The Genesis of Post-Modernism

Post-Modernism is a term almost as elusive as that which it seeks to define

Its coinage is usually attributed to Federico de Onís, who writes of postmodernissimo in his Antologia De La Poesia Espagnola y HispanoAmericana [Cambridge University Library 743.36.d.90.179].

But de Onís is not referring to post-modernism as we mean it today. He has no thoughts of the features we associate with the term: erosion of the boundary between art and life, between what is popular and what is élitist, the decline of originality and the growth of stylistic promiscuity.

For de Onís the Post-Modern period took over from Modernism in 1905 - and was itself replaced by Ultramodernism in 1914!

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