Winétt de Rokha and the surrealist drift. A journey from Formas del sueño (1927) to El valle pierde su atmósfera (1949)

Abstract

The poetic work of Winétt de Rokha (1894-1951) has long been overshadowed by that of her partner, Pablo de Rokha. Although the pioneering works of María Inés Zaldívar (2005) and Javier Bello (2008) have partially rectified this oversight, there is still much that remains unknown. The aim of this paper is to propose that Winétt de Rokha, at the same time as developing an avant-garde and political poetics, was the protagonist of an ascending surrealist drift. To do so, I will first analyse her connections with the Chilean surrealist group La Mandrágora, and then study Formas del sueño (1927), “Lenguaje sin palabras” from Oniromancia (1943), and El valle pierde su atmósfera (1949).