This presentation examines poetic representations of the city of Lima over the last fifty years, with a particular focus on the city’s transformation under Peru’s neoliberal project since the 1990s. Beginning in the 1970s, Peruvian poetry embraced the city and explored the possibilities of colloquial language to represent the experiences and aspirations of a rapidly expanding urban population. During the economic and political crises of the 1980s and 1990s, these representations became increasingly marked by violence, instability, and social fragmentation. In the neoliberal era, Lima emerges as a city shaped by market logic and its contradictions. Drawing on Walter Benjamin’s concept of the flâneur, this presentation argues that contemporary poetry reimagines Lima as a space where political critique and poetic resistance converge.

Carlos Villacorta Gonzáles is a writer and Professor of Latin American Literature at the University of Maine. His research focuses on contemporary Peruvian and Latin American poetry, urban representations in literature, and cultural studies. His publications include Poéticas de la ciudad: Lima en la poesía peruana (2018) and the anthology Lima escrita: Arquitectura poética de la ciudad, 1970–2020 (2021). He also co-edited Vivir la violencia en el Perú del nuevo milenio (2023). He is editor in chief of the digital magazine Polis Poesía (https://www.polispoesia.com/)