Spanish American Modernism: A Literary Revolution
Spanish American Modernism
Spanish American literary movement born in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and distributed in Spain by Rubén Darío following the publication of his book Prose Profane. Its importance was crucial for the evolution of Spanish poetry, and that was a total renovation of it.
The Modernist Revolution
The consequences for Spanish poetry are varied in nature:
- With Modernism, foreign literary movements were released in Spain: Parnasianism and French Symbolism and decadent work of English and Italian. Rubén had managed to do an exemplary synthesis of all these influences, along with elements of romantic poetry.
- The literature takes on an aristocratic air and is devoted to the exaltation of beauty. The historical circumstances and social problems have no place.
- The writer adopts a lifestyle consistent with his conception of art: the bohemian. Contempt of business sense and bourgeois life. His world is one of cafes, chats, and nights.
Topics
Two main lines or exotic past issues, resulting in the expression of the intimacy of the poet. (Trace of Romanticism.)
- The escapist line is the most representative. The modernist poet in search of exotic beauty and ancient times. The rich imagination allows you to compose verbal pictures with thumbnail details. There is no geographical limit: Japan and Paris. Erotica, amoral behavior often seen as a demonstration of anti-bourgeois rebellious spirit (spirit modernist).
- The inner line, allows the poet to express discomfort with his surroundings. Love and the world are viewed with eyes full of melancholy and sadness. The nostalgia and anxiety are part of uninhabited landscapes or gardens in autumn twilight, with clear romantic roots.
The Style and Meter
Modernist poets exploit all the possibilities offered by language to achieve the desired beauty. Color is a key element. The color adjectives through all ranges.
The musicality of the verse is one of its instruments, that will accommodate the issues. Very marked rhythms in large affairs, gentle melodies and delicate emotions.
The modernist poet uses a rich vocabulary and chosen words. Also, there is plenty of alliteration, synesthesia, and bold images. The modernist preferences lean toward the Alexandrian, the eneasílabo dodecasyllabic or little used until then.
In the stanzas, they are looking for variety, blending traditional and innovative structures.
Spanish Modernist Poets
Rubén Darío, Salvador Rueda, Antonio Machado and Juan Ramón Jiménez, Manuel Machado, Francisco Villaespesa, and Eduardo Marquina.
The Poetry of Antonio Machado
His poetry is deep and serious. The topics are varied, but a return of intimacy, memories, the Castilian landscape, concern over Spain, the arrival of death, etc. In the metric, he leans to the use of popular forms. The style is deceptively simple, is characterized by the absence of rhetorical complexities: sober and clear.
Nearby early Modernism, often associated with the book”Lonelines” (1903) reissued in 1907 as (intimacy Becquerian tradition).
On the other hand, a side closer to the Generation of 98, represented by Poetry more realistic and objective. Next to the landscape of Soria, reflection on the evils of Spain so noventayochistas refers to the concerns.
Between the two lines exist in Antonio Machado a common basis, an understanding of poetry with”key word in time”
The Poetic Works of Juan Ramón Jiménez
The path of Juan Ramón Jiménez poetry is marked by total dedication to poetry and the relentless pursuit of beauty. His poetry was varied from Modernism to reach a personal work.
Echo and the influence that Juan Ramón Jiménez was on the generation of poets of the twenties was crucial to their way of making poetry. Therefore, it is usually ascribed to Novecentismo.
His poetry is divided into the following stages:
- Sensitive stage, which runs through 1915, is inspired by Modernism. The soft musicality in meters short and vague setting in twilight landscapes are the dominant notes of Arias Tristes or distant garden, In them is perceptible trace of Romanticism and Symbolism.
- The following years led to the intellectual stage, represented by Poet Diary of a newlywed. Juan Ramón Jiménez opens the way to pure poetry. In addition to the incorporation of external reasons the poet (the sea, men and limes from New York), highlights a new mode of expression: mixed prose and verse. The language is condensed to name the essence of things.
- The third stage or stage is developed enough in exile. His self-imposed and self-absorption are emphasized. The Total Station and God Desired and Desiring, attempting a total poetry.