Rubén Darío and the Romantic Search for Unity: The Modernist Recourse to Esoteric Tradition

Modernism was the major Spanish American literary movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Leader of that influential movement was Rubén Darío, the Nicaraguan now recognized as one of the most important Hispanic poets of all time.

Like the Romantics in England and the Symbolists on the Continent, Darío and other Modernists were strongly influenced by occultist thought. But, as the poet Octavio Paz has written, "academic criticism has ... preferred to close its eyes to the stream of occultism that runs throughout Darío's work. This silence damages our comprehension of his poetry."

Cathy Login Jrade's groundbreaking study corrects this critical oversight. Her work clearly demonstrates that esoteric tradition is central to Modernism and that an understanding of this centrality clarifies both the nature of the movement and its relationship to earlier European literature.

After placing Modernism in a broad historical and literary perspective, Jrade examines the impact of esoteric beliefs upon Darío's view of the world and the role of poetry in it. Through detailed and insightful analyses of key poems, she explores the poet's quest for solutions to the nineteenth-century crisis of belief.

The movement that Ruben Darío headed brought Hispanic poetry into the mainstream of the "modern tradition," with its sense of fragmentation and alienation and its hope for integration and reconciliation with nature. Rubén Darío and the Romantic Search for Unity enriches our understanding of that movement and the work of its leading poet.

1113148367
Rubén Darío and the Romantic Search for Unity: The Modernist Recourse to Esoteric Tradition

Modernism was the major Spanish American literary movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Leader of that influential movement was Rubén Darío, the Nicaraguan now recognized as one of the most important Hispanic poets of all time.

Like the Romantics in England and the Symbolists on the Continent, Darío and other Modernists were strongly influenced by occultist thought. But, as the poet Octavio Paz has written, "academic criticism has ... preferred to close its eyes to the stream of occultism that runs throughout Darío's work. This silence damages our comprehension of his poetry."

Cathy Login Jrade's groundbreaking study corrects this critical oversight. Her work clearly demonstrates that esoteric tradition is central to Modernism and that an understanding of this centrality clarifies both the nature of the movement and its relationship to earlier European literature.

After placing Modernism in a broad historical and literary perspective, Jrade examines the impact of esoteric beliefs upon Darío's view of the world and the role of poetry in it. Through detailed and insightful analyses of key poems, she explores the poet's quest for solutions to the nineteenth-century crisis of belief.

The movement that Ruben Darío headed brought Hispanic poetry into the mainstream of the "modern tradition," with its sense of fragmentation and alienation and its hope for integration and reconciliation with nature. Rubén Darío and the Romantic Search for Unity enriches our understanding of that movement and the work of its leading poet.

19.95 In Stock
Rubén Darío and the Romantic Search for Unity: The Modernist Recourse to Esoteric Tradition

Rubén Darío and the Romantic Search for Unity: The Modernist Recourse to Esoteric Tradition

by Cathy L. Jrade
Rubén Darío and the Romantic Search for Unity: The Modernist Recourse to Esoteric Tradition

Rubén Darío and the Romantic Search for Unity: The Modernist Recourse to Esoteric Tradition

by Cathy L. Jrade

eBook

$19.95 

Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
WANT A NOOK?  Explore Now

Related collections and offers

LEND ME® See Details

Overview

Modernism was the major Spanish American literary movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Leader of that influential movement was Rubén Darío, the Nicaraguan now recognized as one of the most important Hispanic poets of all time.

Like the Romantics in England and the Symbolists on the Continent, Darío and other Modernists were strongly influenced by occultist thought. But, as the poet Octavio Paz has written, "academic criticism has ... preferred to close its eyes to the stream of occultism that runs throughout Darío's work. This silence damages our comprehension of his poetry."

Cathy Login Jrade's groundbreaking study corrects this critical oversight. Her work clearly demonstrates that esoteric tradition is central to Modernism and that an understanding of this centrality clarifies both the nature of the movement and its relationship to earlier European literature.

After placing Modernism in a broad historical and literary perspective, Jrade examines the impact of esoteric beliefs upon Darío's view of the world and the role of poetry in it. Through detailed and insightful analyses of key poems, she explores the poet's quest for solutions to the nineteenth-century crisis of belief.

The movement that Ruben Darío headed brought Hispanic poetry into the mainstream of the "modern tradition," with its sense of fragmentation and alienation and its hope for integration and reconciliation with nature. Rubén Darío and the Romantic Search for Unity enriches our understanding of that movement and the work of its leading poet.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780292749665
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Publication date: 07/03/2014
Series: Texas Pan American Series
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 192
File size: 782 KB

About the Author

Cathy Login Jrade is Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at Vanderbilt University.

Table of Contents

  • Preface
  • 1. Modernism and the Romantic/Esoteric Tradition
  • 2. Esoteric Pythagoreanism in Darío’s Vision of the Universe
  • 3. “Under the Sign of a Supreme Destiny”: Reincarnation and Poetic Responsibility
  • 4. The Poet as Magus: Deciphering the Universe
  • 5. Paradise Found: Sexual Love in Esoteric Tradition
  • 6. Toward a Syncretic World View
  • 7. Modernism and Its Legacy
  • Notes
  • Works Cited
  • Index

What People are Saying About This

Allen W. Phillips

...original and well written, substantive and illuminating, ... a genuine contribution to Hispanic literary criticism.

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews