The Presence of Women in José Agustín Goytisolo's Poetry

Abstract

March 19, 2009 was the tenth anniversary of the death of José Agustín Goytisolo. In commemoration there has been a host of tributes and conferences devoted to studying his poetry and reviewing his legacy from diverse standpoints. The purpose of this article is to fill a gap by approaching an aspect which -perhaps surprisingly- has not received any special attention up to the present time: the presence of women in the poetry of Goytisolo. May aim is to give a panoramic view of the place women occupy in his poems and show how the great majority of these feminine figures differ from those present in literary tradition. This is due, firstly, to the fact that, in the enunciation, the figure of the woman is not appropriated and converted into an object of contemplation, but rather, is generally the subject of the story on an equal footing with the poet. Secondly, the women in Goytisolo's poetry do not conform to the "codes" that patriarchal discourse has applied to them: they have life of their own and do not function as symbols of the aspirations of others nor as a projection of the male imagination.