Themes of Modernism
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ScribdTranslationsThemes of Modernism
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ScribdTranslationsThemes of modernism
The modernist theme reveals, on the one hand, a longing for the recreation of harmony in the face of
to an unharmonious world, and thus a yearning for wholeness and perfection; and, on the other hand, a
search for roots in the crisis that produced a feeling of uprootedness in the writer,
who presents himself as a guide capable of showing the common man the values
true. The topics covered are very varied, but these are some of the most
recurring:
Theuneasetypical of Romanticism: the weariness of life and a deep sadness,
alongside melancholy and anguish.
Search for solitude and rejection of a society.
Escapism, evasion of the reality of time and space.
Theloveand eroticism, with a certain idealization of love and of woman. The theme
impossible love presents itself with differences compared to the romantic ideal. There are
a contrast between deep and delicate love and intense eroticism.
Cosmopolitanism shows the longing for the different and aristocratic.
Modernists showed a lot of devotion to Paris.
American themes, especially indigenous themes, often with a
defense of the indigenous people.
Lohispanocomo as a valuable historical precedent that provides harmony against
inharmonic world.
Characteristics of modernism
Modernism is the subject of different interpretations, with these two positions.
fundamentals:
The most restrictive sees it as a well-defined literary movement that
developed between 1887 and 1915.
The broadest view considers that modernism is not just a literary movement.
it signifies a whole era and the attitude that served as its foundation.
Reconciling both, one could define literary modernism as a movement of
break with the prevailing aesthetics that begins around 1880 and whose development
fundamental reaches up to theWorld War ISuch a rupture is linked to the
broad spiritual crisis of the end of the century.
Hispanic modernism is a synthesis ofParnassianismand of theSymbolismof the
first takes the conception of poetry as a marble block, with the yearning to
formal perfection, exotic themes, and sensory values; of the latter the
conception that art should suggest, and the search for rhythmic effects within a
varied musicality. The main characteristics of modernism are:
The rejection of everyday reality, from which the writer can escape in the
time (evoking past and better eras) or in space (many of the
poems are set in exotic and distant places).
An aristocratic attitude and certainprecisionismin the style, as well as the
search for formal perfection (inspired by Parnassianism) that is not appreciated
without certain individualism.
The search for beauty is achieved through very plastic images and
approach to the arts, with an emphasis on color and with
images related to all the senses, as well as with the musicality that
produce the abuse of thealliteration, the marked rhythms and the use of the
synaesthesia(influences of symbolism).
Both the fidelity to the great classical verses and the variations on the
metric molds, using medieval verses like theAlejandrino, the
dodecasyllableand thesyllabic pentameterwith contributions of new variants tosonnet.
The use of themythologyand thesensualism.
A lexical renewal with the use ofHelenism, cultismsyGallicisms, no
I was looking for both precision and the prestige or rarity of the word.
The innovative desire that aspired to the perfection they appreciated in literature.
European.
The adaptation of themetricCastilian to Latin.
The cult of formal perfection, with serene and balanced poetry.
Biographies:
Argentinian writers:
Leopoldo Lugones(Córdoba1874 -Buenos Aires, 1938) was a poet, essayist, politician, and journalist. Of
little moved with his family toEye of WaterSantiago del Estero, and later studied the
high school in Córdoba. Later, he moved to Buenos Aires and traveled toEurope. He/she committed suicide, perhaps
due to its ideological instability. It was heavily influenced by the symbolism in The Mountains of Gold.
(1897), and In the Garden of Twilight (1905)
Colombian writers:
José Asunción SilvaBogotá, 1865Bogotá1896) completed their education in a self-taught manner
since he/she abandoned his/her studies in1878He/She traveled toParisand lived inLondonand inSwitzerland. It
suicide after the failure of the family business and the resulting debts, the death of his
sister and of her grandfather and the loss of a large part of her work in a shipwreck. Her poetic work
It is thus known to be scarce, although it stands out for its innovation and its great content.
modernist. The most remembered of his work are the Nocturnes.
Guillermo Valencia CastilloPopayán, 1873Popayán1943), was a poet,
diplomat and politician with a long career, who became twice
candidate for President of the Republic of Colombia and hold a seat as senator.
Son of a family of Spanish origin, he started to take an interest in poetry at a school.
of French priests. He traveled toParis, where he met Darío. He became one of
the most important modernists upon publishing Rites (1899). Years later, his son
Guillermo León ValenciaHe was the President of Colombia from 1962 to 1966.
Cuban writers
José MartíHavana, 1853Dos Ríos CampCuba), 1895) was a
politician, thinker, journalist, philosopher, poet andmasondead during the War of
Cuban independence. In his youth, after being in prison, he spent three years in
Spainpeninsular as an exile, where he studied Law and Philosophy and
Letters. In 1881, he settled in New York, where he planned for independence of
Cuba, collaborating as a journalist in The Houry The Sun. He has exercised a remarkable
influence on the identity sentiment of the Cuban people. It was a precursor of
Modernism.
Nicaraguan writers
Main article:Rubén Darío
Rubén Darío, whose real name was Félix Rubén García Sarmiento, was born and
died inNicaragua(1867-1916First he was a journalist and then a diplomat, for which
that traveled a lot forEuropeyAmericaStrongly influenced by romantics (Hugo,
Musset) Parnassians (Leconte de Lisle, Heredia) and symbolists, came to have a new
and brilliant style, giving new musicality to traditional Castilian rhythms.
His main works areBlue...(1888Profane Proses1896Songs of life and
hope1905. Its influence on later literature is enormous. It knew and influenced
to all or almost all the writers in Spanish of Modernism.
Mexican writers
beloved NervoTepic, 1870- Montevideo, 1919poet, journalist, and diplomat.
It is often framed within Modernism, although with a mysticism and a
sadness that contrasts with the rest of the authors. He traveled toParis, where he metOscar
Wild, and toMadrid, where he lived for a time. He wrote poetry, essays, and novels, and is
mainly known for The Bachelor (novel, 1895), and his poetic works
Black Pearls, Mystical (1898) and The Immovable Beloved (posthumous, 1922).
Roots of modernism
Traditionally, its beginning has been associated with the publication, in1888, ofBlue..., ofRubén
Dariodue to the undeniable impact of the book on literatureIbero-America.
The term modernism designated a certainheterodox currentof religious renewal, and it
applied in the field of the arts to trends that emerged in the last twenty years of the 19th century.
Their most common traits were a marked anti-conformism and a push for renewal. In their
The origin of the nickname 'modernists' was used with a derogatory connotation. Around 1890, Rubén
Darío and others take on such designation with insolent pride; from then on the term
modernism is losing its pejorative value.
In certain aspects, its echo is perceived in movements and in later currents.
José Martí
1853-1895
.
Cuban patriot and writer, apostle of the independence of Cuba, the last Spanish colony.
in America. The fact that he died in battle transformed him into the martyr of the
Cuban aspirations for independence.
.
He was born into a modest Spanish family in Havana, on January 28, 1853,
where he received his primary education. He was a disciple of Mendive and Luz y Caballero.
At 16 years old for his revolutionary ideas, he was sentenced to six years in prison. With the
broken health, was pardoned and confined to the Isle of Pines. Deported to Spain in
In 1871, he published The Political Prison in Cuba, the first of many pamphlets advocating
for Cuban independence from Spain and the Spanish Republic before the Revolution
Cuban. She completed her education at the University of Zaragoza; where she graduated in 1874.
in Law and Philosophy and Letters. Years later, he lived his exile in France, in 1875
he moved to Mexico where he married Carmen Zayas Bazán, and in 1877 he went to
Guatemala, where he taught for a while at the National University.
.
He returned to Cuba in 1878 but was exiled again in 1879 due to his continuous actions.
revolutionary activities.
.
He moved to the U.S. where he lived between 1881 and 1895 in New York, he practiced the
journalism and founded the Cuban Revolutionary Party in 1892, of which he was elected
delegate for the organization of the independence struggle. It was that year when he founded his
journal, "Homeland".
.
In 1895 on the island of Santo Domingo, he drafted the Montecristi Manifesto, in which
he preached war without hatred, and signed with Maximum General Gomez and Baez, the hero of the
Cuban independence. He disembarked with this one in Playitas, in the east of Cuba, where
He died a month later, on May 19, 1895, during a skirmish with troops.
Spaniards in Dos Ríos.
.
As a writer, Martí was a precursor of Ibero-American modernism. His writings
include numerous poems, "Ismaelillo" (1882), "Simple Verses" (1891) and "Verses
liberated" (1892), the novel "Fatal Friendship" (1885) and essays.
.
In 1889, he founded and directed the children's magazine 'The Golden Age' where he published a text.
about San Martín.
.
He stood out for his fluid, simple style and his vivid personal images. His Works
Complete, consisting of 73 volumes, were published from 1936 to 1953.
