Modernism (literature in Spanish)

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Rubén Darío, considered the greatest author and exponent of the movement, of great impact on all Spanish literature.

In Spanish-language literature, the term modernismo refers to a literary movement that developed between the years 1880-1917 that began in the American country of Nicaragua, mainly in the field of poetry. It was characterized by an ambiguous creative rebellion, a narcissistic and aristocratic refinement, literary culturalism, and a profound aesthetic renewal of language and metrics. It is a recapitulation and a mixture of three European currents: romanticism, symbolism and especially Parnassianism. Inner passions, visions, harmonies and rhythms are expressed in rich and highly stylized word music.

Traditionally, its beginning has been associated with the publication, in 1888, of Azul..., by Rubén Darío, due to the undeniable repercussion of the book in Latin American literature.[citation required]

The term modernism designated a certain heterodox current of religious renewal, and was applied in the field of the arts to trends that emerged in the last twenty years of the 19th century. Its most common traits were a marked nonconformity and an effort to renew. Originally the nickname "modernists" was used with a derogatory tone. Around 1890, Rubén Darío and other authors assumed this designation with insolent pride; from then on the term modernismo gradually lost its pejorative value.

Other notable exponents were Leopoldo Lugones, José Asunción Silva, Julio Herrera y Reissig, Julián del Casal, Manuel González Prada, Aurora Cáceres, Delmira Agustini, Manuel Díaz Rodríguez and José Martí. The movement was highly influential throughout the Spanish-speaking world (including the Philippines), finding a temporary boom also among the Generation of '98 in Spain, who raised various reactions to its perceived aestheticism.

Features

Modernism is an era whose object has different interpretations, with these two fundamental positions:

Reconciling both writings, which in turn are carried out in the human aesthetics and perspective of the time in its most radical changes, is the industrial revolution that maintains a diverse aesthetic in modernism.

Literary modernism could be defined as a movement to break with current aesthetics that began around 1880 and whose fundamental development reached up to the First World War. Such a rupture is linked to the vast spiritual crisis of the end of the century.

Hispanic modernism is a synthesis of Parnassianism and Symbolism: the first takes the conception of poetry as a marble block, with the desire for formal perfection, exotic themes and sensory values; the second, the conception that art should suggest, and seek rhythmic effects within a varied musicality.

Modernism also encompasses, although with less importance, aesthetic currents such as Decadence and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

The main characteristics of modernism are:

Central Themes

Modernist building in Zaragoza, Spain.

The modernist theme reveals, on the one hand, a desire to recreate harmony in the face of an inharmonious world, and thus a desire for plenitude and perfection; and, on the other hand, a search for roots in the crisis that produced a feeling of uprooting in the writer, who presents himself as a guide capable of showing the common man the true values.

The topics covered are very varied, but these are some of the most recurring:

Main modernist authors

Modernism has a large number of writers in America. Some have had real international repercussions and others have been reduced to the national level. A common aspect was the trips they made, either for work (many were diplomats), or to broaden their knowledge and meet other writers. Rubén Darío is, without a doubt, the most influential, but there are also others who had influence outside his country of origin.

Some authors who participated in a similar aesthetic and published in the first half of the 1880s, such as José Martí, Max Henríquez Ureña, Julián del Casal, Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera, Salvador Díaz Mirón, Enrique Gómez Carrillo, Manuel González Prada, Amado Nervo, the Colombian José Asunción Silva, Guillermo Valencia, Enrique González Martínez and the Spanish Salvador Rueda were considered precursors of modernism. Current criticism considers them fully modernist authors.

Argentine writers

Leopoldo Lugones
Enrique Larreta in 1914

Leopoldo Lugones

Main article: Leopoldo Lugones

Lugones (Córdoba, 1874-Buenos Aires, 1938) was a poet, essayist, politician and journalist. As a child he moved with his family to Ojo de Agua, in Santiago del Estero, and later studied high school in Córdoba. He subsequently moved to Buenos Aires and traveled to Europe. He committed suicide, perhaps because of his psychological instability. He was strongly influenced by the symbolism in The Mountains of Gold (1897), and The Twilights in the Garden (1905).

Enrique Larreta

Main article: Enrique Larreta

Larreta (Buenos Aires, 1875-1961) belonged to a wealthy family and married a woman from an aristocratic family. He studied law and worked as an ambassador. He lived in Biarritz and in Ávila. He was a great admirer of Unamuno and the Golden Age. He was a member of the Royal Spanish Academy and the Argentine Academy of History. His first publication was Artemis (1896), but his most important work is La Gloria de don Ramiro (1908).

Tango poets

Modernism in Argentina influenced tango lyrics, with the use of a refined language that evoked the reading of Rubén Darío's poems, including specific references to works by that author. "You only want once" with lyrics by Claudio Frollo and music by Carlos Vicente Gerossi Flores; «La novia ausente» with lyrics by Enrique Cadícamo and music by Guillermo Barbieri and «Buenos Aires is your party» with lyrics by Horacio Ferrer and music by Raúl Garello are examples of this relationship between modernist poetry and tango lyrics.

Bolivian Writers

Ricardo Jaimes Freyre

Main article: Ricardo Jaimes Freyre

Jaimes Freyre (Tacna, 1868-1933) was a Bolivian-Argentine writer and diplomat. He was the son of Lucas Jaimes and Carolina Freyre, writers. He was a friend of Rubén Darío, with whom he founded the Revista de América in 1899 in Buenos Aires, where he met Lugones. He worked at a long list of institutions. He was a professor of psychology, perceptive literature, and logic, and was a member of the Argentine Academy of Letters. In 1921 he was appointed Minister of Public Instruction, Agriculture and War in Bolivia. He worked as an ambassador in various countries. His poetry is precious and very thoughtful, among his works it is important Laws of Castilian versification (1907).

Chilean writers

Carlos Pezoa Veliz

Main article: Carlos Pezoa Véliz

Pezoa Véliz (Santiago de Chile, 1879-idem, 1908) is considered, along with Pedro Prado, the most important Chilean writer of the first half of the 20th century. He was adopted as a child and dropped out in 1898 to join the National Guard. He collaborated with several newspapers, such as La voz del pueblo , La comedia humana and Luz y sombra . He followed the trend of other compatriots to move away from modernism towards a more regionalist poetry. He obtained the poetic recognition of him at the Ateneo de Santiago . His work remained unpublished until after his death.

Pablo Neruda

Pablo Neruda, pseudonym and later legal name of Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto, was a Chilean poet and politician.

Neruda is considered among the most prominent and influential artists of his century; In addition to having been a senator of the Chilean Republic, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (PC), a pre-candidate for the presidency of his country and ambassador to France. Among his multiple recognitions, the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971 and a doctorate honoris causa from the University of Oxford stand out.

Colombian writers

Jose Asuncion Silva

José Asunción Silva.
Main article: José Asunción Silva

Silva (Bogotá, 1865-Bogotá, 1896) carried out his education in a self-taught way since he dropped out in 1878. He traveled to Paris and lived in London and Switzerland. He committed suicide after the failure of the family business and the consequent debts. The death of his sister and his grandfather and the loss of much of his work in a shipwreck. His known poetic work is therefore scarce, although he stands out for his innovation and for his great modernist content. The most remembered of his work are the Nocturnes .

Guillermo Valencia Castillo

Main article: Guillermo Valencia Castillo

Valencia Castillo (Popayán, 1873-Popayán, 1943), was a poet, diplomat and politician with a great career, who became a candidate for President of the Republic of Colombia on two occasions and to occupy a senator seat. Son of a family of Spanish origin, he became interested in poetry at a French priests' college. He traveled to Paris, where he met Dario. He became one of the most important modernists when he published Rites (1899). Years later, his son Guillermo León Valencia was president of Colombia between 1962 and 1966. He was a pioneer of Modernism in Colombia. In addition, he was a diplomat and presidential candidate, creator of pictorial poetry influenced by romanticism and Parnassianism.

Costa Rican Writers

Rafael Angel Troyo

Main article: Rafael Angel Troy

Rafael Ángel Troyo (Cartago, 1870-1910) was a poet, novelist, short story writer and musician. He is considered the introducer of modernism in Costa Rica, at a time when national literature was influenced by the nationalist tradition. With a comfortable economic position, he traveled through Europe and the United States living a bohemian life, to later settle in his native Cartago, where he shared with other artists such as Darío and José Santos. Romantic poet of lyrical poetry and poetic prose, among his works are Young heart (1904) and Poems of the soul (1906). He is considered one of the most exalted figures of Costa Rican culture.

Lisimaco Chavarría

Main article: Lismaco Chavarría

Chavarría (San Ramón, 1878-1913) was a poet and writer. Of humble origins and little academic training, in his short life he managed to position himself as one of the most important poets of Costa Rican literature, a representative of modernism in Costa Rica but a developer of his own style, which led him to be considered a renovator of lyric poetry. national. He published six collections of poems: Orquídeas (1904), Nómadas (1904), Desde Los Andes (1907), Lyrical Longing: Vivid Poem (1907), Manojo de guarias (1913, posthumous) and Words of the mummy (1919, posthumous).

Cuban writers

José Martí.

Jose Marti

Main article: José Martí

Martí (Havana, 1853-Dos Ríos Camp, Cuba, 1895) was a politician, thinker, journalist, philosopher, poet, Freemason and National Hero of Cuba who died during the Cuban War of Independence. In his youth, after being in prison, he spent three years in mainland Spain as an exile, where he studied Law, Philosophy, Letters and music. In 1881 he settled in New York, where he planned the independence of Cuba, collaborating as a journalist in The Hour and The Sun . He has exerted a notable influence on the feeling of identity of the Cuban people. he was the precursor of Modernism.

Julian del Casal

Main article: Julián del Casal

Casal (Havana, 1863-idem, 1893) already at the Real Colegio de Belén dedicated himself to writing in a newspaper that he himself had founded: El estudiante. In 1881, he began to work in the Ministry of Finance and also to study Law, but he gave up those studies for literature. His position at the Ministry would later leave him to work as a proofreader and journalist. He wanted to travel to Paris, but was never there, although he did visit Madrid, where he met Salvador Rueda. His first book was Leaves to the Wind (1890).

Dominican Writers

Manuel de Jesús Galván

Main article: Manuel de Jesús Galván

Galván (1834-1910) was a novelist, politician, journalist, and diplomat. His most important work is Enriquillo (1879), a historical novel that deals with the conquest of America by the Spanish from the point of view of a young indigenous man, based on the uprising of the cacique Enriquillo.

Ecuadorian writers

Ernesto Noboa and Caamaño
Arturo Borja Pérez
Medardo Angel Silva

Modernism in Ecuador was represented by a group of four poets, who were called The Headless Generation, due to the way in which they died; three of them, Ernesto Noboa y Caamaño, Arturo Borja and Humberto Fierro, for suicide and the fourth, Medardo Ángel Silva, in a strange situation about which a series of hypotheses have been formed. The term Decapitated Generation was given by the essayist and journalist Raúl Andrade in his book El perfil de la chimera.

Modernism in Ecuador was late compared to modernism in the rest of the region, because the country was in a civil war, during the South American modernist boom, modernist poets in Ecuador were influenced by Rubén Darío, and of French symbolist poets such as Charles Baudelaire, Victor Hugo, Samhain, Rimbaud and Verlaine, thanks to which they fused the elements of French romanticism and symbolism, with the elements of melancholy and unease typical of modernism

Ecuadorian modernist poetry is characterized by elegance in lyrical phrases, the ability to link "the oldest formal resources of Castilian poetry with the markedly modern ones" and revolutionaries, the apathy and premature weariness of everything, together with the bohemian and depressed air that surrounded these verses.

The apathy and highly antisocial feeling, transcended beyond poetry. The four members of the decapitated generation shared more, among themselves, than the simple affinity for poetry, since they all maintained a bohemian and unstable life, with excesses in drugs, unhappy love affairs, in addition to the apathy to literary notoriety, and their tragic deaths.

Ernesto Noboa and Caamaño

Main article: Ernesto Noboa and Caamaño

Noboa y Caamaño (Guayaquil, Ecuador, 1891-Quito, 1927) was the most direct and torn in his poetic work, always giving it a "painful expressive" air with less subtlety and harmony than Fierro or Borja, although in a way freer, his work was characterized by a gray and desolate air.

Arturo Borja

Main article: Arturo Borja

Borja (Quito, Ecuador, 1892-Quito, 1912) was the most melodic of the decapitated, always using luminous forms, for the darkest and most painful feelings, always experimenting and combining verses in various measures and rhythms

Humberto Fierro

Main article: Humberto Fierro

Fierro (Quito, Ecuador, 1890-Quito, 1929) was the most perfectionist of Ecuadorian modernism, giving his verses a stately air, although with a great weariness of living and melancholy.

Medardo Angel Silva

Main article: Medardo Angel Silva

Silva (Guayaquil, Ecuador, 1898-Guayaquil, 1919) was the one who achieved the greatest acceptance and recognition in the popular imagination, despite having only written one book The tree of good and evil in 1915. He was also the most ambitious in literary terms, of the four beheaded, giving a greater thematic spectrum to his poetry, which was highly perfectionist, with a warm and sweet lyric in the formal aspects, in order to deal with gloomy and elusive themes. disturbing.

Several of the modernist poems of The Decapitated Generation, were adapted to music, possibly the most representative of these is the poem The soul on the lips by Medardo Ángel Silva (poem written hours before his death), to which the Cuencano musician and composer Francisco Paredes Herrera put music, and was interpreted by Julio Jaramillo, being one of the most representative musical themes of Ecuador to this day.

Spanish writers

Main article: Spanish Literature of Modernism

In contrast to the Americans, who had independence and nationalist sentiments and did not have much influence from the Spanish, they did receive American influence, especially after Rubén Darío's trip to Spain in 1892 and in two other in 1899 and 1908: on those trips he attracted a large number of followers to aesthetics: the brothers Manuel Machado (El mal poema, La fiesta nacional) and Antonio Machado (Soledades (1903), rather symbolist), the young Juan Ramón Jiménez (Ninfeas, Almas de violeta, Sad Arias), the first Ramón María del Valle-Inclán (Aromas of Legends), and the poets and playwrights Eduardo Marquina and Francisco Villaespesa, among many others (Alejandro Sawa, Emilio Carrere etc). The particular modernist theater in historical verse stands out, with large, showy and spectacular sets: The sun has set in Flanders by Eduardo Marquina; The palace of pearls by Francisco Villaespesa or Don Juan de Mañara by the Machado brothers. The Spanish were also influenced, although to a lesser extent, by the Parnassians and French Symbolists. Although modernist texts are already observable in Spanish literary magazines such as Electra, La Vida Literaria or Revista Ibérica, in 1903 the most important magazine of modernism appeared in Spain: Helios. A very important event for Spain at the time was the disaster of 1998 that broke off the Generation of 1998 without the relationship of this generation with the aesthetics of Modernism being sufficiently clarified.

Some authors are difficult to characterize as modernist or cannot be characterized as such throughout their lives. Thus, it is difficult to establish to which literary movement Ramón María del Valle-Inclán (Villanueva de Arosa, 1866-Santiago de Compostela, 1936) belongs due to the breadth of his work. Among other works, the Sonatas (in prose) and the esperpentos (theatre) stand out. Valle-Inclán also belongs to the Generation of '98. Juan Ramón Jiménez is more of a Noucentismo writer, but his early period is modernist and is also characterized by the influence of Bécquer. Antonio Machado (Seville, 1875-Colliure, France, 1939), who was also the great poet of the Generation of '98, was also related to Modernism. Together with his brother Manuel de él, he wrote Las adelfas (1928), La Lola is going to the ports , or Julianillo Valcárcel (1926). Soledades, published in 1903 and enlarged in 1907, is still a modernist work, although one prefers to speak rather of "symbolist intimacy" (Felipe Pedraza) to characterize it; Machado definitively distanced himself from this aesthetic around 1910.

Some of the most representative Spanish authors are:

Tomas Morales Castellano

Main article: Tomás Morales Castellano

Morales Castellano (Moya, 1884-Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 1921) was one of the most important poets of Spanish modernism. He was a doctor and politician, and a friend of Saulo Torón and Alonso Quesada. His works include The Roses of Hercules , and his poem Ode to the Atlantic .

Alberto Álvarez de Cienfuegos

Main article: Alberto Álvarez de Cienfuegos

Álvarez de Cienfuegos (Martos, 1885-Puertollano, 1957) was a journalist, poet and playwright whose literary activity began during that time as a student and, from the beginning, leaned towards modernism. His best-known work is Andantes (1910).

Ricardo Gil

Main article: Ricardo Gil

Ricardo Gil (Madrid, 1858-idem, 1908), with a very varied use of verses and metrical combinations, and a pronounced sentimentality. Remembered for The Music Box (1898).

Antonio Machado

Main article: Antonio Machado

He was born in Seville in 1875 and died in exile in Collioure (France) with his mother in 1939. Although he is actually the great poet of the Generation of '98, he was also related to Modernism. Like his brother Manuel de él, he studied at the Institución Libre de Enseñanza after he moved to Madrid. Both brothers worked together in plays such as Las adelfas (1928), La Lola is going to the ports, or Julianillo Valcárcel (1926). Soledades, published in 1903 and enlarged in 1907. For Ricardo Gullón, «Machado is a modernist poet, absolutely modernist. No one in Spanish-language literature, not even Juan Ramón Jiménez, nor his brother Manuel de él, can be qualified so exactly with this adjective of modernists ».

Manuel Machado

Main article: Manuel Machado

Machado (Seville, 1874-Madrid, 1947), who studied Philosophy and Letters in Madrid and worked as a librarian. He was a member of the Royal Spanish Academy. His work is above all lyrical, with graceful and inconsequential forms. Some of his works are Alma , Caprichos , The National Holiday , The Bad Poem , etc.

Eduardo Marquina

Main article: Eduardo Marquina

Marquina (Barcelona, 1879-New York, 1946) was a great poet and playwright. He wrote lyrics for the Spanish anthem commissioned by King Alfonso XIII. Among his poetic works is Vendimión, from 1909. Some of his most notable plays are Las hijas del Cid, In Flanders the sun has set, Teresa de Jesús and The hermitage, the fountain and the river.

Manuel Reina Montilla

Main article: Manuel Reina Montilla

Montilla (Puente Genil, 1856-idem, 1905) was a politician, journalist and poet. Pagan Poems (1896), Ray of the Sun and Other Compositions (1897), and The Garden of Poets (1899), among other works.

Salvador Rueda

Main article: Salvador Rueda

Rueda (Benaque, in Macharaviaya, 1857-Málaga, 1933)

Saulo Torón Navarro

Main article: Saul Toron Navarro

Torón Navarro (Gran Canaria, 1885-idem, 1974) whose poetry was simple, intimate and had a somewhat pessimistic and melancholic tone. He gave a lot of importance to the sea in his poetry.

Alonso Quesada

Main article: Alonso Quesada

Quesada (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 1885-idem, 1925) whose real name was Rafael Romero Quesada. He only published The linen of dreams (1915), Chronicles of the city and the night (1919) and La Umbría (1922); the rest of his work (most) was published after his death.

Francisco Villaespesa

Main article: Francisco Villaespesa

Villaespesa (La Alpujarra, 1877-Madrid, 1936), playwright, prolific poet, narrator and journalist whose early works are post-romantic. Highlights include The Cup of the King of Thule (1900), The High of the Bohemians, Under the Rain (1910), The Backwaters of twilight (1911), Andalusia (1911). He wrote up to 54 books of poems, 10 short novels, 30 plays and a hundred translations.

Guatemalan Writers

Enrique Gomez Carrillo

Main article: Enrique Gómez Carrillo

Gómez Carrillo (Guatemala City, 1873-Paris, 1927) was a Guatemalan literary critic, writer, journalist, and diplomat. He had a very traveling and bohemian life. His work is very extensive, but he stands out for his chronicles. He got a scholarship to study in Madrid thanks to Rubén Darío, although on his trip he first passed through Paris, where he would later be consul. In 1892, he published in Madrid Esquisses (meaning 'sketches' in French), his first book. He was a member of the Royal Spanish Academy. Many of his chronicles are samples of his travels, but he is also the author of essays and novels.

Rafael Arevalo Martinez

Rafael Arevalo Martinez (1884-1975). His initial stage was as a modernist writer; however, his long life and intellectual concerns led him to write avant-garde science fiction and philosophical works; The most famous tale of him is The Man Who Looked Like a Horse.

Mexican writers

Dear Nervo

Beloved Nervo.
Main article: Amado Nervo

Nervo (Tepic, 1870-Montevideo, 1919) was a poet, journalist and diplomat. He is usually framed within Modernism, although with a mysticism and sadness that contrast with the rest of the authors. He traveled to Paris, where he met Oscar Wilde, and to Madrid, where he lived for a while. He wrote poetry, essays and novels, and is known mainly for El bachiller (novel, 1895), and his poetic works Black Pearls, Mystics (1898) and The Immobile Beloved (posthumous, 1922).

Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera

Main article: Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera

Gutiérrez Nájera (Mexico City, 1859-idem, 1895) was a forerunner of Modernism in Mexico. His work ranges from poetry to theater criticism, including journalism, although he highlights his activity as a chronicler of the Mexican capital. Close to Romanticism in style, it is elegant and delicate. He frequently used pseudonyms, the best known being Duke Job. His most important works are The Duchess Job, Hamlet to Ophelia, Short Odes, Schubert's Serenade, Fragile tales and Smoke colored tales.

Salvador Diaz Miron

Main article: Salvador Díaz Mirón

Díaz Mirón (Puerto de Veracruz, 1853-idem, 1928) was one of the precursors of Modernism. He went through two poetic stages. The first is rather romantic and in the second his poetry evolves towards Modernism. He lived in the United States, first by his father's decision and later for political reasons. His father, a journalist and politician, always influenced him, so he followed in his footsteps and also entered the world of politics. With a very violent character, he spent several seasons in jail. He was a member of the Mexican Academy of Language. His main work is Lascas (1901).

Luis Gonzaga Urbina

Main article: Luis Gonzaga Urbina

Gonzaga Urbina (Mexico D. F., 1864-Madrid, 1934) had a relationship with Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera, who influenced him, as well as Justo Sierra. He worked for numerous magazines and newspapers, in the latter writing music and theater reviews. He also dedicated himself to teaching, such as literature at the National Preparatory School, where he had studied. In 1915 he went into exile in Havana. Despite his work as a critic and chronicler and his writings on literature, he stands out more as a poet, between Romanticism and Modernism; not as passionate as the romantics and much more sober than the modernists.

Enrique González Martínez

Main article: Enrique González Martínez

González Martínez (Guadalajara, 1871-Mexico D.F., 1952) was a poet and diplomat, despite having enrolled in medicine. His poetry is sober and has philosophical overtones. Among his works are Absence and Song , Under the Deadly Sign and Babel . Influenced by French symbolism, he broke with Modernism with his book The Hidden Paths (1911).

José Juan Tablada

Main article: José Juan Tablada

Tablada (Mexico City, 1871-New York, 1945) was a poet, diplomat, and journalist. He was vice consul to the United States. At just nineteen years old, he collaborated in El Universal and defended Modernism in the Revista moderna . His work as a diplomat led him to work in many places outside of South America, such as Japan, France and the United States, and he was a member of the Mexican Language Academy. In his poetry he used metaphor a lot and he was also one of the first to make ideograms and to study Hispanic American art. He introduced the poetic model of the haiku to the Spanish language.

Nicaraguan Writers

Ruben Dario

Main article: Ruben Darío

Dario, whose real name was Félix Rubén García Sarmiento, was born and died in Nicaragua (1867-1916). He was first a journalist and then a diplomat, for which he traveled a lot in Europe and America. The highest representative of literary modernism in the Spanish language, he is possibly the poet who has had the greatest and most lasting influence on 20th century poetry in the Hispanic sphere. Strongly influenced by the Romantics (Hugo, Musset), Parnassians (Leconte de Lisle, Heredia) and Symbolists, he came to have a brilliant new style, giving a new musicality to traditional Castilian rhythms. His main works are Azul... (1888), Profane Prose (1896) and Songs of Life and Hope (1905). His influence on subsequent literature is enormous. He knew and influenced all or almost all of the Modernisme writers in Spanish.

Alfonso Cortes

Alfonso Cortés was born in León on December 9, 1893. He was the son of Salvador Cortés Fonseca, from Leon, and Mercedes Bendaña Mendieta, from Diriambina.

He is considered one of the first metaphysical poets of America, he began in the Modernist group of León under the shadow of Rubén Darío. At that time he published his first book called The Isthmus Odyssey with which he won the Floral Games of Quetzaltenango. Cortés was nourished by the essences and forms of the sonnets of Charles Baudelaire and the works of Stéphane Mallarmé, Jean Moréas and Paul Verlaine, of which he translated some poems.

Among his most outstanding works are: Poems (1931), Golden Evenings (1934), Eleusinian Poems (1935), The seven torches of the sun (1952, published in the hospice of San Juan de Dios) and Universal rhymes (1964, with a prologue by Thomas Merton).

On a night in February 1927, at the age of 34, he lost his sanity and spent 15 years locked up in his house in León. He later he is diagnosed with schizophrenia and lives his next years of life in asylums in Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Even in his insane state, he continues his literary labor; The first poem of his written in that state was The Song of Space. In one of many confinements he wrote his famous poem Window which was originally called A detail .

He died on February 3, 1969, at the age of 76, accompanied by his sister. His body rests like that of Rubén Darío in the Cathedral of León.

Peruvian writers

Modernism developed in Peru from the poem «To love» by Manuel González Prada, published in the newspaper El Comercio in 1867, where the author merges a set of poetic genres from Europe, resulting in the triolet (poetic form with a whole structure and repeating lines). This tendency, the result of the cosmopolitanism that Peru lived, soon developed in other parts of Latin America: in Cuba, with José Martí; in Nicaragua, with Rubén Darío; in Argentina, with Leopoldo Lugones; in Uruguay, with Julio Herrera and Reissig; in Mexico, with Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera. It is also important to note that Peruvian modernism reacts against the vulgarity of Peruvian Realism, whose main theme was the process of the War of the Pacific, where its main concern was the effective transmission of the content (the message to the population), otherwise, this Current will focus on the form (poetic or narrative structure).

Influences

Peruvian modernism was influenced by:

Positivism: philosophical current that maintains that all knowledge derives in some way from experience, which can be supported by means of the scientific method. Therefore, it rejects any knowledge prior to experience.

The symbolism: European current from which he will draw, above all, musicality.

The parnassianism: literary school that emerged in France in the second half of the 19th century that favors formal perfection over the oversights and excessive sentimentality of romanticism; He influenced especially Hispano-American modernism headed by Rubén Darío. He also influenced authors of the Generation of '98, for example Antonio Machado in his early work, although this generation is more related to Symbolism since elements such as the swan, Greek mythology, French gardens appear in his verses, that is, this author It was of a more intimate tendency.

José Santos Chocano

Jose Santos Chocano

Main article: José Santos Chocano

Santos Chocano (Lima, 1875-Santiago de Chile, 1934) was a poet and diplomat with a rather hectic life, he toured America and traveled to Spain, participated in politics and was assassinated by a schizophrenic in a tram. In his poetry he described his country and greatly influenced Peruvian poetry. He is often classified as both romantic and modernist. Chocano's story at the oldest university in America, San Marcos, began at the age of 14. He entered the Faculty of Letters and in parallel, he worked as a Mathematics teacher at the Secondary School of Lima.

While in Spain, he hung out with Rubén Darío, founder and leading representative of modernism, Miguel de Unamuno, Antonio Manchado and Amado Nervo

He published various works, titled as La neblina, Azhares, La gran revista, Los cantos del Pacífico and many others that originated comments and criticisms; Chocano's pen spread through different literary magazines of the American Continent.

In life, he was the best-known and most admired poet; in 1921 he was crowned National Poet. And on some occasion he said: Walt Whitman has the North, but I have the South. With this phrase he synthesized and expressed his vanity, everything that his followers made him feel, to good or bad

Works such as: The poem of suffering love, The soul of Voltaire, Memoirs appeared posthumously. The thousand and one adventures, Gold of the Indies, Golden Book, Selected Poems, among others.

He was arrested for his continuous criticism in the newspaper "La Tundra" of the government of Andrés A. Cáceres since 1894, linked to collaboration in dictatorial governments, due to his closeness to the president of Guatemala, Estrada Cabrera, he will be sentenced to death sentence from which he will receive an amnesty at the request of the Pope, King Alfonso XII of Spain, the President of Peru, Augusto B. Leguía, and the President of Argentina. Later after this fact he will write Alma América dedicated to the King of Spain.

He was praised during the ceremony by the mayor of Lima, César Vallejo, Clemente Palma, among other contemporaries and will be named as the poet of America.

Criticized by José María Arguedas, for his continuous references to the Spanish in his poems, a Mexican writer for his continuous collaboration with presidents who exercised dictatorship in their nations. He will have a conflict with Wilder Elmore, son of an ex-combatant in the war with Chile and will accuse him of betraying his father. Due to these continuous confrontations, José Santos Chocano shoots him, which will cause his early death.

Many question José Santos Chocano as egocentric by avoiding the consequences of his fatal mistake, justifying his actions using his basic knowledge of rhetoric. After all the situations in which he finds himself affected, he will decide to travel to Chile, where he will be assassinated in 1934; he went there to find a hidden treasure; Thus, in a Chilean tram, he is stabbed by a schizophrenic subject.

Manuel Gonzalez Prada

Manuel González Prada.
Main article: Manuel González Prada

González Prada (Lima, 1844-Lima, 1918), José Manuel de los Reyes González de Prada y Álvarez de Ulloa, known as Manuel González Prada (Lima, January 5, 1844-Lima, July 22, 1918), was a Peruvian essayist, thinker, anarchist and poet. He was the most discussed and influential figure in letters and politics in Peru in the last third of the 19th century. As an essayist, he is considered one of the best in his homeland, standing out for his fierce social and political criticism, a trend that would be accentuated after the War of the Pacific, the greatest war catastrophe in Peruvian republican history. He also served as Director of the National Library of Peru (1912-1914 and 1915-1918).

On a literary level he is considered the highest exponent of Peruvian realism, as well as for his poetic innovations he was called the "Precursor of American Modernism". As a prose writer, he is mainly remembered for Páginas libres (1894) and Horas de lucha (1908), essays where he shows a growing radicalization of his approach. He defended all freedoms, including the freedom of worship, conscience and thought, and spoke out in favor of a secular education. In the article Our Indians (1904), he explains the supposed inferiority of the autochthonous population as a logical result of the treatment received and the lack of education.

Aurora Caceres

Main article: Aurora Cáceres

Cáceres (Lima, 1872-Madrid, 1958) is a representative of Modernism, indigenism and feminism, as she wrote essays such as The emancipation of women. She studied in Germany and in Paris and had a cosmopolitan character and was also a defender of Catholicism. In the French capital she began to write when she was the wife of Enrique Gómez Carrillo. La rosa muerta is a modernist cosmopolitan novel that, however, changes the concept of women in Modernism. Her life was sad due to the loss of family members, her marriage and her exile.

Clemente Palma Román

Main article: Clemente Palma Román

Palma Román (1872-1946) was born and died in Lima. Son of the prolific Peruvian writer Ricardo Palma, his life was linked to literature when he was born into a family of intellectuals. Despite the fact that his father was an illustrious symbol of traditionalism, Clemente was the first reaction against realism and his father's literature. He is practically the founder of fantastic tales in Peru, this is highlighted or manifested in a maximum way with the work XYZ, which is considered a science fiction novel.

He also had a prolific political activity, as he was deputy for Lima from 1919 to 1930. In the first instance he was an opponent of Leguía; however, he was later an active member of the ruling party. He was politically persecuted by Sánchez Cerro and fled to Chile, it is there that he wrote XYZ (1932), therefore, this novel has been lost in time; however, it was recently recovered and exhibited at the PUCP.

Despite the fact that he was a classmate with José Santos Chocano, he had a quite polarized position with him and was even very controversial about race in Peru. Well, for Clemente Palma there was a superior Peruvian race and it was the one that came from the Spanish, so he was openly racist and this can be seen in his thesis to opt for the degree of doctor at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos.

It deals with fantasy, psychological, horror and science fiction themes, and many of its characters are He read Russian writers and their influence is noticeable in his works. His greatest work is, in turn, the literature that was roundly criticized in his time, since he was branded a simple imitator of the American writer Edgar Allan Poe. However, this work entitled Malevolent Tales could pass as a great work by Poe and there is no better compliment than this.

Malevolent Tales is a compilation of twelve stories without a moral where evil is the main protagonist, evil is the main cause of movement and motivations of its characters, here the tale of Granja Blanca. In addition, the use of morbidity and criticism of everyday reality is evident; It is then evident that Clemente Palma had a great influence from French decadence and the main Russian writers of the time. by Edgar Allan Poe. T as well as somewhat wicked.

Abraham Valdelomar

Main article: Abraham Valdelomar

Valdelomar (Ica, 1888-Ayacucho, 1919) was a very complete writer, as he cultivated all genres and is, along with Clemente Palma and Julio Ramón Ribeyro, one of the most important short story writers in Peru. His childhood experiences, related to the countryside and the sea, greatly influenced his later work. He collaborated in magazines as a cartoonist, poet and storyteller. At the beginning of it, the influence of González Prada and Gabriele D'Annunzio is seen. His most important work is El Caballero Carmelo , written during his period as a diplomat in Rome. The Children of the Sun is another collection of short stories.

Ventura Garcia Calderon

Main article: Ventura García Calderón

García Calderón (Paris, 1886-idem, 1959) was a writer and diplomat who lived most of his life in Paris. His work, of which a large part is in French, consists above all of short stories, which deal mainly with fantasy, intrigue and violence and are set in Peru and in Andean places, although he was quite unaware of the interior of the country and prejudices towards the natives. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Generation of 900

An important branch of Peruvian modernism was the so-called Generation of 900. This generation developed in the period called «National Reconstruction», after the war with Chile, was formed by a group of intellectuals with the idea of rebuilding an identity that define the country, within a society with ambiguous thinking. They recognized our nationality as a central element, considering "nation" as a synthesis of cultural traditions that forged the history of Peru around a new ruling class. However, there were two juxtaposed aspects, which despite seeking a single identity, had different directions, the Aristocratic and the Regionalist. The first, led by José de la Riva-Agüero. In this it was considered that Lima played an important role in the restructuring of Peruvian literature, in this way the culture of the provinces was discriminated against, considering the indigenous race as inferior. Among his contributions we can find his way of capturing the reality of the country through genres that analyze society and its problems through literary criticism. On the other hand we have the Regionalist side with Abraham Valdelomar and the magazine Colónida. The current summoned many young intellectuals from the provinces, for the search of new literary styles and against a current that kept them hidden, refuting the discriminatory ideas of the Aristocracy. They sought to rebuild the identity of the country, but highlighting the importance of the provinces.

The 900 generation brought with it:

  1. The search for the need for synthesis.
  2. Human identity.
  3. Two Legacies: Andean and Hispanic
  4. Unity society and culture.

Their main representatives were:

In this environment imbued with modernism, an insular figure emerged: José María Eguren (1872-1942), a poet from Lima who paved the way for innovation in Peruvian poetry with his books La Song of the Figures (1916) and Symbolic (1911), close to symbolism and which reflected his inner world through dreamlike images, with which he reacted

Puerto Rican Writers

Julia de Burgos

Main article: Julia de Burgos

Burgos (Carolina, 1914-New York, 1953) was the most important modernist author in Puerto Rico. During her childhood she had a difficult life, her family was poor and she had 12 siblings. As an adult, she became a member of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party because she was in favor of independence for Puerto Rico. She published three collections of poems.

Uruguayan writers

Delmira Agustini

Delmira Agustini.
Main article: Delmira Agustini

Agustini (1886-1914), poet descendant of Italian immigrants. She was born in Montevideo and was murdered in that same city by her ex-husband at the age of 28. She considered Darío as her teacher, and together with Julio Herrera and Leopoldo Lugones, she is part of the Generation of 900 within the lyrical genre. She dealt with fantastic, erotic, and exotic themes and was also interested in female sexuality. To Eros, god of love, she dedicates The Empty Chalices (1913).

Julio Herrera and Reissig

Main article: Julio Herrera and Reissig

Herrera y Reissig (Montevideo, 1875-1910) was educated in Romanticism, and became a leader of Modernism in Uruguay. His family had economic and social power (his uncle became president of Uruguay), he had problems due to his poor health, which did not allow him to travel like other modernists. He wrote political essays and fiction, but the most important of his work is poetry. Literary recognition of him came after his death.

Venezuelan writers

Rufino White Fombona

Main article: Rufino Blanco Fombona

Blanco Fombona (Caracas, Venezuela, June 17, 1874-Buenos Aires, Argentina, October 16, 1944) was a Venezuelan writer, diplomat and editor, a leading figure of literary modernism.

Pedro Emilio Coll

Main article: Pedro Emilio Coll

Pedro Emilio Coll (Caracas, July 12, 1872-Caracas, March 20, 1947) was a journalist, writer, essayist, politician, and diplomat. One of the greatest exponents of modernism, from an early age he maintained contact with the main Venezuelan writers of his generation. During his role as consul in France, he was in charge of the "Latin American Letters" section of the Mercure de France magazine. He co-founded, together with Pedro César Dominici and Luis Manuel Urbaneja, the magazine Cosmópolis .

Pedro Cesar Dominici

Main article: Pedro César Dominici

Pedro César Dominici (Carúpano, Sucre state, Venezuela, February 18, 1873-Buenos Aires, Argentina, August 23, 1954) was a writer, playwright and diplomat. Co-founder of the magazine Cosmópolis , his work was part of the so-called first modernist moment of Venezuelan theater. He also left an essay and narrative work of interest.

Manuel Diaz Rodriguez

Main article: Manuel Díaz Rodríguez

Manuel Díaz Rodríguez (Chacao, Miranda, February 28, 1871-New York City, August 24, 1927) was a Venezuelan modernist writer.

Luis Manuel Urbaneja

Main article: Luis Manuel Urbaneja

Luis Manuel Urbaneja Achelpohl (Caracas, Venezuela, February 25, 1873 – September 5, 1937) was a writer and journalist. He is considered the initiator of the modern Venezuelan short story. Also a co-founder of Cosmópolis , he incorporated realism and naturalistic forms of fiction, which in turn could develop into criollismo.