Transmodern drifts in Spain. From crisis to regeneration in 21st century verbal and visual poetry

Abstract

The article opens with a short reflection on the chaotic and fragmented situation to which late twentieth-century Postmodernity had led us, exemplified through three visual poems by Antonio Orihuela, Gustavo Vega and Ana Rossetti. Subsequently, we will summarise some of the artistic and literary repercussions of the transition to Transmodernity, as coined in 1989 by the philosopher Rosa María Rodríguez Magda and theorized within her 2004 volume Transmodernidad. Her conceptual framework will provide us with the methodological foundations for the analysis of some regenerative proposals that embrace the current need for reharmonization and overcoming of the postmodern crisis.

Many Spanish authors who were already well-known during the 1980s and 1990s seem to adopt the new epistemological paradigm in the 21st century, sometimes unconsciously, allowing it to reflect in their visual and verbal creative products. Illustrative instances include works by the aforementioned Antonio Orihuela and Ana Rossetti, as well as those produced by the artist Rafael de Cózar and the writer Rafael Ballesteros.