Lizardi and Eroticism
Jon Elordi and Kirmen Uribe
Alberdania, 1996
Becerro de Bengoa Prize, 1995
This essay was Kirmen Uribe’s first book-length work. He wrote it with Jon Elordi when they were in their last year of college. They examined the poetry of the Basque poet Xabier Lizardi (1896-1933) and the place of eroticism in his work. Taking into consideration fin de siècle eroticism, European painting and Modernist literature, they looked at their influence on the Basque writer. They found that the love which appears in Lizardi’s poetry is closely bound up with the seasons, that is, with the cycles of life. The belief in eternity forces love to be spiritual. In Lizardi, eroticism is stylized.