Modernism: Trends, Themes, and Key Figures in Literature
Modernism: Anxiety and Commemoration
Modernism marked the reappearance of anxiety, a characteristic of European Romantic literature. Poetry is used to commemorate the last moments.
Major Trends of Modernism
Initiated by Rubén Darío, modernism involves the integration of various viewpoints, Parnassianism, and symbolism. It draws from varied sources of American and Hispanic poetry. Modernism is an enveloping movement that collects items from different sources and endorses them.
Parnassian Modernism: Escapism
Parnassian Modernism involves evasion of the real world through dreams, distant and exotic places, and references to classical mythology. There are many elements of the fashionable world, with the idea that art should imitate life. Cosmopolitanism is an aspect of the desire to escape, with Paris symbolizing cosmopolitanism and the bohemian lifestyle, the capital of modernismo. Desazón (discontent) romantic passions are excited and irrational. Love and eroticism are common themes; love poems are delicate, but others are intensely erotic. American themes, complementary to cosmopolitanism, indicate a tendency to escape into the legendary past, especially indigenous myths. As Hispanic, this theme is accentuated by warning of the U.S. role. Spanish is at the forefront, claiming responsibility for North American cultural values.
Symbolist Modernism
Symbolist modernism is derived from French symbolism. What is essential is the suggestion and the evocative power of words; didacticism is banished. The escape is directed toward the inner world of the poet’s internalization. Afterward, the writer returns to the outside world, discovering the landscape as a symbol of history or the poet.
Antonio Machado
His early work, including “Loneliness,” “Galleries,” and other poems, belongs to modernismo simbolista. It addresses issues such as the melancholy passing of time, God, and death. In Campos de Castilla (Fields of Castile), the above issues are compounded by descriptions of the landscapes of Castile, subjective descriptions of landscapes and a critical attitude, compositions dedicated to his wife, Eleanor.
Later poems, adding to anger and social criticism, earned him the admiration of postwar poets. Machado also wrote plays and prose.
Themes in Machado’s Work
- Time: The poet creates distinct symbols and is concerned about the time that flows but is always equal to itself.
- Solitude: The companion of the poet.
- The Dream: A form of knowledge, closer to the deep reality of things.
- Love: Evoked in Leonor’s poems.
- God.
Rubén Darío
Rubén Darío is characterized by his ability to address all kinds of poetic themes. He is a poet of love and eroticism. Azul marks the beginning of modernism and exhibits a variety of rhythms and meters, elegance, and sensuality. Prosas Profanas (Profane Prose) represents the fullness of modernismo parnasiano. In Cantos de Vida y Esperanza (Songs of Life and Hope), a crisis occurs, and we see poetry about art, intimate reflection on time, love, etc.
Trends and Theatrical Forms
In the dramatic genre, the viewer needs to have connection. Dramatists propose works pleasing to the viewer, though technically well-constructed and commercially viable. Creating avant-garde theater, which surprised the audience and contained a high critical load.
The Trial of ’98
The meaning of life and the Spanish problem.