Modernismo

Modernismo was a Spanish-language literary movement that renewed poetic form and style from the late nineteenth into the early twentieth century. It drew on cosmopolitan influences to pursue musical language, formal innovation, and aesthetic refinement.

Rubén Darío: A Nicaraguan poet and prose writer whose work established Modernismo as a major literary movement. His poetry gave the movement its widest influence and clearest model.
Spanish prosody: The system of rhythm, meter, stress, and sound patterns used in Spanish poetry. Modernismo transformed this inherited system rather than abandoning it.
Latin American literature: Literature produced in the languages and societies of Latin America. Modernismo arose in Latin America before reshaping literary life in Spain.
Azul...: An 1888 book of poems and prose by Rubén Darío, often treated as a foundational work of Modernismo. Its mix of forms and cosmopolitan imagery made the movement’s innovations conspicuous.
Generation of 1898: A group of Spanish writers who responded to Spain’s political and cultural crisis around the end of the nineteenth century. Its inward focus on Spain differs from Modernismo’s broader transatlantic aesthetic project.
Alexandrian verse: A twelve-syllable poetic line, often divided into two hemistichs of six syllables each. Modernista poets revived and varied this meter to expand Spanish poetic rhythm.
Metrical variation: Deliberate changes in poetic meter that create rhythmic variety or emphasis. Modernista poets altered familiar patterns to make verse sound less predictable.
French literature: Literature written in France or in French, encompassing diverse movements and traditions. French Symbolist and Parnassian writing supplied major models for Modernista innovation.
Prosas profanas: A 1896 poetry collection by Rubén Darío, central to the mature phase of Modernismo. Its elaborate meters and artifice became defining examples of Modernista style.
Avant-garde: Innovative artistic movements that challenge established forms and conventions. Modernismo’s formal experiments helped prepare Spanish-language literature for later avant-garde movements.

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