Shadows of Paradise: Re-creations of Eden in Luis Cernuda, Emilio Pradas, and Vicente Aleixandre

This thesis explores the representation of exile in works by Luis Cernuda, Emilio Prados, and Vicente Aleixandre, tracing each poet's depiction of this state in terms of the Genesis story of Creation, Paradise, and the Fall. The study locates all three poets within the Romantic tradition, due to their reshaping the primal myth to fit a contemporary, personal narrative. Since all three poets were members of Spain's Generation of 1927, the mass exile that came about as a consequence of the Spanish Civil War would logically loom largely in their work. This thesis, however, focuses not only on works written after literal exile was a reality, but also on earlier works, since they too are imbued with themes of alienation, and argues through close readings of poems that due largely to their homosexuality, all three poets exhibit exilic tendencies early on in their respective processes of artistic creation.; Chapter One deals with prose poems from the first edition of Luis Cernuda's Ocnos (1942) and Variaciones sobre tema mexicano (1952). In this chapter I offer readings of poems from the two works, addressing how, together, they complete the Abramsian Romantic Plot, including the three crucial steps of Paradise, the Fall, and, ultimately, Reconciliation, or "Marriage."; Chapter Two takes as its topic Emilio Prados's Jardin cerrado (1946) and examines this collection also within the parameters of the Abramsian Romantic Plot. Through my commentary on poems from the collection, many of which are very hermetic in nature, this chapter demonstrates that the aforementioned three steps of Paradise, the Fall, and Reconciliation are present in Jardin cerrado as well.; Chapter Three is devoted to Vicente Aleixandre's Sombra del paraiso (1944) and analyzes this collection of poetry as one that essentially depicts a paradisiacal past from the vantage of a fallen present. The Abramsian idea of reconciliation seems largely absent here, and the chapter seeks to offer a reason for this.; Chapter Four examines poems from Cernuda's Los placeres prohibidos (1931), Aleixandre's Ambito (1928), and Prados's Cuerpo perseguido (written between 1927 and 1928 and published as first part of Memoria del olvido in 1940). This chapter attributes the sense of exile present in early works by all three poets to their homosexuality and examines how each poet articulates the struggle between his sexuality and a repressive society.