Bodies in Motion: Spanish Vanguard Poetry, Mass Culture, and Gender Dynamics examines Spanish avant-garde poetry within the context of the culture of the twenties that promoted physical movement and values of change, youthfulness, and freedom. Dance, sports, and the machine are singled out because they clearly set the body in motion and helped create a radically new outlook on life. In this book, references are made to socio-political factors and special attention is paid to gender. The interplay between poetry and its cultural environment attests to the influence social practices exert on the creative process and also to the capacity of poetic discourse to textualize reality, renew itself, and reinvent art.

Spanish vanguard poets ranging from the most daring ultraistas to the professor/poets Pedro Salinas and Jorge Guillen expressed the modernist obsession for change and the present through pronounced experimentation and a preoccupation with movement. The compelling new myth of movement implied action, mobility, and transformation. Certain Spanish poets embraced these new cultural codes, registering them in their poems, seeking new aesthetic and existential significance in them, and tapping them for discursive renewal. Dance, sports, and the new technology appear in their poetry in the form of themes, imagery, and poetic technique. In concert with its era, this poetry exuded enthusiasm, the joys of being carefree, and vitality; as well as projecting a delight over lucid pleasure and artistic creativity.