VANGUARD LITERARY ,Tollrnal of AHGENTINA by David L
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Ai, ANJ\LYSIS CF PRCA ( 1924-1926): VANGUARD LITERARY ,TOllRNAL OF AHGENTINA by David L. Oberstar B.A., College of St. Thomas, 1965 M.A., University of Kansas, 1967 Submitted to the Department of Spanish and Portuguese an1 the Graduate School of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Table of Contents Chapter I. A Brief Survey of Vanguardism in Spanish America and Analysis of the Editorial Policy of Proa l Chapter II. Nonfiction Prose ................. 38 Chapter III. Prose Fiction ................... 85 Chapter IV. Poetry ........ " .. " .............. 130 Conclusion .........••......................... 166 Appendix •.•...............................•••. 172 Author Index ..•.•.................•.•.....•..• 18h Selected Bibliography ...................•..... 187 ii -1- CHAPTER I A BRIEF SURVEY OF VANGUARDISM IN SPANISH AMERICA AND ANALYSIS OF THE EDITORIAL POLICY OF PROA I The intervening period between the two World Wars was filled with a flourish of literary activity in Latin America. This hyperactivity translated itself into a large number of evanescent literary movements which were generally nihilistic and revolutionary in nature. The individuals who belonged to these movements wrote against things: "En contra de las dulces perspectivas, en contra de los cosmopolitas ensuefios del modernismo. Y escribiendo en contra, se dieron al verso suelto, a la idolatr!a de la imagen yala man!a de colec cionar luego esos !dolos metaf6ricos."1 Since the schools or movements spawned by this period were so great in number and most often extremely short-lived, only the more signifi cant or representative ones will be discussed here in order to give an idea of what characterized this era. To find the origins of Vanguardism in Spanish America, it is necessary to examine the politically and socially chaotic period in Europe after the First World War. The Manifeste du futurisme (published originally in Le Figaro of Paris in 1909), by the Italian writer Filippo Tommaso -2- Marinetti, vividly displays the revol�tionary spirit of the era. Marinetti 's assertion that a moving automobile is more beautiful than Victory of Samothrace mirrors the fascination of the post.ar generation with the dynamism of contemporary life and its rejection of tradition. The atmosphere which enveloped Europe's creative writers was one of great ferment and revolt. These individuals were seeking new ways to express the unique problems of their own time and circumstance. In this context there occurred a rejec- tion of traditional rhetorical elements or procedures and crea- tivity became the watchword of the day. In all areas these postwar authors relentlessly sought creativity, freshness and newness, an attitude amply characterized by Ramon Gomez de la Serna: "La invenc±on debe ser incesante. ... Perder tiempo es perder invencion. ... Repetir un concepto, una manera, una com- posicion de arte es redundar en la redundancia que acorta la vida, que suprime la diversidad de espectaculos que es su 2 eternidad." The avant-garde writers, with an attitude of con tempt and aggressiveness toward the traditional, became dar- ingly innovative in style. Antonio M. de la Torre, in comparing vanguard Spanish literature and modern art, gives the following generalization: "Everything in this style is a breathtaking display of originality and a departure from time-honored forms; classic clarity has given way to enigma and elusive ness; polish, dignity, and smoothness of form have been replaced by rough, playful, dashy, jerky sentences abounding in syntactic dislocations and contortions, bearing a close resemblance to the modern painter's brush."3 -3- With regard to Spanish American literature, ultra1smo was perhaps the most important school to coalesce in this artistic climate of change. The movement actually origi nated in Spain and was active there during the early twen- ties. Guillermo de Torre, the leading theoretician of the movement, has minutely detailed its history in his Historia de las literaturas � vanguardia, claiming, in the process, 4 to have invented the term ultra1smo himself. In the fall of 1918 Rafael Cansinos-Assens published the first manifesto of the movement; it was in essence a call to literary renovation: ••. proclamamos la necesidad de un ultra1smo. Nuestra literatura debe renovarse, debe lograr su ultra, como hoy pretende lograrlo nuestro pensa- miento cient1fico y pol1tico. Nuestro lema sera ultra, yen nuestro credo cabran todas las tenden- cias sin distinci6n. Mas tarde estas tendencias lograran su nucleo y su definici6n. Por el momento creemos suficiente lanzar este grito de renovaci6n y anunciar la publicaci6n de una revista que llevara este t1tulo: Ultra, yen la que s6lo lo nuevo hallara acogid� The typical mode used by all avant-garde movements to bring themselves before the attention of the reading public were literary journals or reviews, usually of short duration. For ultra1smo in Spain the most important journals were Grecia (1919-1920), Ultra (1921-1922), Horizonte (1922-1923) and Plural (1925). These journals, in their few years of exis tence, served as the showcases from which the Ultraists dis played their works and ideas, and the stage from which they kept up their constant appeal for renovation. As a loosely organized literary school, ultrafsmo had a short existence. But this movement can be better appreciated when it is viewed less as a well-defined literary school and -4- more as a general manifestation of the turmoil of the post war era. The Ultraist writers did not possess a neatly defined aesthetic program; rather they lashed out blindly against whatever seemed to be traditional. Ultra1smo was "un movimiento de separaci6n de la l1rica vigente, una reac ci6n contra e! mudernismo, una voluntad de renovaci6n, un ir 'm's alla' ."6 Any point of view or stance which was in direct opposition to a traditional posture could be comfort ably integrated into the Ultraist wave. The individual who finally synthesized the most impor tant principles of this eclectic movement was not a Spaniard but rather an Argentine: Jorge Luis Borges (1899). Borges collaborated on the Spanish Ultraist reviews and was later to play an important role in the introduction of vanguard techniques in Latin America. 7 He spent the war years in Switzerland where he received his education, and at the close of the war he traveled extensively around Europe, finally coming to settle down in Madrid from 1919 to 1921. It was during this residency in Spain that he became actively involved in the Ultraist movement. When Borges returned to Argentina in 1921, armed with his Ultraist ideas of renovation, he immediately began his assault on the last surviving remains of Modernism. One of his very first acts upon returning to his natiVP, land was to publish in Nosotros his now renowned article entitled "Ultra1smo," in which he tried to explain the nature of Ultraism to the uninitiated in his homeland. This represented the beginning of the exposure of Vanguardism in Argentina. -5- Like his fellow Ultraists in Spain, be declared the metaphor and unrhymed verse to be supreme. The following are the principles of ultra1smo that he sets forth: 1 - Reducci6n de la l1rica a su elemento primordial: la mP.tafora. 2 - Tachadura de las frases medianeras, los nexos, y los adjetivos inutiles. 3 - Abolici6n de los trebejos ornamentales, el con fesionalismo, la circunstanciaci6n, las pr�dicas y la nebulosidad rebuscada. 4 - S1ntesis de dos o mas imagenes en una, que ensan cha de ese mode su facultad de sugerencia. Los poemas ultraicos constan pues de una serie de metaforas, cada una de las cuales tiene sugesti vidad propia y compendiza uga visi6n in�dita de algun fragmento de la vida. As can be readily seen, these four principles revolve around the central notion of rejection of the traditional and reduc- tion to the essential. It is therefore easy to understand how Argentine Ultraism, like its counterpart in Spain, was characterized by a willingness to deem acceptable all kinds of innovations, since innovation naturally meant going against tradition in some way. It is interesting to note, however, that Borges seldom followed these early and strongly radical ideas in his own work. That is not to say that he completely forgot about Ultraist techniques, because he effectively employed meta- phor and free verse. What he did not do was merely use these forms indiscriminately for the sheer purpose of creation and innovation. He did not cast about wildly for metaphors which when strung together would have only the didactic effect of showing how this new type of writing was to be achieved and the shock effect desired by the Vanguardists among those who still were clinging to the traditional ways. Borges managed, -6- rather, to put a tight rein on these technical tools and subordinate them to the task of expressing lyrically his unique thoughts and feelings. The result of this process can be seen in Fervor de Buenos Aires (1923), his first major collection of poetry, in which he deals in depth with such universal themes as time, death and love, set against the reality of the Buenos Aires in which he lived and in relation to which he interpreted these thematic concerns. The criticism of Borges' poetry seldom if ever concentrates on the superficial mechanical aspect of his work, indicating that he is rarely viewed in terms of being an avant-garde iconoclast. More important than his creative work in the develop ment of vanguard thought was Borges' relationship with sev eral literary journals, especially Prisma, Proa and Mart!n Fierro. Borges was involved centrally in the publication of the two issues of Prisma in 1921 and 1922. This revista � was merely an attempt to draw attention to the cause of renovation and renewal. Shortly after the demise of Prisma, Borges, along with Macedonio Fernandez, began another journal by the name of Proa, subtitled "Revista de renovaci6n literaria." This review was less flamboyant than Prisma, but was nonetheless highly combative in nature.