Modernismo in Latin American Literature

A survey of Latin American Modernista literature (from the 1870s to the end of the 1920s), with an emphasis on poetry (e.g., Rubén Darío and Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera) and essays (e.g., José Martí and José Enrique Rodó). As a reaction to Positivism as well as Romanticism, Modernista writers initiated a movement of radical artistic and intellectual renovation, and aimed at creating a very refined literary discourse that would better express their redefined ideals of beauty. They covered a variety of themes, such as eroticism, exoticism (e.g., Orientalism), spiritualism, the changing role of the artist in the new industrial society, etc.