Book contents
- Pablo Neruda in Context
- Pablo Neruda in Context
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Introduction
- Part IResidence and Travel
- Part IILandmark Events and Relationships
- Part IIILiterary Influences and Poetic Evolution
- Part IVOther Genres
- Part VPolitics, Race, and Ecocriticism
- Chapter 27Pablo Neruda’s Political and Intellectual Trajectory
- Chapter 28Pablo Neruda on Machu Picchu and Revolution
- Chapter 29The Marxian Worldview in Selected Poems of Pablo Neruda
- Chapter 30Race and Ethnicity
- Chapter 31Beyond the National Poet
- Chapter 32Ecocritical Readings
- Part VIWorldwide Influence, Reception, and Legacy
- Works Cited
- Index
Chapter 30 - Race and Ethnicity
Pablo Neruda’s Black Atlantic
from Part V - Politics, Race, and Ecocriticism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 February 2026
Book contents
- Pablo Neruda in Context
- Pablo Neruda in Context
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Introduction
- Part IResidence and Travel
- Part IILandmark Events and Relationships
- Part IIILiterary Influences and Poetic Evolution
- Part IVOther Genres
- Part VPolitics, Race, and Ecocriticism
- Chapter 27Pablo Neruda’s Political and Intellectual Trajectory
- Chapter 28Pablo Neruda on Machu Picchu and Revolution
- Chapter 29The Marxian Worldview in Selected Poems of Pablo Neruda
- Chapter 30Race and Ethnicity
- Chapter 31Beyond the National Poet
- Chapter 32Ecocritical Readings
- Part VIWorldwide Influence, Reception, and Legacy
- Works Cited
- Index
Summary
This chapter addresses the Black Atlantic threads contained in Pablo Neruda’s corpus, mainly in Canto general (1950) and Canción de gesta (Song of Protest, 1960). The chapter is particularly focused on moments of poetic representation of the Atlantic slave trade and its aftermath. In this vein, it discusses the Caribbean literary influences – and specifically Négritude and Negrismo movements – that impacted Neruda’s writing, including the Martinican poet Aimé Césaire and the Cuban poet Nicolás Guillén. As a result, this essay unveils Neruda’s sociological but also political motivations for including the historiographical context of the Black Caribbean in his work, including Cuba’s Black internationalism in Canción de gesta. This latter part of the chapter, which is informed by a personal interview with Roberto Fernández Retamar, sheds light on the political reasons for the neglect of Neruda’s Black Atlantic in Canción de gesta, and offers considerations for correcting the overlooked dimensions of his work.
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- Pablo Neruda in Context , pp. 308 - 318Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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