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Luis Cernuda (1902 - 1963), is widely recognized as one of the great Spanish poets of the 20th century. The central concerns of this radical homosexual poet are evident in the title of his life's major opus: La Realidad y el Deseo (Reality and Desire). In this work, which Cernuda began in the 1930s and expanded on almost until his death in 1963, the poet explores desire, love, subject, object, history and sexuality in poems which draw influences from romanticism, classicism, and the surrealist avant-garde.
Cernuda is known as a member of the Generation of '27, a group of Spanish poets and artists including Federico Garcia Lorca. He broke new ground with "Los Placeres Prohibidos" (Forbidden Pleasures), an avant-garde work in which the poet used surrealism to explore his sexuality.
During the Spanish Civil War, Cernuda fled to England, where he began an exile that later took him to France, Scotland, Massachusetts (Mount Holyoke College), Mexico, and California; he never returned to Spain.
His major works include
- Poetry: La realidad y el deseo
- Prose poems: Ocnos, Variaciones sobre un tema Mexicano
- Criticism: Literatura Poesia I & II
His major English language critics include Derek Harris and Phillip Silver.
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