El modernismo de Latinoamérica

I spent my weekend reading Jane Austen’s Persuasion for my British literature class. It was a little bit slow to begin with but then after about a third of the book it picked up. I enjoyed reading it.

Because I spent my time reading Persuasion I did not read much poetry. So I want to revisit some poetry I found interesting. The author is Rubén Darío from Nicaragua. He was part of the Hispanic literary movement known as “el modernismo” which is not the same as modernism from other places. Modernismo was all about “arte por el arte” or art for art, not for a purpose. The poets of this time incorporated the use of colours, synesthesia (mixing two senses), and musicality in their poetry. They were interested in exotic places so they used them as the settings for their poems which at the time they considered to be China, Japan, India, France especially, or wherever they would feel most comfortable (their locus amoenus). Some other features of their poetry are using swans, the French national flower (flor de lis), elegancy, luxury, the exotic, and fantasy, such as fairies.

The poem “De invierno” is from the Darío’s book Azul, published in 1888. In this poem the poetic voice meets the reader and brings them into his apartment in Paris. The reader is there long enough to see the front room of the apartment. It is there that Carolina sleeps curled up on a couch. There is a fire, porcelain jars from China, it’s a nice place. When the poetic voice moves further into the apartment, Carolina looks up at him, shifts a little, and goes back to sleep. At that moment the reader is ushered out of the apartment back onto the streets of Paris. 

Found on Flickr by pizazz

Now although I am a female and perhaps I should be a little offended about this representation of Carolina, I actually find it quite fascinating. She has all the features of a cat. This representation of the female as being one who says nothing and is meant to just be pretty is just interesting to me, not offensive. 

One reason for the reader being sent out of the apartment at the end is that they have made the poetic voice a little uncomfortable in his locus amoenus and in order to protect it we have to leave. I find a lot of the aspects of the poems by the modernismo poets to be very interesting and enjoyed studying them when I did in my classes.

"De invierno" Rubén Darío

En invernales horas, mirad a Carolina. 
Medio apelotonada, descansa en el sillón, 
envuelta con su abrigo de marta cibelina 
y no lejos del fuego que brilla en el salón. 

El fino angora blanco junto a ella se reclina, 
rozando con su hocico la falda de Aleçón, 
no lejos de las jarras de porcelana china 
que medio oculta un biombo de seda del Japón. 

Con sus sutiles filtros la invade un dulce sueño: 
entro, sin hacer ruido: dejo mi abrigo gris; 
voy a besar su rostro, rosado y halagüeño 

como una rosa roja que fuera flor de lis. 
Abre los ojos; mírame con su mirar risueño, 
y en tanto cae la nieve del cielo de París.