Modernism in Spanish Literature: Key Authors and Stylistic Features

Modernist Themes and Aesthetics

In this setting, beautiful, erotic, and amoral behaviors appear with frequency. INTIMA allows the poet to express discomfort with their surroundings, revealing an unattainable yearning for wholeness, uneasiness, autumn scenery, twilight, and gardens.

Style and Metrics

Writers exploit all possibilities offered by language to achieve beauty:

• Color: A key element, often expressed through intense adjectives.
• Musicality: High levels of sonority and rhythm in verse.
• Lexicon: Rich, varied, and abundant in alliteration, synesthesia, and bold imagery.
• Metrics: Modernism combines traditional meters with previously underused forms, such as the Alexandrian or hendecasyllable, seeking strophic variety and innovation.

Key Authors of the Movement

Rubén Darío

The creator and promoter of Modernism in Spain. His first book, Azul... (1888), is a mixture of verse and prose. With Prosas Profanas, he created the model that his followers would mimic. This model remains present in Cantos de Vida y Esperanza, though it incorporates elements that move away from frivolous and escapist lines, beginning to delve into universal human problems.

Antonio Machado

His major themes include privacy, memories, the Castilian landscape, and concerns regarding Spain and the passage of time. Machado's beginnings align with Modernism in metrics, lexicon, and imagery, as seen in Soledades. His most characteristic work appears later in Campos de Castilla, where he reflects on the landscape of Soria, the evils of Spain, and the lives of anonymous people, placing him within the orbit of the Generation of '98.

Juan Ramón Jiménez

His poetry evolved from an initial association with Modernism to the creation of a highly personal body of work related to pure poetry and the aesthetics of silence:

• First Stage: Inspired by Modernism, featuring short meters, musicality, and atmospheric settings, as seen in Arias Tristes.
• Second Stage: A more intellectual phase, represented by Diario de un poeta recién casado, incorporating elements like the sea or the streets of New York.
• Third Stage: Developed during his exile, where his self-reflection intensifies. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.