Quevedo is the author of a number of well-known representations of syphilis. Taking a step back from traditionalist interpretations of these passages, which focus on autobiographic readings and the operation of Quevedo’s notoriously pyrotechnic poetics of ingenio, this article recovers the pictorial aspects of Quevedo’s corporeal representations. The exposed and diseased body, rendered ekphrastically in detail as a visual object to contemplate, operates doubly as a source of graphic sexual fixation and as a vehicle for poetic slippages. Moral cautions over the dark side of carnal love thus overlap with the suggestive—pornographic—evocation of that same carnality.

«Tan mal francés como gastas»: syphilis in the poetry of Quevedo

Adrián J. Sáez
2020-01-01

Abstract

Quevedo is the author of a number of well-known representations of syphilis. Taking a step back from traditionalist interpretations of these passages, which focus on autobiographic readings and the operation of Quevedo’s notoriously pyrotechnic poetics of ingenio, this article recovers the pictorial aspects of Quevedo’s corporeal representations. The exposed and diseased body, rendered ekphrastically in detail as a visual object to contemplate, operates doubly as a source of graphic sexual fixation and as a vehicle for poetic slippages. Moral cautions over the dark side of carnal love thus overlap with the suggestive—pornographic—evocation of that same carnality.
2020
Pornographic Sensibilities: Imagining Sex and the Visceral in Premodern and Early Modern Spanish Cultural Production
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10278/3733051
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