THE AVANT-GARDE AND ITS DISCONTENTS: AESTHETIC CONSERVATISM IN RECENT SPANISH POETRY JONATHAN MAYHEW University of Kansas Sals I it T has become fashionable among younger Span- ish poets to denigrate the avant-garde "excesses" of the previous generation, that of the novisimos who came of age in the late 1960s. According to poets such as Luis Garcia Montero and Felipe Benitez Reyes, the "sacralization" of art charac- teristic of avant-garde poetics is no longer viable (Garcia Montero, "Felipe Benitez Reyes" 11). The time has come for a more commonsensical conception of poetry, which is to be "un arte sensato" capable of giving voice to experiences which are verisimilar to the common reader. Poetry should be, above all, "excelente li- teratura" (Benitez Reyes, Paraisos y mundos 12). This sounds rea- sonable on its face: given a choice, who would opt for extremity over moderation, delirium over common sense, bad literature over good? Yet this sensible position is actually a striking departure in the context of a poetic tradition that has valued transgression and mar- ginality above all else. The great modern poets, from Rimbaud to Celan, have been those who stretch language to its limits in order to give voice to the experience of extremity. Poets working within this tradition would have contempt for a poetry of normality and com- mon sense. They would never subscribe to recommendations like the following: "suele ser conveniente que el poema trate de experiencias comunes contadas en el lenguaje de una comunidad." "La palabra lirica es util... porque sabe hablar de la diferencia mtima y la 347