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The Subject in Question presents the first systematic study of ""Spanish modernism"" in an attempt to end Spain's literary isolation from the mainstream of early contemporary European literature. Traditionally, Spanish literature has been approached by the ""literary generational model,"" an ultra-nationalist perspective that separates Spanish writing from its larger European modernist context. C. Christopher Soufas argues against further adherence to the generational groupings, establishing instead solid criteria for embracing the period category of modernism as a more appropriate model.

Offering a refreshing and original approach, Soufas studies various key works from late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Spain to demonstrate their important modernist characteristics. He considers the evolution of modernism in all the major genres beginning with novels by such authors as Pio Baroja, Miguel de Unamuno, Ramon Maria del Valle-Inclan, Ramon Gomez de la Serna, and Rosa Chacel; the poetry of Jorge Guillen, Vicente Aleixandre, Luis Cernuda, and Rafael Alberti; and the theater of Federico Garcia Lorca.

Soufas maintains that the basis for associating Spanish literature with modernism centers on modernist attitudes toward subjectivity--that is, the modernist critique of the autonomous thinking subject. He argues that Spain had been engaging in a critique of the subjective model for centuries, long before European modernists did. Therefore, modernism marks a point of convergence and rapprochement between Spain and Europe, and Spain makes a significant contribution to that international movement.