The poetry of Luis Cernuda : order in a world of chaos

The works of the twentieth-century Spanish poet Luis Cernuda (1902-1963) are characterised by their fragmentary and disunified nature, with a wide range of complexities and contradictions.

Concentrating on the well-known "La Realidad y El Deseo", Dr McKinlay considers the poems from the perspective of the widespread loss of faith in God, exploring the tension between Cernuda's perception of chaos and desire for order, which co-exist in dialectical opposition.

Neil C. McKinlay is college lecturer in Spanish at New College, Oxford.