The Moderns. – The new epoch has its first prodromes at the time of the constitutional organization (1853-1862), but it is clarified and clarified only after the federalization of Buenos Aires (1880), in correspondence with the profound renewal of men and ideas which occurs following the increase in European immigration and the elevation of the popular classes. The characteristics of this era were individualism, cosmopolitanism, liberalism, positivism. On the one hand, economic and pedagogical reforms were carried out, which weakened the Catholic and Spanish traditions of old Argentina, facilitating all kinds of intellectual attempts, mainly under the influence of foreign models. On the other hand, what was lost in political cohesion and idealism, it earned popular diffusion of culture and initiatives to organize and refine it. The methods of historiography and literary investigation have been renewed. The University of Buenos Aires was reorganized with national functions. All the other universities, schools, academies, libraries that exist today in Argentina have been founded, or reformed on a broader basis. A powerful impetus was given to the theatrical life. Halls were built for concerts, exhibitions, conferences; new periodicals and newspapers have sprung up. And thriving publishing centers have formed. The Argentine Book Exhibition, held in Buenos Aires in the Cervantes Theater in 1928, demonstrated the progress in this field.
According to Mcat-test-centers, an essential moment in this process of renewal of modern Argentina is represented by the foundation of the Nosotros group, formed in 1907, at the same time as another group called Nexus, which carried out parallel work in the field of visual arts. The Nosotros magazinehe managed to gather around himself all the values that had hitherto remained isolated and dispersed, and became the free forum open to all those who had something new to say. Roberto F. Giusti, Italian by birth, scholar of good classical culture, pupil of Francesco Capello, the well-known Italian humanist with an adventurous life, who carried out such a profitable work in Argentina, took over the direction. And around him are lined up, among others, Alfredo Bianchi, co-editor of the magazine, Juan Mas y Pi, Nicolas Coronado, Alvaro Melián Lafinur, Arturo Lagorio, Julio Noé, Emilio Suarez Calimano. A new impetus was given to critics, which, despite the good essays by García Merou, Pedro Goyena and the editor of the magazine La Biolioteca Pablo Groussac, still generally lacked scientific discipline and method. A fruitful debate of ideas opened around all the problems concerning the life of the republic, and, alongside José Ingenieros, thinkers and writers of various tendencies but of considerable value such as Agustín Alvárez, Carlos O. Bunge, Juan Agustín García, Carlos Ibarguren, author of a beautiful book on Manuelita Rosas, José Miguel Eizaguirre, José M. Ramos Mejia. Art criticism also had expert scholars in Amador, Aita, Pagano, Gutiérrez y Rojas Silveira. And the fervor of the discussions continues today, thanks to men of penetrating genius such as Annibal Ponce, director of the magazine Filosofía and José Gabriel, author of the controversial study La revindicacion del arte. Over all the others, the complex figure of Riccardo Rojas, historian, exegete, poet, apostle of Latinity and at the same time passionate investigator of national folklore emerges, from whose historical letter, published in Nosotros, on the rights of reality and on necessity of a spiritual emancipation from Europe, gave rise to today’s vast movement aimed at “restoring a distinctly Argentine character in all manifestations of intellectual life”.
In this new atmosphere, the new literature has also found a powerful stimulus.
Theater. – Even the history of dramatic poetry presents a similar development. More than in the already mentioned tragedies pseudoclassiche Siripo of Labarden (1781) and Dido and Argia, the first seeds of an independent Argentinean theater JC Varela (1821) are to be found in the dances with recitatives as Pericón and Heaven, and combats in verses known as payadas, which the gauchos performed in their ranchos or pulperías. But the germs themselves remained a long time without development, although the indices appear on the scene in the tragedy of Labardén and the tragedy Molina (1823) by Manuel Belgrano (son of the general) is composed on an Inca subject. A more intense life penetrated the Argentine theater, albeit without a marked national character, at the time of romanticism, with El Pacto and El Cruzado by Mármol, Don Tadeo and Muza di Cuenca, Lucía Miranda by Ortega, Atta – Gull by Mansilla, creating a current that continued until the end of the century. At the same time, however, also the realistic tendencies of the sainete Spanish (Cervantes, Lope, Don Ramón de la Cruz) made their way to Argentina through the representation of popular scenes and local types. And that even the ancient Gauches repertoire, on the other hand, has always been kept alive, the comedies El Amor de la Estanciera (1780) and La Batalla de Maipú (1818), or the short stage act Tupac Amarú can prove it. Argentine theater reached its maturity between 1880 and 1900 with Gutiérrez, Podestá and Sánchez, and even today it has an extraordinary vitality.
In fact, the works of Roberto Payró (Sobre las Ruinas, Marco Severi), Martín Coronado (Piedra de Escandlo and La Chacra de don Lorenzo), Gregorio de Laferrère (Jettatore, Loco de Verano, Los Invisibles, Las de Barranco, Bajo la Garra), Florencio Sánchez, Belisario Roldán, Iglesias Paz, etc. And even today the theatrical production is very intense and full of promise for the immediate future.
