Radical Poetry: The Avant-garde in Latin America and Spain

The first few decades of the 20th century ushered in a dynamic literary and aesthetic renewal in Spain and Latin America. Young poets sought a radical change in response to a rapidly changing world, one marked by the horrors of World War I and the rise of a new technological urban society. This course will focus on the poetry and attendant manifestos of movements such as Creacionismo, Ultraismo, Estridentismo, Surrealismo and other -ismos. How did the European avant-garde (e.g. Futurism, Dada, and Surrealism) inform such aesthetic turns? In what ways did poetry assimilate modern visual culture while questioning established poetics? Authors may include Aleixandre, Borges, Cansino-Assens, G. Diego, G. de Torre, Huidobro, Larrea, Lorca, Maples Arce, Neruda, Tablada, and Vallejo. Taught in Spanish.