Hispano-American Modernism: Historical Context and Representatives

Modernism was a literary movement that had its origin in Latin America in 1885 and lasted until approximately 1915. From Spanish America it came to Spain, which makes it the first movement to reverse the flow of aesthetic influences.

He was known thanks to the taste for expressive refinement, the search for the sonority of language and the pretense of cosmopolitanism. However, it was not a unified movement with a program. Rather, it represented the spirit of an age that inspired many writers from different countries who, without knowing each other, found themselves in a new way of treating the word.

This kind of communion of spirit rests on some shared historical circumstances, such as the aftermath of the struggle independentists and the advance of North American imperialism in Latin America, all of this inscribed in a process of cultural transformation of the West.

Characteristics of modernism

In 1888, the Nicaraguan Rubén Darío used the word modernismo to refer to new literary trends. For Octavio Paz, this gesture by the writer was intended to imply that the modernist thing was to leave home in search of something else. This search gave rise to a very particular type of literature, marked by some of the following characteristics.

Cosmopolitism

One of the aspects that characterized modernism was its cosmopolitan vocation, that is, its openness to the world. For Octavo Paz, this cosmopolitanism made writers rediscover other literary traditions, including that of the indigenous past.

Reaction against modernity and progress

The place from where the pre-Hispanic world is valued and recognized is not a simple nationalism. It is both, according to Paz, the aesthetic inspiration and the argument against modernity and progress, given the context of the admiration and fear that the United States aroused. Along the same lines, the rediscovery of the Spanish past was inscribed as an affront against the North American outpost.

Aristocratic character

Modernism did not embrace popular causes, now as themes, now as styles. On the contrary, it went back to the search for a refined aesthetic with a certain aristocratic sense.

Search for a belief

Octavio Paz argues that modernism, more than having a belief, was in search of a belief. In his words we read:

... the idea of ​​sin, the consciousness of death, knowing oneself fallen and exiled in this world and in the other, seeing oneself as a contingent being in a contingent world.

He later points out:

This non-Christian note, sometimes anti-Christian, but tinged with a strange religiosity, was absolutely new in Hispanic poetry.

For this reason, it is not strange, according to this author, to notice a certain occultism in the concerns of modernist writers, which for Paz is something very typical of modern western poetry.

Individualism

The researcher Moretic wonders what literature modernist writers could offer, framed in the middle layers of Spanish-American society, without their own cultural or political past and with little expectations of future. Find the answer in the need to show the exquisite and wounded individuality.

Dialogue between melancholy and vitality

Something about modernism is reminiscent of the romantic spirit. Octavio Paz points out that, in fact, he fulfilled a similar function. In this regard, he maintains "it was not a repetition, but a metaphor: another romanticism."

Sensoriality and sensualism

Modernism seeks to build an aesthetic from the evocation of sensory images, which in some way links it to the interdisciplinary dialogue with the other arts. Colors, textures, sounds are part of the characteristic evocations of this movement.

Search for musicality

The musicality of the word is a value within modernism. Thus, the word is not necessarily subordinate to its meaning but to the sound and resonance it may have, that is, to its musicality. It is part, in some way, of the search for a sensoriality.

Preciousism and formal perfection

The taste for taking care of the shape in all its details is also notable, which gives it a precious character.

Particular poetic forms

From the formal literary point of view, modernism has a set of characteristics such as:

• Frequent alliteration,
• Rhythm exacerbation
• Use of synesthesia
• Use of ancient forms of poetry as well as variations on them
• Alexandrian verses, dodecasyllables and eneasyllables; with contributions of new variants to the sonnet.

Mythology

The modernists once again turn to mythology as a source of literary images.

Taste for the renewal of language through the use of peculiar expressions

Modernists were fascinated by the peculiarity of language, expressed in the use of Hellenisms, cultisms, and Gallicisms.

Themes of Hispanic American Modernism

• Common themes with romanticism: melancholy, anguish, escape from reality, etc.
• Love
• Eroticism
• Exotic affairs
• Hispanic themes
• Pre-Columbian themes

Representatives of Hispano-American Modernism

Jose Marti. Havana, 1853-Dos Ríos Camp, Cuba, 1895. Politician, journalist, philosopher and poet. He is considered the forerunner of modernism. His best known works are Our America, The Golden Age Y Poems.

Ruben Dario. Metapa, Nicaragua, 1867-León 1916. He was a journalist and a diplomat. He is considered the highest representative of literary modernism. His best known works are Blue (1888), Profane prose (1896) and Songs of life and hope (1905).

Leopoldo Lugones. Córdoba, 1874-Buenos Aires, 1938. Poet, essayist, journalist and politician. His best known works are The mountains of gold (1897) and The twilights of the garden (1905).

Ricardo Jaimes Freyre. Tacna, 1868-1933. Bolivian-Argentine writer and diplomat. His best known works are Laws of Castilian versification (1907) and Castalia Barbara (1920).

Carlos Pezoa Véliz. Santiago de Chile, 1879-Idem, 1908. Poet and journalist of self-taught training. His best known works are Chilean soul (1911) and The golden bells (1920).

Jose Asuncion Silva. Bogotá, 1865-Bogotá, 1896. He was an important Colombian poet, considered a precursor of modernism and the first exponent in that country. His best known works are The book of verses, Desktop Y Bitter drops.

Manuel Diaz Rodriguez. Miranda-Venezuela, 1871-New York, 1927. Modernist writer born in Venezuela. He was part of the so-called generation of 1898. He was widely known for his works Broken idols (1901) and Patricia blood (1902).

Rafael Angel Troyo. Cartago, Costa Rica, 1870-1910. Poet, storyteller and musician. His best known works are Young heart (1904) and Poems of the soul (1906).

Manuel de Jesus Galván. Dominican Republic, 1834-1910. Novelist, journalist, politician and diplomat. His best known work is the novel Enriquillo (1879) on the conquest of America as seen by a young Indian.

Enrique Gomez Carrillo. Guatemala City, 1873-Paris, 1927. Literary critic, writer, journalist and diplomat. Among his most important works are Skisses, Souls and brains: sentimental stories, Parisian intimacies, etc.., Wonders, funambulic novel Y The gospel of Love.

Loved nerve. Tepic, Mexico, 1870-Montevideo, 1919. Poet, essayist, novelist, journalist and diplomat. Among the most widespread works of him we have Black pearls, Mystical (1898), The bachiller (1895), and The immobile beloved (posthumous, 1922).

Jose Santos Chocano. Lima, 1875-Santiago de Chile, 1934. Poet and diplomat. He is classified as a romantic and a modernist. His best known works are You will go saints (1895), The song of the century (1901) and Soul america (1906).

Julia de Burgos. Carolina, 1914-New York, 1953. Poet, playwright and writer from Puerto Rico. Among his works we can mention the following: Roses in the mirror, The sea and you: other poems Y Song of Simple Truth.

Ernesto Noboa and Caamaño. Guayaquil, 1891-Quito, 1927. Poet belonging to the so-called beheaded Generation. His best known works are Romance of the hours Y Evening Emotion.

Tomás Morales Castellano. Moya, 1884-Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 1921. Doctor, poet and politician. Among the most representative works of him are the poem Ode to the Atlantic Y Hercules roses.

Julio Herrera and Reissig. Montevideo, 1875-1910. Poet and essayist. Initiated into romanticism, he became the leader of modernism in his country. Among his works we can mention I sing to Lamartine (1898), The hourglasses (1909) and The stone pilgrims (1909).

To delve into the work of the authors you can also see:

• Poem I grow a roseby José Martí
• Poem Autumn song in spring by Rubén Darío
• 9 essential poems by José Asunción Silva.
• Poem In peaceby Amado Nervo.

Historical Context of Hispano-American Modernism

In the last third of the 19th century, the industrial model was consolidated in Europe. Industrialization was quickly assimilated in the United States of America, an independent country since 1776, whose political and economic growth very soon led to an imperialist policy.

In the Spanish-American countries, the independence obtained in the 19th century from Spain brought neither a transformation of the social structure nor an economic redesign. Octavio Paz says that the feudal oligarchy and militarism still persisted, while the modernity of Europe already contained industry, democracy and the bourgeoisie.

The neighbor to the north aroused admiration as well as fear. According to Yerko Moretic, that generation was marked by world upheaval, political instability in Latin America and Spain, dizzying mobility and ideological vagueness. Although anti-colonial values ​​were shared, the emergence of imperialism partially overshadowed that concern.

Thus arose a sector of society that occupied the middle ranks, which did not identify with the oligarchy but did not manage to embrace popular causes either. It was about a specialized intelligentsia, normally outside politics (except for honorable exceptions such as José Martí).

This intelligentsia strictly dealt with the profession of writing, teaching or journalism, according to researcher Yerko Moretic. This scenario allowed, in some way, an autonomy of Spanish American literature with respect to social and political conditioning.

That generation, sensitive as it was, resented European positivism and reacted to it, says Octavio Paz. She presented the signs of spiritual uprooting and was attracted to the French poetry of that time, in which found novelty in language, as well as an aesthetic of romantic and occult tradition, according to the Author.

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