Definition of modernism - What it is, Meaning and Concept

It is known as modernism an artistic movement that took place from the nineteenth century and whose objective was the renewal in creation; using the new resources of the poetic art , and leaving the old tendencies aside, for not considering them efficient.

While the term is applicable to the various movements that are based In the above, it is especially related to the flow of artistic renewal that originated between the late nineteenth century in Latin America in the field of poetry, which spread throughout the continent and became adopted by many European poets during the next century.

This movement became known in Spanish as modernism, but in other languages ​​it was called art nouveau , modern style and jugendstil , for example.In each country , on the other hand, modernism had its own characteristics.

In the field of religion , modernism was a theological movement of at the end of the 19th century that tried to reconcile Christian doctrine with science and the philosophy of the time.For this purpose, I dedicate myself to interpreting religious contents in a subjective and historical way, considering them as a human product within a historical context.

Modernism in literature

As a literary movement, modernism originated in 1880 in Latin America; It was the first movement within this art that would acquire such force that it would infect many countries, counting the main literary creation centers of Europe, as were Spain and France.

The main referent of this movement was Ruben Dario, a poet born in Nicaragua, who after publishing in 1888, "Azul", began a current to which other important poets of his continent, such as Jose Marti and Manuel Gutierrez Najera, would add.

The objective of this new literary style was to detach from Spanish models and relied mostly on models of subversive current such as symbolism and French Parnassianism.Some of the authors most followed by the modernists were Theophile Gautier, Paul Verlaine, Walt Whitman and Edgar Allan Poe.

The basis of modernism was in a rupturist intention with the predominant styles of the era .The search for a new aesthetic, inspired by nature and with elements of the industrial revolution, I mark the change of paradigm .

Modernism sought to promote the cultivation of the most natural art, separated from the bourgeois constructions.In fact, the cult of beauty and the use of harmonious images are one of the most outstanding features of this literary turn.The approach of artistic beauty to everyday objects, so that art was accessible to all social classes.It did not appeal, however, to mass production techniques.

Other features of modernism were the use of curved lines, asymmetry, the use of exotic motives and the tendency to sensuality and pleasures of the senses.In this movement, the theme of love acquired a more erotic and sensual tone, moving away from romantic images, so fashionable at that time.

Another quite significant question in poetic creation was the evocation of distant places and archaic times, and the use of elements typical of Greco-Latin mythology, as well as characters from past epochs.

On the other hand, emphasis was placed on the perfection of form and aestheticism, as well as on the cultured language.All inheritances of Parnassianism.With regard to the musicality of the verses, the poetic resources used to be used as rhythm, alliteration and onomatopoeia.

Among the most prominent authors of Latin American modernism we can mention Delmira Agustini, Julian del Casal, Jose Asuncion Silva, Julio Herrera and Reissig, Amado Nervo, Leopoldo Lugones and the aforementioned Marti and Gutierrez Najera.