Ataques a la novedad: Obstáculos en el camino del modernismo hispanoamericano

The essay deals with the difficulties which the Spanish-American modernism had to face in its beginning. It especially focuses on the phenomenon of “anti-modernism”, developed not only by some prestigious literary theoreticians, but also various poets whose target was to undermine the increasing creation of modernist writers by ridiculing their effort. Such works originated in Spanish America as well as in Spain, were published mainly in periodical press, and, in the end and despite their preliminary goal, helped create an interesting dialogue concerning the literary visions of the Old and New Worlds, and thus contributed to the development and direction of the then proliferating new movement. It shows that many of the original critics changed their minds after some time, especially after modernism had entered its second, a rather existential period.