SOURCE: "Vallejo, Heidegger and Language," in Words of Power: Essays in Honour of Alison Fairlie, edited by Dorothy Gabe Coleman and Gillian Jondorf, University of Glasgow Publications in French Language and Literature, 1987, pp. 163-86.

In the essay below, Close analyzes the linquistic richness of Vallejo's poetry, noting his innovative use of syntax, spelling, wordplay, and ambiquity. Noting similarities between Vallejo's verse and Heidegger's theories of language, the critic also relates Vallejo's focus on the nature of language and his attempt to address its limitations in order "to project a more accurate and authentic view of the human condition, of man's 'being-in-the-world.' 'I

Vallejo is concerned with the fiction that preoccupies many modern writers, namely, the "I" that perceives nature and creates meaning.

—Christiane von Buelow, in her "The Allegorical Gsze of César Vuilejo," in Modern Language Notes, March, 1985.

The reader coming to the poetry of C...