After the horrors of World War I, Latin American writing turned away from what many saw as ornamental and frivolous experimentation. This program studies the so-called “criticism of Modernismo within Modernismo” in which language reached back to a simpler, more intimate, less urban-centered framework. Investigating the work of several poets and authors of the period—including Enrique González Martínez, Julio Herrera y Reissig, María Eugenia Vaz, Leopoldo Lugones, Delmira Agustini, Ramón López Velarde, and César Vallejo—the program reveals complex dynamics of nationalism and cosmopolitanism, Western literature and indigenous voices, and the spirit of breaking with the past and of belonging to an artistic tradition. An FFH&S/Tranquilo Production. (50 minutes)