Towards a 'poetics of the fragment': "Variaciones en blanco", by Ada Salas

Abstract

The article analyzes the poetic work of Ada Salas, focusing on her second poetry collection Variaciones en blanco and its relationship with the "poetics of the fragment." It highlights the influence of José Ángel Valente and the connection to the "poetics of silence," characterized by brevity, synthesis, and the use of blank space as a semantic and rhythmic element. The author uses fragmentation as an aesthetic resource and an attitude towards reality, reflecting the crisis and disintegration of modernity. In Variaciones en blanco, Salas addresses themes such as loss, pain, and loneliness, employing a minimalist and suggestive language that implies more than it says. The work is presented as an internal dialogue and a search for the word capable of expressing the unspeakable. In this context, the fragment becomes a means to represent the whole through its parts, culminating in silence and introspection.