Characteristics of Literary Modernism and Key Authors

Modernism: A Literary Movement

Modernism is a literary movement that champions art for art's sake, whose primary purpose is to celebrate beauty and evoke emotion in the reader. It is particularly evident in poetry.

Directions of Modernism

• Escapist: Characterized by legendary and exotic imagery.
• Intimate: Expresses lively, sad, and anxious moods.

Key Themes in Modernism

• Romantic Distress: Modernism shares significant affinities with the Romantic mood, including similar discomfort, rejection of a vulgar society, rootlessness, and loneliness.
• Escapism: Fleeing the world through dreaming, escape into space, and escape in time.
• Cosmopolitanism: An aspect of the need to escape; anywhere in the world can be considered a homeland.
• Love: Appears delicate, encompassing both impossible and unbridled forms.
• Hispanic Themes: Expressing solidarity with Hispanic peoples against U.S. influence.
• Spiritual Issues: Affinity for marginalized groups; poetry emphasizes music, focusing on feelings and sensations rather than arguments.

Modernist Aesthetics

• Art for art's sake.
• Search for sensory value.

Language and Style in Modernism

• Importance of color and sound effects.
• Stylistic resources: phonics, vocabulary, synesthesia, and rich imagery.
• Metric: Use of Alexandrine verses, dodecasyllabic verse (influenced by French poetry), pentameter, and composed verses.

Notable Modernist Authors

Rubén Darío

Rubén Darío renewed Spanish-language poetry by incorporating elements from French Parnassianism and Symbolism.

• Parnassianism: Seeks aesthetic perfection; the poem is viewed as a perfect work of art.
• Symbolism: The poet suggests feelings through symbols representing sensory reality.

Darío also adopted the Alexandrine verse.

Key Works:

• Blue: Combines prose and verse. The prose contrasts the poet's ideal of beauty with the bourgeois world. The poems celebrate the exploits of Caupolicán.
• Profane Prose: A collection of poems, considered his most Parnassian work. The verse emphasizes musicality and evokes an unreal world.
• Songs of Life and Hope: A more mature work. Contains few happy or cheerful poems; approaches the crisis in Spain.
• The Wandering Song: The poet reflects on his career, guided by love.

Manuel Machado

An atypical modernist poet whose work often uses irony to reflect on life.

Key Works:

• Soul
• Evil Verses
• Deep Songs

Juan Ramón Jiménez

One of the most influential authors in Spanish literature. He frequently revised his poems, resulting in multiple versions. His poetry evolved through several stages:

• Youth/Sensitive Stage (Intimate Modernism): Verses with delicate musicality, assonance, and rhyme; focus on feelings and sensations; addresses love with irony.
  • Key Works: Arias Sad, Distant Gardens.
• Intellectual Stage: Dominated by reflections on beauty and poetry.
  • Key Work: Diary of a Newlywed Poet.
• Late Stage (Written in Exile): Poems reflect on the poet himself and his work.
  • Key Works: Space, God Desired and Desiring.