What question did this study set out to answer?

The aim is to examine how seismic concepts relate to Baroque interpretations, particularly through Sarduy’s work.

January 26, 2026

Earthquake, Baroque: Severo Sarduy’s Barroco and the Tectonics of a Period Concept

Key Points

The aim is to examine how seismic concepts relate to Baroque interpretations, particularly through Sarduy’s work.
Analysis of Severo Sarduy’s Barroco in relation to the works of other twentieth-century authors.
Comparison of seismic principles in colonial architecture with Baroque philosophy.
Exploration of Wölfflin’s discourse on tectonics as a framework for understanding Baroque.
Identified parallels between seismic activity and Baroque cultural expressions.
Demonstrated that Baroque literature reflects seismic themes found in architecture.
Highlighted the influence of various Cuban and Spanish intellectuals on the concept of the Baroque.

Abstract

Abstract: Pál Kelemen coined the term “Earthquake Baroque” to describe the seismically conditioned architecture of colonial Guatemala. This article takes Severo Sarduy’s Barroco as an occasion to identify seismic structures—tremors and stabilizations—in other twentieth-century accounts of the Baroque, from fellow Cubans Alejo Carpentier and José Lezama Lima to the Catalanist-turned-Falangist intellectual Eugenio d’Ors to the discourse of “tectonics” that, in Wölfflin’s work, precedes and subtends the theorization of the Baroque.

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