Title: On the Ambivalence of the “la amada” in Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

Abstract: Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair is one of Pablo Neruda’s most famous works. The poet’s lyrical object, “la amada,” has become the focus of feminist literary criticism in recent years. However, criticism of the “la amada” has focused on the rhetorical techniques of the text and its association with gender culture, ignoring the inherent ambivalence of the “la amada,” which exists independently of the lyrical subject “I,” and which is the very foundation upon which her subjectivity is constructed.

Keywords: ambivalence, twilight, subjectivity, agency, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, Pablo Neruda

Author: Hongru Xing, Lecturer, Foreign Studies College, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan, China.

DOI: 10.19967/j.cnki.flc.2022.04.006