Repetition, Fragmentation, and "Leprous" Writing in the Poetry of Antonio Méndez Rubio

Abstract

Antonio Méndez Rubio’s “leprous” poetry, which has appeared in magazines, a plaquette, sections of poetry collections, and poems, spans texts published between 1996 and 2017. Examples of this type of writing explore the potentiality offered by poetic forms that at first seem uniform and stable, but which end up being more fragmentary than they seem at first glance. These forms thus explore the tensions between form and content, highlighting the key role that readers play in the process of taking account of the work these texts do. It is thanks to repetition that readers focus on formal features that would normally go unnoticed and explore more thoroughly what these texts contribute to the discussion of what can be considered experimental poetry.