| The purpose of this study is to define the concept of “lo nimio” (the insignificant) and analyze its function in the poems of Campos de Castilla by Antonio Machado. “Lo nimio” is the foregrounding of apparently valueless elements of landscape, ordinary and marginal people, and everyday things.; New historicism provides the theoretical framework for this study. In the first two chapters, I connect Machado's poetry and his interest in “lo nimio” with Spanish medieval and Renaissance literary works, such as Poema del Cid, and poems by Gonzalo de Berceo, Jorge Manrique, and the ballads of the Romancero. Machado shares his interest in “lo nimio” with other writers of the time. In chapter III, I compare him with Azorín, focusing on their common attraction to the aesthetics of everyday objects. In the last chapter, I demonstrate that Machado's interest in the insignificant is a reflection of, and contribution to, the artistic and scientific discourses of the period. I concentrate, in particular, on two of the discourses that stirred controversial debates at the end of the 19th century, Geology and Impressionism. Machado's interest in Geology, a new and conflictive science at the time, is reflected in his use of language as well as the presence of rock formations and other geological features, described in many of his landscape poems. Using a new historicist approach, I compare Machado's verses with the writings of Lucas Mallada, a leading figure in this scientific field, in order to prove their common concerns. Cameos de Castilla also incorporates the artistic discourses of the period, especially the landscapes of the Escuela de paisajistas headed by Carlos de Haes, and the Spanish Impressionism of Aureliano de Beruete. As I demonstrate, Machado's poems share many of these pictorial concerns. |
