Urbanism as language
Introduction
Treaty on urban planning is a work by the Spanish poet Ángel González published in 1967 and belonging to the author's earliest period. It is made up of a set of poems and represents a closing to his first period, as well as a change in his career as a writer that will provide various different nuances in his later publications. This work was published before the arrival of the newest poets, who would later have to coexist with the experienced Spanish poets. This work of poetry by the author is preceded by three others: Rough world") (1956), Without hope, with conviction") (1961) and Grado elemental")[1] (1962).
The work consists of a total of 27 poems in which the predominant text typology is social poetry mixed with the sentimental. It is divided into three parts: "City One", "Intermediate Songs, Sonnets and Other Music" and "City Zero". There has been more than one edition, the most recent is the one that incorporates the reading of Carlos Pardo by Bartleby Editores. Through different descriptions of places in the city, the author denounces an unjust society and recriminates the warlike period that he had to live through previously in the post-civil war years in Spain. In Treatise on Urbanism, the author expresses his opinion about the stage of history in which he finds himself, through activities or everyday aspects known to everyone. After this last collection of poems, the poet enters a different stage in his poetry: in part, one could say that his excessive use of irony and humor begins more clearly in the situations that concern him, born from a loss of faith in his own poetry in the face of the reality that comes upon him, and his writings begin to be more complicated to understand.
Although it is not as famous as the first book of poems he composed, "Treaty on Urbanism" clearly illustrates the author's evolution over time and how his experiences and childhood have affected him when writing. There are several fundamental aspects to understand the themes he uses and his way of developing them: his father died when he was just born and his brother was murdered by the rebels during the Spanish civil war, so this historical event was always very present in the poet, who not only acted as a mere observer, but also lived with it in the first person.
Irony is very present throughout the entire work, a resource that Ángel González used regularly from this moment on during all his years of literary production. He explains it himself in an interview: "Irony facilitates a tone of distancing that lightens the dangerous sentimental burden of certain attitudes, something important for a person who, like me, tries to write poetry from his experiences while preserving a minimum of modesty."[2][3].