Nelson Orringer

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Decimonónica

Volume

2

Issue

1

Publisher

Decimonónica

Publication Date

2005

First Page

22

Last Page

39

Abstract

García Lorca’s earliest writings (1917–18) reveal his initial identification with Hispanic modernism, which first came into being in Catalonia.1 Catalan modernistes had introduced the word “modernist” in its contemporary acceptation into the languages of the Iberian Peninsula. L’Avenç, a Barcelonese journal and publishing house, first employed the adjective modernista in the sense of an attitude of approval towards innovation in all spheres of culture. One leader of L’Avenç, the Barcelonese essayist, novelist, poet, playwright, and painter Santiago Rusiñol y Prats (1861–1931), achieved popularity in Catalonia for his poetic essays on travel, on life in general viewed as a journey, and on landscapes in particular (Ginsberg 1445). His collection of artistic essays Fulls de la vida (“Life’s Pages,” 1898) received a poetic, laudatory review from Unamuno (1296–98)—a figure much admired by Lorca (3: 964)—in the Madrid review La Época in March 1899. Rusiñol’s first essay collection in Catalan, Anant pel món (“Rambling through the World,” 1896), along with Fulls de la vida, went through many editions.2 The present study compares these jottings along life’s way, added to a third collection of travel essays titled Impresions i paisatges (1880–82), with García Lorca’s earliest published book, Impresiones y paisajes (1918), to help define his adolescent modernism. First, we examine Rusiñol’s mature notion of modernism while citing notable examples from his three essay collections already mentioned. Second, we study young Lorca’s proximity to that notion and his application of a like conception to his vision of Castilian-speaking Spain as reflected in Impresiones y paisajes. Lorca never mentions Rusiñol in any of his published writings or correspondence. Yet the many coincidences between the two situate the Granadan author’s earliest prose in its historical context.

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