Majorcan Poetic Tradition: Classicism, Crisis, and Noucentisme

Joan Alcover: Classicism and Serenity

Key characteristics:

• Return to classicism and formal rigor.
• Exaltation of the local landscape (Mallorca).
• Search for the roots of the Greco-Latin national tradition.
• Perfection of cultured and refined language.
• Projection of a tranquil, tension-free rural life.
• Subjectivism and intimacy.
• Dispensing with false poetic exercises.
• A desire to achieve serenity and harmony in the expression of imbalance.

Miquel Costa i Llobera: Six Poetic Stages

Costa i Llobera (Cill) experienced six distinct poetic stages:

1. Romanticism (Early): Writing away from known models. First contact with M. Aguiló (1873). Adopts Catalan (1875). Moves to Madrid, begins long periods of depression. 1877: abandons studies and returns to Mallorca, influenced by December Romantics. He applied intimacy and rhetoric, learning to use the landscape as autonomous reason. Poetic biography is not superior to the self (I = I).
2. Second Stage: Great poet who knows all tendencies, knows the classics, and abandons Romanticism.
3. Third Stage: Writes in Castilian.
4. Fourth Stage: Spends time in Barcelona, meets Modernists and Noucentistes. Writes narrative work, expressing an intense escape from personal privacy.
5. Fifth Stage: No contact with Catalan cultural life.
6. Sixth Stage: Splendor of the Classical Epoch (EPCA). Classical, neat, and measured poetry and character. Noucentista poetry.

Poetic Synthesis and Style

Regarding Perelló's poetry, it is noted that it is not based on inspiration or spontaneous expression, but rather on careful work (fleeing the work of the self). The form combines Classicism with Romanticism. Compositions like Milos represent the synthesis between the landscape, an attitude of serenity, versus spontaneity, decadence, and vitalism (Modernism).

Joan Llacuna: Crisis and Poetic Laws

Llacuna's poetry is conditioned by his life accomplishments and personal circumstances, especially his time in the circus and his failure in Spanish politics.

Three Laws of Poetry:

• Incerteza (Uncertainty)
• Consciència (Conscience)
• Realitat (Reality)

Process and Character:

The poetic process involves personal crisis, identification with the Land (Terra), language, and the death of his wife and children. His poetry is characterized by a secure, clear vision and an objective current. Themes include human vibration, the evocation of the scene, hope, and being a form of life free of acute resignation.

The Majorcan School (MS) and Critical Views

Gabriel Alomar (Definition of the MS):

The objective proposed by Eugeni d'Ors was a program to establish solidarity between Buenos Aires and Mallorca, resolving the integration of Majorcan writers.

John Carpenter (Catalan TV):

Rejection of the school, addressing the “negative” and “dissolvent” ideological charge carried by Modernism.

J. L. Marfany (Traditional Conception):

The traditional conception of the School is only applicable to describing a homogeneous group of Majorcan youth who represent the first serious, conscious, and organized attempt to incorporate Mallorca into the unique Catalan culture.

J. M. Llompart (Common Characteristics of the MS):

Llompart identifies a set of common characteristics:

• A double feeling of superiority and inferiority.
• The Majorcan School (MS) believes in truth and has the power to serve as an example and model of poetry in other branches of Classical Catalan literature.
• The “Victoria Line”: Serenity and equilibrium.
• Academic rigor of the form.
• Academic rigor of the poetic matter.