Abstract

FERNANDEZ, Rocío. Spectres in Cuba: Image and Anacronisms. CELEHIS [online]. 2019, n.37, pp.1-5. ISSN 2313-9463.

In "A partir de la poesía", José Lezama Lima praises the revolution and describes thoroughly its image theory; one of the examples he uses to explain the importance of images and the beginning of an eternal time is the spirit of José Martí, which becomes a living image that was buried and un-buried. Without naming it in a literal way, he starts the construction of a figure of great interest for Cuban literature and culture: the spectre. In 1993, centenary anniversary of Julián del Casal's death (1863-1893), José Antonio Ponte wrote an article about the modernist writer called "Casal Contemporáneo", in which he not only describes him as a spirit that wanders through the city, but as a presence that can be felt in La Habana in rainy days, when the city becomes more intimate. In the present article, I propose returning to these two moments to reflect about the critical potentiality of these spectral figures and the way they contribute to re-defining images and time in Cuba.

Keywords : Cuban literature; spectre; image; Modernism..