The Mexican diplomat, playwright, and essayist, Octavio Paz (1914-1998) was internationally regarded as one of the principal poets of the twentieth century. His work was formally recognized in 1990 wh...
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Nobel laureate Octavio Paz was a Mexican author who enjoyed a worldwide reputation as a master poet and essayist. Although Mexico figures prominently in Paz's work--one of his best-known books, The La...
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"Desde mi adolescencia he escrito poemas y no he cesado de escribirlos. Quise ser poeta y nada más. En mis libros de prosa me propuse servir a la poesía, justificarla y defenderla, expli...
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In the following essay, Wilson offers a biographical and critical overview of Paz and his works, focusing mainly on the phase of his career from 1931 through the early 1940s.
Octavio Paz was born in 1...
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In the following essay, Vendler offers a favorable review of the Collected Poems of Octavio Paz, 1957-1987.
Nothing in the visible estrangement of poetry from prose is more astonishing than their estr...
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In the following excerpt, McClatchy reviews The Collected Poems of Octavio Paz, 1957-1987.
In the prologue to his magisterial study of Sor Juana, as part of a meditation on “the system of impli...
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In the following essay, Durán offers an overview of the works and career of Paz shortly after the poet was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1990.
A welcome surprise, a pleasant surprise...
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In the following essay, Zubizarreta explores thematic and aesthetic similarities among Paz and poets Wallace Stevens and Rubén Darío.
In Children of the Mire, Octavio Paz states that &#x...
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In the following essay, Poirier explores connections between Paz and American poets including William James.
Responding to a question last evening, Octavio Paz spoke with tolerant amusement of the var...
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In the following essay, Kushigian explores ways in which Paz uses language, imagery, and subject matter to depict his philosophy of the mutuality and intersection of Eastern and Western culture and ph...
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In the following essay, Clark offers an analysis of Renga, a quadri-lingual poem written in April 1969 in Paris by Octavio Paz, Charles Tomlinson, Jacques Roubaud, and Edoardo Sanguineti.
One of the m...
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In the following essay, Khan discusses cosmopolitan and multicultural influences on Paz's poetry.
(1)
In their study of Kafka, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari raise a set of interrelat...
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In the following essay, Oviedo examines surrealism and poetic modes in “Salamandra.”
Any attempt to understand the poetic “modes” of Octavio Paz will require that readers f...
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In the following essay, Santí offers an overview of Paz's career and works.
In choosing Octavio Paz to receive the Nobel Prize in 1990, the Swedish Academy pointed particularly to Paz&#x...
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In the following essay, Zubizarreta explores literary connections between Paz and Robert Frost.
While scholars of Octavio Paz may be familiar with his 1945 interview of the American poet Robert Frost,...
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In the following essay, Mujica reviews Paz's A Tale of Two Gardens, which contains poems about India written between 1952 and 1995.
Octavio Paz was obsessed with India. Although many American a...
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In the following essay, Durán shares personal memories and a summarization of the life and work of Paz, following the death of the poet in 1998.
I first met Octavio Paz in Paris, in 1951. I was...
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In the following excerpt, Valdés considers the relationships between poetry and philosophy in Paz's works.
Let us consider a specific problem: can poetry express philosophical concepts? ...
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In the following essay Hirsch offers an overview of theme and use of language in Paz's poetry.
Octavio Paz practiced poetry like a secret religion. He dwelt in its mysteries, he invoked its sac...
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Critical Essay by Jascha Kessler
Octavio Paz stands in the first rank of poets on the world-scene today. I'd stress the notion world-scene because it won't do thinking of him as a local,...
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Critical Essay by Donald Sutherland
In spite of being a "world" poet, as glossily cosmopolitan as they come, [Octavio Paz] remains programmatically Mexican, not to say pre-Columbian; and...
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Critical Essay by Richard C. Sterne
Octavio Paz wrote in 1953 his only play, a one-act re-creation of [Hawthorne's] "Rappaccini's Daughter." Re-creation, not simply adaptat...
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Critical Essay by Raymond D. Souza
[The] sense of motion created by "Exclamación" and "Juventud" … is a key to the dynamic process of both poems. However, nei...
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Critical Essay by Dore Ashton
[In the poems of Octavio Paz] I recognized the paradox which haunts us all, which makes of art criticism a perpetually unsatisfactory endeavor. I recognized that if the w...
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Critical Essay by Arthur Terry
Though [Paz's] account of modern poetry is deliberately selective [in Children of the Mire], there are many passages which a more systematic historian of literatu...
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Critical Essay by Roger Shattuck
Octavio Paz, an important public and literary figure in Mexico today, has published several volumes of condensed and highly metaphoric poetry in Spanish that display h...
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Critical Essay by Jason Wilson
[Octavio Paz] is a poet whose reading of surrealism enabled him to revalue and affirm the role of poetry in the twentieth century in terms of a liberating, quasi-religio...
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Critical Essay by Susnigdha Dey
Breaking new ground has been for Octavio Paz a serious preoccupation. The Orient provided him with new style and concepts. The haiku drew him naturally, and so did the ...
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Critical Essay by Nereo E. Condini
In this anthology of Octavio Paz's works [A Draft of Shadows],… the impression we receive initially is that of a Mexican poet exposed for the first tim...
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[In the following review, the critic summarizes the contents of An Erotic Beyond: Sade, noting the "uncommon intelligence and intellectual maturity" of Paz's approach to Sade.]
[I...
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[In the following review, Jamison comments on the changes in Paz's responses to Sade's literary legacy in An Erotic Beyond.]
The works of the Marquis de Sade arouse strong passionsȁ...
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[Hirsch is a poet. In the following essay, he contemplates characteristics of Paz's poetry.]
Octavio Paz practiced poetry like a secret religion. He dwelt in its mysteries, he invoked its sacra...
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[In the following obituary, Sheridan and Randolph assess Paz's place in Mexican literature and culture.]
From government leaders and billionaire businessmen to jeans-clad students and workers, ...
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[In the following review, McMurray surveys the content of Al paso, noting its thematic range and style.]
In his prologue Octavio Paz refers to Al paso as periodismo literario, which aptly describes th...
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[In the following review, Herrera outlines the substance and style of Essays on Mexican Art, focusing on the poetic instinct that seems to inform Paz's aesthetic taste.]
Though arranged chronol...
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[In the following excerpt, Lawson detects revisionist tendencies in the thesis of Sor Juana or, The Traps of Faith.]
Octavio Paz, the Nobel laureate of 1990, declares that he chose "The Traps o...
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[Stavans is a novelist and critic. In the following review, he examines Paz's treatment of love in The Double Flame, admiring its thematic breadth and depth.)
At 81, Octavio Paz is incredibly a...
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[In the following review, Mojica addresses the significance of Paz's association with the poet Xavier Villaurrutia, whose works, particularly Nostalgia for Death, prompted notable exegeses by P...
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[In the following review, Hopkinson traces the thematic origins of The Double Flame.]
It is tempting, hut incorrectly dismissive, to bunch this book [The Double Flame] with Carlos Fuentes' rece...
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[Trevelyan is writer of history and travel guides. In the following review, he surveys the historical and cultural contexts of Indian civilization that inform the essays of In Light of India and the p...
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[Galhraith is an author and professor of economics emeritus at Harvard University. In the following review, Galbraith reveals the thematic arrangement of In Light of India.]
Some 30-odd years ago, whi...
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[In the following obituary, the commentator reviews the highlights of Paz's life and career.]
Octavio Paz, one of Mexico's greatest poets and writers and a Nobel prize winner, died Sunda...
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[In the following obituary, Barnes describes the literary and cultural significance of Paz's writings as well as the milestones of his life.]
Octavio Paz, 84, the Mexican writer and Nobel laure...
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[In the following obituary, Kandell concentrates on diverse literary and cultural influences that shaped Paz's writings, detailing various controversies prompted by his views.]
Octavio Paz, Mex...
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Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz
