The express of originality: Eugénio de Castro in the context of Hispanic modernity

In this article, I will demonstrate how the relationship of the Portuguese poet Eugénio de Castro with Hispanic literature reveals the interest and necessity of gaining an Iberian understanding of modernismo, articulated in dialogue with both Ibero-America and the francophone centres of literary canonization. As we shall see, the Portuguese author understood these relationships as part of a process of internationalization which he advocated. He further understood internationalization as implying a search for new spaces, a vocation for historical rupture and the foundation of a new aesthetic. Modernismo’s degree of success in being received in the peninsular and Ibero-American contexts, and in creating the foundations for literary modernity in these contexts, was determined by the specific conditions underlying these movements, given their semi-peripheral condition and constitutive ambiguities. This, in turn, helps justify the transversality and longevity of the attention dedicated to Eugénio de Castro in the aforementioned contexts.