The debate on americanism in Rubén Darío through prologues by José E. Rodó and Justo Sierra

Abstract

Taking Peregrinaciones (1901) by Rubén Darío as an example, this article argues that Darío gave a strategic order to his collections of chronicles, seeking to motivate a specific reception within the cultural field. In particular, the analysis focuses on the debate on Americanism that Justo Sierra establishes in the Prologue of Peregrinaciones, alluding directly to another famous Prologue, that of José Enrique Rodó to Prosas profanas. Famously, Rodó refused to acknowledge Darío as “the poet of America”. Both the ordering of the chronicles, with their Parisian and Italian separation, and the intersection of the aforementioned Prologues, indicate an authoritative definition of Darío. In addition to his notion of Americanism, this definition points out to issues such as the discursive nature of his chronicles and the ambivalence of his concept of “prose”.