European Aestheticism and Spanish American Modernismo: Artist Protagonists and the Philosophy of Art for Art’s Sake

184 Pages·2011·6.815 MB·English

by  Kelly Comfort (auth.)

European Aestheticism and Spanish
American Modernismo
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European Aestheticism
and Spanish American
Modernismo
Artist Protagonists and the Philosophy
of Art for Art’s Sake
Kelly Comfort
Palgave
macmillan
© Kelly Comfort 2011
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2011 978-0-230-27809-7
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
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work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2011 by
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Contents
Acknowledgments vi
Introduction: Redefining the Role of Art and the 1
Artist at the Turn of the Century
Part I The Artist Avoids “Art for Life’s Sake” 23
1 The Artist as Critic and Liar: The Unreal and Amoral 25
as Art in Oscar Wilde
2 The Artist as Creative Receptor: The Subjective 41
Impression as Art in José Asunción Silva
Part II The Artist Protests “Art for the Market’s Sake” 57
3 The Artist as Elitist Taster: The Unprofaned and 63
Unconsumed as Art in J.-K. Huysmans
4 The Artist as Creator Not Producer: The Unsold and 73
Unappreciated as Art in Rubén Darío
Part III The Artist Promotes “Life for Art’s Sake” 87
5 The Artist as Dandy-Aesthete: The Self as Art in 91
Oscar Wilde and Thomas Mann
6 The Artist as Dandy-Flâneur: The World as Art in 115
Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera and Julián del Casal
Conclusion: Reconsidering the Relationship between 136
Art and Life, Form and Content, Poetry and Prose
Notes 144
Bibliography 163
Index 172
v
Acknowledgments
To my husband, Diego, and my son, Adrian, I thank you for
providing the perfect balance of support for and distraction from
work. You make my life so joyous and complete, and no accom-
plishment would mean anything without the two of you to share it
with. I also appreciate the constant encouragement from my parents,
my brother and sister-in-law, as well as my entire family and dearest
friends.
The comments and suggestions of Anthony Geist proved invalu-
able to the successful completion of this volume, and I am very grate-
ful for his comprehensive feedback. Additionally, I wish to express
my gratitude to Gene H. Bell-Villada, Liz Constable, Eric Downing,
Gail Finney, and Ana Peluffo for providing insight and input into
various stages of this project. I also want to thank my co-seminar
participants from various ACLA conferences over the years, as your
own papers and comments have helped shaped the development of
this project. I am also very appreciative of Palgrave’s editors for their
diligent efforts and helpful guidance.
I greatly appreciate the faculty development funding I received
from The Georgia Institute of Technology to help me finish this
book. I thank my colleagues in the School of Modern Languages for
their constant friendship, support, and collegiality.
Finally, the author and publishers wish to make various acknowl-
edgments for permission to reproduce copyright material. Parts
of the introduction to this book are based on the author’s
“Introduction” to the edited collection Art and Life in Aestheticism:
De-Humanizing and Re-Humanizing Art, the Artist and the Artistic
Receptor (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008) and are reproduced with per-
mission of Palgrave Macmillan. Chapter 1 of this book is based on
an article previously published in volume 32 (January 2008) of
The Wildean: A Journal of Oscar Wilde Studies published by The Oscar
Wilde Society: “The Critic as Artist and Liar: The Reuse and Abuse
of Plato and Aristotle by Wilde” (pages 57–70), and is reprinted
with permission. Chapter 2 of this book is based on an article
accepted for publication in volume 38 of the Revista de Estudios
vi
Acknowledgments vii
Colombianos: “The Artist as Impressionistic Critic in José Asunción
Silva’s De sobremesa: Transatlantic Borrowings from Walter Pater,
Oscar Wilde, and British Aestheticism,” and is reprinted with permis-
sion. Every effort has been made to trace rights holders, but if any
have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers would be pleased
to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.
Introduction: Redefining the Role
of Art and the Artist at the Turn
of the Century
In Charles Baudelaire’s prose poem “Perte d’Auréole” (“Loss of a
Halo,” 1862), a poet loses his halo while “hastily” and “abruptly”
crossing a busy, cosmopolitan street, which he describes as a “mov-
ing chaos in which death comes galloping toward you from all sides
at once.” Not having “the courage” to pick up the halo from the
muddy road, the poet decides “that it would be less disagreeable to
lose [his] insignia than to break [his] bones.” Yet rather than lament
the act of becoming a “simple mortal,” the halo-less poet rejoices in
the newfound freedom and anonymity associated with his inferior,
humanly position in society. Freed from his fetters, he can now
“walk about incognito, commit base actions, and give [himself] over
to debauchery.” And despite the interlocutor’s surprise at finding
the poet in “a place of ill-repute,” we learn that the poet – whom
“dignity bores” – feels “quite comfortable” in what is most certainly
a brothel. This former “drinker of quintessences” and “eater of
ambrosia” has no intention of placing a lost-and-found ad or filing a
claim at the police station for the missing aureola. His former insig-
nia, now simply lost property and an exchangeable commodity, will
soon belong to someone else, yet the poet “can’t help but feel joyful”
contemplating the possibility that “some bad poet” will pick up the
halo and “impudently set it on his head.” In this way, the poet can
delight in making someone else happy, especially if it were someone
such as “X, or Z!” who could make him laugh and “be funny.”
In Colombian author José Asunción Silva’s short story “La protesta
de la musa” (“The Muse’s Protest,” 1890), the poet-protagonist does
not lose his halo, but rather his muse. “You weren’t here … I didn’t
1
2 European Aestheticism and Spanish American Modernismo
hear your voice when writing,” the poet says reproachfully to the
muse (70).1 As a result of the muse’s absence, the poet gains a new
perspective on life and on art and goes on to publish a popular
and lucrative book of satire in which he displays “the vileness and
errors, the misery and weaknesses, the defects and vices of man-
kind” (69–70). The poet admits that he laughed while making others
laugh and had fun writing his book of mockery. This was something
he could not have done under the muse’s guidance, since, as he
explains: “Muse, you are serious and do not understand such amuse-
ment; you never laugh … Muse, laugh with me … Life is happy” (70).
The muse responds to the contrary, insisting that “[l]ife is serious,
verse is noble, art is sacred” (70). She repeats the phrase “oh, desecra-
tion!” and asks the poet why he has converted his insults into a work
of art (70, 71). By the end of the tale, the poet’s initial pride in his
satirical work as well as his pleasure in contemplating “the money …
those brilliant gold coins that are the fruit of [his] labor,” turn into
shame and discontent, as he “glanced with disillusionment at the
heap of gold and the pages of his satirical book, and, with his fore-
head supported by his hands, sobbed in despair” (70, 72). Despite
the poet’s frequent references to laughter and happiness, then, Silva’s
tale ends with the image of the sobbing poet who takes to heart the
muse’s protest of his art. In this way, Silva critiques the productive
and profit-seeking artist figure who makes art in accordance with the
demands of the market, instead of creating in accordance with his
inner demand for high or pure art. Moreover, the Colombian author
suggests that the sale of art is the equivalent of the sale of the artist
and that both are akin to prostitution.
What interests me about these two representative works from late
nineteenth-century Europe and Spanish America, respectively, is the
shared concern with the humanization of the formerly deified poet
and the profanation of previously sanctified art. Both texts suggest
a change in the role of the artist and the character of the artwork,
although the former is more celebratory in tone, while the latter is
more somber and remorseful. Baudelaire’s and Silva’s unnamed poet
protagonists serve to challenge established notions of art and the art-
ist as sacred, aristocratic, elevated, high, apart, etc. They narrate the
situation of the artist integrated into modern life, living among mor-
tals, and participating in industrial capitalist society in a variety of
ways: as a man of the crowd, a consumer of flesh, and an exchanger