The Evolution of Latin American Poetry: 19th and 20th Centuries
Modernism: Origins, Characteristics, and Evolution
Modernism emerged in America and Europe at the end of the nineteenth century, standing in opposition to Realism (the previous movement) and expressing a rebellious attitude against bourgeois values. The artist, heir to the Romantic spirit, rebelled against society and institutions.
Key Precursors of Modernism
- José Martí (Cuba)
- Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera (Mexico)
- Above all, Rubén Darío (Nicaragua), known for works such as Azul and Prosas profanas (Secular Prose).
These poets reflected an aesthetic focused on renewing metric structures and poetic vocabulary.
Rubén Darío’s Poetic Stages
- Purely Modernist: Characterized by a sensual and gallant tone, and fantasy themes. This stage emphasizes works like Prosas profanas.
- More Sensitive and Socially Concerned: Focused on themes found in works such as Cantos de vida y esperanza (Songs of Life and Hope).
Modernist poets sought originality and evasion, expressed through:
- A taste for the exotic and cosmopolitan (travel, visiting other places).
- The expression of the fantastic, sumptuous, and sensual, giving great importance to the senses, especially the acoustic.
To achieve this, they resorted to the use of alliteration, parallelism, and enumeration. They also employed several metric variations, among which the Alexandrine stands out.
Modernist Centers of Interest
We can find two main centers of interest:
- Expressing the mood of the poet through symbols.
- Creating fantasy and exotic worlds, with wonderful and fabulous characters, attaching great importance to beauty.
Modernism’s penetration across America raised awareness of a literary community, which was nonexistent until that moment. Around 1905, Darío himself wrote, “There are no princesses to sing!” Modernists changed their position of “escape” and formal perfection for a literature that was more intimate, more critical, and focused on American themes, such as indigenous issues. The imagery of the twisting swan faded.
Paths of Latin American Poetry (First Half of the 20th Century)
Latin American poetry in the first half of the 20th century took several directions:
- An Intimate Path: This includes Postmodernism (covering the first two decades of the 20th century), Avant-garde Poetry (moving between Creationism, Surrealism, and Estridentismo), and Pure Poetry (presenting a poetic parallel with Spain’s Group of ’27).
- A Second Path: This includes Black Poetry, Social Poetry, and Antipoetry (starting in the second decade of the 20th century).
In general, we can speak of a formal simplification of poetry, except within the Vanguards.
Postmodernism and the Avant-Garde Movements
Following the death of Ernesto González, the “swan” aesthetic opened the way to **Postmodernism**. Its most important representative is the Chilean Gabriela Mistral (pseudonym of Lucila Godoy), Nobel Prize in Literature in 1945, and the ultimate example of overcoming Modernism into a simple language, sometimes harsh and sometimes sensual.
The Avant-Garde Commotion
Parallel to Postmodernism, the commotion of **Avant-garde** poetry, imported from Europe, spread rapidly. The European “isms” disseminated throughout American countries, creating groups and magazines with typical avant-garde features of challenge.
Key Avant-Garde Movements and Poets
The most important movement was the Chilean **Creationism**, led by Vicente Huidobro, alongside the Mexican Estridentismo. For Huidobro, the poet should not imitate nature but create new realities and use a language that breaks with the logical and real, employing unusual images.
The influence of Juan Ramón Jiménez and the French poet Paul Valéry is noted among the Vanguards of the time, leading some toward **Pure Poetry**, such as the Mexican group Los Contemporáneos, whose themes became denser and closer to the transcendental.
Other Important Avant-Garde Poets
- César Vallejo: His work Trilce breaks with Modernism, presenting a disjointed language, violent syntax, and an overall pessimistic tone. In España, aparta de mí este cáliz (Spain, Take This Chalice Away From Me), he shows solidarity with suffering humanity.
- Pablo Neruda: His early works were influenced by Modernism (e.g., Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada). After an existential crisis, he created Residencia en la tierra (Residence on Earth), characterized by surreal language, where everything tends toward death and destruction. He also identified with Spanish problems in defense of the Republic (e.g., España en el corazón).
Hispanic American Poetry After the Avant-Garde
After the Avant-garde, poetry diversified into several social and thematic currents:
- Social Poetry: Also supported the Republic during the Spanish Civil War.
- Black Poetry: Delves into specific ethnic and cultural themes and rhythms of African folklore (e.g., Nicolás Guillén).
- Antipoetry: Wry, prosaic poetry (e.g., Nicanor Parra).
- Metaphysical or Transcendent Poetry: Octavio Paz reached this kind of poetry after experimenting with Surrealism and Existentialism. His concerns include loneliness, communication, the passage of time, expressed in a difficult and hermetic language (e.g., Palabra, Salamandra).