Overview

In Spanish Modernism and the Poetics of Youth: From Miguel de Unamuno to La Joven Literatura, Leslie J. Harkema analyzes the literature of the modernist period in Spain in light of the emergence of youth culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Harkema argues for the prominent role played by Miguel de Unamuno-as a poet, essayist, and public figure-in Spanish writers' response to this phenomenon. She demonstrates how early twentieth-century Spanish literature participated in the glorification of adolescence and questioning of Bildung seen elsewhere in European modernism, in ways that were not only aesthetic but also political. Harkema critically re-examines the relationship between Unamuno and several Spanish writers associated with the so-called Generation of 1927 (known as at the time as ""la joven literatura"" or ""the young literature""). By situating this period within the wider framework of European modernism, Spanish Modernism and the Poetics of Youth brings to light the central role that the early twentieth century's re-imagining of adolescence and youth played in the development of literary modernism in Spain.

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9781487501969

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Reviews

Leslie Harkema has written an excellent book on an important but neglected subject: the productive relationship between Unamuno and the younger writers of la joven literatura, and she has shed new light on both. For a superannuated unamunologo like the present reviewer it is heartening to know that Unamuno studies have passed into the capable hands of discerning, well-informed, and industrious young scholars like the author of this well-researched and informative book. -- C. Alex Longhurst * <em>Bulletin of Spanish Studies </em> *

Author Information

Leslie J. Harkema is an assistant professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Yale University.

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