The Disrupted Balance. The I and the Other in Xela Arias’s Poetry

Abstract

This article offers an overview of the configuration of the I in Xela Arias’s work and its complex relationship with the Other in her four poetry books, published between 1986 and 2003. My aim is to analyse Arias’s work from this perspective, to discuss several key factors that situate the author in her context, and to assess both the originality of her work and her contribution to modernizing Galician poetry. Some final notes on the re- ception of Arias’s poetry at the time of publication and in subsequent years are also offered.

Keywords

• Xela Arias
• contemporary Galician poetry
• literature and gender
• poetic voice