Antonio Machado’s Poetic Evolution and the Stages of the Generation of ’98
Antonio Machado: Poetic Stages and Evolution
Antonio Machado conceives poetry as “a serious palpitation of the spirit,” which distances him from formal Modernist excesses. We distinguish three stages in his poetic trajectory:
First Stage: Intimacy and Symbolism (1903–1907)
This stage is modernist but marked by intimate, Bécquerian sentiment and Symbolism. It begins with Soledades (1903), later amplified in Soledades, Galerías y Otros Poemas (1907). Machado defines his poetry as “essential word
The Aesthetics of Spanish Baroque Poetry: Góngora and Culteranismo
Baroque Poetry: Themes and Characteristics
Culteranismo pursued beauty and formal expression, often obscuring the content. It resorted to sensory metaphors, **hyperbaton**, periphrasis, cultisms, and mythological allusions.
Topics in Baroque Poetry
Regarding the topics, two distinct sections emerged:
- The Main Themes of the Renaissance: Love, nature, and mythology, developed with a logical evolution.
- Moralizing Themes: These reflected on the brevity of life and the transience of earthly things, viewing
Stylistics, Rhetoric, and Communication Skills: Academic Q&A
Section A: Stylistics and Rhetoric Fundamentals
1. Historical Background of Stylistics
Stylistics originated from classical rhetoric in Ancient Greece and Rome, where speech and persuasion were important. In the 20th century, it developed as a linguistic discipline, especially with structuralism and formalism. It combines literary analysis and linguistics to study how language creates meaning in texts. Key figures include Roman Jakobson and M.A.K. Halliday. Today, stylistics analyzes all types of
Read MoreCore Concepts in Linguistics: Grammar, Phonology, and Morphology
Chomsky’s Dichotomy: Competence and Performance
As a start, language has a dichotomy; it can be divided into competence and performance according to Chomsky’s framework. Competence refers to a psychological system, not a set of conventions in a community of speakers. It is the individual speaker’s knowledge of their system. Performance is the actual use of language.
This suggests that the ability to make judgments of grammaticality is one thing, and performance is another. The former depends on competence.
Read MoreAntonio Machado: Poetic Evolution and Literary Context
Context of the Poetic Work
D. Antonio Machado Ruiz was born in Seville in 1875 and died in Collioure on 22 February 1939.
Machado had a bohemian youth, during which he frequented artistic circles in Spain and Paris. In Paris, he met Jean Moréas, prophet of Symbolism, and later, Rubén Darío. His subsequent stay in Soria as a professor was crucial in his life and poetry. There, he met his wife, Leonor Izquierdo. The landscape of Soria and the memory of Leonor had a permanent reflection on Machado’
Read MoreSpanish Literary Movements: Generations ’27 and ’98
The Generation of ’27: Features and Authors
Key Features of the Generation of ’27
- Tradition and Modernism: They sought new forms of poetry while maintaining admiration for tradition, including Góngora’s poetic language, the classics, and popular forms like the romance.
- Aesthetic Intention: They aimed to achieve beauty primarily through imagery, striving to eliminate any element from the poem deemed non-beautiful.
- Themes: They focused particularly on human affairs, including love, death, fate, folklore,