The Beginnings of Literary Criticism in Independent Mexico: José María Heredia and José Justo Gómez de la Cortina

Abstract

Literary criticism was not a common activity during the first decades of Independent Mexico. José María Heredia and José Justo Gómez de la Cortina —both educated outside Mexico— joined in the literary environment as poets, but particularly as critics. Their proceedings generally consisted in pointing out the errors in poetry practices, with the pretension that poets corrected their mistakes. However, literary history has often seen this kind of criticism as malicious activity. This article analyzes the kind of critical work of those remarkable pioneers so as to demonstrate their intentions and the limits of their critical activity.

Keywords

• Heredia
• Conde de la Cortina
• crítica literaria
• México