Claudio Then and Now

I am writing a chapter on Claudio Rodríguez, who in my opinion is the greatest Spanish poet of the second half of the 20th century. This is also the topic of my dissertation completed in 1988 and of my first book published in 1990. Aside from a few articles and reviews, I have avoided him for a long time (if you call writing two articles, an obituary, and a few book reviews "avoiding"), but now I am ready to tackle him again. Curiously, my point is pretty much the same, with the benefit of several years of experience working on other poets. While a few things in my dissertation now seem dated to me, I think my overall vision stands up pretty well.

Debicki told me I should talk about postmodernism in relation to Claudio. Foolishly, I listened to him. That is the most dated aspect of the book, precisely because it seemed to be the freshest in 1988. Nothing dates as fast as something that seems excitingly trendy at the time.