Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

José Bergamín and the aesthetics of the Generation of 1927

1981; Liverpool University Press; Volume: 58; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/1475382812000358313

1469-3550

Nigel Dennis,

Sociology and Education in Brazil

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. La poesía española entre pureza y revolución (1930–1936) (Madrid 1972), 24. 2. In ‘La nueva arte poética española’, Síntesis (Buenos Aires), no. 20 (January 1929), 183–99, at 192. 3. My general approach to the Generation and the aesthetics of the twenties naturally owes a great deal to the major critical works that have already been devoted to the subject. I have found the following especially useful: A.P. Debicki, Estudios sobre poesía española contemporánea. La generación de 1924–25 ( Madrid 1968) ; J. González Muela, El lenguaje poético de la generación Guillén—Lorca (Madrid 1954); C. B. Morris, A Generation of Spanish Poets 1920–1936 (Cambridge 1969); G. Videla, El ultraísmo (Madrid 1971). However, the fact remains that little if any importance is attached to Bergamín's critical (or creative) writing in any of these studies. A notable exception, apart from Cano Ballesta's book, is Geoffrey Connell's concise introduction to his anthology Spanish Poetry of the ‘Grupo poético de 1927’ (Oxford 1977) which makes intelligent use of Bergamín's important article of 1929 ‘Literatura y brújula’, a general assessment of the poetry written in Spain from the ultraistas onwards. The more recent book by Anthony Leo Geist, La poética de la generación del 27 y las revistas literarias: de la vanguardia al compromiso (1918–1936) (Barcelona 1980) has the virtue of at least acknowledging the existence of Bergamín's ‘Notas para unos prolegómenos a toda poética del porvenir que se presente como arte’ (1927) and the series of aphorisms entitled ‘Transparencia y reflejo’ (1926); but the study as a whole, despite its promising title, is largely derivative. A more original and commendable book, in which Bergamín is recognized as a contributor of major importance to some of the principal literary journals of the period, is Francisco Javier Díez de Revenga, Revistas murcianas relacionadas con la Generación del 27, 2nd edn. (Murcia 1979). 4. I am thinking particularly of texts by Dámaso Alonso such as ‘Una generación poética. 1920–1936’, in Poetas españoles contemporáneos, 3rd edn (Madrid 1965), 155–77. Alonso's opinions are naturally of great interest, but it should be remembered that his testimony constitutes only a single point of reference. 5. ‘La nueva arte poética’, 191–92. 6. Cano Ballesta, 25. 7. ‘Alquimia y mayéutica de la imagen creacionista’, Cosmópolis (Madrid), 21 (1920) (repr. in Juan Manuel Rozas, La generación del 27 desde dentro [Madrid 1974], 137–40, at 138). 8. ‘La nueva arte poética’, 185. 9. ‘Un gran poeta chileno: Vicente Huidobro y el creacionismo’, Cosmópolis, 1 (1919) (repr. Vicente Huidobroy el creacionismo, ed. René de Costa [Madrid 1975], 119–24, at 122) It should be borne in mind that Cansinos-Assens was referring specifically to the effect of Huidobro's arrival in Madrid upon the conventional approaches to poetry that until 1918 had been largely unchallenged in Spain. 10. G. de Torre, ‘Alquimia y mayéutica. . .’, 140. 11. It was doubtless fortunate that the better poets of the twenties largely refused to allow themslves to be rigidly tied to these dogmatic theories and unequivocal declarations. Guillén's advocation of a ‘poesía pura, ma non troppo. . .’ opened up more fruitful possibilities, and was symptomatic of the way in which absolute ideals were wisely qualified by common sense. 12. G. Diego, ‘La nueva arte poética’, 188. 13. Manuel Abril, ‘Itinerario del nuevo arte plástico’, RO, XIV (1926), 343–67, at 358. The fact that Abril was writing about painting draws attention to the close parallel in aesthetic orientation that existed, in the early twenties at least, between poetry and painting. Guillermo de Torre commented on this point as early as 1920, describing ‘la escuela creacionista’, for example, as ‘emergida teóricamente de los postulados esenciales del cubismo’. See his essay ‘La poesía creacionista y la pugna entre sus progenitores’, repr. in René de Costa, 129–43, at 134. 14. G. de Torre, ‘Alquimia y mayéutica …’, 138. 15. ‘Mundo poético’, Verso y Prosa (Murcia), 12 (October 1928). 16. The phrase is Guillén's and appears in his ‘Carta a Fernando Vela’, Verso y Prosa, 2 (February 1927). 17. ‘La nueva arte poética’, 190. 18. See his ‘¿Cómo veo la nueva juventud española?’, in Los complementarios (Buenos Aires 1957), 152–56. The text was originally published in La Gaceta Literaria (1 March 1929). 19. El arte al cubo y otros ensayos (Madrid 1927), 16. 20. La aventura estética de nuestro tiempo (Barcelona 1962), 78 21. Published in Disparadero español, II (Madrid 1936), 169–223, and in Versoy Prosa, 8 (August 1927), respectively. Page-numbers of references to the former will be incorporated into the text. The title of the ‘Notas. . .’ is modelled upon Kant's Prolegomena zu einer jeden kunftigen Metaphysik die als Wissenschaft wird auftrelen können. 22. A notable exception is Gerardo Diego's reference to Bergamín's ‘Notas …’ in ‘La nueva arte poética’, 192. 23. There may well be a link between Bergamín's idea of the work of art as a substantive artifact and Huidobro's well known contention that the creacionista poem affirmed itself as ‘un objeto nuevo’, ‘un hecho nuevo inventado’, ‘un fait nouveau, … indépendant de tout autre phénomène externe’ that actually competed with the objects created by nature. 24. See, for example, G. de Torre: ‘El poeta creacionista aspira a construir un orbe distinto en cada poema. Quiere dotar a éste de una vida independiente y propia, fundiendo diversos elementos, que aisladamente tienen existencia real, para producir un conjunto totalmente nuevo e insólito como una maquinaria’ (‘Alquimia y mayéutica …’, 140); G. Diego: ‘ … una poesía absoluta o de tendencia a lo absoluto; esto es, apoyada en sí misma, autónoma frente al mundo real del que sólo en segundo grado procede’ (in his prologue to Primera antología de sus versos [Buenos Aires 1941], 19); D. Alonso: ‘ … en los años inmediatamente anteriores a 1927, nada de estridentismo: se trataba de trabajar perfectamente, en pureza y fervor; de eliminar del poema los elementos reales y dejar todos los metafóricos, pero de tal modo que éstos satisfacieran a la inteligencia con el sello de logrado’ (‘Góngora entre sus dos centenarios’, in Cuatro poetas españoles [Madrid 1962], 49–77, at 64). 25. The image of the faulty cerradura recalls Bécquer's description of the conflict between inspiration and expression in poem No. 11 (of the Libro de los gorriones): ‘ … no hay cifra/capaz de encerrarle …’. Bécquer also alludes to the same idea in poem No. 42 (‘Sacudimiento extraño …’), using verbs like ordenar, enfrenar, atar, reunir, agrupar as well as encerrar in order to convey how reason subjugates inspiration. 26. Historia de la literatura española (New York 1963) II, 347. 27. I am thinking here of Machado's reference to ‘tanta afición a lo hermético’ in Bergamín's generation. See the text alluded to in note 18. It is also worth alluding to Juan Ramón Jiménez's malicious reference to the complexity of Bergamín's prose style: ‘La verdad es que yo nunca he sabido lo que J. B. quiere decir cuando escribe largo’ (‘Carta obligada a mí mismo’, Selección de cartas (1899–1958) [Barcelona 1973], 155–61, at 155). 28. Lorca's comment on the problem of gaining access to Góngora's poetry is worth recalling in this connexion: ‘Es un problema de comprensión. A Góngora no hay que leerlo, sino estudiarlo. Góngora no viene a buscarnos como otros poetas para ponernos melancólicos, sino que hay que perseguirlo razonablemente’ ( ‘La imagen poética de Don Luis de Góngora’, Obras completas, 18th edn [Madrid 1974], I, 1001–25, at 1006). 29. The debts here to the principles of creacionismo as expounded by Huidobro are obvious. Compare, for instance, Bergamín's argument to the following declaration by Huidobro: ‘Il ne s'agit pas d'imiter la nature, mais de faire comme elle, de ne pas imiter ses extériorisations, mais son pouvoir extériorisateur’ (quoted by Guillermo de Torre ‘La polémica del creacionismo: Huidobro y Reverdy’, repr. in René de Costa, 151–65, at 159). 30. For a fuller discussion of this point with specific reference to Bergamín's Caracteres see my ‘Caracterología bergaminiana. (Verso y prosa en la joven literatura)’, Nueva Estafeta, 3 (February 1979), 75–77. 31. Bergamín's aphorisms have indeed been described as ‘poetic’ by a number of noteworthy critics. See, for example, Pedro Salinas, ‘José Bergamín en aforismos’, in Literatura española siglo XX, 2nd edn. (Madrid 1972), 159–64, especially 164; and Ramón Gaya, ‘Epílogo para un libro de José Bergamín’, in Bergamín, La claridad desierta (Málaga 1973), 209–14. 32. I have examined this point in some detail in my ‘ “Dueño en su laberinto”. El ensayista José Bergamín (de la Irreal Anti-Academia)’, Camp de l’Arpa, 23–24 (August–September 1975), 13–19. 33. The texts of the aphorisms I have referred to are the following: ‘Carmen: enigma y soledad’, Carmen (Gijón/Santander), 2 (January 1928); ‘Hermes, encadenado’, Mediodía (Seville), 9 (January 1928), 4–6; ‘Martirio de San Sebastián’, Verso y Prosa, 9 (September 1927); ‘Aforústica y epigromética’, Ley (Madrid), 1 (1927); 6–8; ‘Transparencia y reflejo’, Mediodía, 5 (October 1926), 1–3; ‘Aforística permanente’, Alfar (La Coruña), 47 (February 1925). In incorporating references to these texts into my discussion, the abbreviations I have used are self-explanatory. 34. There is little doubt that Bergamín is here echoing Mallarmé. Bergamín's comments appear to be based in part on the ideas Mallarmé expressed concerning the desirability of elusiveness in poetry—‘le mystère qui constitue le symbole’—in the important text ‘Sur l’évolution littéraire (enquête de Jules Huret)’, in Stéphane Mallarmé, Oeuvres Complètes (Paris 1961), esp. 869. Andrew Debicki has examined the similarities between the French symbolists and the poets of Bergamín's generation in an interesting article entitled ‘La “Generación de 1924–1925” y la tradición simbolista’, Explicación de Textos Literarios, VIII, 1 (1979–80) 21–31. 35. The essay was published in Verso y Prosa, 6 (June 1927). 36. La arboleda perdida, 2nd edn. (Barcelona 1975), 203. The frequency with which Valbuena Prat quotes Bergamín's essays in his study La poesía española contemporánea (Madrid 1930) suggests how Bergamín was implicitly recognized as the most informed and authoritative critic of the poetry of the twenties. Although Bergamín's reviews have remained forgotten for many years, there are two notable examples of a recent revival of interest in them. Derek Harris, in his critical edition of Cernuda's Perfil del aire (London 1971), draws attention to the importance of Bergamín's assessment of Cernuda's first book in his essay ‘El idealismo andaluz’ (La Gaceta Literaria, 11 [1 June 1927]). See especially the section of Harris's book entitled ‘Perfil del aire y sus críticos’, 45–55. In the volume devoted to Guillén in the series ‘El Escritor y la Crítica’ (ed. B. Ciplijauskaité [Madrid 1976]), Bergamín's review ofCdntico (‘La poesía de Jorge Guillén’, La Gaceta Literaria, 49 [1 Jan. 1929]) was included at the insistence of Guillén himself, as the latter told me in a letter dated 20 February 1977. 37. In addition to the two articles mentioned in the previous note see: ‘Figura de cera: el arte romántico de Antonio Espina’, Versoy Prosa, 3 (March 1927); ‘Literaturay brújula’ (on Salinas), La Gaceta Literaria, 51 (1 February 1929); ‘El canto y la cal en la poesía de Rafael Alberti’, La Gaceta Literaria, 54 ( 15 March 1929) ; ‘De veras y de burlas’ (on Alberti), La Gaceta Literaria, 71 (1 December 1929); ‘Poesía de verdad’ (on Salinas), Luz (Madrid) (30 January 1934), and ‘Verdad de poesía’, Luz (6 February 1934). On Lorca, see his prologue entitled ‘La muerte vencida’ to Lorca's Poeta en Nueva York (Mexico 1940), 17–27. On Vallejo, the untitled prologue to Trilce (Madrid 1930), 9–17. 38. La arboleda perdida, 235. 39. Many of the titles of Bergamín's own books are based in the same way upon proverbs and popular idioms’. El arte de birlibirloque (1930), La cabeza a pájaros (1934), Detrás de la cruz (1941), for example. The most successful exploitation of a well-worn popular expression was undoubtedly the title of the journal Cruz y Raya. 40. ‘La nueva arte poética española’, 1931 would like to take this opportunity of thanking the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for its generous support between 1978 and 1980 which has enabled me to prepare a critical study of Bergamín's work. The above article is an extract from this study.