The cineraria en la nieba: on ecological poetics in bombal

Abstract

The narrative texts (novels and short stories) of María Luisa Bombal are driven by a logic profoundly related to both poetic thought and nature: the images of the profound, linked to solitude, silence, shadow and night, the dynamics of the fall that culminates in the death-resurrection of hummus; the dominion of the vegetable world (trees, plants, algae, flowers…), of their cycles and the animal creatures they are related to (birds, fish, serpents, frogs…), and water in its various forms (lagoons, rivers, rain, fog, mist, swamps, oceans, etc.). All are projected and have an intimate relationship with human beings and their destinies, making of these narrations a curious and rich fusion of poetry and prose that strengthens and gives meaning to their argumentation and plots.