Description
SELF-HELP POEMS
Book summary
This collection of poems defies the conventions of language and poetic tradition to offer an uncomfortable and revealing literary experience. Ro Gotelé is suspicious of words and consciously violates them, exposing the power relations hidden within dominant discourse. Using materials extracted from the street and social media, the author constructs a broken labyrinth where wonder, strangeness, and fear mingle with a subtle, disconcerting humor. Far from being a comforting refuge, this book shows that the elements are still out there.
What is it about?
Ro Gotelé writes from a position of suspicion toward language, aware that power dynamics exist in speech where the one in charge always ends up imposing their will. For this reason, her poetry violates and questions tradition, while incorporating materials extracted from the everyday environment, the street, and social media. What drives her is a demanding commitment that challenges the dominant discourse—the one that standardizes taste, nullifies dissent, and subjugates our imagination. Without prejudice, she surrenders to a declassed language and traces a broken labyrinth before the reader, inviting them to enter with their eyes wide open. In its pages, wonder, strangeness, and fear stir alongside a subtle, beautiful, and uncomfortable humor that is not always pleasant to the touch. If a book is usually a refuge, here the author constructs one that shows that the elements are still present.
Main themes
- Critique of dominant discourse and the standardization of taste
- Power relations hidden in everyday language
- Poetry as a tool for resistance and dissent
- Incorporation of urban and digital materials in literary creation
- Uncomfortable humor and strangeness as aesthetic strategies
Who is it recommended for?
This book is aimed at readers of contemporary poetry interested in proposals that question established forms and explore the limits of language. It will also be attractive to those seeking a literary experience that disturbs, challenges, and offers no easy answers, as well as to those who value poetry as a tool for social and political critique.
What this book contributes
- A critical look at how language reproduces power relations in everyday life
- A poetic experience that combines strangeness, humor, and aesthetic commitment
- A literary proposal that integrates materials from the street and social media into poetic tradition
- A space for reflection on dissent, imagination, and resistance to dominant discourse
Technical specifications
- Author: GOTELE,RO
- Publisher: EDICIONES LA UÑA ROTA
- Language: Spanish
- Subject: POETRY
- Collection: USELESS BOOKS
- Binding: Paperback
- Publication date: March 2021
- Number of pages: 108
- Weight: 131 g
Editorial assessment
Self-Help Poems is presented as a poetic proposal that seeks neither to please nor to comfort, but to unsettle and provoke thought. Ro Gotelé's work stands out for its honesty in exposing the contradictions of language and for its ability to integrate the everyday and the digital into a tradition that often resists such materials. For the reader interested in contemporary poetry with a critical conscience, this book offers a stimulating and challenging experience that invites one to question both what is read and the very act of reading.