The Spanish American Crónica Modernista, Temporality and Material Culture

Modernismo's Unstoppable Presses

Andrew Reynolds

This study explores how Spanish American modernista writers incorporated journalistic formalities and industry models through the crónica genre to advance their literary preoccupations. Through a variety of modernista writers, including José Martí, Amado Nervo, Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera and Rubén Darío, Reynolds argues that extra-textual elements—such as temporality, the material formats of the newspaper and book, and editorial influence—animate the modernista movement’s literary ambitions and aesthetic ideology. Thus, instead of being stripped of an esteemed place in the literary sphere due to participation in the market-based newspaper industry, journalism actually brought modernismo closer to the writers’ desired artistic autonomy. Reynolds uncovers an original philosophical and sociological dimension of the literary forms that govern modernista studies, situating literary journalism of the movement within historical, economic and temporal contexts. Furthermore, he demonstrates that journalism of the movement was eventually consecrated in book form, revealing modernista intentionality for their mass-produced, seemingly utilitarian journalistic articles. The Spanish American Crónica Modernista, Temporality, and Material Culture thereby enables a better understanding of how the material textuality of the crónica impacts its interpretation and readership.

University Press Copublishing Division / Bucknell University Press

Pages: 200 • Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜

978-1-61148-468-7 • Hardback • October 2012 • $114.00 • (£88.00)

978-1-61148-469-4 • eBook • October 2012 • $108.00 • (£83.00)

Series: Bucknell Studies in Latin American Literature and Theory

Subjects: Literary Criticism / American / Hispanic American, Literary Criticism / Caribbean & Latin American, Literary Criticism / Semiotics & Theory

The Spanish American Crónica Modernista, Temporality and Material Culture

Modernismo's Unstoppable Presses

Hardback

eBook

Summary

This study explores how Spanish American modernista writers incorporated journalistic formalities and industry models through the crónica genre to advance their literary preoccupations. Through a variety of modernista writers, including José Martí, Amado Nervo, Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera and Rubén Darío, Reynolds argues that extra-textual elements—such as temporality, the material formats of the newspaper and book, and editorial influence—animate the modernista movement’s literary ambitions and aesthetic ideology. Thus, instead of being stripped of an esteemed place in the literary sphere due to participation in the market-based newspaper industry, journalism actually brought modernismo closer to the writers’ desired artistic autonomy. Reynolds uncovers an original philosophical and sociological dimension of the literary forms that govern modernista studies, situating literary journalism of the movement within historical, economic and temporal contexts. Furthermore, he demonstrates that journalism of the movement was eventually consecrated in book form, revealing modernista intentionality for their mass-produced, seemingly utilitarian journalistic articles. The Spanish American Crónica Modernista, Temporality, and Material Culture thereby enables a better understanding of how the material textuality of the crónica impacts its interpretation and readership.

Details

University Press Copublishing Division / Bucknell University Press

Pages: 200 • Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜

978-1-61148-468-7 • Hardback • October 2012 • $114.00 • (£88.00)

978-1-61148-469-4 • eBook • October 2012 • $108.00 • (£83.00)

Series: Bucknell Studies in Latin American Literature and Theory

Subjects: Literary Criticism / American / Hispanic American, Literary Criticism / Caribbean & Latin American, Literary Criticism / Semiotics & Theory

Author

Andrew R. Reynolds is assistant professor of Spanish at West Texas A&M University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

List of Illustrations

Introduction

1 – Journalism as Literary Practice During Modernismo

2 – “Possession of the Infinite”: Temporality and Difference in Modernismo

3 – “Circulation and Vitality”: Editorial Influence,Visual Culture and the Crónica Modernista

4 – “The House of Ideas”: The Crónica Modernista, Material Culture of the Book and Literary History

Works Cited

About the Author

Reviews

Reynolds employs a material culture studies approach by reading the crónica through journalistic practices, while also drawing from sociological and poststructuralist theorists such as Deleuze and Bourdieu. His take on the crónica modernista is a valuable contribution to crónica studies that revises some of the current analytical commonplaces on the topic....[T]his is an ambitious book that steers clear from easy aners in favor of nuance, tension and even paradox. Its ambitious argument in favor of reintegrating the cronica into the world of turn-of-the-century journalism is provocative yet persuasive...[T]his is a book that puts forward excellent claims about the history of journalism and the always slippery definition of both the crónica and the modernista movement.
— Textos Híbridos

The Spanish American Crónica Modernista, Temporality and Material Culture

Modernismo's Unstoppable Presses

Andrew Reynolds

The Spanish American Crónica Modernista, Temporality and Material Culture

Modernismo's Unstoppable Presses

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