandez recounts in El Contorno del abismo: “Leopoldo Maria se ha enamorado encendidamente de Eduardo [. . .]. Pese a todo, cree haber llegada a1 centre de si mismo. Segun él <>” (127). 134 Conclusion In El desencanto Leopoldo Maria Panero declares: “Ya no creo en esa entidad que se llama persona. Ya no creo en c] ya, en lo absoluto. Yo creo que uno puede cambiar perfectamente y que el espiritu del hombre es siempre libertad pura porque es pura vacuidad, Lno?” (Chavarri 87). While Panero’s contention of the artificiality of the human spirit often manifests concretely through his poetic subject and his struggles, the simplicity of identity reformation escapes him. Conscious of his inability to embody phantasmic masculinity, the poetic subject remains phallus-less, without the power of the gaze. Unintelligible to those that surround him, he is an anomaly within the Lacanian realm of the Symbolic. In this manner Panero’s poetic interpretation is inherently anti-Lacanian, anti-Oedipal. As opposed to fabricating for the male a sense of significance and coherent being, initiation into the realm of the Father fragments him. Incapable of participating in dialogical exchange and of confirming his materiality through language, the male reverts back to the mirror stage, seeking confirmation of his bodily existence through external bodies, both inanimate and animate. In regards to the latter group, the broken male often attempts to appropriate their corporeality « their identity incarnate « as his own. When not doing just that, the male subject strives to find self validation through becoming the farmer’s object of desire, by becoming the Other’s phallus. And so, while Panero’s poetic subject presents a queer interpretation of gendered being, often parodying a traditionally feminine role in his quest for self re- conceptualization, he consistently redefines himself in one way or another through the notion of phallic power. He seeks personal (in)sight, visual confirmation of his own self, through the eyes of an other. 135 Regardless, in the poetic works considered in this chapter, blindness and invisibility as metaphors do not merely symbolize the poetic subject’s lack of gendered identity; rather the male’s physical maladies allegorically represent the common experience of corporeal fragmentation at the national and metaphysical levels. Spain as a nation state endures brokenness both during and immediately after the disintegration of dictatorshiop. While governed by France, Spain’s experience of corporeal being is stringently delineated by official discourse, anirnosities or ambiguous interpretations outlawed. Catholicism being an ideological state apparatus of the regime, Oppression at the hand of the church becomes indistinguishable from that enforced by the Dictator. Appropriate bodily compartment as defined by clear gendered demarcations does not only become naturalized through official discourse, they become divinely sanctioned. Long after the dictatorship, Panero « as one of many of France’s ‘stunted children’ « continues to struggle with self conceptualization. Within his poetic corpus the difficulty of obtaining “true” sight and visibility repeatedly resurfaces in relation to the quest for authentic corporeal being. An example of this from the poet’s 1992 collection Locos closes this chapter. Entitled, “Ojos cansados del perro andaluz,” the work makes reference to Bufruel’s surrealist masterpiece “Un chien andalou” with its classic sequence of the slashing of the eye by a razor. Here, the poetic subject’s search for his mother, metaphorically representative of his desire to retrieve his lost sight, epitomizes his shunning of a castrated existence within the realm of the Symbolic: Como Si un perro recorriera locamente el desierto del cielo buscando a su madre 136 escondida en un cofre vigilando sus joyas, asi he mirada yo en los ojos que borraron mi frente buscando locamente. (PC 456) 137 Chapter IV: Apocalyptic Eroticism or the Rebirth of the Sexed Male in the Poetry of Hare Ibars Viejos mites nos hieren y debemos dejarlos [ ................................... 1 si queremos volver a ser amigos nuestras Parque el respeto al basque nos impide encontrar los caminos que en las nubes se esconden « Eduardo Hare Ibars, “Relate desmembrado de un mito” Te ofrezco Sin esfuerzo un genocidio tiemo: hundir el barrio entero, desecarlo can fbsforo encendido y dibujar en el humo tu rostro con un lapiz de nafta « Eduardo Hare Ibars, “El amante ingenuo y sentimental” Similar to the poetic work of Leopoldo Maria Panero previously discussed, Eduardo Hare Ibars’ poetry exposes cultural myths as instruments of subjugation, exhorting the need to abandon them in order to achieve a more authentic existence. Likewise, Hare Ibars shares Panero’s obsession with death. However, unlike the majority of Panero’s work in which death is symptomatic of the poetic subject’s inability to realize societal expectations, particularly as a "phallic man," death in Hare Ibars’ is self-imposed and glorified, a demonstration of the ultimate rejection of cultural ideals.I Death surfaces not as a curse, threat, nor as a desperate means to escape an earthly inferno, but rather as an intrigue of the male, often enticed by his own subversive behavior. Overall, such an alternative treatment of death characterizes la movida of Madrid, an historical moment in which the subversive nighttime behavior of Spanish youths is captured by the popular, celebratory expression “Madrid me mata.” ' In his prologue to Hare Ibars’ Obra poética, Francisco Nieva recognizes the poet as the epitome of complete disengagement from the values of F ranco Spain: “No habia encontrado ya mejor representante de una juventud absolutamente emancipada del condicionamiento social y moral de la dictadura, a nadie <> de aquella que se podia esperar err Espaiia, que dominaba todo el espacio cultural” (9). 138 Through corporeal indulgences the protagonists metaphorically taunt death, putting their bodies at risk of self dissolution in exchange for transient pleasure. The popularity of punk music -- an aesthetic celebration of death -- further reflects the subversive attitude of the time. Hare Ibars himself both creates said musical genre « he writes lyrics for Orquesta Mondragen « and openly consumes it « he acknowledges it as an inspiring force behind Empalador (1980) and Sex Fiction (1981). Within punk music death embodies a force that diffuses inhibition, enabling the individual to experience existence to a fuller extent in the here and now. Thus, impending death does not paralyze the individual but rather catalyzes personal agency. In this sense personal extinction materializes as a protagonist of life itself. Miguel Trilla recalls in 8610 se vive un vez: “En el mundo que yo controlo, la muerte es alga normal, [. . .]. Lo ha asumido e1 rock. Los punkis van con la calavera, los rockers van con la calavera. Eso de que ‘Mafiana puedes estar muerto, y a vivir que son tres dias,’ [. . .]” (53).2 Emblematic of Spain’s transfonnation into a modern society, this gluttonous attitude of "living for today" manifests itself through excessive consumption, both sexual and that of self-intoxication through alcohol and drugs. Hare Ibars participates in all of the above, drugs and sexual deviance being the defining parameters of his initial interaction with poet Leopoldo Maria Panero, as mentioned previously in this study. Drug experimentation interests Hare socially as a consumer and intellectually as a writer. 2 In Vision Machine Paul Julian Smith explores this reconciliatory attitude towards death « as seen in the work of Hare Ibars « as a common reaction to the spread of AIDS in Spain of the 805, as a “fatal strategy” for dealing with the disease (103-104). His ideas will be firrther explored in the following chapter. 139 In De que van las drogas he argues for the necessity of drugs within modern society. According to him, chemical intoxication allows the individual to experience relief from the restrictive nature of society, from the prescripted identities of “man” and “woman” imposed and sustained within the realm of the Father. In Haro’s words: “La conclusibn que podemos sacar es sencilla: e1 ser humane necesita de la droga para escapar - al menos de manera subjetiva - al irnperio de la ley, que se le impone y que le define coma animal social, que extrafia de la naturaleza, y que le resulta doloroso” (9). Similarly, in El mono del desencanto Teresa M. Vilarés identifies drug and sexual experimentation of post-Franco Spain as the manner through which many protagonists of the time attempt to reconceptualize their understanding of corporeal being. What distinguishes their newly appropriated materiality is its overt disregard of culturally accepted demarcations of gendered identity: “L . .] la explosion politica sexual de les posfranquismos no busca una identidad sino por el contrario, despojarse de ella, ‘Salirse’ de ella” (191). Vilares denominates those who participate in such a subversive endeavor as the “pluma” of the transition, the plume equally representative of both the drug user (in this sense the syringe becomes a disposable and transferable phallus) and the flamboyant homosexual, the one often indistinguishable from the other: “Una pluma que calificada con el término de ‘Reina’ que describe tanto a la ‘loca’ homosexual coma a1 polvo blanco y azul, se intoxica de sexo y de drogas y hace a menudo indistinguible la ‘pluma’ de carga homoerética de la jeringuilla cargada de heraina” (180). This ambiguity of metaphor characterizes much of the poetry of Hare Ibars. That is to say, his “pluma” « manifested through other imagery such as “e1 escorpien,” 140 “la serpiente,” and “e1 cuchillo” « often symbolizes both the male’s sex and the needle of his addiction: “viven y solloza abotargadas plumas « en el centre de toda muchedumbre (“Engranajes,” Pérdidas blancos [UP 41]); “sollozaban serpientes y descanso / mirada suya dedicada a trafico / carnal [. . .]” (“Palacio de mar,” Pérdidas blancos [OF 38]). In any case, while the phallic significance of the “pluma” remains intact because of its penetrating force, the spark of death or momentary gratification produced by it enables the poetic subject to ultimately surpass bodily limitations and create an alternative interpretation of materiality, particularly of the male body. In other words, ironically and perhaps somewhat paradoxically, the phallic symbol serves to deconstruct the very power position it represents, namely the mythified phallic role of the male within society, a position characterized by such unremitting qualities as unwavering presence, irnpenetrability and completeness. Along with male corporeality, Hare Ibars’ poetic subject succeeds in dismantling other territorial boundaries « both literal and metaphorical « meshing extremes together and reconstructing a new vision of reality defined by fluidity, constant metamorphosis and ambiguity. Fantasy blends with reality, life with death, civilization with barbarism, the past with the present and the future, and the heavens with the underworld? In Bodies that Matter, Judith Butler defrnes performativity in the following manner: “L . .] performativity must not be understood as a singular or deliberate ‘act,’ but rather as the reiterative and citational practice by which discourse produces the effects it names. [. . .] the regulatory norms of ‘Sex’ work in a performative fashion to 3 Hare Ibars holds a strong interest in science fiction and so space travel along with supernatural powers and alternative life forms impregnate much of his work. 141 constitute the materiality of bodies [. . .]” (2). This chapter analyzes bodily representation in the works of Hare Ibars « particularly poetry published in Pérdidas blancos (1978), Empalador (1980), Sex Fiction (1981) and En rojo (1985) -- as queer performance, acts of disidentification with politically established identity categories that inevitably create an alternative interpretation of masculine materiality. Repeatedly indulging in bestial acts of corporeal penetration, the male subject self-transforms into various monstrous corporealities, entities whose physical ambiguities reflect his boundless compartment. AS an incohesive, innately fragmented entity whose experience of bodily pleasure is not limited to Specific points of corporeal penetration nor to a specific body, he embodies Delueze and Guattari’s “desiring machines.” In “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power,” Audre Lorde underscores the erotic’s potential to destabilize imposed corporeal boundaries and significance: “In eroticism, [. . .] the limits of self become unstable, ‘slipping.’ Rationalized exchange and productivity « or, in this case, reproductivity « become subordinated to unlimited, nonproductive expenditure [. . .]” (120). Through the overlapping of destructive and erotic imagery, Hare Ibars dissolves the defining lines of traditional masculine being . In the tradition of the French malditos (Baudelaire, Rimbaud), surrealistic tendencies « including dreamlike imagery, and the blurring of reality and fantasy through rain « qualify his work, facilitating his deconstruction of intelligible materiality. Empowered by the veil of night and an intoxicating flame and/or rainfall, Hara’s poetic subject’s reconceptualizes the male body as a fluid entity, while maintaining some sense of its phallic power due to its ability to penetrate other bodies. In accord with Richard Dyer’s queer theory, the fluidity that defines the male 142 subject’s new sense of self underscores his embodiment of not only an alternative masculine being but also of the Queer (as opposed to the queer), as paradoxical as this may be: the Queer is the very undefmable, a permeable existence with varied expressions and interpretations. Perpetually in a state of corporeal metamorphosis, the male’s enactment of materiality exemplifies the contingency of identity overall. AS Butler argues, subjectivity, rather than existing as a constant throughout time is constantly being performed and reinterpreted in relation to the defining variables of the moment being experienced. Identity, while constructed, is not a fixed, cultural label superficially attached to an appropriate body. It is an organic concept whose evolution is determined by the individual’s reaction to the environment surrounding him. This being said, in accord with the situation in which he finds himself, Hare Ibars' male subject presents masculine materiality as a penetrating force and/or a recipient of penetration. His interpretation of maleness transgressing the heterosexual dividing line of masculinity/femininity and fusing the dichotomy together, it is arguably more complete than the conventional standards of what it means to be male as defined by the Symbolic.‘ ‘ It is woman’s body that is traditionally interpreted as open, weakly defined, whereas man’s self construct is culturally understood as closed and congruently, more complete (Buchbinder 42). 143 The Closet of Darkness, Man 's Self-enwombment LES acaso para mejor expiar su pasado que Madrid da la impresien de haberse desmelenado? Esta ciudad, ayer todavia arquetipo del inmovilismo, se ha precipitado a cuerpo descubierto en la movida: término que designa todo lo que se mueve, toda la innovador todo lo que carnbia. [. . .] Apenas se duenne. Las discotecas estan repletas toda la noche. Las calles del centre estan mas animadas a medianoche, tanto en inviemo como en verano. «Le Monde, October 27, 1990’ A constant companion of la movida of Madrid are the nightly hours in which it is bred, the time of day in which societal demands are out of sight and groves of Spanish youth flood the streets, intoxicated with possibilities of self gratification. Its obscurity masking subversive behavior, the night inadvertently becomes an ally of self liberation and redefinition. As Hare Ibars poem “Sin titulo” reads: “no hay licor como la noche [. . .]” (Empalador [OF 99]). Writing during the movida and poetically presenting subversive behavior typical of said moment of change, the majority of the young poet’s work takes place within an obscure setting. Each of his poetic collections is replete with both direct references to the nightly hours and allusions to them via various nighttime symbols including the moon and dream imagery:6 “un drugstore inflamado navega en la noche ilustral’ (“Puntualidad,” Pérdidas blancos [GP 17]); “caminaremos oh por casualidad sobre la tierra/ sin dias noches crepusculos” (“Aroma de dioses muertos,” Empalador [UP 60]); “Y habia fantasmas de la noche hirviendo/ err cualquier infiemillo mas o menos casero” (“LBarcos piratas? 5N0, por favor!” Sex 5 This quote is taken from So'lo se vive una vez (21). 6 In Pérdidas blancas 34% of the poems mention the night and 34% of them allude to it through such imagery as the moon and dreams; in Empalador 35% of the poems mention the night and 44% of them allude to it; in Sex Fiction 42% of the poems mention the night and 23% of them allude to it; and in En rojo 46% of the poems mention the night and 31% of them allude to it. 144 Fiction [OF 155]); “la malva y verde y gris de cualquier noche" (“Llora el héroe,” En rojo [OF 273]). The late hours of dreams and fantasy allow Hare Ibars to poetically mesh together the real with the imagined, and to redefine boundaries of corporeal possibility, particularly in relation to the experience of maleness. Strongly identifying with the nightly hours that envelop his subversive activity, his male subject often appropriates their obscurity as an extension of his own materiality. Indistinguishable from the grayness that surrounds him, the male achieves a state of invisibility and successfully escapes not only the scrutiny of society but also traditional bodily limitations. The poetic subject’s embracement of the nocturnal blanket symbolizes his overall rejection of the reahn of the Father in which the prescription of cultural norms limits subjectivity. Said darkness serves him as a metaphoric “womb,” a secure, contained space whose parameters (measured by obscurity itself ) foster self metamorphosis, the reconceptualization of corporeal being. “Es la mujer pirata un laberinto” (Empalador) exemplifies this notion. Under the celestial surveillance of a glowing constellation, the poetic subject transforms his corporeality into fog, his floating particles blending into the air he breathes. In accord with Dyer, the fluid and transmutative qualities of the male mark him as Queer. As quickly as such vapor can disappear from the atmosphere, the male’s volatile materiality disintegrates into the Shadow of a dark passage way. Unbound from the societal expectations attached to traditional male corporeality and sheltered by said discrete space, the poetic subject reinvents himself through the performance of a violent homoerotic act « the irnpalement of a young boy. Sexually slaying a future father figure, the subject overtly challenges the heterosexual values established within the 145 reahn of the Symbolic. His complete disregard of familial taboos can be read as anti- Oedipal: y arden constelaciones imposibles [ ............................. ] mi niebla en la quietud de los paisajes [ ............................. ] me finjo espejo o sombra en los pasillos hasta que poco a pace pasa tiempo Me acuerda a veces dc aquel nifio empalado [ .............................. ] me acuerda de su cuerpo y del pan su herrnano tibia que florece tan solo en la noche y solloza después en mi piramide (UP 64) Nocturnal flight also marks disidentification with cultural boundaries in Hare Ibars’ poetic corpus. While J ahn Wilcox deems the act of flying as characteristic of a gynocentric vision in poetry written by Spanish women, flight characterizes nineteenth century French poetry « particularly that of Mallarrné (Bishop 32) « of which Hare Ibars (along with Panero) is fond. In “Peder del tiempo” (Sex Fiction), Hare follows the French maldito’s lead by not only depicting nocturnal flight but also by encapsulating said performance within a sadistic tone, here tinged with childhood innocence. Hare utilizes flight to metaphorically represent gay cruising, a subcultural phenomenon common during la movida madriler‘ia. F or Guy Hocquenghem the “cruise” exemplifies a political act. Freed fi'om any Oedipal guilt and indulging in 146 unexclusive and varied experiences of sexual gratification, the male in transit becomes desire incarnate, his corporeal longings constantly being satiated through homoerotic encounters with other “desiring machines.” Hocquenghem contends that because the homasexual’s materiality is defined by his own wantings, he maintains a state of being much more authentic than what is offered within the realm of the Symbolic or civilized society: The cruising homosexual, on the lookout for anything that might come and plug in to his own desire, is reminiscent of the “voyaging schizophrenic” described in L’Anti-Oedipe. If the homosexual pick-up machine, which is infinitely more direct and less guilt-induced than the complex system of “civilised loves” (to use Foureier’s phrase), were to take off the Oedipal cloak of morality under which it is forced to hide, we would see that its mechanical scattering corresponds to the mode of existence of desire itself. (131-132) In “Peder del tiempo,” a callectivity of airborne monstrosities playfully celebrate an equally transgressive and transient existence of uninhibited sexual gratification. Their promiscuous activity being anti-productive, unintelligible to the norms established through the heterosexual matrix, they embody the undead, bodies whose indefinite state of being displace them from both earthly existence as culturally defined and any afterlife: “muertos surcan el aire en patines de incendio” (OF 159). Shared displacement from Spanish society is a reality that Hare Ibars recognizes not only in his poetry but also in his political essays. In an installment of his regular column “Las tres vif’retas” in Combate liga comunista revolucionaria, he approaches the 147 topic in a more traditional and serious fashion: “La sociedad no tiene qué hacer con los vagos; y no son los vagos los que no trabajan, sino aquellos que, fluctuantes, se muevan en sus bordes, no tienen sitio fijo donde estar, donde caerse vivos o muertos” (12). Similar to what occurs in “Es la mujer pirata un laberinto,” the transient entities of “Poder del tiempo,” inevitably blend into the dark comers of the city streets they inhabit. Incognito, they easily purchase homosexual favors and/or drugs as metaphorically suggested by the penetration of fish into dark rectangles: “se disfrazan de esquina en las revueltas para comprar irnpunes / peces en los rectangulos mas sombrios” (0P 159). Presuming the imagery depicts a sexual exchange, the money value placed on the male body identifies him as an object of desire, that which the female traditionally embodies. In conjunction with this alternative interpretation of masculine materiality, the male’s need for a fix challenges both his unyielding presence and corporeal completeness. Thus, whether it be sexual penetration or that of a shared needle, in either scenario traditional corporeal boundaries are dissolved by the embracement of monstrous compartment. Their subversive bodily performance incongruous with intelligible subjectivity within the Symbolic, the deviants’ materialities inevitably disintegrate before the eyes of the poetic subject himself. This is to say, not living as what Butler deems “bodies that matter,” gendered beings whose Onltural significance is made comprehensible and sustained through appropriate gendered performance, the collectivity of corporeal ambiguities paradoxically inhabits a noIl-reality hidden within the gaps of the realm of the Father. Regardless, the territorial Openings mark the instability of said cultural norms overall and the possibility of the ICdefinitian and resigrrification of corporeal boundaries and intelligibility. As Butler 148 summarizes in Bodies that Matter: As a sedimented effect of a reiterative or ritual practice, sex acquires its naturalized effect, and, yet, it is also by virtue of this reiteration that gaps and fissures are opened up as the constitutive instabilities in such constructions, as that which escapes or exceeds the norm, as that which cannot be wholly defined or fixed by the repetitive labor of that norm. This instability is the deconstituting possibility in the very process of repetition, that power that undoes the very effects by which “sex” is stabilized, the possibility to put the consolidation of the norms of “sex” into a potentially productive crisis.” (10) “Peder del tiempo” reads: “<> me dicen / <> vive en un munda distinto a los <>. En realidad, se trata del nrismo mundo experimentado de otra fonna y esto es lo que resulta intolerable: una experiencia distinta del mundo, una experiencia que muestra sus fallas, sus grietas” (52). Whereas society is intolerant of interpretations of reality that sway from its official perspective, Haro’s poetic subjects embrace such distinct visions. Lacura becomes their means to escape the madness of prescribed corporeal existence. The poet presents this notion of insanity as private refuge from the collective conscious in “Scalextric” (En rojo): “Y el ciudadana encuentra en la locura / privada un refugio muy breve / contra la senilidad de este mundo publico” (UP 220). Similar to what is seen in “El muchacho electrica,” in “Memoria de Bistriz” descent once again characterizes the arrival to an implicitly hellish world. Puddles of blood and urine, remnants of sexual encounters, testify to both the fluidity of masculine being and the continued celebration of the power of the phallus « although in a nontraditional context: come entonces Ias escaleras de incendio soportan e1 peso de guardianes jovenes [ .................................. 1 157 puedes encontrar todavia hechos de orina fresca y sangre vientos huracanados en tame a la mas altas torres de poder (OR 71) Resembling a mass grave, the bar in “Sin titulo” (Empalador) manifests as the choice stomping ground of the (un)dead. Here bodies endlessly caress each other, creating an orgy-like environment while emphasizing the physical closeness of their existence within said confined space. “Frozen” fondling conjoins the lovers indefinitely, taking on a permanency that escapes the passage of time. Fused and blurred, their corporealities no longer possess the defining lines of intelligible being. Having indulged in a “new” forrrr of intimacy and redefined bodily existence in doing so, the collectivity transgress societal expectations. The group’s disregard for cultural meaning and significance manifests to an even greater extent through the implication that palpability as opposed to visibility constitutes material Significance. Within the dark confines of the bar, the phallic gaze no longer possesses the power to deem bodily worth; what transforms matter into intelligible materiality is the deviant stroke of a hand: “Junta a1 brillante bar de aluminia furioso farjamos / inventos de dialogo caricias congeladas que nunca resistieran e1 cansancio” (UP 98). In “El amante ingenuo y sentimental’ (En rojo) the dissection of Madrid’s Barrio del Pilar uncovers “coffins of insomnia,” namely rows of bars that remain open until the early hours of the morning: y mas alla se abren calles, perspectivas desoladas edificios que son ataudes de insomnia, bares y mas bares abiertas hasta la ahora improbable madrugada. (UP 238) 158 The poetic subject imagines the tempting voices of those that inhabit the enclosed space luring him into the depths of their terrain. Envisioning himself within the alternative reality, he reveals his desire to share such an experience with an Other; wanting “to be two,” he queerly prefers intimacy over isolation. In an attempt to seduce his potential partner, the poetic subject mentally conceives the mutual performance of various sadomasochistic scenarios. He describes the communal penetration of dark territories, the opening up of unexplored tunnels of flesh. Knives surface as the instrument of corporeal exploration, their penetrating force « be it as a needle or the male sex « symbolic of a phallic presence. But whereas the incisive force of the knife suggests a power construct, the imagined alignment of the poetic subject’s and unnamed lover’s personal weaponry establishes camaraderie through subversion. The male describes a mutually gratifying act of corporeal fiagrnentation: “Me acogerian, es cierto, can sus veces de sol-y-sombra; pero yo / desearia ser dos juntos a la barra. [. . .] / [. . .] / [. . .] - juntas laS puntas de nuestros cuchillas / - en el tunel de came que abriremos” (UP 238 - 239) Penetration of the earth, self enwombment and rebirth as an ambiguous corporeal being, does not always revolve around the bar setting within Hare Ibars’ work. The poet utilizes other imagery to capture descent into a subterranean reahn that, removed from cultural norms established within the Symbolic, enables the exploration of alternative bodily experiences. Take for example “Sin pétalos,” a poem in which stairs symbolize the moving down into otlrerworldliness. Enveloped within the depths of the earth and protected by the shadow of this said structure, male bodies once again meld together through mutual sexual arousal. The use of the poetic subject’s collective 159 voice underscores the willingness of all of the protagonists to participate in the deviant behavior: “Casi siempre cubrimos nuestras cuerpos / can escaleras palidas [. . .] / [. . .] / permanecemos juntos un momenta / contemplando en Silencio nuestras monedas rojas” (0P 149). The stairs of “Sin pétalos” may metonymically represent the Spanish subway system, a cultural image that Hare Ibars utilizes in other poems in relation to the experience of alternative masculine being. The rapid transit metaphorically transports the male subject and his fellow protagonists outside of the periphery of intelligible existence and relocates them within a Space impenetrable by the phallic gaze, a realm untainted by prescribed symbolic significance and open to uninhibited experiences of being. No longer limited by imposed corporeal boundaries as defined by the realm of the Symbolic, male bodies freely reinvent themselves according to their own will, as destructive as this may be. “Engranajes” (Pérdidas blancos), a previously cited poem, serves as an example of the potential threat of self-annihilation through corporeal reconfiguration. In this work the subway becomes the gathering place for misplaced souls, beings whose lack of corporeality exemplifies their personal fragmentation. According to Hocquenghem, the inability to identify with one’s sexed body is characteristic of the homosexual himself and constitutes a farm of hysteria (101). With this in nrind, the subway, as it transports beings who have experienced such self- fragrnentation, can be interpreted as a metaphorical nave de los locos: “e1 metro no ignora sus muchas uses y es barquero de almas” (UP 41). The sexual journey on which its travelers embark transgresses territorial boundaries, both literally « masculine bodies are penetrated « and figuratively « through sexual climax. While the seclusion of the 160 underground railway fiees its passengers from the rigidity of intelligible gendered being, it does not protect the “desiring machines” or fluid male bodies from potential corporeal infection. Self annihilation through the contraction of a fatal sexually transmitted disease remains a strong possibility for the nighttime voyagers. Regardless, the poetic subject’s description of the desire to lose oneself in the martyrdom of another suggests not only an awareness of the threat but also a willingness to playfully tempt personal demise for the sake of physical pleasure. The gratification of the blurring of masculine flesh overpowers personal safety through the use of a condom: “deseoso de perderse en martirias delicados / pubis o deseo abierto a sus miradas / una ereccien y lograda sin que seda o / alpaca se interpongan / [. . .] / [. . .] entre caderas despef’radas la absorcibn gota a gota de un espejo / semilla inflama cilindros” (OR 42). The subway as refuge from the confines of urban reality resurfaces in “Madrugada” (En rojo). Here grayness characterizes the physical appearance of a vagrant male child « interpretable as one of F ranco’s overlooked children « making him indistinguishable from the dinginess of the city setting: “La ciudad que se abre en perspectivas plenas / grises coma son grises las mejillas del nifro / pescador de adjetivos en un ria revuelto” (OR 236). The poetic subject makes known the desirability of the boy’s state « the child’s invisibility before the hegemony« by deeming himself along with his comrades “enemies of the sun.” Burying themselves in the depths of the earth by going down into the subway, the male and his companions strive to acquire the status of mere shadows of existence. Indiscernible, they escape the vigilant glare of society and consequently, corporeal categorization and punishment as social delinquents. Uniformed assassins incarnate the official enforcement of bodily norms, of acceptable 161 gendered being. This vigilance recalls the dictatorship’s unrelenting police presence, its stringent control of sexed being and appropriate compartment. The poem reads: Enemigos del sol de sus muchas hermanos nos refugiarnos en el fondo mas profirndo del metro [ ....................................... ] [. . .] la snperficie es peligrosa «llena de uniformados asesinos de gigantes idiotas que se mueven sin prisas en busca de algun enema donde marcar sn safia Y nosotros estamas catalogados come especie maldita par ellos per la humana (0P 236-237) The subway itself manifests an instrument of penetration in “Invitacion” (En rojo). In this case the underground transit compromises the comus of the Spanish capital, internally dissecting it into vulnerable fragments: “Y es el Metro: / laberinto en azul / berbiqni cirujano / Hierve corta en segmentos Madrid la subterranea / se rompe laS entrafias en nebn [. . .]” (OF 303). Notwithstanding, the subversive quality of the underground railway’s tunnels sumasses mere penetration and deconstruction of the city. The hidden Spaces created by the snbway’s incisions evolve into private realms of comoreal deconstruction. Bars and restrooms proffer the isolation necessary for self- exploration of the forbidden. The presence of death in the eyes of the gray protagonists marks the pernicious essence of their bodily reconfigurement. Regardless, the suggestion that they are “following their dreams” makes implicit the males’ recovery of personal longings and desire, parts of their authentic selves forbidden to them within the 162 realm of the Symbolic because of their antithetical relationship to prescribed masculine being. As Butler summarizes in Bodies that Matter: “The forming of a subject requires an identification with the normative phantasm of ‘sex’ and this identification takes place through a repudiation which produces a domain of abjection, a repudiation without which the subject cannot emerge” (3). The poem reads: Los tuneles mas nuevas se disfiazan de bares a de toilets for men (just for men (no te gnsta?) Con la muerte en los ojos alli viven Ias mascaras Los caballeros grises signen snefios [. . .] (0P 303) As the above analysis has demonstrated, the darkness of the night facilitates Hare Ibars’ poetic subject in his journey of self transformation and re-conceptnalization by providing a safe space for such exploration. Blanketed in obscurity, personal metamomhosis transpires freely, often apparent through the subject’s bodily movement or agency « both ascendance (as revealed by his metaphorical union with the moon) and descent (as indicated by the male’s lowering into the depths of the earth). Thus, the power of transfonnation affects more than just the poetic subj ect and his companions. The collectivity’s reintemretation of the male body « that around which the Symbolic revolves« destabilizes said system of significance overall, catalyzing the reintemretation of other signifiers. Spacial boundaries and their traditional oppositional significance are dismantled « as the denomination “flying dead” suggests «, heaven and hell meshing together. The various planes of existence are exposed as cultural myths. “Improvisacien” (Sex Fiction) reads: “Han convertido el cielo en un engafio de 163 planetas / y la tierra es mentira invencién simple de juego” (UP 180). The speaker’s bodily motion in relation to self-reconceptualization is not limited to vertical movement. The male also realizes an alternately formed identity through traditional horizontal journeys, a common vehicle of such a voyage being the boat. This notion is apparent in “Sex Fiction” (Sex Fiction), a work whose title overtly challenges the notion of an authentic sex, while congruansly suggesting the construction of an alternative one. A metaphorical portal, the obscurity of the night joins the wounded protagonists « their injuries indicative of their broken ties with earthly existence « to the boat which will transport them to otherworldliness: “los heridos parecen haber rota sus atadnras / y salimos tranquilos [. . .] / par paredes de noche hacia el barco que espera” (UP 198). Described as dead children, the bodies that partake in the voyage remain adorned with indications of their previous, artificial life. Masks of words camouflage their faces, suggestive of the notion that language as artifice distorts their material experience as opposed to representing it. The protagonists freely distort their vision by wearing glasses of fog and tea « tea being Slang for marijuana « , indicative of their desire to escape traditional comoreal boundaries and their corresponding significance. The lack of clarity or ambiguity provoked by self-intoxication conceals the protagonists’ unrelenting, internal desire to participate in sexual acts that are perceived within the realm of the Symbolic as subversive. Participating in the “newest” form of coitus, the males make implicit their reintemretation of the significance of the male body as a sexed body. The innovativeness of their queer act removes the phallus from its position as sole signifier of male desirability. Such a disjunction demythifies the male sex’s importance, revealing both the malleability and arbitrariness of corporeal 164 significance overall. Hence, the dual intemretation of the title of the poem becomes even more apparent: Nifros muertos cadaveres de sencilla sonrisa [. . .] mnsitan palabras que son mascaras Ponen gafas de niebla y de té para ocnltar el deseo que informa nuestras tardes y todas nuestras noches Hierve el agua en sus teteras intentamos e1 sexo mas nuevo (UP 198) In “El amante ingenuo y sentimental” (En rojo), the poetic subject offers to his love interest a voyage outside of nocturnal Madrid. The proposed trip entails a farm of self- destruction as implied by “last boat” that would carry them to the new destiny. Whether the dismantling of self results from true extinction, the dissolution of bodily limitations through sexual intimacy or from drug intoxication remains obscure. What is unambiguous, however, is the male Speaker’s desire to embark on such an adventure with a partner, to experience subversion as a unified pair. Said traditionally feminine longings being incongruous with his prescribed sexed identity, the poetic subject enacts a queer identity: “podemos emprender un nuevo viaje. / Hay / otra orilla, dicen, y en el ultimo barco / podemos llegar juntos.” (OF 239). As the poem closes, the couple’s ultimate penetration of the earth, their encounter with molten rock « feasibly representative of either a drug such as heroine or sperm itself « physically binds them together. That is to say, formerly self-contained comorealities, the males are new transformed into a conjoined earthy matter, suggestive of their return to a more natural state of being beyond the perimeter of the realm of the Symbolic. No longer embodying intelligible masculine being, the male speakers as insignificant stuff are dead before the 165 eyes of society and indistinguishable from the rest of the unmarked elements of the reahn of the Real. The powder or dust that ultimately defines the protagonists physical existence is a multi-significant image, suggestive of the literal experience of personal demise and also personal gratification through drug intoxication and/or a sexual act. The imagery that closes this work of Hare echoes that which distinguishes the last verse of Gbngoras famous sonnet “Mientras par competir can tn cabello”: “en tierra, en humo, en polvo, en sombra, en nada” (Gaos 173). “El amante ingenuo y sentimental” reads: “fundirnos poco a pace con un magma de liquido tejido / y perder esa cesa que somos / y que llamamos cuemo / Unirnos convertidos en muerte, ser la tierra, / sus humores, sus fiemos. / Y acabar en polvo” (OF 240). Whereas the symbolic significance of the boat remains rather ambiguous in “El amante ingenuo y sentimental,” the connection between journey by water and drug intoxication surfaces more clearly in other poems, an example being “El sexo de los angeles” (Pérdidas blancos). Overall, images of submersion permeate this work, the poetic fluidity created through the resurfacing of the leitmotif suggestive of a body of water itself. Initially the poetic subject, still embodied by his flesh, plunges himself into a foreign realm defined not only by the presence of “knives” « instruments of sexual and/or drug intoxicating penetration « but also by its removal from sociocultural reality as symbolized by disintegrating political propaganda and the subject’s distant childhood memories: “yo me inundo despacio entre cuchillas - jinete / en came recuerdo [. . .] / carteles muertos del que fue principe de este mnnda [. . .] / y fries coma naipes los jugos infantiles” (OF 46). As the poem continues, the poetic subject experiences submersion once again, this time not by his own hand but rather as “victim” of a 166 superior force, shockingly, the might of heavenly bodies -- angels. Sexually aggressive, the heavenly bodies “flood” the poetic Speaker’s comoreality, placing him into a traditionally ferrrinine role as receptacle of penetration. This “Sinful” act of the spiritual messengers not only challenges the popular image of them as sexless, innocent creatures but it also reveals their own failure to control lustful, carnal desires. Thus the subversive nature of Hare Ibars’ poetry once again stands out, this time taking on a particularly profane quality: “los angeles me inundan / y el semen y la muerte / y esa cabellera estremecida en las grietas / aulla la madrugada tras la ventana” (UP 46). Within the last stanza the speaker’s body analogously represents a body of water in which the glass boat of daybreak « namely a syringe « sets sail. Such a trip brings the poetic subject and his companions, back to a state of bestiality. The collective act of “sinking” and the resounding of animalistic cries unintelligible to humans symbolically mark their regression to a precultural existence: fosforescentes cabellos marcan la senda del barco de cristal y nos hundimos del camarote hundido nacen gritos caricias de animal profundo [. . .] (UP 46) The glass boat that transports the poetic subject to other reahns resurfaces in “F ares” (Sex Fiction), once again taking the form of drug paraphernalia. Here, however, the penetration of the needle iS more explicit. Instead of the hairs of the man’s body marking the instrument’s travels, the man’s blood itself guides the voyage, acting as the veil of the craft. Haro’s focus on the liquid life force emphasizes the fluidity that defines material being: “Qnedan espejos en la sangre y es carmesi la vela 167 dc aquel barco” (UP 206). Paradoxically, the poetic subject and his companions achieve a state of material invisibility « of corporeal nothingneSS« through their consumption of foreign substances « the stuff that fills their very being. Chemical intoxication simulates disembodiment, the ultimate transcendence of prescribed comoreal being and corresponding limitations: “bastante llenos de esa transparencia que en cuchillas se muestra / bastante llenos per una vez de una cierta gracia” (OF 206). But while nothingness marks the males’ bodies, the journeys on which they embark are distinguished visually through vivid colors and physical transformations « all indicative of a drug trip: “Aventuras y aventuras y aventuras y un snefio rojo de prismas en cadena y un fulgor/ [. . .] / Y la princesa aquella que safiabamos se hizo de pronto opaca y no hnbo luz” (OF 207). Eventually the poetic subject describes his own metamomhosis: he and his comrads become dark beasts of the night, finding themselves indistinguishable from their surroundings. Their bestial quality once again marks their embracement and celebration of the forbidden, in accord with Dyer’s terminology, their Queer identification: “Animal de penumbras tu y yo y nosotros y la noche” (UP 208). “Flaming ” Tendencies: The Destructive Reconstruction of Masculine Materiality Whereas obscurity shields Hare Ibars' poetic subject from sociocultural reality and expectations, thus enabling him to covertly participate in deviant acts, fire surfaces as the force through which the male speaker overtly challenges society, as its brilliance exemplifies. Overall, the destructive power of the flame is multifaceted, manifesting both literally « the male recounts scenes of arson within the streets of 168 Madrid « and figuratively « through the subversive compartment it symbolizes. The flame of the fix initiates many of the poetic subject’s journeys within the drug world. Similarly, burning heat fi'equently defines the sexual urge experienced by the male. Either manifestation of fire results in the deconstruction of territorial boundaries « at the metropolitan and comareal level respectively and often simultaneously « and the reconceptualization of material limitations, as temporary as it may be. The physical transformation of the environment inhabited by the protagonists often facilitates their own personal comareal reconfiguration. By redefining that which initially defines their own personas, they are empowered to reconfigure their own being. Butler recognizes this intemlay between temporal space and personal agency in the construction of personal identity: “Construction not only takes place in time, but is itself a temporal process which operates through the reiteration of norms” (Bodies that Matter 10). In regards to the relationship between such transformational possibilities and la movida itself, Borja Casani comments: “L . .] era muy importante 1a posibilidad de modificar e1 propia paisaje, que a sn vez te modificaba a ti” (So’lo se vive una vez 6). Thus the symbolic significance of the flame is double edged, embodying both death and rebirth, pain and pleasure. Hare Ibars recognizes this himself; in his collection of essays El libro de los héroes he comments: “E1 firego siempre ha sido e1 anima de toda, de la muerte y de la vida, del placer y su hermano mayor, la sombra del placer y su hermana mayor, el snfiimiento” (27). “E1 amante ingenuo y sentimental” (En rojo), a poem previously discussed in relation to boat imagery, clearly depicts the poetic subject’s use of arson as a direct attack against Spanish sociocultural reality. Here the male subject offers to burn to the 169 ground a traditional symbol of modern consumerism « the department store « in the name of his love interest. His intention to use the remaining hot ashes to illustrate his unnamed partner’s sex in the sky is revealing. Firstly, it suggests a newly found sexual freedom made possible by the destruction of societal norms through the unveiling of the phallus; the Symbolic as a system of meaning is based upon the concealment of the privileged signifier. AS Lacan explains in “The signification of the phallus”: [. . .] it can play its role only when veiled, that is to say, as itself a Sign of the latency with which any sigrrifiable is struck, when it is raised (aufgehoben) to the function of signifier. The phallus is the signifier of this Auflrebung itself, which it inaugurates (initiates) by its disappearance” (288). Secondly, the unveiling of the phallus in the sky underscores the otherworldliness, the transcendental nature of homosexual desire. Thus while Hare Ibars maintains the Significance of the male sex « he names it as that which marks and gives meaning to the male body, as the “abbreviation” of the male identity « he unbinds it hour the heterosexual matrix that defines the realm of the Father. The masculine performance being independent of any relationship to the feminine and contingent upon the actual destruction of the realm of the Symbolic it is inherently queer: te ofrezco, si la quieres, incendios de diamante asesinar los grandes almacenes, apufialar “SIMAGO” o pintar en el cielo can letras fluorescentes e1 perfil de tu sexo, la cifia de tu enema. (OF 238) The queering of masculine power continues to define the rest of the poem. Sensing his partner’s dissatisfaction with his initial proposal, the male subject attempts 170 to seduce him with more personal experiences of pleasurable destruction. While explosions that release brilliantly colored flames characterize one option -- “Podrias embarcarte en explosiones tibias / dc violeta grandiose, de rojo y rojo / en fuegos que impregnasen la lluvia con color” (UP 239) « and the meshing of male comarealities, the Sharing of personal “knives” in the carnal act of penetration, defines the other « “[. . .] o rebuscar / can gusto inmenso « juntas las puntas de nuestros cuchillas « en el tunel de came que abriremos” «, both possibilities figuratively capture a mind and body altering experience provoked by either drugs or sexual intercourse. Nevertheless, such intimate deconstruction/reconstruction does not encapsulate all of the poetic subject’s pernicious desires. Before the poem closes he returns to his grandiose scheme of blowing up the local neighborhood, terminating all human life in honor of his companion. Such devastation will ultimately unleash new beasts from the underworld - - symbolic of repressed homoerotic desires « , giving them free reign of the periphery. The alternative existence that materializes unleashes a reconfigured phallic presence apparent this time through the image of the venomous cobra. While its body is smooth and malleable, its penetrating bite can fragment other bodies: Te ofrezco Sin esfuerzo un genocidio tiemo: hundir el banio entero, desecarlo con fbsforo encendido [. . .] [ ............................ ] par avenidas muertas ya; abrir las compuertas del espanto y dejar salir laS cobras, azuzar nuevas bestias por las calles heladas, (0P 239). 171 Depicted as a megapolis constructed out of sulfur, the unnamed city consumed by flames in “En Blanca” (Pérdidas blancos) takes on futuristic characteristics. The dreams of an anonymous second party ignite the highly flammable environment and destroy the defining lines of civilized existence. The uprooting of the city’s foundations « literally the city’s concrete base and figuratively the cultural system of meaning upon which civilization depends « vividly captures the possibility of an alternative vision of material reality. In his article “Literatura y malditismo” Hare Ibars names dreams as a liberating force. He recognizes how their boundlessness enables the exploration and ultimate fulfillment of personal desires, wantings heedless of societal expectations: “L . .] el snefio, el gran suefio donde toda esta permitida y todos los deseos se cumplen, e1 ultimo reducto de la libertad [. . .]” (41). The given poem reads: “Megapolis de azufre se incendia cuando suer‘ias / [. . .] piedras de fundacidn abiertas” (UP 100). With the streets torn open, the poetic speaker and his companion once again find themselves within the depths of the earth where they discover another realm of existence born through the destructive blast itself and distinguished by the hybrid beings that inhabit it. Here half boys/half rhinos or unicoms queerly roam, the Single horn of their bestiality overtly exemplifying their phallic power and subsequently, the desirability of the force of penetration traditionally captured by the erect male sex itself. In this manner Hare Ibars’ work mirrors that of Genet in which the queered male body takes on mythological characteristics as the Spanish poet himself takes note: “[. . .] las locas, Ias mariconas callej eras, se convierten en animales heraldico-mitolégicos, en emblemas de toda la que es contrario a la respetabilidad burguesa” (“Literatura y malditismo” 53). Monstrous, ambiguous corporeality incamates both the fulfillment of personal desires 172 and the overt rejection of privileged masculinity as culturally defined: “muchachos/rinoceronte unicomios duros come es duro e1 deseo” (OF 100). In any event, as much as the poetic subject longs to become part of this alternative existence, he realizes that what he envisions is merely a part of another’s dream « that of the unnamed second party which opens the poem. The last few verses of the poem add a note of disillusionment: “[. . .] no existen muchachos/rinoceronte” (OF 100). Aversion to known civilized existence qualifies “Saludos a1 caos” (En rojo), as the title of the work itself immediately reveals. Longing to escape from an oppressive existence within the realm of the Father, the poetic subject visualizes a portal to otherworldliness, to an atemporal space which sembles the Lacanian Real through its lack of cultural definition, its chaotic essence. The subject’s personal agency needed to arrive at such a transcendental state is diminished by the physical restraint of unnamed bodies. This antagonistical positioning of the male’s single comareality against that of a collective force underscores both the male’s marginalization from society and the futility of his personal struggle against said cultural system. He remains powerless within the environment that encompasses and defines his being: “No me dejan llegar a la ventana entre mundos; / no me dejan llegar a otro tiempo” (UP 278). The male’s frustration subsides when his earthly surroundings experience a physical metamomhosis. Creatures again emerge from the depths of the soil surface. Their iranical marking of a new heavenly terrain exemplifies the breaking and meshing of ontological boundaries, the transformation of existence as previously known: “marabuntas, reguero / azul de bichos, nn nuevo cielo” (OR 278). The male subject questions his own role in the transformation of material existence, his uncertainty 173 creating a surreal effect. Acts of arson manifest as the means through which the collectivity attempts to impede the sacrificing of any more bodies to the norms of society. The image of lambs being offered up to the heavens captures said victimization of authentic personhood: LHemos quemado plazas? Llncendiado autobuses para que no suban a1 cielo con los corderos? [. . .] [ .............................. ] Parece ser que Si. [. . .] (OF 279) AS the poem progresses, the conflict between civilized existence and chaos unexpectedly develops into a moral battle between “good” « represented by the Christ figure and his church « and “evil” « represented by the AntiChrist and the arsonists themselves. Again, whereas overt criticism and disregard of the Catholic church permeates much of Leopoldo Maria Panero’s work, Hare Ibars’ poetry tends to be less explicit. Regardless, in this case, the poetic subject’s deeming of the Son of God and his church as “losers” strongly suggests that the conflict between the deity and Satan is more of a political statement against organized religion than a mere component of the chaotic state being represented. Hare Ibars acknowledges the stronghold of Catholicism over Spanish society, even after the death of France. In De que van Ias drogas, published in 1979 (one year prior to the publication of the poem at hand), the writer States: “Ademas, 1a religiun en Espafra no ha perdida todavia su valor operante y sentimental, y los jovenes no se han tenida que revelar contra un vacia en las fermulas religiosas, sino precisamente contra el excesivo contenido de estas” (23). And the poem 174 reads: “[. . .] Crista y su lglesia piden que les reparemos el techo de sn morada, [. . .] / pero e1 Anticristo esté demasiado ocupado para atender a perdedores. [. . .]” (0P 27 8- 279). The poetic subject’s sadistic fondness of fire resurfaces in both “La noche de los muertos vivientes” (Empalador) and “Nieve Nergal (calle de F uencarral)” (En rojo). In the former work, a burning cemetery mesmerizes the male and his companions, inhibiting them from escaping the dangerously destructive situation: “no sabiamos par donde salir de aquel cementeria / perdidas en el encanto de sus veredas -- jardin dc incendios” (OP 66). It becomes apparent that any attempt of refuge from the blaze remains futile because the consumption that holds the men captive originates in their own comareality. That is to say, the flames reflect the intense sexual urges eating away at the collectivity. Their burning longings inevitably manifest through their exchange of physical contact. While the grayness of the males’ comarealities emphasizes their oneness with the obscure environment and concurrent marginalization from the eyes of society, the hardness of their materiality underscores the sexual longings that define their very being: “«aquel abrazo fuego de la tierra entre mérmoles grises” (OR 66). As the poem progresses, sadomasochistic imagery indicates that the intimacy exchanged exceeds mere hugs. Queerly, the exposed and playfully tormented male body becomes the object of the spectacle. Once again, sex and drug imagery become indistinguishable: y recuerdo que sollozabamos milagros mny dulces eran picos dc loro o nalgas azotada y cubiertas dc sal (olorosas heridas tan tiemas) (0P 66) 175 In “Nieve Nergal (calle dc F uencarral)” a local neighborhood of Madrid « that which encompasses the street Fuencarral « bums throughout the night. The flame epitomizes both illicit sexual encounters and drug experimentation, the colors white and blue marking the use of heroine. The “showering” of intoxicating liquids into the human body does not extinguish the blaze but rather feeds it, complementing the flames with its own destructive capacity. In any event, both sexual ecstasy and chemical intoxication penetrate comareality, releasing the protagonists from their bodily limitations and allowing them to experience a metaphoric rebirth through the temporary experience of death: “[. . .] hace llover / estruendos minerales hasta que azul y blanco / e1 fuego del crepusculo y del afro / conmina al cuemo a abrirse en nuevas rios / [. . .] / Y renacen los angeles” (OR 223). Cosmic Rain, Metabolic Tears AS suggested in “Nieve Nergal,” rain also manifests as a metabolic power within the poetry of Hare Ibars. Similar to the surreal forces of the blanket of darkness and the glow of the flame, that of metabolic rain blurs territorial boundaries on different planes: on a macro level, societal demarcations became ambiguous; and on a micro level, comareal demarcations beam indistinct. Manifesting literally as falling precipitation, rain penetrates the earth’s periphery and redefines the temporal space of human existence. Manifesting figuratively, through the “shower” of intoxication and/or male ejaculation, rain enables the male speaker to redefine the significance of his masculine body. Traditional comareal boundaries pierced and transgressed, males bodies together through the transference and mixing of bodily liquids. Such fluidity distinguishes the 176 alternative masculine being as Queer in the Dyerian sense: it is permeable, diffuse and organic. Said fragrrrentary essence aids in the achievement of comareal gratification through unlimited experiences of penetration. As commented upon earlier in reference to the destructive force of the flame, these macro and micro transformations are often correlative: as environment shapes identity, the redefining of such external surroundings enables the reconfiguration of male comareal identity. Take, for example, “Dioses caidos” (Pérdidas blancos). Here toxic rain, materializing in the forms of mercury and lead, creates an apocalyptic setting. Whereas the creatures of the underworld are not spared fiom such a tragedy « scavengers are drowned in puddles of petroleum -- , a select human collectivity characterized by their “false legs” do manage to descend into refuge: “bajaron piemas falsas / y ahora tras caer par la escalera no ven/ [. . .] / habia llovido mercuric habia llovido plomo / curves en putrefaccibn besaban en espacio blanco / en las calles charco dc petruleo” (UP 19). Such qualification of body parts highlights the alienation of the subjects at hand from their own materiality. But more importantly, this initial presentation of the human body as artifice analogically captures the superficial nature of the realm of the Father « that which gives meaning to corporeality « in general. The antagonism between social reality and subversive reality « the latter understood as that which defies the cultural system of symbols and meaning as incamated by the males liberated by the apocalypse - - permeates the rest of the work. Besides rejecting traditional comareality, the poetic subject and his companions cast aside the values of the patriarchal family through their dismissal of the Significance of procreative intercourse in favor of homoeroticism. The poetic subject’s negation of orgasmic climax as the objective of the collectivity’s sexual 177 intimacy praffers a resignification of phallic being elusive to the heterosexual context that traditionally defines it according to virility. Unification with other males and the recognition of their blended comarealities appear to be the ultimate objectives of the protagonists. The poetic subject foresees the male beings’ eventual return to the earth’s periphery, their future liberation from the scam of society: [. . .] prosiguié la estatua le amamos en habitaciones de estafio y tierra verde pero no hemos caido en ese orgasmo fesil que el mundo adora toda No caeremes [ ................................... ] La estatua subira al cielo sin astros y nosotros (quiero que sepas nuestras enemas o nuestras reflejos) caminaremos oh par casualidad sobre la tierra [ .................................. ] [. . .] sin el amarillo siquiera de tus ojos (0P 19-20) Toxic showers as a life altering force also manifests in “Blanca no” (Sex Fiction). Here, falling balls of radiant naphthalene « naphtha being a commonly abused, inhaled substance « bring to life a male child. The boy himself initially resembles a Christ figure, as suggested by the group of religious men praying for his materialization: “sacerdotes rostro de bronce invocan / [. . .] a1 Nifio /que tan 8610 se muestra cuando llueve / y caen bolas radiantes naftalina” (OF 182). But unlike the typical sad, young man that Dyer describes in his discussion of the representation of queers as crucified Christ figures, Haro’s male child possesses a bestial comareality that 178 reflects more of a diabolic nature than a heavenly one. His lurking in the dark comers of existence further suggests his alliance with the underworld. Hence, once again, the eternal planes of heaven and hell collide, collapse and mesh, the metaphysical chaos reciprocally dependent upon the reintemretation of human comareality: “3 ese nifio que es nube de cobras / en los calvarios y por las esquinas” (UP 182). The hybrid cobra/boy is not the only creature nourished by the venomous rain; rather, the precipitation provokes the descent of groups of beautiful monsters onto earthly terrain. The beasts’ arrival from territories del mas alla not only indicates the marginalized existence they normally endure, but it also suggests a momentary liberation fi'om inhibitions provoked and furthermore maintained by cultural norms. All in all, the poem once again can be intemreted as a metaphoric representation of the freeing potential and transformative power of a drug trip; the blue aprons queerly clothing the “humanimals” are suggestive of the all encompassing power of the substance consumed: han carcomida los cirnientos mismas de la civilizacién belles monstruos delantales azules belles llegan de un mundo mas alla de los montes se alimentan tan Sela de raros fenbmenos meteorolbgicos (UP 183) Whereas rain symbolizes drug intoxication in the above mentioned poems, in “Ludwig” (Pérdidas blancos) precipitation is emblematic of male sexual desire. The poem opens with an abstract representation of an aroused male sex, its excited state characterized by its blue color and by the pleasurable pain imprisoned within its contours: “a través del musculo azul caravanas / [. . .] y es doloroso el grito del 179 miembro preso / [. . .] / dulce coma cantar de abejas” (UP 15). Inevitably sexual release in the form of rain arrives, marking not only the dawn of a new day but also the male presence itself, more so than traditional comareality. By naming the released liquid wine, the poetic speaker recognizes the intoxicating power of the elixir, its capacity to create pleasure for others: “tus aguas tus / oquedades tibias (la delgadez / del vino es nn martirio / la aurora oculta el rostro no sin lluvia)” (UP 15). This showering at the individual level expands to the desire to penetrate external territorial boundaries. Again, the male presence is marked by wine as opposed to physical comareality: “Mas alla se abren salas de milagros y hay olores / [. . .] / y tu deseas herir el subterraneo / abrir sus puertas para que entre vino” (OF 15). In “Vestuario” (Pérdidas blancos) indications of strength and weakness « professional rank versus the expression of emotion « are juxtaposed to create yet another alternative image of the male. Rain materializes in the form of tears, the emotion marking the vulnerability and incompleteness of a high ranked official « a captain. Ironically, the officer longs for someone else to take control of his life by recognizing his personal desirability and by bringing him to climax. The progression towards orgasm is visually captured by the image of a trip across waters, the captain’s genitalia taking the form of an armed vessel, symbolic of strength with the potential to bring death upon somebody else. Such power is removed from its owner because in the end, in accord with the captain’s desires, ultimately an Other “Shoots his gun” or enables his sexual release; in this case the poetic speaker himself. Regardless, the captain’s physical presence remains intact. Its materialization in the form of mercury underscores its reconceptualized presence; while the male’s comareality penetrates, it is 180 qualified by an essential fluidity: capitén de sollozos me esperabas para tomar tus arrnas en la mano y conducir a puerto [. . .] [ ............................ ] (lo mas dificil era tn llegada) (lo mas dificil era agua salistrosa tn cuerpo de mercuric bajo e1 suefio) (GP 23) Weeping within a sexual context manifests once again in “Danza de la muerte” (Pérdidas blancas), highlighting the pleasure/pain principle and moreover, the allure of self-destruction that defines so much of Hare Ibars’ work. Nontraditional sexual penetration not only invokes tears but also the moon itself. The Lorquian celestial body surfaces as a venereal wound, a sign of impending death. Thus the blurring of territorial boundaries is twofold « not only do corporeal limitations vanish through the exchange of blood and semen but the fine line between life and death disintegrates, all for the sake of momentary sexual gratification: “y que es tan dulce el llanto de los muertos / cuando sangran cuando crece en ellos / una luna venérea” (UP 31). This self-inflicted wounding takes on a more public stage as the poem continues, occurring in the arena of the bar. Overall, the poetic subject’s glorification of the morbid act embraces the stereotypical, masochistic intemretation of homoerotic intimacy. Phallic incisions breed a pleasurable death experience: “tan dulce el aparecer de los pequcfros cuando asesinan / a las puertas del bar entre mutantes blancos” (GP 31). 181 Conclusion Upon commenting Ia movida madriler‘ia Nanye Blazquez and Borja Casani share the following dialogical exchange: Nanye: Muchas sociedades son como un portal de Belén. Esta e1 rey, el encargado de la fabrica, e1 barquero. El director de la fabrica quiere ser toda el tiempo director de fabrica; e1 alcalde, alcalde; e1 abogado, abogado, el telegrafista, telegrafista... Todo el mundo tiene sn papel social. En esta ciudad, en cambio, la gente, a partir de las ocho, no quiere seguir siendo la que era hasta esa hora, sino que quiere ser él mismo... Borja: Quiere ser incluso mas que él mismo. Quiere ser alga mitico. (S610 se vive una vez 5) The influence of la movida, the rebellious and liberalizing qualities that characterize it, manifest throughout Hare Ibars’ poetry. More often than not, his male poetic subject finds the nightly hours to be the opportune moment to deconstruct and redefine self- conceptualization. Within such a protective temporal Space, the male transgresses traditional, sexed bodily limitations: he experiences disembodiment through intoxication, thus creating for himself a sense of male identity distinct from that which is based on the cultural Significance of the male body; he also explores the penetrability of male comareality through homoerotic encounters, thus removing the significance of the phallus from its traditionally heterosexual context. Moreover, the male envisions for himself alternative environments in which to exist, often replete with mythological 182 innuendoes which inevitably transfer over to define his own persona. Through his poetic speaker, Hare Ibars exposes the transforrnative potential of the male body, emblematic of the contingency of subjectivity in general and the Queemess of his subjects in particular: “tus comienzos los mios iguales harapos cubren enemas dc semen condesado / los mismas gestos movimientos identidades duras o blandas depende” (“Matina1,” [UP 125]). Such inconsistency of presence permeates time as exemplified by the forever transforming rock/sement image utilized by the poet in “Sales gemelos” (Empalador). Hare Ibars exposes the phallic presence for what it is, namely circumstantial as suggested by the flaccidity of the sement itself: Sblo luz y dolores insistentes en los oidas en el vientre mas alla de las nubes en papeles resecos Sin presencia humana 5610 el recuerdo de la piedra / semiente les une con la lejania suburbana (OR 93). Overall, what dominates the poetic subject’s self-expression is the longing to be united or conjoined with another male. What further emphasizes the camaraderie that the male values is his use of language; rarely in the poetry considered does Hare Ibar present a poetic voice that does not speak in the first person plural. In this manner, the poet makes visible a typically unnoticed collectivity « the gay community. Moreover, an a grander, more inclusive schema, he demythifies masculinity, allowing the male figure to be both aggressive and passive, value intimacy over isolation. The male is exposed to be much more complex and multifaceted than generally assumed. 183 Chapter V: Vamping it Up: Identity Performance, Homoerotics and Bloodlust in Hare Ibars’ Poetic Work Alli en otras planicies alli residen monstruos y vestigios y alli mostramos dulce nuestra rostro porque morir es dulce y es todavia mas dulce dar la muerte. «Eduardo Hare Ibars, “Alamedas de cristal” Aqui encerrada en un sepulcro helado me tienen par muerta desde hace diez afros Y YO quiero salir Entre mil tumbas de marmol y piedra mis familiaries descansan en ellas y yo quiero salir. Ya me he corrrido dos primes, tus tias y aquel cufiado que tan mal olia Y YO quiero salir «Alaska y los Pegamoides, “Quiere salir” (Canut, Gara and Berlanga) Similar to Panero’s poetic speaker, that of Hare Ibars craves human flesh, the latter’s thirst for homoerotic intimacy materializing through his piercing of male bodies. Nevertheless, differences between the poets’ male subjects outweigh this commonality: being a Dionysian figure, Panero’s male subject is defined by schizophrenic qualities; his inner turmoil surfaces through his self-identification as both victim and consumer of others. Moreover, more often than not, Panero’s subject laments his existence as an anomaly and longs to be recognized as a traditional male body by the eyes of mainstream society. On the other hand, Hare Ibars’ poetic subject does not suffer from any similar internal conflict; while he often represents himself as an aggressor who feeds on others, he never wallows in a state of victimization. In fact, whereas Panero’s poetic subject’s carnivorous behavior is consequential to his own experience of 184 consumption at the mouth of his mother, Haro’s male willingly identifies with and embraces a monstrous identity as his own, that of the vampire. The previous chapter alludes to the poetic subject’s choice form of unnatural materialization upon commenting his active night life, alliance with the moon, self-entombment, self- transfarmation and propensity to fly. This chapter shall expound upon other aspects of the male’s monstrous existence. Hare Ibars’ appropriation of the vampire figure deconstructs a longstanding heterosexual binary of bodily organization, a dichotomy that dates as far back as to Aristotle’s The Generation of Animals: that of man/woman, hu-man/anomaly -monster (Braidotti 63). Seduced by the monstrous, his poetic subject relinquishes his priviledged “male” existence for a more desirable, ambiguous comareality. The significance of the poet’s appropriation of the vampire goes beyond the mere dissolution of physical, sexed demarcations. Through the embracement of the monstrous, Hare transgresses the perimeters of life and death upon which human reality is constructed and understood, an act definitive of the queer itself, according to Ellen Case in “Tracking the Vampire.” The theorist contends that queer’s utilization of “the discourse of the loathsome” as weaponry to deconstruct the dominant notion of the natural distinguishes it from the categories of gay and lesbian (3 82). Contextualizing the queer within Spanish culture and the artistic representation of AIDS, Paul Juian Smith in Vision Machines (1996) names this embracement of “the ugliest of the ugly,” “taking pleasure in inmoral ecstacy and spirals of intensity,” as “fatal strategies” in the sense of inevitability and mortality (104).l By exploiting the ' Smith names Spain as the European country with the highest increase in rate of HIV transmissions and 185 undesirable, contemporary Spanish writers « including Hare himself in his narrative Intersecciones « reconcile with death and at the same time “propose a new ethics of sexual relations and of artistic representation” (104). While this study considers Hare Ibars’ poetic intemretation of the AIDS virus through the monstrous, it Shall extend Smith’s theory of fatal strategies to greater peripheries, arguing it to be Hare Ibars’ choice form of attack against prescribed gendered identity overall. Through his representation of the male vamp, Haro’s parodic celebration of the life as an undead ironically gives birth to a new sense of gendered identity that escapes heterosexual and temporal limitations. Besides deconstructing the heterosexual dichotomy and correlatively, the natural/unnatural binary, Hare Ibars’ appropriation of the vampire figure has yet another implication: the queering of the already queer, the dissolution and reconfiguration of the female vamp, “the queer in its lesbian made” according to Case. In “Tracking the Vampire” She contends: In queer discourse, “she” is the wounding, desiring, transgressive position that weds, through sex, an unnatural being. “She” is that bride. “She” is the fanged lover who breaks the ontological sac -- the pronominal Gomorrah of the queer. The two “she’s” are constructed, it is a double trope « a double masquerade. To read that desire as lesbian is not to reinscribe it with the dominant notion of the natural. (383) Historically speaking, the vampire as a bloodsucking, overtly subversive sexual being within the European Union, the country with the second highest incidence of HIV infection (101). 186 has long been associated with the female gender. The first “vamp film” appearing in 1909, “vampire” signified a woman, who “entices, captivates, exploits and ruins her lover” (Mumhy 4)? Regarding same sex desire, the overall evolution of the vampire figure within literature and film validates the vampire as a lesbianic hybrid; whereas homoerotic sentiment may have been insinuated through the presentation of male vampires’ friendships of the 19th century, explicit homoerotics only manifest between women (Auerbach 41). The tradition of lesbian vampires includes works of Coleridge, Baudelaire, and perhaps most notably, Sheridan LeFanu’s story, ‘Carrnilla’ (1872). Within the twentieth century, the general focus on the male vampire’s physicality ovemewers any implicit homoerotic sentiment once characteristic of the monster (Auerbach 21). In Celluloid Vampires Michael J. Murphy cites The Death of P ’Town (1963) as probably one of the first films to present the portrayal of a gay vampire (104- 105). Hare Ibars’ queering of the lesbian trope magnifies the monstrous to multiples of two, to an orgy-like masquerade -- relegated “maleness” being the artifice « defined by many brides and much collective wounding. Breeding “the undead” through homoerotica, Haro’s poetic subject empowers the “unnatural,” provoking shifts in the ontological paradigm that result in apocalyptic circumstances. With respect to such cultural reappropriation of imagery and the potential of its re-Signification, Renee C. Hoogland asserts that such reconfiguration is exemplary of the nature of a consumer culture overall (168-169). Hence there appears to be a logical connection between the 2 In 1909 The Vampire of the Coast was produced in the United States, a silent film in which the protagonists are Iesfemmesfatales as opposed to the traditional un-dead (Mumhy 190). 187 poet’s parodic performance of the vampire (via his poetic subject) and Spain’s socioeconomic reality during the post-Franco era, namely, the country’s evolution into an affluent consumer society. As previously noted, massive consumption defines la movida madrileiia, drug experimentation and sexual promiscuity being Significant components of counter- culture binging. But sex and drugs aside, consumerism during this period of transition also materializes in other forms: artistic expression resurges in Spain, and congruently, so does its consumption. In the late 19708, the ingestion of British glam rock and punk breeds a renewed interest in musical experimentation, inevitably giving birth to Spain’s own sparkling showman, Fabio de Miguel, and the “first Spanish punk group” (Cervera l3), Kaka de Luxe (which will become Alaska and the Pegamoids later on). Simultaneously, fanzines « such as Estricnina, Bazofia and MMMUA !!« inspired by the underground music scene and often written by aspiring musicians themselves fire] the protagonists of the time.3 Whereas each of these indulgences appears essentially unique« drug use versus sexual promiscuity versus the consumption of alternative music, literature and art « , all of them provide an outlet within the historical context of la movida for the manipulation and reintemretation of selfhood. Such reinvention of “self” exemplifies the contingency of identity, its transforrnative nature, and moreover, the dissolution of fixed identities. Borja Casani comments the tendency to experiment with alternative subjectivies during la movida madrilefia in $610 se vive una vez: “los que hacian la musica no eran musicos, los que ponian los bares no eran camareros, los 3 For example, during la movida Fernanda Mérquez, El Zurdo and Alaska coauthor the fanzine MMMUA”. 188 que publicaban las revistas no eran periodistas [. . .]” (Gallero 377). Images within Hare Ibars’ “Aromas ciudadanas” paint a similar reality: “yo Sé que no moriste sin ver/ los mus belles cristales y firiste condiscipulo / de aquellos elegantes vampires que leian novelas de aventuras / y que después surgieron abogados o médicos” (UP 44). The reconfiguration of gendered identity in particular materializes in various manners during la movida. As observed in the previous chapter, unconventional sex and drug use lead to the transgression of traditional bodily limitations. Individual comareality becomes potentially ambiguous (indiscriminate from another body) through penetration and/or obliviated (psychologically intangible) through transcendance. New music trends that seep into post-Franco Spain present corporeality as a transforrnative instrument of performance art, manipulating traditional gendered identities and consequently exposing their superficiality. Excessively adorned, androgynous looking rockers mark glam rock, David Bowie being the aesthetic icon: “Surgido en Inglaterra en 1971, preconizaba canciones vitalistas acompafiadas de una exagerada ambigiiedad sexual adobada con ropas chillonas y peinados de colores. Hombres que parecian mujeres, coma David Bowie [. . .]” (Cervera 49-50). Hare Ibars himself recognizes the significance of the glam movement and writes Gay Rock (1975), a work that inevitably makes the phenomena and its protagonists even more accessible to influential Spanish youth, like Olvido Gara, the future Alaska. Punk rock follows glam rock’s lead in the violation of traditionally accepted gendered dress codes, punk rockers’ abrasive, anti-establishment attitude often exhibited through unconventional, unisexed garb, severe haircuts such as the mowhawk, exaggeratedly painted faces and multiple body piercings. Their appropriation of a fragmented and bestial existence 189 manifests not only physically but also, in accord with the Sex Pistols’ initiative, semantically through their choice of band names -- Los Zombies, Pelvis Tunnix, Cicatriz, La Polla, Esqueletos, Siniestro Total and La Broma de Satan serving as a few examples. Moreover, macabre artwork epitomizing violence and death is often utilized to propagandize their alternative identity. The ownership of death marks a correlation between the explosion of punk and the popularity of horror films throughout Europe in the 19705, again suggestive of the consumer appetite that abounded. Carlos Losilla notes in El cine de terror: “El cine de terror clasico fire objeto entre los afros 70 y 80 del siglo XX de una reivindicacion que alcanzé tanto a los niveles mas populares del publico come a los mas sesudos de la critica cinematografica” (13). Regarding vampire films in particular, the production of them in the 19605 doubles that of the 19505 and production within the first half of the 1970s exceeds that of the entire decade of the 19605. Within this scenario, Spain is one of the major film centers for the production of vampire films (Mumhey xi). A key protagonist of la movida, Nacho Canut recalls the influence of Spanish horror films on his band’s music, that of the Pegamoides: “L . .] peliculas de terror espafrolas y cutres [. . .] como una en que sale Tina Sainz en bragas y hacienda de varnpira. Esa tematica nos influia” (Cervera 149). Similarly, the horror genre impacts Hare Ibars’ poetic work. Through its title, Empalador foreshadows the vampire intertextuality that defines the collection, “El Empalador” being the alias of Vlad Tepes (1431-1476), the historical figure upon whom Dracula is based. Cruel justice defines the Prince of Valaquia, manifesting in his treatment of Turkish prisoners of war: “Tras victorias empalaba a los prisioneros 190 atravesandolos con una lanza o pica desde el ano hasta la boca y dejandolos colgados hasta varies dias después y de su muerte, lo que die origen a 5n sobrenombre: <>” (Losilla 107). What this study Shall argue is that Hare Ibars reintemrets the monstrous penetration of the male body by the vampire figure as an expression of homoerotic ecstacy. In the epilogue of Empalador, Hare equates such violent and “unnatural” behavior to love itself: “Mi libro, [. . .] me parece mny bonito. Habla de vampirismo, de amor «que es lo mismo-- [. . .]. Adore a los seres hibridos, a los humanirnales que se evocan en la penumbra de los cuartos oscuros [. . .]” (OP 138). Four years later in his regular column “Las tres vir'retas” of the magazine Combate liga comunista revolucionaria he expounds upon his fascination with subversive creatures of the night: Bueno, el caso es que me gusta mucho el cine de terror; y que Siento una pasién completamente literaria por los asesinatos Sadicos, par quienes dedican su vida a la muerte, e incluso a1 genocidio. Ante el poder armada de los Monstruos en el Peder, Dracula me parece un ser etemecedor, una especia de cazador furtivo, condenado a chupar sangre en solitario, en su Castillo de los Carpatos, porque no ha sabido ponerse al dia y chupar los canoes establecidos. (12) Besides horror films, as mentioned in the previous chapter, punk music « another significant commodity during la movida madrileria « impacts Haro’s poetic creation, particularly that of Sex Fiction. But his interest in punk does not end there; besides coauthoring lyrics for the Spanish band Orquesta Mondragen, he writes music 191 reviews that are featured in various publications.‘ And so like many of the protagonists of la movida, Hare Ibars’ creative interests are not limited to one particular genre, one means of self expression; multiple subjectivities define him as an artist. But whether Hare himself should be considered a true protagonist of la movida or an intellectual precursor of the social phenomena is debatable. As mentioned earlier, key figures of the movement such as e1 Zurdo and Alaska name Hare Ibars as an inspiring force behind their own creative expression, thus inadvertantly suggesting his placement prior to la movida. Moreover, it can be argued that the intellectual and often political tone of Haro’s self expression distances him from the spontaneous and apolitical artistic production of la movida. On the other hand, protagonists of this sociocultural movement are not distinguished generationally (i.e. both Pedro Almodbvar and Alaska are considered to be key figures of the movement) but arguably by contingency and agency -- being at the right place at the right time and participating in the moment. Juan Carlos de Laiglesia comments in A'ngeles de Neo'n: Fin de Siglo en Madrid (1981- 2001): “Al tiempo que la musica y el decorado, las generaciones estaban mezcladas. A nadie 5e preguntaba por su origen, sino par sus intenciones, practicando la grata promiscuidad que no dividen las casas en buenas y malas, sino en <<firerte5>> o <>” (25-26). Hare Ibars himself lives the spontaneous and risky life of la movida and consequently, dies the death of la movida. As the title of one of Ana Curra’s punk compositions (fiom her career after being part of the band Alaska) states: “El Sida acabb con la movida.” Furthermore, Hare Ibars’ anthologies are originally published between 4 Hare Ibars wrote articles about music, politics and alternative culture for various well known publications, including Triunfo, El Viejo Topo, Ajo blanco and Diario 16. 192 1978 and 1985, years that losely mark the erruption of the underground scene and its demise, as symbolised by the closing of a key local of performance, Rock-Ola. Undeniably so, Hare Ibars’ poetry rrrirrors the historical moment within which it surfaces, his poetic subject’s affiliation with the dead, embracement of a contingent subjectivity and performance of forbidden pleasures reflective of Spain’s transformation into a fatherless state. Overall, similar to Chavarri’s depiction of the Panero family in the film documentary El desencanto, Haro’s vampire subject epitomizes the fall of the Spanish patriarchal family. This chapter further explores Hare Ibars’ reconfiguration of male gendered identity through the vampire figure. It argues that Hare Ibars’ employment of “fatal strategies,” as defined by Smith, enables him to envision a multifaceted masculine identity based not on gender inversion but rather transcendental androgeny, the arrival at a boundariless self conceptualization. Moreover, the study Shall demonstrate how the poet’s “queer performance” « his appropriation of an atemporal, monstrous identity, the queer in its lesbian mode, and his deconstruction of ontological planes through said self reconfiguration « makes visible a marginalized collectivity of a particular historical moment: male participants of homoerotics during la movida. In doing this, the chapter shall consider the intertextuality that defines Haro’s poetry along with the poet’s use of the horror genre as framing elements that emphasize the male’s willful transformation into a monstrous anomaly, his alternative performance of “masculine” being. As Butler states in Gender Trouble: “[. . .] what we take to be an internal essence of gender is manufactured through a sustained set of acts, posited through the gendered stylization of the body” (XV). 193 Penetrating the Big Screen “No es a mi a quien le gusta e1 cine, sino al cine a quien le gusto ya.” «the protagonist José in Arrebato Nadie sabe comerse come yo fotogramas, excretar hologramas en un mundo vacia « Eduardo Hare Ibars, “El suefio en los cristales, imagen de la tarde..” In Arrebato, the 1980 Spanish cult film by Ivan Zulueta, 1056, an enthused filmaker, is lured into the intangible, fantastical world of cinematography by the memory of his deceased fiiend, Pedro. The latter’s echoing voice along with his vampiresc image etemalized in the film negatives he leaves behind incessantly haunt Jose. While piecing together the deceased’s film, the protagonist searches for a possible portal to the mats alla in which Pedro the vampire now inhabits, what Vilarés deems the “Punto de Fuga”: “La unién, Sin embargo, solo puede darse en aquel espacio cinematograficamente imposible que José persigue obsesivamente: en el Punto de Fuga. El punto cero, e1 punto situado entre plane y plane, e1 punto de lo que esta y de lo que no esté, es el unico punto en que el arrebato puede tener lugar, [. . .]” (260). Ultimately it is the locura of heroine that allows José to penetrate the window to other worldliness, metacinematographically represented in the film by the red still fi'ame. His transgressive journey encompasses homosexual experiences, physical disembodiment -- psychologically through intoxication and physically through comareal deterioration (his appropriation of “vampiric characteristics”) and the inevitable crossing of the temporal boundary of life and death. Thus within Arrebato, cinematography, drug consumption and homoerotics intertwine, reality becoming destructively monstrous as willed by the protagonists « both Pedro and José. Analogous to anueta’s A rrebato, much of Hare Ibars’ poetry conceptualizes the 194 allure of the vampire, making indistinguishable bestial compartment from homoerotics and chemical intoxication. Moreover, similar to how Zulueta utilizes meta- cinematography, Hare frames much of his monstrous poetry within allusions to Stoker’s Dracula, the inspiration of many vampire productions, and cinematographical references and metaphors « la pantalla, la ventana, e1 cine, and las cintas verdes being recurrent images. The poetic subject’s gaze serves as the lense of the camera, what he perceives and chooses to describe determining the content of the poem. Hence, cinematographical references emphasize the initial placement of the male subject outside of the fantastic scene being observed, his role as voyeur. Spectator of the honific, the male subject inevitably identifies with the monstrous beast; but unlike the viewer who, from a psychoanalytical perspective, represses into his/her unconscious such primitive, inmoral desires embodied by the big screen anomaly, Hare Ibars’ poetic subject allows them to surface and define his persona.s As Losilla discusses, Laura Mulvey’s article “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” intemrets the voyeur/object dynamic of cinematography through a gendered power construct. Mulvey argues that the male spectator, perceiving the female figure, the anti-phallus, as a threat to his masculinity, protects himself through the fixating power of his gaze; he transforms her into a mere eroticized object limited to the realm of cinematography (27). Hare Ibars’ poetic subject utilizes his gaze with distinct intentions. Instead of distancing himself (the subject) from the anti-male (the eroticized object), instead of freezing the latter in the realm of film and preventing it from threatening his phallic 5 Losilla explains: “[. . .] e1 lector -espectador se ve rcflejado en las paginas del libro, en el lienzo 0 en la pantalla, a través de una figura vicaria que realiza en arte aquella que él se ve obligado a reprimir en lo inconsciente, o aquella que su yo consciente repudia coma inmoral o inconcebible” (19). 195 position, the poetic subject allies himself with the abnormal, metaphorically performing a rite of self-castration. His initial trans-sex identification -- the monstrous being analogous to the feminine « escalates to the appropriation of alternative subj ectivity.6 Through his gaze, the male spectator fuses with the vampire beast, becoming one and the same; no longer is he a being defined by traditional “maleness.” Overall, the Chiaroscuro of the theater enables the meshing of realities and subsequently, the meshing of fleshes, la pantalla, a physical divide, paradoxically serving as the bridge by which the male subject “crosses over” into the realm of the fantastical and correlatively, into a traditionally female embodiment. Hare Ibars’ continuous weaving together of these two planes of existence makes a charade out of any presumed sense of reality. The poetic subject’s performance is indistinguishable from that which he observes on screen. It is precisely this reintemretation of actuality, the acknowledgement of multiple realities and the agency of those that inhabit such spaces, that leaves open the possibility of transgressing prescribed subjectitivies. “Wanderlust (Los vampires de Leon)” (Empalador [OF 69-70]), a poem in which the poetic subject recounts the nighttime cannabilistic compartment of a pack of vampires (materializing as soldiers) exemplifies. The first verse of the work places the reader within the realm of a theater, 3 space marked by the pantalla and the contrasts of light and Shadows: “junto a la pantalla en la plata y el encaje de una sombra” (UP 69). The chiaoscuro of the environment lends to the poetic subject’s ambiguous description; whether the communal consumption of carnage he describes remains within the realm of the ° In “Film and the Masquerade: Theorizing the Female Spectator” Deanne speaks of trans-sex identification as one means through which the female spectator interacts with the male protagonist projected on film (184). 196 fantastical, that of cinematography, is uncertain. Temporal spaces aside, the manifestation of sentiments provoked by drug intoxication (as suggested by the presence of minerals) and sexual innuendos create more confirsion around what really is occurring, true consumption of flesh, a psychedelic trip or homoerotics. Regarding the .latter, metaphorical language suggests the performance of sodomy and the achievement of orgasm: “can toda esa avalancha de came y sentimiento mineral el poder / se expresa en caricias muchas veces y la estacion abierta a toda noche / [. . .] / muerte pequefia” (OF 69). Entitled similarly to the above analyzed poem, “Se suicida una mane (Wanderlust)” (Pérdidas blancos [OF 47]) opens with the poetic subject’s description of a neighborhood cinema, its ringing bells placing it within a gothic scenario. Old cloaks heighten the mysterious and dated nature of the setting while metonymically representing a vampire presence. Through these elements, reality and fantasy blur; whether or not the hybrid’s existence is limited to the realm of the “big screen” is questionable. The poetic subject’s commentary on the pearly nails of a moviegoer implicates the physical presence of a Dracula figure within the movie theater itself, a notion historically sound, metaphorically speaking? As alluded to by Hare Ibars in “Tezcatlipocéi” (En rojo [0P 245-249]), moviehouses often served as a haven for transgressive behavior, including homosexual encounters: “El Cine Galactica esta lleno de condones usados y envolturas de chicle y caramelos y bombones helados” (UP 248). The imagery of “Se suicida una mane (Wanderlust)” captures a Similar sensation of 7 In Stoker’s Dracula, the nails of Count become the focal point of Jonathan Harker’s observation of the physical makeup of his host’s hands. 197 male deviance: “campanadas en un cine de banio viejas capas de pluma / entre los dedos escudos dc caramelo las ufias / nacaradas” (UP 47). As the poem progresses, the weaving of “reality” « the realm of the movie house as cross sensorially marked by ringing bells « with “the fantastical” is visually enhanced by the flight of the hybrid in and out of the converging planes. A sighting of a “rare, hairy bir ” hovering above the bell tower suggests the monster’s earthly presence, while the vampire clan’s ability to transgress time through “cintas verdes” implies their mere existence through film. The showering of “polvo blanco” and its varied but equally plausible symbolic signficance - - sexual climax versus drug consumption (cocaine) « intensifies the ambiguity of the scenario. Moreover, the substance’s multiple meanings complicates the notion of flight itself, the movement observed by the male possibly indicative of disembodiment through sexual ecstacy or intoxication. As seen in Arrebato, vampirism, homoerotics and “tripping” become one and the same: “y el polvo blanco el famoso polvo blanco/ llueve peces y piemas y caricias y retoma de otro tiempo” (0P 47). Prior to the poem’s closure, the male subject reveals his self-induced transformation from passive observer of the bizarre into active agent within the surrealm realm. The same is the case for the poetic subject of the initial poem considered, “Wanderlust (Los vampires de Leon).” Both penetrate the “big screen,” diffusing the opposition between “L . .] proximity and distance, control of the image and its loss which locates the possibilities of spectatorship within the problematic of sexual difference” (Deane 181). Relinquishing their priviledged male status by joining the subversive vampire clan, the poetic subjects destabilize the very notion of personhood established through the norm of male identity. Butler explains: 198 In as much as ‘identity’ is assured through the stabilizing concepts of sex, gender, and sexuality, the very notion of “the person” is called into question by the cultural emergence of those ‘incoherent’ or ‘discontinuous’ gendered beings who appear to be persons but who fail to conform to the gendered norms of cultural intelligibility by which persons are defined. (Gender Trouble 23) In “Se suicida una mane (Wanderlust),” the poetic subject’s employment of the first person collective voice in his description of vampiric hunger identifies him as one of the hybrids. Again vampirism, homoerotics, and drug intoxication appear analogous, the queer performance of unconventional penetration or crossing of bodily boundaries-- equally descriptive of all three deviant acts« the means through which the collectivity searches for a sense of self conceptualization: “agonizamos despacio / en busca del saber que prometia / aquel gesto en la plaza Nos buscamos / con los dientes y garras de mercuric hasta mafiana por lo menos” (0P 47-48). What inevitably grounds the male subject (and by extention the reader) back into the role of spectator, viewer of a metaphorical vampire film, is the final stanza of the poem. Casting his gaze upon the ruins of an abbey, he makes an omniscient commentary about a lurking, vampire boy, eager for night fall: “1a abadia esta en ruinas / pero bajo su suelo / un muchacho mny palido espera que atardezca” (0P 48). This recalls Stoker’s Dracula, the abbey being the site at which the Count violates his first victim, Mina, before the eyes of her companion, Lucy: [. . .] I could see the ruins of the Abbey coming into view; and as the edge of a narrow band of light as Sham as a sword-cut move along, the 199 church and the churchyard became gradually visible. Whatever my expectation was, it was not disappointed, for there, on our favourite seat, the silver light of the moon struck a half-reclining figure, snowy white. The coming of the cloud as too quick for me to see much, for Shadow shut down on light almost immediately; but it seemed to me as though something dark stood behind the seat where the white figure shone, and bent over it. What is was, whether man or beast, I could not tell [. . .]. (93) After initially sighting the pact of vampire soldiers, the male subject of “Wanderlust (Los vampires de Leon)” names himself as one of the carnivorous crew. He pronounces their shared possession of marble, the unyielding material symbolic of both the male sex « that which is desirable « and the space of the cemetery -- the subversive stomping ground of the creatures of the night. Hence, once again, homoerotics and varnpirism go hand in hand: “el marmal era y es y siempre sera nuestra” (UP 69). The poetic subject continues to identify with the vampire clan, describing the collectivity’s continual hunt for nourishment, a quest inevitably cut short by the rising of the sun: nuestras soldados desertaron ya sus tumbas frescas buscan esos resquicios que los hombres llaman vida pero transcurre el tiempo engalanado las cintas verdes de los urboles 5e hacen dolorosamente nitidas y hay que volver a1 claustro Dejar las calles regresar al polvo (OR 70) “Diario de Jonathan Harker” (Empalador [UP 62]) mimics Stoker’s Dracula 200 through its title and description of a communal trip through an unfamiliar land. In the case of the horror classic, the mysterious trip initially described in Harker’s journal is revealed to be the Englishman’s journey to Bistriz to meet Count Dracula himself. While Hare Ibars’ utilizes Bistriz as the imaginary setting for two of his other vampire poems « “Carta de Bistriz” (Pérdidas blancas [0P 51]) and “Memoria de Bistriz” (Empalador [GP 71]) « in regards to the work at hand, the specific destination of those travelling remains undeclared, further blurred by mist and dark streets. Moreover, literal displacement« as the initial image of the bus suggests « and virtual travel « provoked and controlled by the intoxicating powers of crystal silicon « converge: “Brillante autobus relacionado can bruma / y sabia tierra Humillar / es privilegio de las débiles fogatas en cristal de silicio tratado ya no pure / Ellas confiesan el coma y el por que alla” (UP 62). As seen in the other poems considered, the poetic subject’s own location and role (spectator versus protagonist) in relation to the surreal environment being described is in constant flux, underscoring through example the transforrnative potential of individual agency. The male’s impersonal commentary throughout the first half of the poem has a paradoxical effect: while it locates the poetic subject outside of the fantastical, in the role of spectator/moviegoer, it also suggests his appropriation of Harker’s voice as stranger/voyeur in a foreign land (i.e. within the realm of the fantastical), as the title of the poem leads the reader to believe. Nevertheless, the possibility of him “being” Harker is complicated by the convoluted manner in which the male describes the protagonists of the trip: he perceives them as “bland, sun consuming animals,” presumably in contrast to the penetrating, moon worshipping and/or sun fearing vampire. This transposition of the hn-man/natural with the 201 monstrous/unnatural as that which defines reality exemplifies the poet’s exploitation of the ugly, his use of fatalist strategies to expose an alternative masculinity defined by its queemess. Discursively allied with the vampire beast, the poetic subject seemingly is Dracula. However, to make matters more obtuse, the pantalla surfaces as a time-defying mechanism, relocating the poetic subject to the role of spectator of a fantastical moment caught on film: “Desviaciones astrales indican un giro de cien siglos en la pantalla turbia” (0P 62). Throughout the rest of the poem, Hare Ibars’ relentless play with meta-cinematography continues to blur planes of reality and correlatively, the opposing positions of voyeur and protagonist through the poetic subject. The declaration of a “received message” from an “impure voice,” implicitly that from the Count, along with the poetic subject’s own arrival to “la Casa,” presumably Count Dracula’s castle, thrust the male directly into Stoker’s tale as a subject other than Dracula himself; the references suggesting his appropriation of Harker’s identity.8 Conversely, the viewing of fihn stills in a sperm-saturated cafe « indicative of the complimentary relationship between sexual deviance and the viewing of the horrific -- intermittently returns the poetic voice to an 8 The poetic subject’s declaration of a message received from an impure voice mimicks Jonathan’s recollection of Count Dracula’s welcoming letter in Stoker’s mastemiece: My Friend. « Welcome to the Camathians. I am anxiously expecting you. Sleep well to-night. At three tomorrow the diligence will start for Bukovina; a place on it is kept for you. At Barge Pass my carriage will await you an will bring you to me. I trust that your journey from London has been a happy one, and that you will enjoy your stay in my beautifirl land. Your friend Dracula (Stoker 4) 202 external position: “olor a semen vieja en el café donde Ias veces sufren / [. . .] / enriquecedores hilos tenues / amplian microfotogramas en el espacio / oscuro permanece el aura congelada por dos” (OF 62-63). Continuing with the theme of Dracula’s homeland, whereas the settings of both “Carta de Bistriz” (Pérdidas blancas [OF 51) ) and “Memoria de Bistriz” (Empalador [0P 71]) initially appear unambiguous, the poetic subjects’ identity remains incohesive. Regarding the former work, any assumption by the reader that the voice speaking is that of Jonathan Harker (as suggested by the title) quickly dissolves. Again, the poetic subject initially performs the role of spectator of an horrific scene, this time one whose urgency and chaos is defined by an errupting volcano and a continued hunt, presumably for vampires. The intensity of the apocalyptic scene rises with the staking of an unnamed being by a “Terrible friend”: “SE DESPLOMA UNA MONTANA « la caceria « nadie / nadie escucho el crujir de huesos cuando e1 Muchacho / el Terrible amigo clavb 5n estaca [. . .]” (GP 51). Metaphorically speaking, the act represents a sadomasochistic, homosexual encounter, the possessive adjective that qualifies the stake of the so called friend transforming said instrument of penetration into an extension of the agressor’s comareality. Most literally, the scene recalls Harker’s betrayal of the Count in Dracula: “A terrible desire came upon me to rid the world of such a monster. There was no lethal weapon at hand, but I seized a shovel which the workmen had been using to fill cases, and lifting it high struck, with the edge downward, at the hateful face” (Stoker 54). However, Haro’s poetic subject speaks from a different point of view; his emphasis on the abandonment and betrayal endured by the victim dissolves any 203 possibility of his appropriation of Harker’s identity. In fact, rather than merely being a vampire sympathizer, the voice heard reveals itself to be none other than that of Dracula himself, whose earth filled coffins weep in reaction to his violation? Again, the sexual connotation of the image is apparent: “L . .] Nadie / escucho e1 aullar de rrris cajas de tierra violadas par petréleo sanctus” (OF 51). As the poem progresses, the male’s appropriation of the vampire identity manifests through his personal aversion to the sun « “buena es no ver mas el sol es la vista y el olor / de los humanos temblor de carnes” (UP 51) « and through his capacity to fly and transgress both spacial and temporal boundaries in search for his latest prey. While anonymity masks his persona « he penetrates Spaces as an unfamiliar face before the gaze of others « , the poetic voice makes explicit the identity of his potential victims: he thrives on those with “cuchillo.” Hence, unlike Panero’s poetic subject who utilizes homosexual encounters to combat invisibility, Haro’s male uses invisibility to facilitate homosexual gratification: “ellos estan reunidos en su bar / andaré can pies de fieltro -- siempre un cuchillo / a lo lejos se desploma un vase de leche no me conoce / es demasiado vieja no me conoce / es demasiado joven” (OF 52). While the gay bar scene contemporizes the vampire tale, what inevitably grounds the reader back into the reality of la movida madrilefia, the historical moment in which Hare produces the work, is the dating of the “letter”: “Madrid, 1976”. The poet’s choice of title combined with this minor detail has Significant implications. Bistriz of the 19th century becomes analagous to Madrid of the mid 19705, vampirism defining the obscure hours of both 9As elaborated upon in Dracula, Stoker’s vampire sleeps in the earth of his homeland; upon his initiative to establish various residences in Western Europe, he has numerous boxes of soil shipped. 204 temporal Spaces, be it in the form of homoerotica, drug intoxication and/or an overall self-professed alternative identity. Artist Sigfrido Martin Begué, a protagonist of la movida, recalls his own monstrous transformation during the mid 705 in So'lo se vive una vez: “Hice exposiciones en el 77 y en el 81, estaba con mi carrera de Arquitectura y encima no paraba de salir todas las noches. Lo que no sé... Bueno, 5i. see cémo lo hacia. No dormia. Me converti en un auténtico vampire. Dormia solamente cuatro horas. Pero luego estaba como una rosa” (150). Through its dedication, “Memoria de Bistriz” (Empalador) continues to play with the convergence of Bistritz and Madrid established in “Carta de Bistriz,” suggesting that the earlier poem, contrary to its closing date, was actually written from the Transylvanian city: “también para Juan Angel, en recuerdo de aquella otra carta que, desde Bistriz, le escribi hace ya tiempo” (UP 71). As convoluted as it may be, the evolution of Bistritz described by the poetic subject in “Memoria de Bistriz,” appears reflective of a more contemporary reality than that of gothic Bistritz. Disillusionment dominates the first stanza of the poem as the male subject’s gaze reveals the disappearance of vivid colors that used to penetrate the darkness of the city, including the illumination formally produced by the communal abuse of authority: ya no surgen del suelo aquellos arcoiris dc menta / y granadina que brotar solian inesperados [. . .] / [. . .] / no alumbra ya mane dc / gloria e1 escenario de tropelias comunes” (0P 71). Within the second stanza, however, the tone of the poetic speaker changes as he recognizes the aspects of life that have not changed, such as the role of the bus as the choice vehicle of transport to unrecognizable locals, namely, to marginalized existence. More significantly, he reveals his own being to be a bridge between the past and the 205 present, a nocturnal wanderer of forbidden spaces, a constant fixture, like the bus itself. Transgressing temporal boundaries, he is the vampire figure: “y el vieja metal cromado me acompafra en mis paseos / de manicomio a cementeria / de tumba a tumba / de bar oscuro a bar aun mas oscuro” (OF 71). One of Hare Ibar’s later vampire titles, "Les belles heures de Vlad Dracul" (En rojo [UP 261]) immediately immerses the reader into the realm of Count Dracula, Hare Ibars’ use of French giving the work a dated feel; many consider the “first” vampire film to have been made in 1897 in France (Murphy ix). However, the content of the poem itself inevitably destabilizes any sense of antiquity initially suggested by the title. Instead of recalling a past or even present monstrous experience, the poetic subject hypothesizes about a future existence within a modern urban society marked by storefi'ont windows, groaning car motors, and impatience, all Signs of individuality and consumption, emblematic of la movida itself. The sense of individualism intensifies to atone of egoism when the poetic subject reveals himself to be not only a protagonist of this hypothetical existence but more importantly, he whose compartment marks the actual passage of time within this reality. Like the structure of the poem itself, the conceptualized future revolves around the male’s own sleeping and rising habits throughout a typical day. Thus the significance of the poem’s title seems more apparent, although a principal ambiguity still remains: the poetic subject’s appropriation of the voice of Count Dracula has yet to be confirmed. The poetic subject does speak of a particular vampire breed « the mulé « in the elaboration of his daily routine; however, his noon rising conversely relates to their habits, “seres que durante el dia suelen ser practicamente inoperantes, pero a1 llegar la noche 5e incomoran de sus lechos 206 hasta que suenan las doce campanadas del mediodia” (Aracil 128). While “the changing of shifts” between the male speaker and the mulé makes dubious the farmer’s vampiric identity, other subtleties within the poem do lend support to his hybrid identity, one being the Speaker’s connection with the wild beasts of the night, the dogs of death. Furthermore, a strong parallel between the poetic subject’s sexual desires and that of the mulé becomes apparent throughout the rest of the poem. A species of vampire evolving from the birth of a still born child or the violent death of an adult male, the mulé are characterized by an extensive sexual appetite more so than by a propensity for blood sucking (Aracil 128). Likewise, deviant sexual activity marks the poetic subject as a vampiric beast. Rather than surfacing as a thirst quenching substance, blood indicates sexual penetration, a collective, spontaneous activity of the creatures of the night: “Paves sin rumba pegaran sus picos / a las ventanas negras Lunas/infiemo / habra sangrado mucha en las aceras” (UP 261). Revisiting Horror Flicks Besides utilizing cinematographical references and allusions to Stoker’s Dracula, Hare Ibars also borrows the actual titles of horror films to distinguish his poetic work, and consequently, to propel his male subject into the realm of the hybrid being. Such intertextuality stresses the perforrnability of identity and the power of personal agency: while initially deemed a particular role of a given plot, the poetic subject enacts his own queer rendition of his newly appropriated monstrous identity. For example, Hare Ibars’ naming of “The fearless vampire killers” (Empalador [OP 67 - 68]), mirrors that of a 1967 Roman Polanski movie production. A title utilized to 207 market in the United States Palanski’s film titled Dance of the Vampires (1967), The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) is considered one of the most remembered vampire films for its portrayal of a gay vampire (Mumhy 104). Polanski’s parodical representation of the traditional vampire film manipulates formula identities: his work not only presents a male homosexual vampire, the son of the Count himself, but also vampires of Jewish ancestry for whom the symbol of the cross -- traditionally a weaponry of protection for potential victims « has no destructive power. Campiness exudes the scene of the grand ball as identities blur and paradigms shift, vampire guests mascarading as humans, humans being the minority in attendance (Mumhy 116-117). Hare Ibars’ poem maintains this image of a deviant collectivity, here disturbingly masked by its sweet power of allurement within the Witching hour rather than by ballroom garb. The night wanderers manifest as ice cream flavors and colors, in accord with camp aesthetics, a materialization that exaggeratedly connotes the vampires’ seemingly innocent allure, "things-being-what-they-are-not" (Songtag 279): the inevitable consumption to be had is enjoyed by the subversives themselves. The facade of sweetness and delicacy soon melts away to the pervasiveness of impending death, suicide victims smothered in “sickly blue” suggestive of a bad heroine trip, a vampiric experience gone array. The location of the incident « men’s bathroom « supports this intemretation. The paradoxical need to allow the “dead” to rest implicates those to whom the Speaker refers to a state of nndeath : y aquella calle en sombras de otra hora hombre coma de barquillo helados verdes al pistacho rosas a la fresa de ambar a la vainilla 208 o blancos blancos blancos dc nata Satén en la ventana estremecida aroma a muerte en los nrinarios y en la esquina dc alitre 1e pregunta la hora un suicida a otro suicida pulsacién de lo rapido en el terreno del mas enfermo color el azul sin palabras para que puedan descansar los muertos (UP 67) Up to this point in the poem, the poetic subject’s language places him outside of the peculiar realm upon which he focuses his gaze; whether he is a vampire killer (in accord with the title of the poem) or a vampire himself is unclear. As seen in previously discussed poems, the poetic subject inevitably identifies with the vampire clan, announcing his own participation in the subversive acts he has observed. Not only does he locate himself within the counterculture’s nocturnal space as an active agent, but he also deems himself ringleader of the prowlers. Once again, the beasts piercing of human flesh « that which threatens the status quo and transforms them into hybrids hunted by the authorities « manifests through forbidden homoerotic encounters and drug consumption: “la calle esta vigilada mis hombres deben pagar y pagan / una taza de té en el desierto una vena hinchada / ensalmos y cartones de loteria par casualidad/ nos encontramos a1 salir del pasa subterraneo par casualidad / hervirnos juntos nuestras huesos en el caldera” (0P 67). “Epilogo (Le bal des vampires)” (Empalador [OF 81]) follows the intertextual lead of “The fearless vampire killers,” in this case alluding to the original title of Polanski’s 1967 parodic production as opposed to the American one. Parallels between Haro’s poetic work and Polanski’s film are evident: the poetic subject’s 209 recollection of gluttonous celebrations sembles Polanski’s climatic ballroom scene, both scenarios obscuring the collectivity’s vampiric subjectivities. Haros’ use of the diminutive underscores the ambiguous quality of the gendered bodies that populate his orgiastic scene and the artificiality of intelligible comareality overall: “hombrecillos” -- suggestive of lack of manhood -- and “mujercillas” -- suggestive of physical grotesqneness -- intermingle with the poetic subject. Moreover, sexual lust lures both the protagonist of the film and the poetic subject into compromising situations: in the film, Professor Ambrosius’ desire to rescue the beautiful Sarah leaves him in the grips of a vampire, Sarah herself (Mumhy 117); the poetic subject, seduced by the feminine appearance of a fellow partygoer, inevitably participates in a homoerotic exchange. Nevertheless the poetic work of Hare Ibars proves itself to be more complex than the mere vampire/human charade. Within the subtext of vampirism Hare manipulates gender demarcations and signifiers and in doing so, he emphasizes the artificiality of prescribed sexed identity. While the poetic subject maintains his partner’s feminine identity through the use of the personal pronoun “she,” her posession of the phallus -- marked by the sperm that falls down the male speaker’s back -- suggests otherwise. The vampiric lover is a s/he, an androgynous beast whose attractiveness, her seductive powers or existence as an obj ect of desire, is complemented by his aggressiveness, active role in homoerotica. Once again, what aides this parody or reconceptualization of gendered identity is the presence of intoxicating substances: En fiestas y cenas conocirnos hombrecillos achatados ellos eran sombreros mujerzuelas coronadas de té mny ligero 210 ellas tienen los senos erizados de puas. [. . .] [ ............................... ] Ella 5e esconde entre la naftalina se prueba ojeras en el armario mus profundo caravanas de esperrna 5e despefran por mi espalda (UP 81) Haro’s demythification of clear gender demarcations through the vampire figure surfaces in other poems as well, such as “Never Street” (Empalador [OF 79]) and “En blanco (2a parte)” (Empalador [OF 103]). In the former poem, the poetic subject describes the followers of the vampire; while the group’s gender remains ambiguous, their loyalty towards their leader (his body marked by the capacity to fly), distinguishes them: “la otra horda el otro cielo el otro / nos estremece a muchas todavia / machos o hembras pero siempre avidos / de aquel avien firrioso” (0P 79). In the latter work, the poetic subject’s naming of his partner as “prince, princess, satyr” emphasizes the multiple subjectivities the latter embodies, consequently difusing any stable conceptualization of his male, hu-man identity. He embodies the traditionally deemed “feminine,” “masculine” and “bestial,” all three manifesting through his soft but stiff body and the performance of homoerotica. Pallidness and an affinity for dusk inevitably reveal the subjects’ vampiric affiliation and concurrently, their drug addiction: “principe princesa sétiro / bistec suave y duro que penetra con arranque dc geyser / estamas blancos esperando e1 crepusculo / que sera nuestra hogar” (UP 103). “El vampire sangriento” (Empalador [OF 73-74]) borrows its title from a 1961 211 Mexican production of the Churubnsco/Azteca Film Company. In the film, the vampire protagonist, Count Frankenhausen, unsuccessfully attempts to transform his own wife into one of the undead and in the end flees, eluding justice (Mumhy 100). Hare Ibars’ poem also closes with the escape of a vampire protagonist, he and his recently recruited comrads travelling in conquest of other territories. The title is merely the first indication of the presence of the “New World” in the poem at hand. Similar to Panero’s reintemretation of Spain’s historia oficial in “La flor de la tortura,” Hare Ibars reconsiders the conquest of the Americas, inverting the civilization/barbarism dichotomy that has historically defined the relationship between the conquering Spaniards and the Indigenous population. In the poet’s rendition, Spain brings monstrosity to the new lands, corrupting the Natives and her own ‘messengers of God’ as well. Unlike other vampire poems by Hare in which the poetic subject subtilely immerses the reader into the realm of the vampire through his initial description of a mysterious, surreal Space, here his immediate recollection of a young victim’s heightened state of fear « satirically represented by the flight of his stockings « thrusts the reader into a reahn of terror. This voyeuristic description of lost innocence evolves into the poetic subject’s disclosure of his own existence as one of many youths prematurely initiated into the reality of sexual deviance and intoxication. Frozen in childhood, their undead state marks them as vampires: Aquel par de medias abandonb a sus adoradores Huyeron arnbas piemas per paisajes rata-hielo-cuellos-de botella-zafrros blandas-niebla se dice que gritaban mensajes en una anda ultracorta 212 gritaban Nadie sabe coma fue pero olvidamos el humo olvidamos el mar y los juguetes y se barrb el metal de las paredes plata y plomo de nifios siempre vivos (OR 73) As the poem progresses, the male subject’s flippant description of the dismemberrncnt of the body once clothed by the fleeing socks « that of an altarboy « demythifies male comareality as a signifier: exposed and fragmented, maleness is vulnerable and destructible. Furthermore, unlike any poem of Garcilaso de la Vega in which the esteem of temporal beauty catalyzes a methodical, visual dissection of the desired female body, in this case, dissection appears more haphazard and consequential to sadistic hunger. In accord with Smith’s theory of fatal strategies, the ecstacy of carnal devourrnent sumasses aestheticism; monstrosity abounds. Captain Blood’s nearby presence suggests his responsibility for the boy’s demise: Alli 5e deshojaba un monaguillo 5e quitaba los ojos junta a1 lecho flotaba arreboles espesas coma maniquies sin brazos coma ellos y una beta clamaba por su perdida pie Alla abajo en la arena bajo una luna electrica el capitén Blood (GP 73) Clearly, the violation of an altar boy by a ranked Spanish officer has metaphorical implications: Catholicism along with the patriarchal values it upholds 213 reveal themselves to be farcical, mere charades. The imagery that follows firrther exemplifies Haro’s mockery of dominant ideological beliefs. Surrounded by natives of the new land, the captain « revealed to be none other than the poetic subject himself «, instead of relaying to them the message of God, catalyzes in the collectivity a propensity towards violent compartment. AS if perfoming a final Eucharistic rite, he invites his new disciples to feast on blood and fire. Their desire to do so confirms that the vampire has successfully infected them with his bestial ways; they have been initiated into the realm of the undead: “el capitan Blood / rodeado de ingeniosos natives / esperaba su barco [. . .] / [. . .] / [. . .] -Querian beber sangre querian beber fuego / mis invitados [. . .]” (OF 73-74). Handling Sweet Burning Desire: Representing the Male Vampire AS Auerbach points out in Our Vampires, Ourselves, a cohesive, definitive representation of “the vampire figure” does not exist in literature nor cinematography; contrariwise, there are many different types of vampires. The hybrid being evolves with the changing cultures it inhabits, demonstrating the contingency of identity, the influence of external realities upon its formation overall (6). Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, vampires transform from ghostly, cadaver-like beings who identify with a maternal moon and initiate homoerotic friendships into creatures marked by long nails, fangs and foul breath whose primary antagonist is a deadly sun; into monstrous beings vulnerable to such things as rosaries, holy water, and carved stakes (Auerbach 36). As varied as the representation of vampire identity is throughout history, so too is Hare Ibars’ intemretation of the creature. That is to say, the poet weaves together 214 multiple vampire personalities to create his own hybrid male, a being that is in constant motion, continually undergoing self transformations. At varying moments Haro’s creature manifests as an ally of the moon and/or of the beasts of the night: “los animales conocen tu muerte y tu renacer tibia / siete fases de un enema: luna dc primera clase” (“Engraje 2” [OR 49]); “Tu acaso me has pensada hasta el martirio / [. . .] / de verme a mi dnmriendo entre nris muertos / (esos que “son amigos” y parecen / imagenes del fuego de la vida / tan Iobos [. . .]” (“Imagenes presentes” [0P 300]). At other times he manifests as an enemy of the sun: “nuestras labios / seran eclipses de sol siempre / hasta que pasen / tranvias de exterminio entre nosotros” (“Aromas ciudadanos” [OF 45]); or as a creature in flight (here Hare Ibars’ comparison of swords to smiles seems to allude to Aleixandre’s Espadas come labios): “espadas come aviones muslos gemelos o sonrisas / iluminan de golpe la soledad del aire (es medianoche) / y despierta la sangre coma lluvia” (“Engrajes” [OF 41]); and sometimes he presents himself as a mere observer of the fantastical. As highlighted earlier, many of Hare Ibar’s titles discursively mark the vampire’s presence « “The Fearless Vampire Killers,” "El vampire sangriento,” "Les belles heures de Vlad Dracul,” etc. « precluding, then, any initial distinction of the poet’s hybrid from popular images of the monster. Within some of the poems, the hybrid’s physical manifestation does in fact echo that of traditional vampires, although not in the most anticipated fashion. F or example, Haro’s use of synecdoche, his marking of the vampire presence through the image of the hand, recalls scenes fi'om Stoker’s Dracula. Although early on in the canonical work Jonathan Harker observes that his host possesses peculiar facial 215 features « those which have become emblematic of many vampire representations, an extremely pallid face, ruddy lips and sham, white teeth -- , from the Englishman’s initial encounter with the Count, the latter’s powerful hands mark him as an exceptional being. Harker first witnesses the strength of Dracula’s hands in route to his Castle, the Count materializing incognito as the Englishman’s caleche driver: Then I descended from the side of the coach, as the caleche was close alongside, the driver helping me with a hand which caught my arm in a grip of steel; his strength must have been prodigious. (13) When the caleche stopped the driver jumped down, and held out his hand to assist me to alight. Again I could not but notice his prodigious strength. His hand actually seemed like a steel vice that could have crushed mine if he had chosen. (l9) Harker’s host greets him with the same strength: “The instant, however, that I had stepped over the thrushold he moved impulsively forward, and holding out his hand grasped mine with a strength which made me wince, [. . .]” (20). Besides prodigious force, Count Dracula’s hands possess mesmeric powers, the most wild beasts becoming tame under their hypnosis: “As he swept his long arms, as though brushing aside some impalpable obstacle, the wolves fell back and back firrther still. (17); “Close at hand came the howling of many wolves. It was almost as if the sound sprang up at the raising of his hand, [. . .]” (52). While a feminine facade of delicateness and pallidness superficially masks Dracula’s hands, a closer examination of them reveals their bestial essence: coarseness 216 and anirnal-like hair growth distinguish the body part, along with knife-like nails. Unlike the traditional phallic symbol whose power is maintained through complete enveilment, the vampire’s hands remain exposed, vulnerable to the gaze of an Other « in this case Harker « without losing their sense of strength. And so the hand with its unassuming exterior is analogous to the vampire figure as a whole whose meek comareality often goes unnoticed and presumed harmless: Hitherto I had noticed the backs of his hands as they lay on his knees in the firelight, and they had seemed rather white and fine; but seeing them now close to me, I could not but notice that they were rather coarse- broad with squat fingers. Strange to say, there were hairs in the center of the palm. The nails were long and fine, and cut to a sham point. (22) In his annotated edition of Dracula, Wolf draws attention to the sexually deviant implications of the physical characteristics of Stoker’s Dracula, citing the American boys’ entrapment game “in which one boy says ‘If you masturbate, you’ll grow hair on your palms,’ and watches to see which of his listeners looks guiltily down at his hands” (22) and also the standard nineteen century image of the masturbator « a thin, pale, cadaverous-looking being, possessing cold hands, and maintaining irregular sleeping habits (22-23). Wolf’s observations strengthen the connection between the canonical figure and Hare Ibars’ hybrid: the hand surfaces as a leitmotif in Hare Ibar’s work, marking not only the vampire’s physical presence but also his existence as a sexual being. As discussed earlier, the poetic subject of “Se suicida una mane (Wanderlust)” (Pérdidas blancos [0P 47]) directs his gaze upon the vampire figure’s fingers and his pearly white nails. The hands’ performance « their fondling of candy wrappers « along 217 with the “remnants of the afternoon” masked underneath the beasts’ nails and the dark, ambiguous setting of the moviehouse implicate the hybrid as a subversive sexual being, a performer of self-gratification. His hunger for excitement appears insatiable: “entre los dedos escudos dc caramelo Ias uflas / nacaradas cubren despojos de una tarde Se tomaron / un descanso y de tal mode progresaron” (0P 47). In other poems, the vampire’s performance of erotica, as represented by the hands, manifests more overtly, further blurring the lines between vampirism and sexual gratification. An analogous relationship between monstrous deviance and forbidden pleasure surfaces in “La rebelién de los vampires” (Empalador [OF 75-76]). As seen in the previous poem, the poetic subject observes the vampire’s hands within the Space of a theatre. Again, the physical location not only emphasizes the body part as an instrument of queer performance but also the poetic subject’s initial position as voyeur. But unlike what is portrayed in “Se suicida una mane,” here the poetic speaker explicitly reveals the hands to be the “protagonists” of the spectacle being performed; that is to say, they comprise the principal production to be viewed -- a masturbatory act: “[. . .] cine de manos calientes los espasmos / se producen sin esfirerzo a pesar de la zorra plateada / giran y chillan heridos peces abisales” (0P 75). The given imagery compels a rereading of the male body, a reconceptualization of its symbolic significance. The male vampire’s performance of subversion dissolves the gendered agent/receptacle binary that traditionally defines sexed identity -- the categorization of bodies as male versus female « and heterosexual discourse overall. As that which is desired/performed upon by the male vampire, the male sex loses its exclusive status as phallus; simultaneously, an alternative, asexual appendage becomes 218 sexualized: active hands mark the alternative masculinity conceptualized by Hare Ibars, their symbolic significance contingent upon the male’s appropriation of a vampiric, sexually deviant identity: “«Y el dias de manos anchas y corazén Sin dientes / 5e deja ver / bajo un cielo demasiado poblado / besd can lepra personal las heridas / que le esperaban amordazadas en fango” (“En el desierto uptico” [Empalador {OF 96-97}]). Epitomizing male vamp identity, any degeneration of the “almighty hand” results in the “emasculation” of the hybrid’s identity. The poetic subject of “Epilogo (Le bal des vampires)” (Empalador [UP 81]) mockingly plays with this notion; his commentary on the effects of the aging process on his male companion parodies that which men have been saying about women « the traditional objects of their gaze -- throughout the centruies. Again, the appendage’s significance as a signifier depends upon its agency: “ya es muy vieja (no no es ningun nifro) / dicen que no sabe alzar la mano dicen que no sabe moverla” (UP 81). Homoerotic gratification overall becomes an enactment of the seemingly conflictive multi-subjectivities that define the male vampire’s being. Embodying both subject and object of his own desire, the male vamp expends aggression on his own “persona,” literally through self masturbatory performance, and allegorically through intimacy with other males. Instead of procreating, he self-annihilates and by extension, dismantles patriarchal values. Through said destruction the poetic subject is reborn into the clan of the undead. Hence, as opposed to a debilitating internal conflict, the convergence of his polarities, the dynamic of his existence as both subject and object constitutes his authentic self -- the unnatural, “the ugliest of the ugly.” As Smith’s theory of fatalist strategies suggests, the “catastrophic” effects of homoerotics serve as 219 Hare Ibars’ weaponry of choice against gender prescription. Through the male vamp’s queer performance, planes of being invert, collide and mesh. Such chaos enables the poetic subject’s experience of transcendental ecstacy while concurrently making visible an overlooked collectivity. F or example, in “Carta de Bistriz,” the vampire’s contingent materiality « his capacity to transform into an animal in flight -- unbinds him from Spatial boundaries, allowing him to easily penetrate and flee earthly spaces with the intent to hunt potential male prey: “ellos estan reunidos en su bar / andaré can pies de fieltro « siempre un cuchillo / a lo lejos 5e desploma un vase de leche no me conoce” (0P 51-52). But what enables the subject to dismantle and transgress the fixed boundaries of life and extinction through forbidden sexual ecstacy are his hands in motion. Knocking at the door of a crypt, the male initiates a nontraditional, intimate encounter, presumably with an Other male. Shards of glass expelled from his body leave homoerotics and the shattering of traditional male corporeality indistinguishable. As a physical entity he no longer represents the patriarchy or the reahn of the Father; the patriarchy no longer defines him. Disembodied, the poetic subject arrives at a transcendental state, the experience of “other worldliness” manifesting as a galactical smell: agito mis manos a la puerta de la cripta deshago cristales de un solo sentimiento y mi aventura es aroma solar 5e va a1 solar (0P 52) The hybrids of “La noche de los muertos vivientes (documental)” (Empalador [0P 65-66]) also sumass the claustrophobic environment of the cemetery through the 220 power of the hand; sexual stimulation relieves the creatures from earthly existence within the dead space, at least temporarily. The juxtaposition of physical torture, miraculous deeds and erotic innuendos highlights the masochistic nature of the acts performed while giving the poem a sacrilegious tone. Carnal desire supercedes any other and the power to perform miracles remains in the hands of the deviant males. The poetic subject’s use of the collective voice to recount the extraordinary experiences intensifies the ritualization of subversity and, consequently, its potential to reform identity construct: “nos mirabamos las manos con miedo / y recuerdo que sollozabamos milagros mny dulces / eran picos de loro o nalgas azotadas y cubiertas de sal / (olorosas heridas tan tiemas)” (UP 66). The homoerotic touch also distinguishes the presence of male vamps in “Memoria de Bistriz”: “L . .] espera etema de una caricia a1 / filo de la navaja/ventana abierta siempre par / donde llegaban aullidos « no alumbra ya mane de / gloria e1 escenario de tropelias comunes” (UP 71). But as the given poem continues, the vampire presence materializes through an image other than that of the hand: the poetic subject new visualizes the hybrids as dragons. As would be expected, the beast’s transforrnative bite marks its incessant presence throughout the centuries. However, peculiar to Haro’s vampire-dragons is the vanilla flavor of their toothed penetration, its sweetness luring potential prey into the cult of the undead: “coma entonces« animales plumas de sonido / dragones coma entonces con garras dc vainilla” (GP 72). Overall, the dragon image explicitly links Haro’s vampires to the canonical vampire figure, the title Dracula signifying “child of the dragon” (Auerbach 133). Nevertheless, the connection between dragon clans and the “uh—dead” predates the development of 221 Stoker’s literary character. In Vampires: mito y realidad de los no-muertos, Miguel G. Aracil traces the existence of vampire sects, transmitters of the “secrets of blood,”and their connection to the dragon back to as early as the fourteenth century through the figure of Abramelin el Mago. Instructed in the secrets of death and immortality by an Egyptian sect, Abramelin travels to Venice where he practices his knowledge upon a group of youths, consequently converting them into a vampire sect. Upon moving to Hungary, the master of nndeath transforms the most powerful European figure of the time, King/Emperor Segismnndo (1368-1437), into one of his most loyal disciples. Segismnndo faunds The Order of the Inverted Dragon, choosing said beast as its symbol because of its role within popular traditions as “guardian of the ‘Eternal Blood’” (Aracil 113-114). Inevitably, both princes of Valaquia, Vlad II (also known as “The Devil” or “The Dragon”) and his son Vlad Tepes « “el verdadero Dracula “ (107) appropriate the symbol of the inverted dragon as his own (115). More often than not, the dragon surfaces as one of many “soldiers” within Hare Ibars’ poetry. This collective manifestation deconstructs the popular image of the lone vampire while heightening the antagonistical relationship between the beasts of the night and the established norm. The dragons incarnate the forbidden, the undesirable, namely, what society shuns and often chooses not to see, only to be reminded of their presence through spewed flames: the beasts’ fire breathing capacity visually marks both their physical presence and rebellious attitude within the noctural space they inhabit. Their burning bite breeds infection, destroying traditional bodily limitations through contact and enabling the mixing of bodily fluids -- imagery implicitly representative of the AIDS virus. Smith’s observation regarding Hare Ibars’ narrative 222 work, that the writer’s indulgence in the deadly effects of deviant behavior constitutes a new sexual ethics, is equally applicable to Haro’s poetry as well. Flaming bodily fluids mark the poetic subject’s performance of a monstrous sexual ethics. Embracing death through homoerotica, he manipulates the planes of existence and discloses his comareal reconfiguration as a male vamp. AS cited earlier, ”Se suicida una mane (Wanderlust)” reads: “los soldados escupen sangre y firego / transcurre tiempo entre las cintas verdes/ y el polvo blanco e1 famoso polvo blanco / llueve peces y piemas y caricias [. . .]” (OF 47). The hybrids’ expulsion « as opposed to consumption « of the essence of life distinguishes them from other vampires, marking the groups’ sadomasochistic behavior and/or intravenal drug use. Bodily fluids as an incendiary force that blurs body demarcations surface in other poems, including “Engranaj es”: “arriba entre caderas despefiadas la absorcibn gota a gota de un espejo / semilla inflama cilindros” (0P 42); “Aromas ciudadanos”: “tenemos tu y yo / [. . .] en la lluvia hogar/ [. . .] / tranvias de externrinio entre nosotros / abre e1 firego” (OR 45); and “Sin titulo”: “Alli los muertos contemplaban nuestras primeras / pasos por el incendio magnético del caer en cuenta / Relampagos liquidos [. . .] / [. . .] / Y enemas sin palabras ni imagenes ardian [. . .]” (OF 98); among others. Piercing each other’s comareality through sexual intimacy or a shared needle of intoxication, Hare Ibars’ vampires expose themselves at will to infectious bodily fluids. Comoreal scars recount the dragon-beasts’ unconventional escapades, mapping their relentless mockery of life through self-destructive acts. As seen in “Un autorretrato” (Sex Fiction [UP 199]), the male dragon-vamp thrives on playing with mortality, the beast’s subversive compartment determining his existence as known, both his 223 relationship to that which surrounds him and his own materiality: monstrous performance locates the subject within “the unnatural”; likewise, it constructs his comareality as an anomaly. The impossibility of maintaining said antagonistical relationship with “the natural,” of continually challenging that which separates life from death through self inflicted comareal disfiguration, ironically threatens his very being: Mi cuemo es una historia de dragones (te encuentra siempre en sus esquinas duras y te pierdes a veces en mi noche) [ ............................. ] Casi no hay venas en mis brazos Lsabes? casi no hay avenidas de suicidio (UP 200) As suggested by the title of the given work, Hare Ibars the poet lives through his own physical self destruction, the AIDS virus leaving his comareality blemished and emaciated; as Smith notes: “F or Hare, himself stigmatized as the grotesque ghost of the ballet [. . .] the body dwindles into a dislocated remainder: scraps of flesh and skin blown along the grand avenues; blood and lyrnphed coagulated in the wake of fiightful orgies” (Vision Machines 113). Like the voice of his male subject, the poet expresses a disregard for the aesthetic value of comareality, demythifying the inherent value of comareality. In Hijo del siglo Hare Tecglen recounts his son’s disregard for his wasted body; he quotes Eduardo: “«Como voy a morir, te querria dar unas ultimas instrucciones para después. Querria que llevaseis mi cadaver a un contenedor de basuras y lo dejaseis abandonado: no merece otra casa” (99). As mentioned earlier upon commenting “Memoria dc Bistriz,” sweetness 224 qualifies Hare Ibars’ male vampire as a social deviant, such an attribute giving firrther evidence to the complex, multifaceted nature of the hybrid beast. “Typically vampiric” in certain ways, the male subject indeed possesses particular qualities that are unpredictable, and moreover, seemingly absurd. Hence the poet takes the unnatural to a new level, destabilizing its identity as the antithesis of “the norm” by attributing to it unexpected descriptors. This is not to say, however, that the poet digresses from utilizing fatal strategies in his reconfiguration of masculine identity. Rather, the appropriation of sweetness is indicative of Haro’s exploitation of another social taboo, pedophiliac tendencies, through which he creates an even more horrific vampire beast, a greater threat to the heterosexual matrix « the corruption of firture fathers, the termination of reproduction. Ice cream flavors such as vanilla and strawberry commonly associated with sunny daytime hours and childhood cravings new characterize the night time prowler and his deviant performance. Seemingly harmless, the exuded delicacies mark his homoerotic/drug hunger and eventual gratification, enabling the vampire to wander inconspicuously, tempting unkowning victims: “Viene luego la hora tan suave del helado / de esa delicia joven/ [. . .] / que deja en nuestras dedos plumas tomasoladas / Es amable e1 helado [. . .]” (“Sin pétalo,” [Sex Fiction {UP 149 -150}]). An extension of the male vamp’s material identity, the taste and sensorial stimuli permeate the environment in which the subject inhabits, becoming one with it. This is another way through which the male vamp becomes indistinguishable from the nighttime hours he inhabits; his personal identity in the form of smell and taste is boundariless: “y aquella calle err sombras de otra hora hombre / coma de barquillo 225 helados verdes al pistacho / rosas a la fresa de ambar a la vainilla / o blancos blancos blancos de nata [. . .]” (“The fearless vampire killers” [Empalador {OF 67}]); “pero en el centre mismo se teje y se desteje una ciudad y el aire parece / muerto/viva despierta/dormido / Pleno (vainilla o fi'esa es la tarde y quedan / simpaticos vendedores dc cinturones en las esquinas) se hace el juego / Pleno estoy y estamas” (“F ares” [Sex Fiction {OF 206}]). The bold juxtaposition of youthful flavors and forbidden pleasure underscores vampirism/homoerotica/drug intoxication as an apocalyptic, boundary- breaking act of consumption, the palatableness of the queer experience or way of being, indicative of its forbidden desirability. As seen in “Cementerio” (Empalador), sweet consumption liberates the male vamp, elevating him to a transcendental state foreign to body bound existence. Vanilla flows once again, marking the childlike dance of those engaged in forbidden pleasure: Alli creo que se celebra e1 baile Podriamos creo nadar sin sombras y esa vainilla fiesca y casi viva (UP 86) Similar imagery surfaces in “Vivienda de Xiombarg” (En rojo [0P 298-299]); free flowing vainilla feeds the dead inhabits of the garden of Xiombarg. As revealed by the title of this work, Hare Ibars strays from pure horror imagery to incomorate fantastical, science fictition innuendos, Xiombarg being one of the hell dukes of Michael Moorcock’s The Sword Trilogy. In any event, the message remains constant: homoerotica is an uninhibiter, a catalyst of free movement; and sweet semen is the life/death source of the male dead: “Cree que la vainilla semiliquida viva y consciente/ que destilan los ojos de los musicos / en la fiesta pemetua animando con su viento de 226 halcon / la contradanza que ese fluir detenido y coralino cred / [. . .] / destilado de tiempos y cadencias podria / tal vez hasta servimos de alimento / y sentarnos alli junto a la muerte” (OR 299). This image of the consumption of another male’s bodily fluids for self-alimentation constitutes another parallel between the poetic imagery of Hare Ibars and that of Panero. But Haro’s presentation encodes a distinct message; his poetic subject’s performance of subversion defines his being as a queer vamp, his embracement of a monstrous existence. Contrariwise, Panero’s male subject consumes in an attempt to compensate for his lack of authentic masculinity. For him, consumption is a means to an end « the achievement of a gendered identity; for Haro’s poetic subject, consumption is the end. Male bloodlust is a facet of his being, his performance of homoerotics, an expression of self-identity through queer movement. Overall, movement as a personal characteristic of Hare Ibar’s male vamp’s self- identity manifests in various manners: his transforrnative materiality, penetration of intangible spaces and temporalities and caressing hand all lend proof to his existence as an entity in motion, and moreover, enable his experience of homoerotica. Movement, emblematic of both the ever changing circumstances that surround the poetic subject and the historical moment « la movida -- in which Hare Ibars writes the majority of his poetic work, ironically remains the principal constant of his persona and the fluid innuendos that permeate Haro’s poetry, be it the flow of vanilla Sperm or the blurring of fog and/or rain (the latter more consistent with a gothic, vampiresc scenario), heighten this notion. F luidity and the male vamp’s contingent identity are analogous, the hybrid’s paradoxically seamless comareality standing in stark contrast with the conventional image of the unyielding, impenetrable, complete “phallic male”. 227 As noted in the commentary about “Cementerio” and “Vivienda”( and as suggested by the titles “Danza de la muerte” and “Epilogo (Le bal des vampires)”), Haro’s male vamp has a propensity to dance, to showcase his nonstatic, reconceptualized masculine identity. Often associated with “the feminine” (Wilcox),'° such undefined, free movement of comareality reveals the male subject’s connection with his material self while demonstrating his ability to “lose control” of it, to experience bodily rhythms undefined by reason and linear space. Dance becomes the epitome of the homosexual encounter, unfettered shifts in bodily position exposing the male to alternative forms of intimacy: “olor a semen vieja en el café donde las veces sufren / [. . .] / a cincuenta y siete variantes doce posiciones internas guarismos” (“Diario de Jonathan Harker” [OF 62]). Freely moving with other men, the vampire subject allows his physicality to be penetrated, losing himself in an Other’s comareality and nltirnately indulging in the freedom encountered by the disregard of prescribed bodily limitations. Haro’s queer performance of conventionally considered feminine compartment brings to light the artificial nature of such a distribution of attributes overall and exposes his reconfigured male identity to be much more complex, bestially erotic, than the unfeeling, rational image of man often portrayed and upheld. Moreover, the collective performance of such forbidden behavior, heightened by the festive, camivalesque settings in which many of the encounters manifest, again brings to light the populous existence of an often invisible collectivity that has always existed. “Wanderlust (Los vampires de Leon)” reads: 10 See John Wilcox’s Women Poets of Spain, 1860-1990. 228 No hemos inventado el castillo alla lejos no hemos inventado nuevas pasos de baile entre el cielo y su suefro pero quedara siempre un recuerdo entre paredes viejas entre harapos de siglos (OF 70). Lusting Young Blood Inventamos suicidios siempre frescos , esferas donde dormir hasta que te lleven a la huesa. La cosecha es etema: siempre hay nuevas nifratos convertidos en victima a manjar” «Eduardo Hare Ibars “Saludos al caas” (En rojo) Whereas Panero’s poetic subject often identifies himself as a wounded child striving to achieve a mature, male status, that of Hare Ibars hungrily wounds children, his preference for young male flesh noted earlier in this study in relation to ice cream imagery; masking the male vamp’s own voraciousness, ice cream serves to lure innocent young boys: “sacerdotes rostro dc bronce invocan / en cones de vainila y de ~99 naranja a1 Nina (“Blanca no”[Sex Fiction {UP 182}]). Sexualizing the young boy’s comareality by deeming it his object of desire, the male vamp flippantly violates the sanctified, the untouchable: priviledged male existence. Initiated into the realm of the undead through penetration, the young male’s comareality no longer incamates an unyeilding, phallic presence; metaphorically, he has been castrated, the most horrific rr disconfiguration of the male body imaginable within the Lacanian realm of the Father. This being said, the mutilation of other male bodies is one more manifestation of Hare ” The male subject’s exploitative performance of homoerotics, intemretable as a direct attack against societal norms, recalls the grotesque compartment of Juan Goytisolo’s protagonist el Don Julian from his Trilogy (Seri'as de identidad; Reivindicacién del Conde don Juliun; and Juan sin tierra). 229 Ibars’ fatal strategies; his poetic subject’s reconfiguration of masculine identity projects the homoerotic -- “the ugly” -- onto other male comarealities. However, his poetic subject’s violation of young boys sumasses more sexual exploitation; the brashness of the vamp’s perversity is intensified by his dismemberrnent of his victims, as previously seen in “El vampire sangriento.” Limb by limb, the poetic subject visually dissects the boy child, exposing the latter’s comareal vulnerability and at the same time, the F— arbitrariness of the prescription of bodily significance. Through the vamp’s rereading E of male comareality, typically nonsexual body parts become locations of desire. In “Ludwig” (Pérdidas blancas) for example, the hungry beasts feast on a male youth’s chest, belly and thighs. Rather than immediately emphasize the erotic desirability of the boys’s genitalia, the poetic subject first scrutinizes them as a signifier of the sanctimonious. The basis of patriachal values « that which upholds Christian religious tradition --, phallic significance by definition presumes the impenetrability of the male sex. Removed from the gaze of another, the body part becomes mythified, achieving a status of power. Once unveiled, the basis of conventional systems of Significance becomes altered, leaving room for new intemretations of reality. Haro’s poetry explores this possibility through the implicit unveilment of the boy child’s genitalia: en el pecho del joven las aguilas encontrarnos nuestra destino en el vientre del joven los leanes beben el vino nuevo y es el sexo del joven guia de caminantes tirnoratos en los muslos del joven y en sus frondas encuentran los durmientes su razbn y su olvido (“Ludwig” [OF 16]) A similar dismemberrnent of male comareality manifests in “El poder” 230 (Pérdidas blancas [0P 25 -26]). In this case, the poetic subject begins his deconstruction of the young object of desire with an emphasis on the latter’s bodily fluids « his sweat and blood. Qualifying the young male’s blood as sweet and later identifying the youth’s potential to transform into a beast of flight, the poetic subject’s mode of thought reveals his own vampiric being, his power to initiate new members into the clan of the undead: “recordamos viva selva y en el centro/ [. . .] / un cuemo F— joven « y el sudor que emanaba era verano / y la sangre tan dulce y esos pies / hechos para velar (sin alas casi)” (UP 25). Refocusing his gaze, the male vamp’s attention is drawn to the boy’s hips; their slendemess « embodying the antithesis of “the feminine” L- «leave him sexually aroused. Continual probing of the young boy’s comareality intensifies its sexualization, male genitalia once again becoming the focal point of the subject’s hunger. Unlike the phallic symbol whose potency is achieved through concealment, what empowers the boy’s sex is exposure, its desirability before the hungry eyes of the vampire. The “theater of Showers” that follows reveals the achievement of sexual gratification, although which male actually experiences the orgasmic release remains ambiguous. Such uncertainty reiterates the transforrnative potential of the male vamp identity, his multiple subjectivities: he incamates both subject/voyeur and object/the desirable; while passing as the norm, his lust for male comareality identifies him as the unnatural: esperaba e1 poder entre la piemas de aquel nifro sin alas sus muslos (acogedoras piedras fina lluvia ) 5e cerraban en tame a un nombre humedo 231 y entre espadas volaban siemes de alegria sus manos blancas palcos parecian de un teatro de lluvias (UP 26) In “Tezcatlipocii” (En rojo [OF 245 -249]), a ritualistic dissection of young males occurs in the name of the “protector of vampires”: Tezcatlipocii. A quotation of Rolan Villeneuve serves as the poem’s epigraph: “Au Mexique, 1e dieu Tezcatlipocéi, trainant un corps decompose et poussant des cris sauvages, de rapace, protégeait les vampires et les loupgarous” (UP 245). According to Aztec mythology, Tezcatlipocii was veneered by the most devious of ancient society. What distinguished the deity of darkness and chaos from other deities were his good looks and seductive powers (Lindemans), along with his adamantine insistence upon receiving young male sacrifices (Snuggerud). Hence the poet’s choice of this particular mythological figure in relation to the theme at hand is blatant: seduction and the destruction of innocence for narcissistic reasons describe both Tezcatlipocii and vampire existence. Moreover, the intertextual references to Aztec mythology reiterates a constant message within Hare Ibars’ poetry: the notion that vampires, a collectivity often overlooked, have always been present throughout time. The queer performance of the penetration of young boys blurs the spatial realities of Madrid of la movida and ancient Mexico: el metro me deja entre centauros hay que sufiir para saberse e1 plane para entender los Signos rojo verde y ambar para ver si ese rostro en la niebla es 0 no humana [ .................................... 1 232 [. . .] Una piramide trunca exhibe su interior pulsa cuando e1 sol entra alli fantasma rosa y verde cuarzo pudre y destruye carnes jévenes de las que se alimenta El corazén del chico Sobre el ara cuchillo de obsidiana (0P 245-246). Hunger for young blood manifests in other poems, “La rebelibn de los vampires” (Empalador [OR 75 -76]) and “Malibu Beach” (Empalador [0P 114-115]) being two examples. Although a dissection of the victim does not manifest in either poem, in both works the poetic subject emphasizes the physical desirability of his object of desire. This being said, the penetrability of male comareality -- through the male gaze and the inevitable sexual encounter « and the desirability of such an experience as subject, objector both, remains a constant throughout Hare Ibars’ work. In “La rebelibn de los vampires,” the male vamp and his comrades physically respond to the presence of an attractive young male. The sound of their potential victim’s voice makes the clan vibrate, their throbbing bodies indicative of their state of sexual arousement. Movement again characterizes the vampires’ self-identity as a sexed being: “coma tripas de caballo vibramos a1 escuchar a1 mono joven” (UP 75). A physically desirable boy is also the object of the male varnp’s gaze in “Malibu Beach.” Here the vampire subject recounts the pleasure of conquering such innocence, a naivety unaware of the debilitating power of alcohol intoxication. Because consumption facilitates the subject’s “taking” of the young male, the act in itself becomes more violative; the notion of consensual sexual interaction is implausible: “L . -l era guapo el nifro ayer entre / cajas de botellas vacias en la oscuridad del garaje /un 233 placer sin sapiencia una manzana / en el centre de la ciudad y era bella / la came espuma pétrea dibujaba / sus gritos en el aire no quedaba mas vino / hermoso el brazo locien de dragones” (OR 114). Conclusion In De qué van Ias drogas Hare Ibars speaks of a deceased gay friend: Vivia en un barrio obrero, en la periferia de Madrid, y su existencia no era ni mucho menos facil; entre otras casas, una homosexual mal asumida « no reprimida, sino convertido en espantajo de 5i misma; los homosexuales de ciudad suelen aceptar la mascara grotesca que el sistema les impone. (97) Prescribed grotesqueness is what Hare Ibars exploits throughout the poetic work analyzed in this chapter. Haro’s male poetic subject incamates an identity defined by darkness, subversiveness and overall destructive compartment. Penetrating the big screen, he becomes the imagined monster of conventional society, living the life of a queer vampire, hunting young boys as his sexual feed of choice. Consequential to his subversive behavior, life and death as conventionally perceived blur, becoming indistinguishable. Continuous provocation of death through self-destructive, homoerotic wounding « literally through the penetration of male comareality and metaphorically through the risk of infectious disease « defines the poetic subject’s personal history of “no regrets,” or “living for the moment,” an attitude emblematic of the underground scene of Madrid during the the late 19705 and early 805. The male vamp’s mutilated comareality becomes his body politic in the most literal sense, 234 visually recounting the chapters of his subversive life choices: “dulce la vid y la sirniente la canciun muerta el viaje / largo y suave par imagenes de heridas” (“Laughing in my grave” [Empalador {OR 124}]). In accord with Paul Julian Smith, it is precisely these fatalist strategies that enable Hare Ibars to develop an alternative conceptualization of masculinity and correlatively, to dismantle the gender dichotomy that alienates maleness from comareality. The unveiling of the male body has various consequences. Attributed a heightened consciousness of material presence, maleness attains a new level of sensuality. While the unyielding phallic presence is demythified and man’s vulnerability is exposed, the male body attains new significance, other body parts being perceived as desirable, such as a strong pair of hands. The male’s ability to name, to attribute an alternative and equally plausible significance to his own body parts demonstrates his existence as both subject/agent and object/that which is desired. Overall, this blurring of conventional gendered identities within one comareality suggests an existence that transcends the Lacanian law of the Father, one that is not defined by cultural systems of significance but rather by multiple subjectivities controlled by personal agency: through nocturnal, subversive performance, Hare Ibar’s poetic subject becomes the vampire beast, celebrating death through intoxicating, homoerotic behavior. The queer in its feminine mode, the vampire now enacts gay performance of la movida madriler‘ia, although temporally, he is boundariless. Constantly in transit, the blood sucking hybrid penetrates various realities throughout time, marking his dragon clan’s presence throughout history. The poet’s own consumption and reintemretation of other literary and cinematographic works that 235 record the presence of the vampire beast lends proof to his existence as a timeless figure. To conclude, in Our Vampires Ourselves, Anerbach names social crisis as that which breeds vampires. Embodying societal fears and anxieties, the vampire figure is inherently political. With the death of France and the dismantling of his regime’s ideological platform, Spain experiences a new sense of freedom, a fluid state conducive to the rebirth of the vampire. The patriarch now absent, Spanish youths meander the underground scene of the capital, searching for a new understanding of selfhood. Becoming beasts of the night, they deconstruct their gendered comareality. Whereas their reckless lifestyle inevitably self destructs, often in the most literal sense as evidenced by the AIDS epidemic, the momentary pleasure of pure ecstacy appears to have made the trip worthwhile. Hare Ibars’ “Laughing in my grave” reads: la catastrofe infinita de haber caido en la desgracia en el adiés sin pica ni plumas ni tampoco dientes ni desgarrar ni aullidos a media noche sin pecado ni médicos manchados [. . .]. (UP 123) 236 Chapter VI: Mind over Matter: Rethinking the Body in Eduardo Hervas’ Body Politic Nacia de nuevo come efecto de la divisién del trabajo y a través de mi travesia retomaba a lo bajo donde latidos alzan pufias cerrados. «Eduardo Hervés, Emergencia Eduardo Hervas’ choice of the fist to represent his poetic subject's physical presence highlights the latter's antagonistic relationship with societal expectations and his physical determination to bring forth social change « notions reflective of the Marxist attitude the poet himself upholds.l Distinct from Hare Ibars' poetic work, the hand as signifier within Hervas' poetry does not incarnate any reconceptualized sexual identity; rather, it marks a gender neutral willingness to surmount an oppressive reality. Regardless, Hervas does problematize masculine identity. An explicit awareness of the inauthenticity of prescribed maleness permeates the Valencian's poetic comus, consistently manifesting through the male subject's unwillingness to take ownership of a traditional masculine comareality and its given significance. Hence, notwithstanding the differing circumstances that surround the "disappearing act" of each male, the poetic subjects of Panero, Hare Ibars and Hervas simultaneously perform for the reader a queer performance of material void: emasculated by an overbearing maternal presence, Panero's subject continually attempts “to become seen," striving (unsuccessfirlly) to embody the phallic existence; conversely, as a queer vamp, Hare Ibars' poetic subject utilizes his ability to penetrate spaces without being seen as a means to subvert ‘ This image of the closed fist recalls the work of one of Hervas' predecessors, Miguel Hernandez, another poet dedicated to social change for the common good. The eighth stanza of “Cancién del esposo soldado” serves as one example of the politically laden image in Heméndez's poetry: "Naceré nuestra hijo con el puflo cerrado, / envuelto en un clamor de Victoria y guitarras, / y dejaré a tu puerta mi vida de soldado / sin calmillos ni garras" (v. 29-32). 237 traditional maleness and consequently, to embrace an alternative masculine identity. Hervas' poetic subject's reaction to prescribed maleness resembles Hare Ibars' more so than Panero's. Like Hare, Hervas « through his male subject « dismisses the need to live up to societal expectations of “phallic being" in search for a more authentic male self. But whereas Hare Ibars' poetic subject exploits the maleness he owns, performing the charade of “normality" in order to indulge in an alternative masculinity, that of Hervas painstakingly rejects his prescribed comareal significance as artifice. “Masculinity” is that which alienates him from his true persona. Taking refirge in the Space of his mind, the poetic subject attempts to distinguish conscious being from prescribed comareal identity. He negotiates a more genuine self conceptualization through an Hegelian reconciliation between matter and inner desires, wants repressed by assumed gendered being and/or unrecognized within the Lacanian realm of the Father? As Judith Butler contends in Bodies that Matter, subjectivity, identification with the normative “phantasm of sex" is contingent upon a repudiation of that which falls outside of the defining boundaries of the heterosexual matrix, "a domain of objection, a repudiation without which the subject cannot emerge" (3). Through his concerted effort to recuperate “the excluded" as part of his masculine material being, Elervas' poetic subject dissolves the illusionary comareal demarcations that artificially fashion an image of an impenetrable and constant materiality. Implicit to Hervas' poetic subject's dialectical analysis of subjectivity is an 2 In Marxism and F orm Fredric Jameson comments: [. . .] the very principle at work in the dialectical analyses [. . .] of the adequation of subject and object, and of the possibility of reconciliation of l and Not-I, of spirit and matter, or self and world -- is itself the very premise of Hegel's system and may be claimed to be virtually Hegel's intellectual invention. (44) 238 examination of the presumed dichotomous relationship between "masculine" and "feminine" being. He scrutinizes limitations imposed on both sexes as manifest through the physical spaces -- both comareal and worldly « that each one occupies and said physicalities' corresponding significance. As the male searches for a clearer understanding of selflrood, he mentally dissects the sexed identities surrounding him that have fostered his understanding of comareal significance and concurrently, his self alienation. On a microscopic level, the parental unit is seemingly responsible. As an Althusserian ideological state apparatus, the heterosexual matrix shapes and restricts its offsprings’ experience of material being within the realm of the Symbolic by indoctrinating them in normative values: “Este <> / te atraviesa verticalmente / y destina tu suerte a su reservaz” (“'violenta trayectoria'” [OF 100]). Like Panero's male subject, then, that of Hervas grapples with maternal influence on identity formation. Nevertheless, whereas Panero's poetic subject identifies the phallic mother as the primary cause of his fragmented identity, that of Hervas, while acknowledging the influential power of the maternal figure over his self-conceptualization, recognizes the mother figure to be a victim of an imposed identity, an identity ingrained with the social responsibility of the proliferation of gender norms. Butler concurs: "Sex" not only functions as a norm, but is part of a regulatory practice that produces the bodies it governs, that is, whose regulatory force is made clear as a kind of productive power, the power to produce « demarcate, circulate, differentiate « the bodies it controls. (Bodies that Matter 1) 239 For Hervas, there are many "mothers" or procreators of the status quo, as his dedication of Intervalo « "A mis madres" « suggests. Official discourse in its various manifestations emerges as the mother of all mothers within the Valencian's work, as the naturalizer of gendered relationships, the regulator of sexed norms. Its superfluous and often overlooked presence saturates both material and psychological being, defining social existence and by extension, the perception of said reality, through such F— normalizing mechanisms as religious doctrine, state enforced familial values and public education « historically speaking, instruments of normalization upon which France in Spain relied. Arthur Brittan comments in Masculinity and Power: "At any given moment, gender will reflect the material interests of those who have power and those who do not. Masculinity, therefore, does not exist in isolation from femininity - it will always be an expression of the current image that men have of themselves in relation to women" (2- 3). As men tend to be those who hold power positions, the validity of Brittan's ‘ commentary as a general observation is undeniable. However, Hervas' analysis of masculinity within material existence is seemingly more complex. As this study shall argue, the Valencian extends the notion of “oppression creates sex" (Wittig, " The Category of Sex" 3) to encompass a double binded-subjugation, an exploitation of relegated difference that results in negative consequences for both prescribed sexed identities. This is to say, from the poetic subject's stance, men do not choose to perform “virility" any more than women choose to perform “passivity." Furthermore, the male uncovers such gendered meanings to be random and vacant; while "virility" implies assertion and control, the male subject through accepting such characteristics as his'own 240 remains powerless before social demands. Imposed phallic being, subj ectivation as male, paradoxically becomes the male subject's castration. Recognizing man's role of "receptacle" of official discourse, Hervas' poetic subject demythifies the unyielding phallic position of male being and the significance attached to such a marked existence, and in doing so, he diffuses the tension inherent in the male /female dichotomy. Overall, the suggestion that culturally relegated corporeal significance creates barriers for authentic self-expression implicates societal expectations as the equalizing force between the sexes. Furthermore, the systematic naturalization of gendered relations having been exposed, the role of other cultural categories of organization - namely class -- in the construction and proliferation of the social paradigm of power is no longer masked by sexed differences. Thus, while the god of Panero’s poetic subject mourns solely the “nifios con falo,” Hervas poetic subject recognizes the victimization of both sexes by the State: "la desigualdad nos enclava en los ejes / del trabajo del deseo y del deseo del trabajo" (102). The poetic subject's realization of the extent to which official discourse informs and reinforces his gendered existence empowers him to imagine an alternative identity through the Lacanian "tools of the Father" themselves -- namely, language. Having identified the source of his oppression -- prescribed material reality, relegated sexed identity» through dialectical analysis, the male proceeds to dismantle discursive boundaries of significance and symbols, and subsequently, to redistribute meanings to signifiers as a means to reconstruct his material being. In Hegelian terminology, he recognizes within his own subjectivity the existence of opposing categories -- both a "thesis" and "antithesis." While masculine being manifests as the presumed "thesis" of 241 his being, his experiences of anonymity and fragmentation testify to an antithetical reality. The poetic subject's acknowledgement of his embodiment of the two extremes enables his "synthesis" of them and movement towards a more authentic, nonconflictive state of being. For Hegel, the achievement of such a state is marked by the "Absolute Idea," the recognition of oneself in all things (McTagarrot 2). Commenting dialectical thinking as a tool of interpretation Fredric Jameson states in Marxism and F arm: [. . .] dialectical thinking is a thought to the second power, a thought about thinking itself, in which the mind must deal with its own thought process just as much as with the material it works on, in which both the particular content involved and the style of thinking suited to it must be held together in the mind at the same time. (45) As this study shall demonstrate, Hervas' poetic corpus exemplifies this dialectical reconciliation between the abstract and the concrete, as poetic content and form blur, becoming indistinguishable. Structurally, Hervas' poetry incamates the relentless negotiation of meaning and symbol essential to the male subject's reconfiguration of self, his "thoughts about thinking about himself." Rhythmic elements including alliteration and enj ambement exemplify through the fluidity of sound and movement the continuous mental journey of self-discovery upon which the male subject embarks. Free verse further epitomizes his flow of consciousness as he strives to renegotiate a more authentic sense of material being. Overall, the male subject's prioritization of the vocalization of sound over the fixity of symbols of significance can be interpreted as an attempt to recuperate lost memories of what Kristeva deems to be the "Semiotic," 242 experiences prior to and unacknowledged by existence within the realm of the Father, maternal connections that are excluded from corporeal being by the mark of differentiation. Such an attempt by the male subject to retrieve his lost "feminineness" implicates the gendered binary as a socially constructed -- versus natural-- formation. Hervas' denaturalization of gendered existence offers to the reader an equally dialectical and queer reading of sexed identity. By questioning the validity of relegated identity, by exposing discourse as that which constructs and reinforces said existence, his poetic subject fosters the dialectical energy necessary for self reconceptualization, “[flor as long as oppositions (differences) appear as given, already there, before all thought, ‘natural’ -- as long as there is no conflict and no struggle -- there is no dialectic, there is no change, no movement" (Wittig, "The Category of Sex" 3). Recognizing traditional bodily definition as an impediment of authentic being, the male chooses to dissociate himself from said physical constraint through metaphoric self- mutilation. Through such disidentification with intelligible corporeality, the male performs a queer interpretation of gendered being, which, when repeatedly enacted on a collective level, holds the potential to completely revamp the materialization of "bodies that matter," as Butler suggests: Indeed, it may be precisely through practices which underscore disidentification with those regulatory norms by which sexual difference is materialized that both feminist and queer politics are mobilized. Such collective disidentifications can facilitate a reconceptualization of which bodies matter, and which bodies are yet to emerge as critical matters of concern. (Bodies that Matter 4) 243 Psychically unbound from the constraints of masculine corporeality, the poetic subject proceeds to explore alternative means of self-expression and materiality. Similar to the intangible space of the red still in Arrebato, moments of ambiguity, silences -- said voids characteristic of the Franco era overall -- provide Hervas' male subject a realm for analysis and revolution.3 Within these undefined spaces he methodically dissects cultural signifiers and meanings, welding together contradictory notions as weaponry of self-reconstruction, a possibility Butler recognizes through her theory of the gender performativity. Identifying "that which escapes or exceeds the norms" as consequential to the construction of sexed identity through iterative enactments of marked being, the theorist contends that said instabilities, while "defined" as such through the exclusionary process of normalization, ironically hold the potential for a reconfiguration of that from which they, as disparities, are excluded -- performed intelligible materiality (10). Hervas the poet/theorist also recognizes the freeing potential of ambiguous space, naming poetry itself as an optimal interval for self-(re)construction. Upon commenting this in his introduction to Hervas’ Obra poética, Rafael Ballester Afion cites a letter the Valencian writes to an unpronounced person in which he expresses his stance: Podemos pensar e1 lenguaje poético como un intervalo (en) con el blanco y (en) con el vacio, espacio. El ritrno, la danza concreta entre las palabras es cifrable a intervalos. El texto y su "scriptor" se combinan h 3 Gracia and Ruiz comment in La Espafia de Franco: "Si algo ha sabido averiguar la ultima historiografia sobre el franquismo es que fue un tiempo poblado de claroscuros, ambigiiedades y silencios, todos ellos de interpretacién casi nunca mecanica, rectilinea 0 simple" (I l). 244 como un intervalo en un "interregno". Podria decirse, usando una sinécdoque, que el intervalo es la parte colérica, la parte concluyente, la parte concreta, la parte celosa, la parte restringida, la parte dificil y disciplinada, la parte logica, 1a parte maldita, la parte desigual, la parte "total," la parte comr'rn. El intervalo es la distancia que vacia de sentido e1 origen y abre paso a la escritura: un injerto en el arbol de las lenguas. Mas alla de cualquier pareja (de opuestos) el intervalo "no" "es", por excelencia, ni (e1) uno ni (el) otro; ésta podria ser su formula. (36-37) Utilizing Butler's theory of gender performativity as the principal tool of analysis, this study further explores the poetry of Eduardo Hervas' Obra poética as a materialist critic of masculine subjectivity contextualized in the historical reality of late Franco Spain.‘ It shall contend that Hervas' interpretation of corporeal being, while explicitly dialectic, is inherently queer as it not only denaturalizes both masculine and feminine materiality but also offers to the reader the freeing potential of a corporeal existence unbound to the normative hetereosexual matrix. Contrary to the Lacanian notion that the mark of sex creates a sense of unified being through corporeal intelligibility, masculine subjectivation leaves the poetic subject fi'agmented and in search for personal wholeness and authenticity. The male's cognizant rejection of prescribed gendered being and his manipulation of symbolic meanings attributed to said material being inevitably enable what Butler deems the “subversive reterritorializations ‘ Obra poética includes selections from Hervas' published books Intervalo (1968-1972): Seguido de Emergencia (1972) and Perfectofuego (1979) along with selections from his unpublished works including Cronico (1967), Homo and Azores caligra’ficos and other independent poems. Poems cited in this chapter are from Obra poética. 245 of both gender and sexuality" (19). Poetry itself becomes Hervas' subject's symbolic corporeal entity, his body politic. Through said written discourse the male wills his own metaphoric corporeal transformation along with that of society overall, exemplifying the Valencian poet's personal belief in the revolutionary power of both poetics and collective agency overall. Sacred Packaging, Birthing a Commodified Son Se disuelven las nubes al grito de los hombres las hembras beben lluvia que luego se hace llanto. --Eduardo Hervas, “Se disuevlen las nubes al grito de los hombres In "The Category of Sex," Monique Wittig states: The primacy of difference so constitutes our thought that it prevents turning inward on itself to question itself, no matter how necessary that may be-to apprehend the basis of that which precisely constitutes it. To apprehend a difference in dialectical terms is to make apparent the contradictory terms to be resolved. (2) Indeed, said problematization of difference, as deemed by Wittig to be essential to any attempt to revolutionize gendered identity, preoccupies Hervas' poetic subject. Both genders form the foci of his corporeal analysis because their relegated oppositional relationship traditionally enables the comprehensibility of either gendered body, or in other words, the assumption of subjectivity. In accord with the defining lines of the heterosexual matrix, “he is” what “she is not,” a cultural truth strongly propagandized by the social superstructure informing the Valencian poet, but regardless, one that his poetic subject dismantles through parodic representation and dialectical analysis. 246 Overall, the male's critique of the male/female binary often manifests through an examination of the religiously glorified parental unit, an image metaphorically representative of Franco Spain. As commented upon earlier, Francoism maintains Catholicism as an integral part of its superstructure. During the dictatorship, the religious doctrine permeates all facets of Spanish culture including film, art, literature, music and architecture (Gracia 30), its saturation substantiating the “natural” difl‘erences between the sexes and serving Franco's vision of a prolific and unified Spanish state. Regarding the socialization of Spanish youth -- having Hervas' himself in mind -- , a Catholic spirituality qualified by repressiveness, an anti-modem and essentially Medieval nature, serves as the foundation of state education throughout the 19608 (Gracia 117). In this regard the Valencian's satirical treatment of the "sacredness" of the heterosexual matrix can be read as a direct affront against the superstructure of which he is a product. "La trinidad de las mercancias (La sagrada familia)" (Cro'nico) serves as an example of said postulate, its biting title immediately challenging the legitimacy of the "spiritual mission" of religious discourse within mundane existence. Qualifying the Sacred Family as a commodity, Hervas displaces Catholicism from its presumed other worldliness and grounds the religious belief system in an economic niche within material existence. Such relocation implicates religious discourse to be another instrument of production, that which normalizes and maintains the traditional family unit as defined by explicit gender relations. In other words, in accord with Althusser's theorization, religion is unveiled as an ideological state apparatus, a social construct that proliferates the ideologies of those in power through the subjectivation of individuals 247 into specific social roles necessary for the continued reproduction of social formation. The commodification of the trinity resurfaces throughout the work at hand, firrther demythifying the sacred position of the Holy Family. The structure of the poem itself revolves around a triadic motif, the three figures of the Sacred Family and the relegated space within which each performs his/her gendered identity comprising the principal stanzas of the poem. The poetic subject's initiates his analysis with an examination of the maternal figure, contemplating biological function as that which transforms the female body into an intelligible corporeality, a notion supported by Catholic doctrine. Locating “the feminine” within the realm of the bathroom and marking her corporeal presence through menstrual blood, Hervas' subject emphasizes both the female's spatial containment within the private realm -- as opposed to the social -- , and the presumed mystery behind her "biological essence." Contrariwise, the paternal figure surfaces within the space of an office, overtly suggestive of his assumed activity within society. Notwithstanding, the male's description of his physical being suggests that the father's social role is neither original nor self-directed; he visualizes the paternal body as a “used case” or “cover,” either interpretation implicating his materiality as artificial and imposed. The male subject's extreme simplification and congruent exploitation of gender difference -- natural/feminine versus cultural/masculine -- takes on a parodic tone, implicitly casting doubt upon the validity of either corporeal reading. His presentation of the gendered binary is seemingly strategic to his dismantling of the relegated sexed identities it defines. Direct questioning of each parent's true identity supports this reading while further demythifying the authenticity of prescribed gendered 248 being and by extension, the notion of the Sacred Family overall -- both its symbolic value and structural value (as concertized by the poem): Mi madre almacena en el bafio botes de pintura rosa de su menstruacion. Pero, aquién es mi madre?, me digo. El cuerpo de mi padre vaga por su despacho como una funda usada. Pero Lquién es mi padre?, me digo. (0F 51) His parents‘ identities unkown, the male subject incamates the bastard child, an image in striking contrast to that of the “Son of God." Unlike the Jesus figure whose sacred being is seamless, a coherent personal identity escapes Hervas' “poetic son” and so he resorts to self-interrogation in an attempt to arrive at a sense of being intelligible to himself. Said internalized contention recalls the suffering of Panero's poetic subject, a male who, likewise, struggles with self-configuration within a concertized, cerebral space. But while inner demons taunt Panero's male voice, taking control of his inner being and impeding his capability to identify himself as a phallic being, Hervas poetic subject's refuge in consciousness exemplifies his intentional disidentification with relegated male corporeality; he chooses to locate himself in the realm of thought as opposed to identify with his artificially marked body. This is not to suggest that Hervas' 249 subject perceives the space of his mind as a permanent, alternative corporeality. Rather, he eagerly searches for a potential exit from his heightened state of consciousness. "Mental pacing" symbolizes the extensive cerebral energy he expends thinking through possible corporeal solutions, his dialectical investment in the quest for material truth. In this sense, poetically speaking, the process of material reconstruction -- form -- merges with the material being worked upon -- content. The last two stanzas of the poem read: Mi mente, 1a del hijo, se recrea en si misma dando vueltas electricas tris-tras a un circulo cerrado tras-tris Pero Ldonde esté la salida?, me digo. (OF 51) Spatially represented gendered distinctions tinged with subtle religious innuendos resurface in "'violenta trayectoria'" (Intervalo). In this case, the birth and assimilation into society of a poetic child -- presumably the doubled poetic subject himself -- resembles an assembly line processing, each parental unit located at a different station of social integration and fulfilling equally distinct social functions. Arranged in consecutive triads, the rhythmic structure of this section of the poem echoes the muscular pulsation of the birthing process while again mocking the notion of a sacred trinity or the traditional Spanish family. The poetic subject clearly perceives procreation as the mere reproduction of social norms, a material act as opposed to a divine one. Triadic imagery further defines the verses at hand through the continual 250 corporeal displacement and relocation of the offspring: upon being born, the child passes through one metaphorical body, into another, and then into another. This triple reconfiguration occurs three different times, the three points of initiation representative of the Sacred Family construct: the maternal body, the paternal body and the corporeality of the child himself. Overall, Hervas' methodical organization of the process of subjectivation, of becoming a gendered and consequently readable body, underscores the function of dialectical theory in his poetic creation. Likewise, the relentless imposition of bodily definitions that defines his interpretation of corporeal evolution emphasizes the artificial nature of assumed corporeal boundaries. It is only during the last step of the final phase of subjectivation that the poetic child takes full ownership of his materialization, becoming an authentic being. But returning to the beginning of the poem, as seen earlier in "La trinidad de las mercancias (La sagrada familia)," the poetic subject of "'violenta trayectoria'" begins his examination of corporeal being with the female figure as reproductive vessel, again drawing attention to how biology marks woman as an intelligible being. In this case, however, the male recognizes other social responsibilities attached to feminine corporeality: after birthing the child, the female performs her phallic duty of preparing the male child for his shift into the social corpus, an existence that will be dissolved by the corpus of mortality. As discussed previously in relation to the poetic work of Panero, the mother as proliferator of gendered differences (differences concertized spatially through prescribed domains of existence -- the social versus the private) is historically sound, the rhetoric of Franco regime instilling in its mothers the importance of raising socially responsible offspring. Regarding the last displacement, from the 251 social corpus into that of mortality, here the subject's presentation of the female as the "Terrible Mother" archetype draws another parallel between Hervas' work and that of Panero. Birthing the child into earthly life, the maternal figure correlatively condemns him to an ultimate, physical demise. Erich Neumann comments in The Great Mother: An analysis of the Archetype: "Death and destruction, danger and distress, hunger and nakedness, appear as helplessness in the presence of the Dark and Terrible Mother. [. . .] For this woman who generates life and all living things on earth is the same who takes them back into herself (18-19). The poetic subject's interpretation of the paternal figure's role in identity formation is seemingly less condemning, at least at first glance. Echoing Lacanian thought, the poetic subject identifies the father figure's occupation of a corpus marked by phallic significance -- that upon which cultural meaning is established within the heterosexual matrix. As the provider of language tools, the paternal figure facilitates the boy child's identification with masculine being, namely his transition from existence under the protection of the paternal corpus into his own priviledged corporeality -- as male -- within the reahn of the Father. However, as revealed by the final metamorphosis of this triadic corporeal shifting, paternally encouraged identification with masculine being does not produce a seamless, masculinized body, a coherent ego revolving around phallic significance. Rather, such naming manifests as inherently deconstructive as it alienates the boy subject from inner desires that fall outside of the defining lines of the heterosexual matrix. In this sense, the male child again finds himself in a lifeless domain. In the end, the child's recuperation of authentic being entails the "waking up" 252 from commodified existence and the transformation of repressed personal wants into defining instruments of personal agency -- acts that have emasculatory effects as Plato warns: "if the appetites, those tokens of the soul's materiality, are not successfully mastered, a soul, understood as a man's soul, risks coming back as a woman" (Butler, Bodies that Matter 43). Regardless, the poetic subject queerly embraces the possibility of personal metamorphosis as evidenced by his propagandistic tone. He implicitly calls for revolutionary corporeal reconfiguration through the collective enactment of material rebirth, a possibility modeled by the symbolic “Prince of Peace” himself. Hervas once again mocks the Catholic notion of the Sacred Family through presenting a male child who abandons his scripted role as a spiritual Savior in exchange for his own material salvation, a salvation contingent upon his recuperation of abstracted "femininity": en su juego - la practica de la poesia nos obliga a relacionamos con nuestro cuerpo como matriz: impulsos pulsando su suplicio te desplazan del despertar del cuerpo de tu madre a1 cuerpo de la sociedad y al cuerpo de la muerte del despertar del cuerpo de tu padre a1 cuerpo del lenguaje y al cuerpo de tu cuerpo del despertar de tu propio cuerpo a1 cuerpo del deseo y 253 al cuerpo de la lucha. (0P 99-100) The systematic thrust of the individual into a paradoxically intelligible but anonymous corporeal being informs the poetic content of other works by Hervas, including “T u no ocupas ningun lugar vacante" (Perfectofuego), "En el recodo rojo de la ruta" (Perfectofitego) and “un llanto espeso nos asalta en las cimas" (Intervalo). In each of these works the poetic subject reveals how the assumption of subjectivity, of a gendered body within the realm of the Father, paradoxically results in an erasure of individuality, leaving the commodified being nostalgic for his "missing pieces." Absorbed into social existence as defined by the symbolic, the sexed body, while intelligible as part of the system of which it is now a part, is no longer intelligible to itself. Regarding “Tu no ocupas ningun lugar vacante," the poetic subject immediately challenges the authenticity of prescribed material existence through the fleshing together of conflictive conceptualizations. Marked corporeality manifests as that which physically impedes the occupancy of any truly vacant space. Although intelligible and allocated a role in material production, the read body is transformed from an entity distinguished by personal desires into an expendable anomie sacrificed for the economic gains of those in power: "Tr'r no ocupas ningun lugar vacante: / eres un eslabén / El placer reflexiona en cadena" (OF 198). As the poem progresses, abrasive imagery further captures the damaging effects of such corporeal commodification. Open scars mark subjectified bodies, incarnating a permanent mockery of authentic being while underscoring the fragmentation inherent in the imposition of bodily limitations. Overall the poetic subject's use of a collective and presumably universal voice highlights the indiscriminative damage of artificial bodily limitations; both men 254 and women as identities constituted by "the regulation of identificatory practices" (Butler, Bodies that Matter 3) endure the systematic vanquishing of potential being: "Reflejamos la llaga que se rie de nosotros / la materia: somos su risa." (OF 198). In “En el recodo rojo de la ruta" (Perfectofitego), the male subject recounts his perilous journey into intelligible being, identifying the maternal body as the vessel that through birthing him displaces him from authentic being. The physical presence of his mother serves as a constant reminder of his divided existence, the previous one elusive to the definitions of the realm of the Father that now hold him captive through imposed bodily limitations. With material boundaries in place, the subject perceives himself destined to a wasteful existence, his observation of "waste producing waste" emphasizing the cyclical proliferation of oppressed reality. Advertently or not, through said insight the male removes from the maternal role any direct culpability for his compromised existence; she has also been conditioned to comport according to societal convention. Once again, the male subject poignantly expresses his stance through grotesque imagery: “En el recodo rojo de la ruta / e1 cuerpo de mi madre / divide mi memoria / me une a la distancia de mi mismo: / [. . .] / Los limites de la camel germinan en sus armas / mierda mima mier " (OF 201). The maternal body as a vessel of displacement and congruently, as a reminder of an intangible past also manifests in "un llanto espeso nos asalta en las cimas" (Intervalo). In this case, a resonant cry along with the rupturing of the reddened flesh of the earth metaphorically mark the departure of a potential body from its maternal haven and its arrival into subjective existence, or following Butler's line of thought, the transformation of material stuff into matter (i.e. the sexed body) through the mark and 255 continual performance of gender. Regardless, from the poetic subject's stance, said physical manipulation and construction has adverse effects: once pure, social inscriptions now blemish the new bom's materiality. Labelled as one of many intelligible bodies, anonymity and subjectivity blur and individuality as state of being becomes a remote memory: "un llanto espeso nos asalta en las cimas / la tierra roja rompe sus banderas / el blanco estado escribe -- abolicion / sobre las pieles de las hieles / Lquién recuerda a quien?" (OF 118). Similar to what occurs in "En el recodo rojo de la ruta," any blame for the fragmention of self-identity implicitly attributed solely to the maternal role is quickly dismissed by the poetic subject of the given work. He perceives the maternal figure as equally vulnerable to societal expectations; she too bends before the illusion of unyielding phallic control. Overall, the male's employment of ambiguous language, his use of a verb with double significance -- "terrecer" signifying both "to create fear" and "to be fearful of" -- to characterize the female's interaction with the male presence, epitomizes the inherent discrepancies within and the randomness of prescribed meaning and moreover, how unquestioned assumptions are preserved as societal truths. However, through the imagery he employs the subject alludes to the freeing potential of a methodical analysis of materiality. As painstaking as it may be, the unveiling of discursive contradictions enables the concretization of a more genuine sense of reality: "las torres que el cuerpo de la madre terrece / los trenes que desean entrenarse / y el lentisimo diferir de las vias" (OF 118). The poetic subject's nostalgia for a lost past is overpowered by his cognizant desire to remove himself from relegated corporeal limitations in "Desm’rdame de mi." Rigid bodily existence surfaces as analogous to death, its origin paradoxically being 256 birth itself. And so, in this case, similar to Panero's poetic subject, that of Hervas meshes ontological divisions within the corpus of a new born, superimposing demise on top of innocence; a child's body is now indistinguishable from a gravesite. Ultimately the parental unit is once again deemed culpable for such destructive reproduction. In Althusserian terms, the traditional family construct manifests as an ideological state apparatus. As the "aparato genital del estado," the hetereosexual couple -- normalized through the ideologies of those in power -- services the economic demand for expendable and equally anonymous commodified bodies. The poetic subject projects into these "prepackaged" offspring a remnant of authenticity, a longing to dissipate from said restrictive existence and to return to a transcendental state of nothingness as epitomized by corporeal vaporization. Nature as a force uncontrollable by man, as a phenomenon that evades the authority of the realm of the Father, symbolizes said desired state of non-being. Its powerful and unpredictable comportment incamates the potential of a boundless existence: nifio sepulcro donde nos perdemos aprende que la familia es el aparato genital del estado reproducira en ti fantasias de tu ausencia fingeles de los hielos -- cara de crater nubes nevadas navegando en nada durante la tormenta les ofreces la desaparicion del propio ofrecimiento (OF 212) 257 Detected Damaged Goods Mas duro es el que mira la mirada --Eduardo Hervas, “Dar la repeticion de la totalidad de entradaz” As this study has demonstrated thus far, Hervas' poetic subject relentlessly ponders the dichotomous relationship between man and woman in an attempt to arrive at a better understanding of his own material being. All in all, his efforts are seemingly self-destructive. Whereas the male has a clear understanding of sexed identity as i delineated by societal expectations and modeled by the parental unit, he denies said , gendered performances any sort of natural legitimacy and subsequently, erases the phantasmic mark of masculine significance from his own being. No longer l masquerading as a phallic presence, he relinquishes any sort of coherent identity previously established for him by male corporeality's priviledged location within the Symbolic. Furthermore, by removing himself from said power position he delegitimatizes his phallic gaze as the perceiver of truths. Similar to how the poetic subject recognizes the interplay between culturally imposed limitations and meanings and corporeal intelligibility, he realizes that on a whole, what he perceives as reality and how he perceives it to be has been molded by external forces -- namely, that his gaze is not his own. This social conditioning of perception permeates the male's use and interpretation of language as a whole. Words manifest as weaponry of oppression, their significance having been predetermined and the male's own reaction to them conditioned by the belief systems that inform his reality. His own understanding of self is seemingly artificial: "--una frase que irrumpe, se dilata, y nos ensei'ra como crecer" (Intervalo) reads: "Una frase interviene, se desliza en nosotros, y se dispone / a transformar la determacién de la lectura, / 1a posicion que nos posee" (OF 91). In this 258 manner the male subject implicates official discourse to be a defining mechanism of not only the concrete -- material existence, as manifest through the ideal or phantasm of a seamless gendered being -- but also the abstract -- consciousness. In other words, he recognizes how bodily definitions are both psychically and corporeally invested, blinding the gendered subject from authentic, personal interpretation: "Ninguno de mis ojos piensa que es propia su mirada" (“Crecer entre los pliegues de nuestra mirada" [Perfecto fuego {UP 191 }]). Nevertheless, the male's own dissection of social constructs depends upon -- and therefore gives testimony to -- the prevailing gaps within said discursive configurations, spaces of ambiguity that allow for transforrnative performance, the subversion of bodily demarcations. In accord with Butler's theory, discourse alone (symbolic significance merely imposed upon materiality) does not construct intelligible subjectivity. Rather the effectiveness of discourse as an instrument of identity formation is contingent upon the subject's iterative performance of the particular gendered identity that the discourse defines. By rejecting prescribed bodily comportant, Hervas' subject diffuses the power of discourse to define his corporeal being. Queerly exposing his own masculine "blindness" within the social system, his poetic subject dismantles the blanket supposition that locates all males in the privileged position of "he who possesses the gaze" opposite of the female "object." In doing so, he jars the balance of the heterosexual matrix. Having established a metaphorical alliance between the sexes through a shared experience of subjugation, Hervas' analysis of assumed subjectivity - as a Marxist analysis -- logically goes beyond the simplistic male/female dichotomy, implicating economic divides or class interests as a determining variable of 259 the social construction of material reality. ‘66 A previously cited poem, violenta trayectoria’” serves as an example of this, a poem in which the loss of genuine (in)sight to an ever vigilant power is portrayed through the religious notion of human sacrifice. In this sense the work takes on a sacrilegious tone while remaining politically charged; the image of a controlling eye over Spanish life recalls the inescapable presence of Franco during his reign and the dictator's appropriation of the sanctified role of Patriarch of the Spanish state. The notion of human sacrifice for “the sake of a greater good” -- a foundational component of F ranco's political platform -- further strengthens the relationship between Hervas' chosen imagery and the sociohistorical reality that informs his writing. In any event, different than Panero's utilization of Christ imagery to provoke pity for his male subject, said religious motif serves Hervas as a propagandistic tool to promote a reevaluation of discourse as a tool of social and psychic oppression. “‘violenta trayectoria’” reads: “...esos ojos no te pertenecen... gde do'nde los has tornado? ” LQuién, detrds de ti, se apropia tu mirada, de qué somos el sacrificio? LQué instancias dirigen la lectura qué cuerpo lucha a cuerpo en la escritura? (OF 94) A more parodic tone captures the poetic subject's antagonistic position towards official vigilance in “de nuevo entrais al prado y caminais despacio" (Intervalo). Here 260 the male begins the work with a mocking performance of the role of "omniscient presence" to inevitably unmask said position's fallibility. In this sense, his enactment of supreme phallus is inherently queer, incarnating the dialectical unraveling of symbolic disparities. On a superficial level, the male subject, official vigilance personified, succeeds at foreseeing the comportment of an unnamed collectivity- their habitual stroll and their break from routine to read a book, the latter an act the "all knowing" male recognizes as difficult to truly perform without "vision," or the capacity to think for one's self: "dividis: habéis trisado / vuestras trazas: abria --un libro / pupila sin pupila, amarga" (OF 117). However, he remains blind to the internal, and therefore silent, rebellion performed by the group. A careful reading of the work at hand, an uncovering of its "hidden fruit," heightens the collectivity's awareness of the binding effects of official discourse, enabling them to mentally disengage themselves from such cultural truths -- here presented as antiquated through the image of ashes --, and consequently, to demythify the invincible control of official vigilance. What underscores this subversion of power is the poetic subject's own change of role within the queer performance: he locates himself within the collectivity itself: "inscripcion, discreto fruto: sus cenizas / desiguales os han hecho reir -- y de nuevo / la dentadura del dictado pretende / prevenir nuestras miradas" (OF 117). The thematic of sightlessness is also explored in Emergencia, particularly in the second section. Taking on a psychoanalytical tone, the male subject begins the first stanza contemplating the role of "the other" in identity formation. Hence, once again, subjectivity as a relational conceptualization based on reciprocity -- self to an other and vice versa -- manifests as an integral part of Hervas' analysis of identity formation. 261 Overall, mutual gazing and confirmation of corporeal intelligibility seemingly enables one's own recognition of bodily significance: "Siempre son dos que se leen" (OF 171). Nevertheless, the poetic subject's individuality initially attained by the other's presence dissipates as he along with the other intelligible body are woven into the fabric of society. His read individuality, his marked body in accord with societal norm, once again serves as his own demise: a commodified being, the male becomes one of the many faceless within the quagmire of the masses; he is estranged from his own individuality: "Avanzébamos atrevidamente / por los hilos desperdigados como babas/ envolviendo y violando / la opacidad de las masas / de sangre, agregandonos/ avidamente en el proceso" (OF 171). Similar imagery of disappearance through subjectivation resurfaces in "--una frase que irrumpe, se dilata, y nos ensefia a crecer" (Intervalo). Here a willingness to lose oneself‘s sense of coherent being manifests as an integral part of social responsibility. This recalls the notion of personal sacrifice for a greater good discussed in previous works in relation to Hervas' employment of religious imagery: "nuestro trabajo anuncia como nos disponemos / a no renunciar a nuestra desaparicién / necesaria y gozosa" (OF 91); and in "'violenta trayectoria'" (Intervalo): "'eres un eslabon' -- enraizate en las masas / mas allé de tu origen -- tu ser yaciendo en visperas de ser/ sin presencia donde se haga presente" (GP 95). But returning to Emergencia, the opening verse of the second stanza parallels that of the first, the male again examining the dualistic nature of identity formation. Here however, the act of reading/performing the gaze and "being read"/becoming the object of the gaze is seemingly more literal overall, connected with written discourse. Whereas the first verse of the first stanza describes a reciprocal act of corporeal reading 262 between two bodies, the verse at hand presents the communal reading of a foreign text, a text that paradoxically manifests as an imprint of the subjects performing the ocular act itself: "Leemos que se nos ha leidoz" (OF 171). Said cyclical imagery of discourse has significant implications: it suggests that the function of language as a construct surpasses the mere descriptive articulation of intelligible corporeality. By defining and categorizing, by allocating pre-established measures of significance to signifiers, language prescribes and proliferates a packaged reality that is socially acceptable but equally artificial, limiting the exploration of alternative self-configurations. The collectivity's observation that “we read that we have been read” highlights their awareness of the artificial quality of identity as marked by language. Corporeal symbolic significance, achieved through the exclusion of qualities or personal longings that are incongruent with its meaning, fragments genuine being. The culturally intelligible body metaphorically represents a gravesite. In the poem at hand, Hervas' poetic subject, struggles to rise from such a suffocating (non) existence by transforming the undefined silences between words -- the gaps that implicitly make spoken language meaningful -- into the space for his personal battle: "como una concurrencia de cesuras / empujando desde los vértices del vértigo / contra el espeso osario entre los labios: los velos en la danza / son muros -- oscuros, duros" (OF 173). Although Hervas' poetic subject rejects the illusion of a cohesive masculine corporeality proffered by societal prescription, this is not to say that he accepts fi'agmentation as a permanent state of alternative existence. Rather, he continuously searches for tools to construct an authentic corporeal self that by definition evades the exclusionary demarcation of relegated material being. In the second part of Emergencia 263 his questioning of the accuracy of the touch of his hand in measuring selfhood epitomizes his endeavor: "Del transito del orden / en las llamas, de las llamas / en orden, me busco / en los escaques del tablero. / LSoy algo mas o menos / de lo que mis dos manos reconocen?" (OF 173). Whereas self dissolution characterizes the reinterpretation of masculinity within the poetic works of both Hervas and Ham Ibars, differing interpretations of said boundless state distinguishes one poet's work from the other: Haro's subject implicates fragmentation as the achievement of an alternative masculinity; paradoxically, elusive corporeality incamates his personal wholeness. For the poetic subject of Hervas, however, self-identification as a fragmented being epitomizes the dialectical process, cognizant awareness of the paradoxical destructivity of subjectivity. Recognition of the inherent fragile nature of gendered embodiment (being that it is a phantasmic construct) -- the Hegelian fusion of thesis and antithesis -- is seemingly a necessary step towards the achievement of self-authenticity. Having disrobed himself of the artifice of impenetrable masculinity and the corporeal brokeness that defines it, Hervas' subject frees himself to search for his own authentic being: "Movirniento miedo y sin forma / forzando a fondo / los grises de su grito. / LEncontraré mi cuerpo? / Mis restos a distancia / en este espacio blanco” (OF 173). Employment of mirror imagery further depicts the differing significance of fragmentation within the works of Ham and Hervas. For Haro's male, mirrors shatter as a consequence of homoerotic performance, the convergence of two male bodies into one: “Arriba entre caderas rocosas la absorcibn gota a gota de un espejo" ("Engranajes" [Empalador {OF 90}]]); “L . .] no hay regalo como el enfrentarse / A un espejo que es cuerpo y carne y semen - lo / mas oculto del firturo muerto en su intento de crecerse 264 juntos" ("Sin titulo" [Empalador {GP 99}]). For Hervas’, the shattering of mirrors embodies an overt political performance against prescribed gendered being, symbolizing both a rejection of the phallic gaze as relegator of significance and a step towards personal agency. Reading the meaning attributed to the marked male body as that which impedes true self-conceptualization, Hervas' subject desires to destroy any representation of said corporeal identity as a means to circumvent relegated masculine significance. Hence, the mirror becomes the object upon which he directs his aggression. Through his destructive comportment the male denies the reflective glass the power to dictate the image of cohesive corporeality. Poetry itself manifests as the instrument that symbolically penetrates the illusion of masculine impenetrability, a notion upon which this study shall expound in a later section: “Exigir la productividad completa de una frase / que nos aduce a / astillar el espejo / que nos ha hecho hombres./ [. . .] / nuestros figuras no emiten reflejos / nuestras fisuras no emiten espejos" ("'violenta trayectoria'" [01’ 95 and 1011)- Fragile, Don 't Handle with Care: Self Deconstruction The shattering of glass is only one manifestation of the poetic subject's disownership of traditional masculinity. His performance of self-fragmentation materializes in various ways, one being through his subjective doubling or cognizant self-disembodiment as seen throughout this study. Taking a dialectical approach to the analysis of material reality, the poetic subject envelopes himself in the thought process - - the power to reason traditionally perceived as masculine -- and intentionally distances himself from prescribed bodily existence -- corporeality presumably analogous to the 265 feminine -- in order to further understand his commodified existence: “Tu te extrafias / viéndote trabajar como lo han hecho otros" ("'violenta trayectoria'" [OF 96]); “mi memoria mirando su materia / musica madre amigo / mierda sin nombre mueve nuestra matriz" ("mi memoria mirando su materia" [Perfecto F uego {OF 189}]). However, in his scrutiny of maleness, the male manipulates the Cartesian mind/body dualism, transforming it from an instrument of subjugation -- rational existence/maleness versus biological existence/femaleness-- into a tool designed to problematize corporeal significance. Cerebralness inevitably serves the male as a means to thwart veiled, phallic existence, to disembody himself from a paradoxically vacant corporeal existence in order to fashion a more genuine sense of material being. While doubling of the poetic subject in the the first section of Emergencia lends proof to the male's fragmented existence, it is his disturbing performance of physical self-mutilation that underscores his painful existence as an incoherent being, his antagonistic relationship with prescribed corporeal existence. The male's initial alienation from masculinity as defined by society drives his need to physically free himself from the limitations of masculine corporeal being, his hands dismantling his seemingly coherent body piece by piece and dispersing its fragments as if seeding the land. The limited audience of the enactment -- his own eyes -- emphasizes the self- serving nature of the performance, his personal want of an authentic material being. Regardless, the male's actions extend beyond the personal, embodying various political implications. By penetrating the veiled male position and paradoxically reconnecting the male subject with his physicality through its deconstruction/reconstruction, his hands' performance constitutes a subversion of cultural boundaries, a political act 266 inherently queer. Moreover, agricultural imagery aligns the male's queer performance with the interests of a particular social class, that of the campesino, grounding the enactment within the social climate that indiscriminately informs Hervas' poetics and political perspective. As recalled by Gracia in La Espafia de Franco, southern rural laborers begin to organize in protest of their oppressive reality in the 19608 (62). The male subject's reappropriation of the hand as an instrument of self-reinvention satirically jabs at material reality as defined by economic interests. No longer do the workers' hands symbolize the sacrifice of individuality for the sake of societal demands. Rather than proliferating a commodified existence, the male reaps a more authentic selflrood from his manual labor of self-investment, as temporary as it may be. The new life innuendo suggested by the seeding of land is affirmed by the poetic subject's reaction to his dismemberment: freed from the burden of physical intelligibility and the expectations of such an existence, the male body exalts in the liberation corporeal death grants him. Furthermore, his metaphorical burial as a fragmented anomaly suggests a return to the womb or the Kristevian Semiotic, to a state of existence within a covert space that precedes life as defined by the cultural realm of the Father. The dark soil of the earth concretizes said gap between existence and "existence as culturally defined," the space in which the poetic subject experiences the mystical, performing a divinely inspired elusive identity. In this sense, burial and transcendence paradoxically converge. The first two stanzas of Emergencia read: yo desaparecia ante mis propios ojos y mis manos troceaban por entero 267 mi cuerpo y esparcian mis fragmentos eran las cimas que mi cuerpo exaltaba en su muerte Una distante legibilidad disponia la expansion formidable. Su calculo en mi cuerpo me dejaba sin cuerpo: jubiloso y hiératico como la tierra que me envolvia y que me devolvia (OF 165) Inevitably, the subject's material dissolution leaves him vulnerable. His elation quickly dissipates as foreign elements occupy and exploit the male's scattered material being. Unlike the celebratory merging of corporealities as seen in Haro Ibars' work, here dancing bodies inhibit the male subject's self-expression, violating his newly configurated identity by appropriating his scattered materiality for their own material gain. Transformed into mere soil for cultivation, the male subject once again finds himself dispossessed of authentic personal desires. Economic demands engulf and subsequently destroy the poetic subject's sense of individuality, defining him as a mere instrument of production: "En mi cuerpo danzaban otros cuerpos, / células celebrando su cieno, / [. . .] / Como si se gastase mi memoria / y mi deseo se viese transformado/ rostro rasgado y raso / en el sesgo gozoso que lo hoyaba" (OF 165). The male's relentless battle between personal desires and societal expectations, his physical death, rebirth, and death through commodification, mimics the cyclical nature of land 268 cultivation prevalent throughout the selection. While seemingly restrictive and inescapable, the poetic subj ect's constant reconfiguration actually enlightens him, clarifying for him the restrictive forces against which he struggles. He chooses such antagonism over complacency in his life because the former creates the space for potential revolution -- the synthesis of thesis and antithesis and advancement towards authentic being. Agency -- manifest through heightened consciousness and the eventual performance of alternative being -- is the key to his eventual liberation: "la forma misma en que habia sido producido, / la forrna que yo en esos momentos destruia / el modo en fin que me reproducia / y del que comenzaba a conocer sus leyes / [. . .] / y yo no deseaba mas que esta cadena / esta acumulacion de desplazarnientos" (OF 167 and 169) The poetic subject once again confronts masculine brokenness in "Heridas caligraficas" (Azotes caligrtificos), a poem whose dedication -- "a Leopoldo Maria Panero" -- reminds the reader of Hervas' relationship with the self-proclaimed fragmented poet from Madrid. Emasculative innuendos weave together the first four stanzas of the poem, a trajectory of fragmentation visualized through a broken gateway, torn branches, and bruised carnage. The first two of these manifestations of damaged materiality surface as obscurities of a "golden path," the complete image suggestive of an inevitable journey of prosperity and growth once difficult grounds have been overcome. As the poem progresses, however, the promise of personal gain proves to be nothing more than a mirage. Symbolic of the antagonistic, destructive reality awaiting the unnamed fragmented subject -- here materializing as "bruised meat" --, the coveted trail dissolves into wild trails made by rampant beasts: “Arco quebrado: / dorado 269 recorrido / entre los gajos: / Lejana amoratada: / tierra cubierta / por las estelas de los pumas: / e1 viento herido de equilibrio" (OF 71). The notion of “brokenness fostering brokenness" as seen in previously discussed works surfaces in the given work, in this case through the image of turbulent weather. A rainstorm falls on the conjugal bed of the subject's parental unit, marking -- in poetic hindsight -- his conception, his becoming a commodified human and consequentially, the origin of his emotional turmoil, the brokenness that defines him. And so once again, birth into society as analogous to metaphoric castration and the parental unit as accomplice of the economy of intelligible materiality surface in Hervas' poetic work: "Racimos grises enormes pesados / sueltan su lluvia / sobre la colcha de tus padres. / Lejana carne amoratada como / en el tiro a1 blanco / eres tan quebradizo" (OF 71).5 In the second part of "Heridas caligraficas," the allusion to a sacrificial lamb at the mercy of fire-breathing dragons further implicates parental culpability in the proliferation of fragmented existence. In doing so it demythifies the inherent virtue of the traditional family unit and procreation overall -- two integral components of Franco's political platform. Here the mere intent to reproduce is equated to a savage act sHervas offers another version of this poem in Intervalo. It reads: Arco tensado: violenta trayectoria entre los gajos lejana came amoratada tierra rasgada por las estelas de los pumas: el viento herido en su equilibrio Racimos rojos enormes pesados sueltan su lluvia sobre la colcha de tus padres: lejana came amoratada como en el tiro a1 blanco eres tan huidiza. (0? 113) 270 of slaughter, the unborn child stripped of his authentic self -- here manifest as wool -- before even being born:6 “Rebosa e1 cuenco / encuademado / marginada / 1a cama de dragones / antes de arder / han robado / la lana" (OP 72). Overall, Hervas' use of the dragon figure recalls the poetic work of Haro Ibars. Nevertheless, whereas within Haro's poetry, the hungry beast surfaces as an enemy of society (and logically so, as a homoerotic figure who threatens the heterosexual norm), in that of Hervas the dragon is allegorically representative of official discourse itself -- the mother beast that nurtures herself with the flesh of her own commodified children. This image of the sacrificed child fortifies the connection between the given poem and to whom it is dedicated -- Panero. As commented upon in earlier chapters of this study, the madrilet‘io's poetic work and personal commentary, testifies his self-perception as scapegoat of his own family. Hence "Heridas caligraficas" can be interpreted as a dialogical exchange between Hervas and Panero about a shared experience of male fragmentation -- despite differing circumstances. Within his own work, Panero utilizes the image of the sacrificial lamb in relation to his poetic mourning of the absence of Hervas, along with that of other acquaintances/friends,7 in his work "Vinum Sabbati": "Y Elena, José Sainz, y Eduardo o Susana / y Heli de los labios inmoviles, V.O. finahnente / (debilidad de una oveja frente a1 sol moribundo / Are you washed in the blood of Lamb / y Elena y Luis Ripoll y el demonic encerrado / o mufieco sin brazos? / en la botella inmovil / o Maenza o Hervas (a. La Bola)" (PC 97). 6 In Bodies that Matter, Butler comments upon how medical advances such as the sonogram have enabled the materialization of corporeality, the sexing of the body, prior to the actual birth of the child (7). 7 Along with that of Eduardo Hervas', Panero's poetic subject mourns the absence of other contemporaries, including Elena Llécer, Susana L6pez Omat and Antonio Maenz. (Fernandez 170). 271 Human sacrifice resurfaces in Hervas' "Heridas Caligraficas (Azotes caligraficos) [11]" (Azotes caligraficos), piercing nails recalling the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. In the Valencian's poetic interpretation, however, metal fasteners pin human existence to day time hours, an act metaphorically representative of the sacrifice of limitless being in the name of societal norms. Overall, the poetic subject's focus on his own rythmic blinking and production of sounds underscores his heightened cognizance of material reality -- including that of discourse -- and by extension, his personal investment in a dialectical analysis of subjectivity. Moreover, by centering on minute bodily acts, the male subject (re)locates the reader inside of his own corporeality, creating a shared experience of intensified material existence. As the poem progresses, the male in addressing a collectivity reaffirms mutilated corporeality, existence defined by material void, as a shared experience. As affirmed by Butler, becoming a gendered being within society is contingent upon differentiation from another, said distinction incamated by fixed bodily demarcations that by defining corporeal intelligibility erase other potential materializations of being. In the given work, scarred corporeality, the mark of physical void, symbolically represents the fragmentary effect of subjectivation into society. With corporeal disparities incised by the sharp boundaries of bodily intelligiblity, the subject remains physically incomplete. Sexually indiscriminate in his observation of mutilated being, Hervas once again deems both men and women to be castrated beings before the power of the economy of sex. His alternative reading of corporeality, however, is inherently queer: Innumerables los clavos de la aurora: sincronizaste 272 la escena con tus pérpados: Lees. Numera percusion de tus labios tensados, actas abiertas: en breve, vuestra penr'rltima baraja conocera e1 desgarro de un jugador de los dos brazos mancos. (OP 76) Reading Between the Lines: Discursive Gaps, Metapoetics and the Reconstruction of Self Hervas' poetic subject's longing to return to an existence prior to his birth into the Lacanian reahn of the Father, to reunite with his estranged self, untamished by social convention, is problematic for obvious reasons. Physically impenetrable, said remote existence remains intangible and elusive to the male subject. Moreover, he lacks the defining tools to truly recreate said “definitionless” state. Regardless, by imagining the possibility of other “realities,” the male subject demonstrates his unwillingness to accept an oppressive reality as his fate. While the subject's methodical dissection of relegated intelligible corporeal being does not empower him to indefinitely return to the purity of a prenatal existence, it does bring him one step closer to reinventing himself within the realm of the Father. The male's awareness of the role of official discourse in the "production of being" denaturalizes gendered being or marked subjectivity, creating a space for corporeal reconfiguration within the symbolic, the possibility of rebirth according to one's own terms: "Tomar asi distancia sobre las imagenes del origen / desde los centros emisores de imagenes, de origen, / expropiar en 273 el origen no-originario de la expropiacion" ("'violenta trayectoria'" OF 95). The male's enlightrnent via dialectical analysis enables him to queerly reconstruct himself with the "tools of the Master" themselves, to manipulate and redistribute meanings and signifiers -- that which conventionally fortify the heterosexual matrix as the cultural norm -- in order to render a more genuine sense of personal being. Such reconfiguration calls for agency, in Butlerian terms, an iterative performance of alternative corporeality through which said material being solidifies as a "body that matters," as a valid subjectivity. Hervas' male subject repeatedly voices his belief in the transformative power of a collective performance of queer corporeality, how a collective enactment of alternative material boundaries holds the potential for the revamping of societal norms overall, a redistribution of gendered being. Not surprisingly, a resilient propagandistic tone permeates Hervas' poetic corpus as his subject calls for corporeal revolution. A previously discussed poem, "una fiase que irrumpe, se dilata, y nos ensefia cémo crecer" exemplifies this; here the subject's revelation that language shapes corporeality makes explicit the extent to which subjectivity, identity as a gendered being, comes into being through the sacrifice of personal control over one's self. The commodification of being, through its act of defrning, creates artificial corporeal boundaries that void out alternative expressions of individuality, expressions that would threaten the very essence which discourse intends to encapsulate. Stylistically, the beginning of the given poem effectively produces a visual representation of "words dominating the individual": a run-on sentence, the first stanza's longwindedness seemingly "takes possession" of the poetic subject; he merely is the instrument through which it is expressed: 274 Una frase interviene, se desliza en nosotros, y se dispone a transformar la determinacion de la lectura, la posicion que nos posee: nuestro origen no pesa si cambia de Estado nuestro trabajo anuncia como nos disponemos a no renunciar a nuestra desaparicion necesaria y gozosa. (GP 91) The need for collective self-transformation fi'om motionless, placid corporealities saturated by official discourse into self informed and constructed beings resurfaces in "'violenta trayectoria."' While contending for the re-education of the masses as a means to break the cyclical regeneration of commodified existence, the male subject simultaneously calls for the inversion and dissolution of the language (inscriber of significance)/body (vessel to be marked/signified) binary, this is to say, for a collective appropriation of the symbolic for self-reconfiguration. No longer "writing the body," language -- both what is spoken and the silences that make said utterances intelligible -- serves corporeality by enabling self-expression of transforrnative being, of existence as a “body that matters" whose boundaries encompass previously deemed disparate materiality. Overall, by “reading between the lines" of significance, by finding gaps for reinterpretation and alternative means of expression, the male subject initiates his own self-reinvention. The poem reads: "Marcar las exigencias de su ‘leccién amarga’: / educamos de nuevo en lo que ya no reproduce / la sumision a la reproduccion, / producir nuestra forma con transformacién / de la produccion y de sus ensefranzas, / investimos de sus lenguas sin lenguas / que nos sumen en simas saturadas 275 de lenguaje." (GP 94). The methodical proding at the superstructure of society in search of an undefined space overlooked by the "official gaze" is historically poignant when taking in consideration the socio-historical moment in Hervas produces his poetic corpus. While the 1960s bring to Spanish society new fieedoms through the weakening of censorship (the new press law of 1966) and increased interaction with other cultures through tourism, the Franco regime maintains a systematic control over the construction of the Spanish state as a nation unified under its own national culture, a culture characterized by conservative patriarchal values and the spiritual authority of the Catholic Church.8 As Dorthy Kelly recalls in "Selling Spanish ‘otherness’ since the 19603," the official slogan of the time in promotion of foreign visits is "Spain is different," a message that as a representation of the nation-state is seemingly hypocritical; while the regime attempts to sell Spain as a unique country, it continues to thwart difference within the boundaries of the country itself: "One of the essential underlying macropropositions in this message was, of course, that of national unity an uniformity. This constituted for the various (and silenced) nationalities and regions of Spain a denial of that very same right to be different which the regime constructed for Spain as opposed to the rest of Europe" 8 The liberating effect of said law is debatable as it seemingly resulted in an increase of self-censorship: The most frequently cited attempt of the Spanish government to make itself appear what it was patently not is the new press law of 1966, which has often been seen as the clearest manifestation of aperturismo or cautious political relaxation which characterized the 1960s. But the much trumpted alterations to the censorship laws changed little in practice In fact the new law making pre-publication submission to the censors optional was a clever piece of bureaucratic manipulation that certainly did not confer greater freedom of expression to writers, dramatists and journalists. Few publishers were prepared to risk confiscation of an entire print run What the law of 1966 did was to put the onus for staying on the narrow political path on writers and publishers even more so than before. (Longhurst 24) 276 (30). While Spain opens its doors to outsiders, the Franco regime still links the country's ills to foreign ideas introduced by the internal other: the left, the working classes and other opposition groups" (Kelly 30). Hence, those opposing the official discourses defining Spanish existence still face the challenge of explicitly expressing an alternative point of view, of perceiving the world that surrounds them in discord with the official gaze. Taking this into consideration, Hervas' playful, lexical manipulation of double meanings and contradictory terms as seen in previously discussed poems facilitates a covert exposition of a variant perspective, controversial ideas subtly surfacing under the guise of social conservatism. Said approach defines "Intelectuales que no podian vivir" (Intervalo), a poem in which the male subject names discrepencies between official discourse and personal experience as intervals of potentiality for the achievement of self—defined being. Although the boundaries of prescribed material reality seemingly make impossible the realization of personal enlightenment, paradoxically it is within such constrains that those in pursuit of said clarity find the tools to achieve it. In this work the challenge of self-reconfiguration observed by the male revolves around a particular, culturally elite group -- intellectuals. However, his metaphorical use of cultivation imagery seemingly speaks to rural laborers. Such meshing of social strata stresses the universal responsibility of the task at hand -- the creation of an alternative reality free of historical constraints through a collective revolution of material reality: Intelectuales que no podian vivir usan su fuerza en las contradicciones 277 .IJ. dirigen e1 exceso al que se encuentran sometidos, se afirrnan en la practica que los practica, se irrigan fuerza cuando se organizan. Atraviesan los estratos antiguos, crecen para el futuro en sus senos pasados, se surcan en la historia de sus distintas forrnas. (GP 92) Incongruous with the Francoist's social obligation of “a pact of the future with the past” (Richards 42), Hervas' subject's Marxist perspective unbinds human experience from temporal stagnation through movement beyond former times, as the verbs atravesar, crecer and surcar suggest. He reiterates the progressive potential of human experience later on in the poem, emphasizing how analysis of past collective circumstance -- analogously represented by the abstract construct of "history" itself -- enables the redirection of human reality, the apocalyptic rewriting of future history. Agency as captured by the image of "jumping" transforms mundane existence from a cyclical, predictable pattern molded by "societal truths" into a spiral like, progressive conceptualization that through its erratic behavior dismantles the basic building blocks of social convention. Creases between the leaps of historical revolution measure the advancements made, the transcendence of historically imposed personal barriers. Past restraints, recognized as such, once again become liberating agents. "Red eyes" as a signifier of a double meaning incarnate this transformation; while they exemplify the physical exhaustion consequent upon the forced (visual) consumption of official discourse, they also symbolize the acquisition of an alternative, liberating perspective -- presumably a Marxist one: 278 La historia lee sus leyes, del futuro al pasado, la historia salta, de abajo a arriba, avanza, sinuosamente, en pliegues, no regresa nunca: el mundo va a cambiar de base "la tierra se desplaza" como se tensa un amplio Su frase nos ofrece una forma de lucha escrita por las contradicciones luchamos su lectura donde los "ojos rojos" reflexionan una nueva distribucion tras el incendio del espacio y del tiempo, (GP 93) Along with the scrupulous revision of official discourse, the poetic subject's queer performance of materiality, his overt disidentification with prescribed corporeal being, manifests as lived creative expression, or rather, as the rewriting of self through poetry. Once again bringing to mind Kristeva's theory of the Semiotic, Hervas' subject presents poetic language -- with its fluidity and rhythmic essence -- to be a soothing and equally liberating discursive space. Removed from the rigidity of the reahn of the Symbolic, poetic language in its ambiguity enables multiple interpretations of being. Moreover, pauses or silences essential to both poetic form and content provide the intervals necessary for said self-reconfiguration, here manifest metaphorically as free 279 dance, a materiality in motion determined by its own rhythm. Such unrestrained movement subverts traditional corporeal boundaries, constructs whose frxity is maintained, as Butler contends, by an exclusionary system that impedes unintelligible materialities from surfacing. Poetic dance in its unpredictability symbolically weaves together the abjected and the real, blurring bodily distinctions and correlatively, enabling the birth of alternative being: "la practica de la poesia usa el lenguaje como intervalo / (en) con el blanco y en (con) el vacio. / El ritrno, la danza légica de las palabras, / es cifrable a intervalos por intervalos. / El intervalo es la distancia / que vacia 6“ de sentido nativo e1 origen / y abre paso /via rupta / a escritura” ( violenta trayectoria’” [UP 191]). Equally metaphoric and metapoetic, Hervas' subjects' rebirth, as an act that dissolves gendered limitations, constitutes a queer performance. Enacting a traditionally feminine role -- vessel of reproduction-- through a traditionally masculine medium -- creativity --, his subject is no longer defined by artificial corporeal boundaries and their given significance; he is seemingly androgynous. Becoming his "own womb," and his own nurturer, the male subject provokes the death of the maternal figure; her Oedipal (dis)placement as "other" in relation to the masculine position within the heterosexual normative no longer serves to define his being, as he himself is no longer defined by such a binding schema. As Hervas poetic use of synonymic parallelisms highlights, the death of the mother in “‘violenta trayectoria’” allegorically represents the demise of official discourse as a controlling phallic presence and by extension, of relegated material being. With the obliteration of the traditional female role, the Spanish family tree loses one of its most supportive limbs, a principal 280 arm of weaponry in the exaltation and prolongation of the status quo. The mere thought of said dissolution of commodified being leaves the male subject in a state of jubilance. A reality no longer defined by artificial divisions promises him a boundless existence infused with diverse beings, their images elusive to any equalizing mold. Poetically speaking, the fluidity of Hervas' verses and the overall lack of punctuation between ideas, exemplifies the polymorphic existence he foresees: "Donde la vida divide sus estratos" la practica de la poesia nos entrega a una pluralidad de matrices: destruye la imagen de la madre ("las ramas de la madre se desarman") e1 volumen de libro ("volr'rmenes violados" / "cenizas de libros") la identidad de la totalidad consigo ("union por diferencias" / "unidad a intervalos') En esta practica, por jr'rbilo sentiras como muerte a la mujer, la madre --haces de impulsos pulsando su deslumbramiento. En esta practica, por jr'rbilo leyes en lirnite son negatividad en forma elemento discreto y escindido 281 de una pluralidad sin fondo (0P 99) The dismembered family tree and charred books as synonymous symbols of material reconfiguration reemerge in "Extraes miembros matemos del arcon": “las ramas de la madre se desarrnan / en cenizas de libros extenuados en su fuga” (OF 111). While preserved maternal limbs physically remind the male subject of former corporeal limitations, the male subject sees in their materiality a potential that extends beyond their keepsake value. He performs his own act of material commodification in service of his own personal interests. Transforming the preserved skins into maps, the male utilizes that which formally restrained his self-expression to facilitate the navegation or remapping of his self-identity: a free flying adventure that supercedes mundane existence, which, unbound by traditional corporeal boundaries, allows for alternative sexual expression -- homoerotics. Another parallel between Hervas' poetic work and that of Haro Ibars' surfaces, here through the image of flight in relation to subversive sexual performance, the allusion to gay crusing. The surge of "polvo" along with the indiscriminate consumption of said bodily fluid marks the gluttonous enjoyment of oral sex: Extraes miembros matemos del arcon donde Vivian mezclados con las algas. Con la piel de la madre se pueden hacer mapas: tus brazos las dos baquetas, aguilas de algas sobrevuelan la estufa, las flores florecidas: temblores de tableros y pupitres, por la reflexiva garganta ingieres 282 un cauce de polvo, amas cualquier desprendirniento: (UP 111) The last poem to be considered, "Terapia nocturna" (Cro'nico) presents the poetic subject's most literal self-transformation through the act of writing, the male's artistic expression of a nocturnal bestial hunt for self gratification becoming indistinguishable from his own compartment. While grounded in contemporary urban Spain by streets congested with buildings, fluorescent advertisements, and honking cars, surrealistic nuances dominate the poem, facilitating the subject's material reconfiguration -- his transformation into the beast he describes --through the blurring of realities. Taking all of this into consideration, this particular poem resembles the general poetics of both Panero and Haro Ibars more so than any of Hervas' works considered thus far in this study: surrealism manifests consistently within the poetry of both Panero and Haro Ibars, the respective poetic subject of each poet often dealing with the problematic of gendered being within nocturnal hours, the night time setting serving as a gap for reinterpretation, an interim silencing of conventional social limitations. Furthermore, "the monstrous" characterizes both Panero's subject's subversive self-conceptualization and that of Haro Ibars, the former as a Dionysian figure and the latter as a queer vamp. In the work at hand, Hervas' poetic subject distinguishes himself from conventional society not only by acting out his animalistic desires, but also by identifying the "others," those that incarnate the Spanish ideal “los cuatro costados." An abbreviated version of the Spanish expression "hidalgo de los cuatro costados," the phrase implies the purity of Spanish identity through nobility (each rib exemplifying a noble grandparent) (Cadenas 3) and implicitly represents the 283 national conservatism, rigid Spanish "authenticity," fostered by the dictatorship. Spanish life shut down for the evening, the poetic subject initiates the writing process, the process of his self-reconfiguration. Pen in hand, he frees his alienated self -- his untamed desires -- from the prison -- traditional corporeal being -- that normally constrain him. Having awakened his inner beast and hungry for nourishment, the male ventures on a metaphoric killing spree throughout the entranced city. The subject's conquering of new terrorities suggests a queer performance of sexuality, the penetration of traditional corporeal boundaries: Desde e1 fondo del suefio ciudadano (soledad por los cuatro costados) e1 leon se despereza y se levanta (abre la puerta y sale de su celda) para buscar 1a caza en nuevos territorios (un viaje desde el gabinete) (GP 52) As the writing process appears indistinguishable from the sexual hunt being described, poetic expression manifests as the male subject's choice weaponry against prescribed material reality -- the male subject's future feed. In this sense he hunts his own being, performing a sadistic self-liberation from conventional materiality through his manipulation of language: "Ahora que ya esté rota la lengua de los coches / te vas matando al escribir el verso / [. . .] / vas sofocando jinetes dc espuma / en lechos de palabras. / Ahora, los ojos miran con transicion de patio. / Parejas de pensamientos y de imagenes / pasean con cahna por tu mente. / Recoger el lenguaje y deshacerlo, / descubrirlo, arnasarlo, sanearlo." (OF 52-53). Overall, this literary, bestial enactment of 284 the “chain of life” is analogous to the poetic subject's dialectical interpretation of being as a successive reconfiguration of material reality through the manipulation and reinterpretation of corporeal existence. As the male subject reinterprets his own personal being through the reconfiguration of language so too does the beast of his poetic creation reconstruct his material being through the deconstruction of other bodies. The savage penetration of the lion's claws into his prey and the lion's inevitable consumption of his victim (two images suggestive of subversive sexual encounter) symbolize a metaphoric synthesis of two bodies, the achievement of an alternative state of being queerly marked by rythmic dance: "Después, cuando e1 ledn reviente la manzana con sus garras. / cuando e1 ave final (la timida y lechosa lechuza) / se desnude a mordiscos / en una danza cuyo ritrno es la historia," (OF 53). Conclusion In Bodies that Matter Judith Butler presents to her readers the following question regarding gender performativity: What challenge does that excluded and abjected realm produce to a symbolic hegemony that might force a radical rearticulation of what qualifies as bodies that matter, ways of living that count as 'life,' lives worth protecting, lives worth saving, lives worth grieving? (l6) Eduardo Hervas' subject seemingly puts the theorist's question to the test, underscoring through his own agency the very possibility of performing an alternative materiality and moreover, such an enactrnent's revolutionary potential. As revealed by the male's dialectical analysis of reality, the phantasmic phallic mark, that which presumably 285 fashions a cohesive masculine identity through its fabrication of male corporeal boundaries, proves to be that which, through its exclusionary tactics, fragments corporeal being. Having exposed privileged masculine being to be a charade that services society's need for gendered bodies, the male decisively removes himself from said illusionary power position within society in search for a more genuine sense of being. He embraces the abjected, that which traditionally falls outside of his masculinely defined body, as part of his authentic self and in doing so, transgresses the gendered boundaries set in place by the heterosexual matrix and fortified by the official discourse in place. The phantasmic male that the poetic subject discursively confronts throughout Hervas' poetic work serves as an allegorical representation of the Spanish nation-state as a discursive construct druing the Franco regime. Essential to the dictatorship's political platform is the phantasmic image of a cohesive Spain unified under one historical perspective and pure Spanish traditions and values. Official silencing facilitates the dictatorship's efforts to create such a flawless image but without complete success. It is within such discursive voids and contradictions that socially compromised writers such as Hervas find the room for alternative interpretations of reality, the potentiality for revolutionary thought and change: Las contradicciones en el lenguaj e reflejan el devenir de nuestras deteminaciones. En cada uno de nosotros retoman sus cadenas: ("El retomo juega sobre sus propios restos" [UP 100]) 286 Conclusion In his article “The Mirror Stage” Jacques Lacan summarizes the inverse relationship between neurosis and civilized existence within the realm of the Symbolic in the following manner: “The sufferings of neurosis and psychosis are for us a schooling in the passions of the soul, just as the beam of the psychoanalytic scales, when we calculate the tilt of its threat to entire communities, provides us with an indication of the deadening of the passions in society” (7). The poetic works of Leopoldo Maria Panero, Eduardo Haro Ibars and Eduardo Hervas testify to the fact that personal passions are very much alive in late Franco and early post-Franco Spain, regardless of the suffocative effects of the dictatorship. Each poet explores the conflictive dynamic between inner longings and societal expectations by presenting to his reader a male subject who, acting upon personal desires, is seemingly neurotic according to Lacanian theory. Metaphorically castrated within his own family by the overbearing presence of a phallic maternal figure, and invisible before the gaze of society, Leopoldo Maria Panero’s subject embodies the stereotypical queer male described by Richard Dyer as the “sad, young man” (119). By presenting a poetic subject who endures unjustified suffering and victimization, along with the abandonment of his father figure, Panero draws parallels between said male and the Christ figure himself. Consumed by feelings of personal inadequacy, the poetic subject’s extreme wanting of a coherent corporeality marked by “masculine” significance drives him into a state of madness. Unable to cope with his material alienation and personal fragmentation, he commits monstrous acts against others; he becomes a Dionysian figure. Regardless, his longing to concretize and concurrently 287 validate his corporeal being continues and so he explores homosexuality as a possible cure for his emasculated state. Other masculine bodies are presented as that which hold the potential for his own appropriation of “maleness” through transference. Eduardo Haro Ibars' subject also acts upon personal longings for homoerotic expression, although what motivates his queer performance stands in contrast with that which inspires Panero’s subject’s subversive enactment. Whereas Panero’s poetic subject paradoxically performs anomalous acts with the intent to construct an unambiguous and complete male subjectivity, contrarily, Haro’s poetic subject’s celebration of monstrous, homoerotic acts, his exploitation of what Paul Julian Smith deems “the ugliest of the ugly,” manifests as an overt rejection of imposed corporeal boundaries and corresponding significance. Rather than embracing the unyielding phallic position as his authentic being, the male indulges in boundless bodily fragmentation, transformation, and fusion with other male bodies, compartment forbidden within the realm of the Symbolic. Both the receptacle of penetration -- of the needle and of the male sex -- and the instrument that penetrates other bodies, he incamates an androgynous materiality that eludes the implicit restrictiveness of “masculine being.” He exemplifies what Deleuze and Guattari term as “desiring machines,” a materiality whose body is paradoxically marked by its incoherence. Said fragmentary state marks his limitless opportunities to corporeally mesh with other ambiguous materialities and experience unrestricted physical pleasures. Similar to both Panero’s and Haro Ibars' poetic subject, Eduardo Hervas’ fails to identify with traditional corporeality and its corresponding significance. Notwithstanding, his response to said bodily alienation distinguishes itself from those of 288 the two other male subjects: whereas Panero’s woeful male searches for a way to piece together for himself a traditional male body, and Haro’s sadistic subject conversely dissects masculine corporeal boundaries through unconventional penetration, Hervas’ cogitative male subject methodically reevaluates the validity of prescribed corporeal intelligibility. Inner desires for material authenticity provoke his dialectical analysis of the significance and implications of intelligible corporeality. He retreats into the intangible space of the mind, metaphorically disembodying himself from the confines of masculine demarcations. His mental negotiation of a more genuine self- conceptualization implicates both the family unit and religious doctrine -- what Althusser’s qualifies as “ideological state apparatuses” -- in the commodification of gendered being within the realm of the Symbolic. The male subject’s material analysis underscores masculine and feminine being as socially constructed concepts established and maintained through the prohibition of bodily compartment incongruent to one’s assigned sex. Having denaturalized material intelligibility, he is empowered to re- conceptualize his own corporeal being through the recuperation of personal essences previously vanquished into the Lacanian realm of the Real. He corporeally performs a Hegelian “synthesis” of “thesis” and “antithesis”: hameratica distinguishes the defining lines of his newly appropriated personal materiality. In accord with Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity, by reiteratively enacting an alternative masculine being through corporeal performance, the respective male subject of each poet proffers to his reader a queer reconstruction of gendered being. The significance of the mere possibility of said reinterpretation is multifaceted. By re-canceptualizing masculinity through corporeal expression, the male subjects 289 reconnect “maleness” to materiality, a relationship that the socially accepted dichotomy male-cagnizance/female-biology (maintained by the heterosexual norm) abliterates. Moreover, their use of personal agency in the construction of alternative gendered being underscores the contingency of identity formation of all. Each male’s unique bodily compartment reflects his perception of and reaction to reality and gendered being, personal understandings shaped by the interplay of multiple variables that include historical, socio-cultural and personal circumstances. In the case of all three male subjects, Francoist ideals - established through masculism and sustained through repressive and ideological state apparatuses -- inform the reality in which they, as male bodies, find themselves. Disparities or gaps within the dictator’s official position provide the space for their poetic reinterpretation of gendered being. F or Panero, said inconsistencies often manifest within the gloried Spanish family. Narcissistic and “socially irresponsible,” his maternal figure does not foster the phallic worth of her male offspring; rather, she emasculates the boy child with her overbearing presence. The Terrible Mother, she consumes his societal value, fragmenting any possibility for him to ever possess a sense of cohesive masculine being. Within the poetic works of Haro Ibars, nighttime manifests as a temporal gap within existence as defined by the realm of the Symbolic. The darkness of these hours disables the penetration of official vigilance and its enforcement of cultural “truths” of being. Under the blanket of obscurity, subversive corporealities congregate and mesh, disproving the presumed impenetrability of masculine corporeality. F or Hervas, silences and inconsistencies within language itself hold the potential for corporeal re- significatian. Having recognized imposed material significance «masculine being 290 versus feminine being -- as the cause of his corporeal fragmentation and alienation, the poetic subject proceeds to dismantle discursive boundaries of significance and symbols. Subsequently, he redistributes meanings to signifiers as a means to define for himself a more authentic material being by which to live. Overall, the males’ corporeal performances of alternative gendered being disprove the essentialist notion of gendered being, exposing “masculinity” to be an elusive, phantasmic ideal rather than an innate quality. Regarding the former idea, if gendered identity were biologically determined, any re-conceptualization of masculinity would arguably be a mute impossibility. Within the poetic works under analysis, marked subjectivity surfaces as a socially constructed and sustained concept that reflects the interests of those in power. In accord with Butler’s theorization, because the proliferation of gendered subjectivity as defined by societal norms is ultimately contingent upon the reiterative bodily performance of said gender definitions, the poetic subjects’ queer enactment of disparate material compartment threatens the very organizing principal -- the heterosexual matrix -- on which the realm of the Symbolic is based. Regarding the phantasmic nature of “masculinity,” each poetic subject’s personal experience of corporeal fragmentation exposes the notion of seamless, unyielding, masculine being to be a cultural farce. Rather than stabilize a sense of coherent identity, the cultural “truth” of maleness detrimentally affects the male bodies of Panero’s and Hervas’ poetic subjects. Unachievable but ingrained in their unconscious as the norm, prescribed masculinity provokes sentiments of personal inadequacy and corporeal alienation. Doubtfirl of his own material worth as a male, 291 Panero’s subject searches for other marked bodies to confrrm his masculine worth. Entering into intimate relationships, his quest for masculine being ironically relocates him in a traditional feminine role as an “object” of desire and receptacle of sexual acts. Failing to identify with the symbolic significance attached to masculine corporeality, Hervas’ male metaphorically disembodies himself from the defining contours of maleness. Self-induced invisibility surfaces as a necessary step in the male’s dialectical advancement towards the achievement of authentic materiality, a movement that empowers him to explore same sex relationships. Haro Ibars’ poetic subject’s experience of material fragmentation is also self-inflicted, although it takes on unique qualities and intentions. As opposed to exemplifying a disharmonious and/or transitional state of being, his corporeal dissolution manifests as a gregarious, voracious celebration marking the resuscitation of inner longings and desires and concurrently, the overt disregard to socially imposed corporeal boundaries within the reahn of the Father. The manifestations of consumption, self-transformation and gender ambiguity that qualify the poetic works of Panero, Haro Ibars and Hervas mark Spain’s anticipation and experience of societal transformation during the last years of the dictatorship and after the death of Franco -- the historical moment in which all three poets write and/or publish. Industrialization and foreign investment enable Spain’s economic growth and its development into a modern consumer society. As Alex Longhurst explains in “Culture and development: the impact of 19605 ‘desarrollismo,”’ Spanish economic grth goes hand in hand with a resolution to realize personal aspirations: “The determination of writers and readers, of teachers and students, of entrepreneurs and trade union leaders to purse their artistic, intellectual and professional 292 aspirations and not be deterred by an anachronistic and immobile political ideology is what lay at the root of Spain’s leap forward in the 1960s” (19). Self- reconceptualization escalates during the movida madrileiia, nighttime hours becoming the moment in which self- transformation is facilitated by artistic expression (punk movement), sexual experimentation, and drug and alcohol consumption. As Teresa M. Vilaros contends in El mono del desencanto, corporeal fragmentation metaphorically represents the demise of the Franco state, the dictator’s death being equivalent to the beheading of the country, the loss of direction for both pro and anti-Francoists. “F atherless.” the dictator’s children are now free to explore alternative corporealities, blurring gender lines through their self reconstruction. Leopoldo Maria Panero, Eduardo Haro Ibars and Eduardo Hervas experience bodily ambiguity and fragmentation prior to the death of Franco. Masculine being as institutionalized by the dictatorship ironically spawns their poetic disembodiment or corporeal dissolution. Panero’s male subject, longing to achieve visibility as a phallic subject, remains prisoner of phantasmic masculinity. It is arguable that this reflects the poet’s own desires to escape personal neurosis and construct for himself a recognizable and equally respectable identity within Spanish society. The poetic voices of Haro Ibars and Hervas overtly reject the validity of male corporeal being. Haro’s group enactment (he speaks in the “we” form) of corporeal exploitation through sadistic acts is highly suggestive of an inevitable re-significatian of intelligible subjectivity due to collective and reiterative performance of subversive being. Unfortunately, the poet’s lived experience of seditious penetration leads to his own demise. Hervas’ male also employs the collective voice, in his case, to underscore commodified existence -- as 293 male or female -- as a shared experience of oppression. He calls upon the reader to join him in his disengagement from inauthentic material being and journey towards authenticity, his propagandistic tone reflecting Hervas’ belief in Marxist ideals. In the end the young Valencian’s choice to terminate his own life prohibits him from ever achieving them. 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