"Death and Alien Environment in Pablo Neruda's "Residencia en la Tierra

P ABLO NERUDA'S evolution as a creative artist has passed through many stages. One phase in that evolution, Resideincia en la tierra, represents a Surrealist rejection of society and of rationality.' Traditionally, studies of this work have stressed its chaotic quality and consequent difficulty. The consensus of the critics is that Neruda allowed his subconscious to overflow spontaneously into these poems. His work was held to be unpolished, and he was said to have more interest in his own creative process than in the deliberate working of poetry: Poesia oscura porque el poeta no acaba de configurar sus intuiciones. Embriones, larvas, chispazos, germenes, conatos, amagos de expresi6n p6etica. . . . El acto de poetizar le daba m-is placer que el contemplar un poema logrado. Leer a Neruda es deslizarse dentro del proceso creador de un poeta.2

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