“If I do not have any money, why do you want my inheritance?”: The Figure of the Beggar in the Poetry of Joaquín Pablo Posada

The popular figure of the beggar is characterized by his joy, comicalness and social self-exclusion. In the nineteenth century, a new approach, one of a realistic nature, emerged around this character. This paper aims to recover to critical attention the poetic work of the Colombian Joaquín Pablo Po...

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Autores:
Molina Morales, Guillermo
Tipo de recurso:
Fecha de publicación:
2020
Institución:
Universidad EAFIT
Repositorio:
Repositorio EAFIT
Idioma:
spa
OAI Identifier:
oai:repository.eafit.edu.co:10784/17650
Acceso en línea:
http://hdl.handle.net/10784/17650
Palabra clave:
Beggar
Figures of laughter
Popular culture
Colombian poetry
Joaquín Pablo Posada
Mendigo
Figuras de la risa
Cultura popular
Poesía colombiana
Joaquín Pablo Posada
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License
Copyright © 2020 Guillermo Molina Morales
Description
Summary:The popular figure of the beggar is characterized by his joy, comicalness and social self-exclusion. In the nineteenth century, a new approach, one of a realistic nature, emerged around this character. This paper aims to recover to critical attention the poetic work of the Colombian Joaquín Pablo Posada, practically forgotten these days, in order to examine how he shapes the figure of the beggar in a time of transition. The findings show the existence of a hybrid imaginary (halfway between the cultured and the popular) of a jocular-serious nature. On the one hand, traditional traits are maintained, which include the beggar within the festive tendency. On the other hand, a modern denunciation is introduced about the beggar’s physical and moral sufferings, which challenge the discourse of bourgeois elites, without forsaking its central scheme. In the paper’s conclusions, the complexity of Posada's character is compared to other poetic subjects constructed during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which usually adhere to a single face of this figure, either the traditional or modern trait.