This is a book about friendships and connections, the "networks" of the Spanish avant-garde that played through an exciting political transformation in the cultural history of the peninsula during the early 20th century. As a harbinger of modernity, the avant-garde movement brought with it new opportunities for Spaniards to learn about one another. The rivalry between Barcelona and Madrid is the center of the narrative: Arenas's thesis is that the tension between the two cities opened new spaces for artists from the periphery to participate. Some, like Ernesto Giménez Caballero of the journal La Gaceta Literaria, were intensely aware of the momentous opportunity, but behind all exhibits and little magazines lay the intention to shake traditional culture by allowing more participation and new expressions. Social networks were the means to connect with groups in different geographical locations. Arenas (Spanish, Univ. of Hawai'i) shows that by destroying old prejudices vanguardia artists and writers, acting together, engaged in new ways of imagining Spain. The international context is not ignored, as all movements are mentioned, always according to their reception in the Hispanic world. Appendixes provide lists of magazines and participants in different seminal events. Summing Up: Recommended.
CHOICE
Did the Avant-Garde movements of Barcelona and Madrid know about one another? This is the essential question at the heart of Ara´ nzazu Ascunce Arenas’s ambitious new book. ... [T]he book is highly commendable. Ascunce carefully and thoughtfully analyses a rich variety of sources, avoids burdensome academic jargon, provides an extensive bibliography, and does not unnecessarily favour one city over the other. Overall, this is an important contribution to the complex story of Spain’s development in the early twentieth century, and should be welcomed by graduate students and scholars across a variety of disciplines: cultural studies, art history, history and network studies.
European History Quarterly