"Poetics and Emerging Textualities, 19th-21st Centuries" ("Poéticas y Textualidades Emergentes, s. XIX-XXI") is an established Research Group within the Department of English Studies, Universidad Complutense de Madrid. It was started by Professor Esther Sánchez-Pardo in 2009 under the name "Poetics in the English Language" (Poéticas en Lengua Inglesa").
Our research extends beyond conventional paradigms of "Poetics," which traditionally examine the critical dimensions of writing and the self-reflexive nature of literary production. We aim to analyse emergent textual forms that have developed throughout the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. The investigation prioritizes genres, movements, and literary works that challenge or interrogate the linear progression of literary history and its teleological assumptions.
Our scope ranges from nineteenth-century innovations such as the dramatic monologue in poetry and nascent forms of "life writing" or narrative verse, to contemporary manifestations including flash fiction, graphic narratives, and diverse iterations of lyrical expression in the twenty-first century. Our research emphasizes processes of hybridization and formal synthesis, exploring innovative theoretical frameworks including concepts such as "rearguard," "epigone," "critifiction," and "hybrid poetries." This work operates within an broad conceptualization of literature as a multifaceted reflection of social reality across its varied representational modes.