El tratamiento estético de la figura de la prostituta en la lírica modernista española

This PhD thesis sets out to show, firstly, that Spanish modernist poets are lavish in their sublimation of the figure of the prostitute in their lyrical compositions. It argues that ultimately, they do not do this randomly or arbitrarily, but in response to a series of mechanisms that turn this sublimation into an investigation within the modernist movement. The need for a study such as this one seems indisputable, as not very much work has been done on this topic in Spanish literature, unlike in other literatures (particularly Latin American literature, precisely in the same turn-of-the-century period and in connection with Modernism). What little work has been published on the treatment of the figure of the prostitute in turn-of-the-century Spanish literature refers to narrative prose, notably the realist and naturalist novel, as well as the short story. Also, such work usually lacks a general theoretical framework, as it deals with one novel, one author, or in the case of greater generalisation, a specific type of novel. The study of this figure in literary texts involves studying Modernism itself, as it neatly draws together the panoply of topics so dear to Modernism, namely, the erotic, the marginal, the feminine, the cursed and Culturalism...

Nijinsky review: Passion meets frailty in triumphant performance

His story is one of the most famous of the 20th century. As a dancer, he was a beacon of modernism, an icon of androgynous sensuality, and a performer with spectacular athletic prowess. As a choreographer, his experiments with movement – often harsh, primitive and contextualised within a nostalgia for Russia's pagan past – ended with a deconstruction of ballet as an art form, severed from its links to classical technique in favour of a movement seen as revolutionary.

Book review:. The most dangerous book: The battle for James Joyce's Ulysses

Birmingham, a literary historian from Harvard, tells, in much greater detail than ever before, the story of the banning of what is arguably the most important and transformative literary text ever. For it to be in our hands and read openly is for it to have changed the conditions under which reading occurs in the western world, changed definitions of obscenity, and challenged the secrecy which was the stock-in-trade of the purity-snoopers, both vigilante and state-sanctioned. Joyce’s fiction was burned, guillotined, confiscated, had printer’s plates wrecked and whole editions pulped, was smuggled across borders, carried in corsets, was extensively and ‘legally’ pirated in the US. The story of its surveillance is a gripping one, and the book a page-turner, and moreover to tell the story is to explain how literary modernism became mainstream, and not the just preserve of marginalised avant-garde bohemians.

Le Corbusier (1887–1965)

Le Corbusier was a Swiss architect and urbanist who acquired French nationality in 1930, having set up his studio (“the atelier of patient research”) in that country. Just as he assumed an unconditional continuity in relation to the past, he also clearly confronted the circumstances of his time. Many of his works became icons of Modernism, like the Villa Savoye (1928), the Marseilles Housing Unit (1945), the Ronchamp Chapel (1950), the Convent of Sainte-Marie de la Tourette (1953) and the Chandigarh Capitol Complex (1950-55), to mention just a few examples. His architecture reflected the development of a modern industrialized economy, a western avant-garde society and a vibrant political and social context. He made a mark not only with his constructed work, but also with designs that were never built (and which were progressive in character), his painting (which reflected his experimentalist nature) and with his theoretical texts, which today bear witness to his modernist doctrine. Le Corbusier was above all one of the most prolific thinkers of Modernism, and one of the greatest figures of the 20th century.

El centroamericano errante: nacionalismo y modernismo en la época liberal

ResumenEste artículo se refiere a los tipos de discursos que se gestaron en Centroamérica a fines del siglo pasado: el discurso modernista, de carácter principalmente literario y artístico, y el discurso nacional, de carácter más ideológico. Hace mención de la vida errante que llevaron muchos intelectuales centroamericanos.AbstractThis article refers to two types of discourse in late nineteenth century Central America: that of modernism, primarily literary and artistic, and national discourse, more ideological nature. The author also discusses the geographically mobile life of many Central American intellectuals.