Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Quevedo versus JRJ

A student analyzed poetry by Quevedo and Juan Ramon Jimenez and arrived at a conclusion that the main difference between these poets (oh, how I love essays that list differences between authors separated by centuries!) is that Quevedo's vocabulary is "simple and consists mostly of popular words anybody would recognize" while JRJ's vocabulary is complex and sophisticated.

Huh?

Is there a parallel universe out there with a completely different version of Quevedo and JRJ?

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3 comments:

Jonathan said...

Is it possible the student meant the exact opposite? Not a very nuanced thesis, but at least not totally wrong if you reverse the two poets.

Clarissa said...

I thought that at first, too, but then there was a detailed analysis trying to prove the point. Of course, if you really try, you can cull enough examples of "easy" vocabulary in Quevedo.

This is the problem with these difference-based essays. They are useless.

Anonymous said...

Good God.

At least I have Mario de Andrade vs. Vargas Llosa.