SOURCE: "The World Upside-Down in the Work of César Vallejo," in Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, Vol. LXII, No. 2, April, 1985, pp. 163-77.

In the following excerpt, Hart explores Vallejo's treatment of the theme of the world turned upside-down, asserting that his early poetry and prose convey a "desire to return to a silent paradise of animal simplicity," while his writings after his conversion to Communism depict both a world gone wrong and the hope for a future utopia.

The desire to turn the world upside-down, as expressed in the Trilce poems, is to be viewed as a modern example of a topos that has enjoyed a rich and varied tradition in European literature, especially in the avant-garde. For the search is ultimately directed towards a prelapsarian state. But, as we find so often in Vallejo's poetry, this poetical device is used for specifically personal ends. In Vallejo's early...