De gigantes, murallas y lágrimas. La imaginación poética de China en Juan Rejano

pp. 98-114 In contrast to reflections on Spain and Hispanism, the imagination of the Orient has received little attention in literary and cultural studies research on the Spanish Republican exile to date. This essay aims to present a first outline of the production of oriental knowledge and images as a construction of identity and alterity in the culture of exile. An alternative to these cultural semantics is provided by the Diario de China by the communist poet Juan Rejano, result of a trip to Maoist China in 1959. This poetic logbook not only offers a remarkable historical document of an intercultural experience, but also reflects on the dispositive, possibilities, and limits of perceiving a foreign culture and gives us an insight into the engaged author’s modern understanding of history and culture.