Neither coherent nor consequential: a reading from the first books of José-Miguel Ullán

Abstract

[EN]One of the aims of this Special Issue is to analyse the critical, theoretical and historiographical accounts of Spanish poetry of the last century in order to explore the contingency of these narratives, thanks to a special reconsideration of the initial books of some authors. This article is based on the conviction that, in the case of José-Miguel Ullán, this return is mandatory, even despite the gesture of suppression that the poet showed in his collected work, Ondulaciones, by eliminating his initial publications. From this extirpation, I will try to contradict, on the one hand, the widespread and somewhat established image that Ullán's early poetry fits completely within the label of ‘social poetry’. And, on the other hand, I will stress the links that connect it with his writing as a whole, not in order to demonstrate a progressive linearity in his poetics, but rather with the aim of emphasising its alternate currents.