NADAÍSMO: ORIGIN, CHARACTERISTICS, AUTHORS, WORKS - LITERATURE - 2025

The nadaísmo was a literary movement emerged in Colombia in the late fifties in response to the social and cultural system that prevailed at the time. This current tried to revolutionize the statutes traditionally established by institutions and academies.

The main creator of nadaísmo was the Colombian writer, poet and journalist Gonzalo Arango. This author oriented the behavior of the movement towards the precepts of the avant-garde currents of that time and invited several young people to join.

Gonzalo Arango Arias, main representative of Nadaism. Source: gonzaloarango.com.

Although in principle the concept was not well defined, it was associated with the perception and interpretation of existence. Nadaism was a kind of social protest and its intensity and controversy pursued the provocation of social, cultural, political, religious and moral elites.

The philosophy of this movement was based on the thought of the French Jean Paul Sartre, the German Friedrich Nietzsche and the American Henry Miller. His legacy was constant change.

Origin

Nadaism originated in 1959 in the city of Medellín in Colombia at the initiative of the writer Gonzalo Arango. Its birth was linked to the political-social context of the country, which was characterized by the double standards of those who had to maintain order and proper functioning of the State.

This literary and philosophical movement came to life in the midst of a society governed by the political moves that brought Gustavo Rojas Pinilla to power after carrying out a coup against Laureano Gómez. Nadaism emerged as a defense mechanism against the religious, social and literary traditions of the mid-20th century.

- Pretensions of nothingness

Arango's first step was to motivate a group of young Colombian writers to join the movement. The members of Nadaism tried to annoy the upper echelons of society by appealing to a constant social protest of the established norms.

Nothingness sought with intensity and rebellion to break and destabilize the "order" established within an environment characterized by misery and conventionalisms. There was in this movement the need to incorporate the avant-garde literary innovations that emerged to express with greater freedom their perception of life.

- First Nadaist manifesto

Gonzalo Arango undertook the task of writing a document in which he stated the raison d'être of Nadaism as a literary and philosophical movement. The document was divided into thirteen statutes. The text referred to the concept, the artist, poetry and prose, the revolutionary and changing, education and freedom.

Nadaism was not specifically defined by Arango in this manifesto. The intellectual proposed it as a broad proposal, based on a conscious spirit and on the search for the new to find the true freedom of man and his value within society.

Statutes

The thirteen statutes or precepts established by Gonzalo Arango on nadaism are mentioned below.

- "Definition of nothingness".

- "Concept about the artist".

- "Nothingness and poetry."

- "Nothingness and prose."

- "It is forbidden to commit suicide."

- "Nothingness: principle of doubt and new truth."

- “Nadaísmo: legitimate Colombian revolution”.

- "Imposture of Colombian education".

- "Nadaism is a position, not a metaphysics."

- "Towards a new ethics".

- "Loneliness and freedom."

- "Nadaísmo and Cocacolos".

- "We will not leave an intact faith, nor an idol in its place."

- About its creator

Gonzalo Arango was born on January 18, 1931 in the town of Los Andes in Antioquia. He stood out for being a writer, journalist and poet. His literary work was marked by conflicts between liberals and conservatives and by the role of the church in education in his teenage years. For this reason, his writings were rebellious and defiant.

The constant opposition of Arango to what the society of his time imposed and to the literature that developed led him to create nothingness. That was how he moved away from sentimentality to give way to the new. The poet passed away on September 25, 1976 from a car accident, but left a legacy of renewed literary aesthetics.

Main works

References

1. nothingness. (2019). Spain: Wikipedia. Recovered from: es.wikipedia.org.
2. Escobar, E. (2000-2019). nothingness. Colombia: Gonzalo Arango. Recovered from: gonzaloarango.com.
3. Gonzalo Arango's “nadaísmo”. (2016). Colombia: Notimerica. Recovered from: notimerica.com.
4. Pinzón, C. (2008). Nadaist authors. Colombia: Nadaístas Authors. Recovered from: copc9026b.blogspot.com.
5. First nothingist manifesto. (2000-2019). Colombia: Gonzalo Arango. Recovered from: gonzaloarango.com.