Poetica de la Frialdad: La Narrativa de Virgilio Pinera

Virgilio Pinera, author of a large collection of poems, short stories, novels, plays, and essays, is one of Cuba’s most important writers. Poetica de la Frialdad offers a new reading of Pinera’s narrative. During the 1940’s, when Caribbean writers such as Alejo Carpentier and Jose Lezama Lima were elaborating the aesthetics of magic realism, the neo-baroque and negritude, Pioera’s tendency was opposite. Some of his books have titles such as Cuentes frios (Cold Stories), Aire frios (Cold Air) and Helada zona (Frozen Zone). For Pinera, coldness is a poetic principle that governs not only his narrative but also his poetry and plays, and consists of the exposition of pure facts. This exposition of pure facts reveals Pinera’s obsessive concern with style. Coldness in Pinera’s writing is a privileged image of the society and the epoch where he lives. At times, coldness refers to masochism. Coldness and cruelty function as the denial of sensuality, as a condition for masochistic pleasure. Coldness is also an image of culture and its discontents in postmodern society.