I am writing a term paper about Pablo Neruda, and I am having trouble creating a thesis that captures his style, although I am fairly familiar with his work. Any ideas? I would really appreciate it...

-- Dani P (profdani@juno.com), May 18, 1999

Answers

Don't know if this will help any, but here goes. First of all, are you writing the thesis in Spanish or English ? May sound like a silly question until you consider that if you are relying on translation, you are subject to the talent/capabilities of the translator. This may not be a problem for you, so in that case, you may be interested in a technique currently in use in Australia for "capturing" the style of another writer in our own. It's called fictocriticism. Of course this will necessitate a certain amount of creative tolerance on the part of your tutor/lecturer, but at the very least, you'll have something to hold her/his interest !! To use this technique, one must do all the research first, decide which aspect(s) of his career/work one wishes to concentrate on, then look at Neruda's work/interviews with him/reports about him, and use snippets from this as "his" part of the thesis -- Neruda speaking, as it were. You may/need to bring in "speech" from what others have said about him/his work -- this should include insights you have had or questions you might have and then weave all this into a forum of voices all speculating and answering each other via either direct quotes or closely monitored extemporaneous respones. All direct quotes must be foot/end noted, of course, for the convenience of the person reviewing/marking what is written. Another method of using research/source material in a fictocritical vein is to take snippets of material (quoted, of course and footnoted) and respond to them in a section following each quote letting your imagination/critical faculty have free rein, speculating and drawing in other quotes/ snippets as you go along. If this all sounds too complicated, let me know and I'll send you samples of things being done here, eh ?

Bon Chance,

Zan

-- Zan Ross (ganesha@iexpress.net.au), August 09, 1999.