José María Eguren: The ‘Cinema of Attractions’ and Modern Peruvian Poetry Chrystian Zegarra In this chapter, I examine the work of José María Eguren from an intermedial perspective, namely, by looking at the relationship between early cinema (c. 1895-1907) and poetry. In doing so, I rely on Tom Gunning’s notion of the ‘cinema of attractions’ as well as the connection between cinema and magic that early filmmakers developed through a method called ‘trick film.’ I see this analytical framework as especially productive because of the stylistic similarities between Eguren’s poetry and both this theory and this practice. These ‘attractions’ tend to focus more on the spectacle of the presentation instead of a well-thought-out plot. Likewise, Eguren’s poetry emphasizes the apparently arbitrary movements of people and objects and de-emphasizes narrative development. Additionally, his innovative poetic works skilfully seized on the tricks and technical contributions of some of the most renowned filmmakers of his time, like Georges Méliès and Segundo de Chomón. My analysis should further secure Eguren’s place as a founder of the twentieth-century Peruvian poetic tradition and pioneer of the ‘cinematic’ poetry that flourished in the 1920s and 1930s. Symbolism and the Modern Poetry of José María Eguren José María Eguren (born Lima 1874; died Lima 1942) is widely considered one of the founders of modern poetry in Peru. For example, Núñez (1961: 220) has stated that Eguren gave new musical and syntagmatic dimensions to Peruvian poetic expression. Monguió (1954: 17) has called Eguren’s poetry an axis of transition between the modernista inheritance of Rubén Darío,