Editing Surrealism: On the Antología de la Poesía Surrealista Latinoamericana (1974) by Stefan Baciu in his letters to Ludwig Zeller and Susana Wald

Abstract

This paper explores a number of letters written by the Romanian professor Stefan Baciu to the Chilean artists Ludwig Zeller and Susana Wald. These documents remain under custody of the “Centro de Documentación Patrimonial” at the University of Talca (Chile). The article focuses on the origin of the well-known Anthology of the Latin American Surrealist Poetry, published in Mexico in 1974. The main point consists in research about the critical principles that sustain the anthology, and the reasons behind Baciu’s selection. This study considers the letters as inscriptions in documents that reflects on esthetical and artistical practices. Finally, these forms of writing must be read as part of a bigger tradition integrated in the Latin American literary Archive.