SOURCE: "Vipers, Victims, and Virgins: Women and Their Relationships with Men in the Poetry of Nicanor Parra," in Theory and Practice of Feminist Literary Criticism, edited by Gabriela Mara and Karen S. Van Hooft, Bilingual Press, 1982, pp. 256-78.

In the following essay, Van Hooft analyzes the role of women in Parra's poetry and their relationship to the male protagonists of his poems. She asserts that Parra attacks social institutions and the human condition, not simply the role of women.

One aspect of the work of the Chilean poet Nicanor Parra that has been insufficiently studied is the role played by women and the related themes of love and sex. This is surprising, for even a superficial examination of Parra's works from Poemas y antipoemas (1954) to the controversial Artefactos (1972) reveals a considerable preoccupation with women and with men's relationships to them.

The typical analysis of this theme in Parra's...