Description

Virgilio Pi era, author of a large collection of poems, short stories, novels, plays, and essays, is one of Cuba's most important writers. Po tica de la Frialdad offers a new reading of Pi era's narrative. During the 1940's, when Caribbean writers such as Alejo Carpentier and Jos Lezama Lima were elaborating the aesthetics of magic realism, the neo-baroque and negritude, Pi era's tendency was opposite. Some of his books have titles such as Cuentes fr os (Cold Stories), Aire fr os (Cold Air) and Helada zona (Frozen Zone). For Pi era, coldness is a poetic principle that governs not only his narrative but also his poetry and plays, and consists of the "exposition of pure facts." This "exposition of pure facts" reveals Pi era's obsessive concern with style. Coldness in Pi era's writing is a privileged image of the society and the epoch where he lives. At times, coldness refers to masochism. Coldness and cruelty function as the denial of sensuality, as a condition for masochistic pleasure. Coldness is also an image of culture and its discontents in postmodern society.