The poet, the exile of the polis and the reterritorialization of literature. A Benjaminian reading of Taberna y otros lugares de Roque Dalton

Abstract

In this essay we propose a reading of Roque Dalton's work Taberna and other places (1969). We consider that it is appropriate to think about the figure of the Salvadoran poet in the light, not simply of political exiles, but also of the deprivation (in generic terms) of the figure of the poet from his former functions in –what Ángel Rama called– the city literate. The modernized city (Rama, 1984) expelled the poet from his privileged place, causing a trauma and a novel search. In this context, the poet appears redefining his voice and literature undergoes a reterritorialization, that is, it redefines its margins. In Latin America, the problem was tackled by José Martí, who even proposed new challenges to the discipline (such as the problem of Latin American identity). In particular, we
believe that Taberna and other places (1969) takes up these searches and we risk as a hypothesis that, by redefining his field, Dalton's work can be read not only literary, but also historiographical from a Benjaminian perspective.