1 - Modernist poetry

Summary

Attempts to analyze Modernismo [Modernism] have now entered their second century. Virtually from its inception, literary observers and critics have struggled to pinpoint its distinctive nature and to detail its primary characteristics. While innumerable studies have contributed to our understanding of the movement, its image is increasingly refined by recent examinations of the profoundly philosophic and political nature of modernista [Modernist] texts, their relationship with other literatures and modes of discourse, and the way they reflect personal responses to the general trends of modern life. Though Rubén Darío (1867-1916, born Félix Rubén García Sarmiento) defined his - and, therefore, modernist -aesthetics as “acrática,” that is, opposed to all authority (“Palabras liminares,” Prosas profanas y otros poemas), and even though this feature continues to appear on the lists of fundamental characteristics of modernist verse - (often labeled “voluntad de estilo” or “striving for an individual style” [see Davison, The Concept of Modernism in Hispanic Criticism]), Modernism manifests an essential unity which stems from its origin in a shared literary, philosophic, and social context. In the broadest of terms, Modernism is the linguistically rich and formally innovative literary movement that began in Spanish America in the late 1870s and that lasted into the second decade of the twentieth century. Its recourse to European artistic visions and poetic models - primarily French Parnassian and symbolist verse - reflected a dissatisfaction with the restrictive Spanish poetics of the day, a longing for cultural autonomy, and a desire to achieve a sense of equality with the great cultures of Western Europe.