Representations of Eros: From Modernismo to Posmodernismo

Abstract

In this paper I explore eroticism as a key element in the evolution from modernismo to posmodernismo. If eroticism is a crucial component to understand the binary concept of the world and the universe present in modernist poetry, postmodernist poets distance themselves from this outlook towards a “critic system”. In order to explore this shift, I analyze the works of postmodernist poets such as Baldomero Fernández Moreno, Ramón López Velarde and Regino E. Boti, and vanguardist poet Nicanor Parra, comparing their writing to Rubén Darío’s. I emphasize the evolution from Darío’s conception of the universe where women play an integral role to Parra’s conception of the woman as a viper and how this change is related to a substantial change of the conception of poetry. I also study eroticism in the work of Alfonsina Storni, Delmira Agustini and Gabriela Mistral as an instrument to critic and review the patriarchal cannon imposed by modernism. These poets eliminate the connection between eroticism and beauty, and they claim eroticism as a differentiating tool in their feminist writing and agenda. Sex and eroticism are elements that define and differentiate modernism from postmodernism, and can be considered as a crucial turning point for this shift.