César Vallejo versus José María Eguren: Los Heraldos Negros and Simbólicas. An essay of comparative rhetoric

Abstract

Comparative Rhetoric is an area of knowledge that assimilates the contributions of General Textual Rhetoric (García Berrio, Arduini and Bottiroli), Rhetoric of Argumentation (Perelman and Olbrechst-Tyteca) and Cultural Rhetoric (Albaladejo). It is a question of comparing rhetorical figures, argumentative techniques, and visions of the world of two or more writers from a previous analysis of the cultural context of the time. The article seeks to compare two poems from the first decade of the twentieth century: Los heraldos negros and Simbólicas. The idea is to establish similarities and differences based on proposals of researchers such as Jorge Basadre or Estuardo Núñez, among others, who have addressed the work of both Vallejo and Eguren. First, Eguren and Vallejo will be placed in the context of the Peruvian poetry. Then, the specific features of both authors’ poetry will be analyzed. And finally, a representative poem of Eguren will be compared with one of Vallejo. Both authors are fundamental in the context of the bicentennial of the independence of Peru because they laid the foundations for the creation of a national literary tradition.