Nicanor Parra's 107th Birthday

Google Dooles 15.09.2021 13:15  Date: September 5, 2021 Chilean educator, physicist and poet Nicanor Parra, a founder of the literary movement known as “anti-poetry,” said that he taught physics to make a living and wrote poetry to stay alive. Today’s Doodle celebrates Parra’s 107th birthday and his legacy as one of the most significant Latin American poets in contemporary history. In 1914, Nicanor Segundo Parra Sandoval was born on this day in San Fabián de Alico, Chile. He published his first poetry collection as an undergraduate student of mathematics, physics and education in 1937. Although he went on to teach as a professor of theoretical physics at the University of Chile in 1952--a position he held for close to 40 years--Parra is best known today not for his scientific career but for his poetry. His most famous collection, Poemas y antipoemas was published in 1954. Parra coined his work “antipoetry” because it rebelled against the formality and highbrow subjects of traditional poetry. Instead, his poems described the challenges of everyday life using the language spoken by common people in Chile. Even more rebelliously, Parra often used dark humor and sarcasm to make his points. The antipoet wanted to make poetry accessible and relevant to everyone. Throughout a trailblazing career decorated by some of the highest honors for Spanish-language literature, Parra published dozens of poetry collections. This body of work has since been extensively translated for an international readership. His global prestige extended into the scientific community as one of the leading experts on Newtonian physics and many of his pupils are still working physicists today. Happy Birthday, Nicanor Parra! Location: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Tags: , , , , ,