Introduction
Francisco de Asís León Bogislao
de Greiff Haevler (is one of the) most important Colombian poesy
writer. Known because of his stylistic innovations in poet and
deliberately eclectic use of obscure lexicon, being a encourager of the
Literary movement: Modernism. Making him be the most influential
American avant-garde; recognising his symbolic, imaginative, sarcastic
and musical lyricism in his writings. Through his years, he created a
large group of intellectuals and artists called "Los Panidas". The best
work whe hich define his style of writing is "Tergiversaciones"(1925).
Life School-University
León de Greiff was educated at
the Lyceum of the University of Antioquia in Medellin, but also he went
on study engineering at the School of Mines. Unfortunately, in 1913 the
administration expelled him for being subversive and disruptive, as a
result of leftist tendencies in politics and associations with it. He
travelled to Bogota in 1914 as a secretary to Rafael Uribe Uribe, who
was a friend of his father. In Bogota, he decided to study law at the
Free University of S, but he didnt finish this studies because he
wanted to focus on his poetry and writings. As sometimes, he alternate
his classes of Literature and music history, with works in some minitry
and banking.
Family and Background
León de Greiff was born on July
22, 1895 in the city of Medellin, Colombia to Amalia Haeusler Rincón
and Luis de Greiff Obregón. His mother was of German descent, the
daughter of Hausler who emigrate to Colombia in 1839. His father was of
Swedish ancestry and was the grandson of Karl Sigismund Fromholt von
Greiff, who emigrate to Colombia in 1825. Also, he hasd four siblings:
Astrid, Boris, Hijalmar and Axel.Greiffs family has a strong Colombian
identity and were part of standing mainstream Colombian society. His
family background influenced some of later works.
Characteristics of his works
Since he was young he
demonstrated considerable literary concern, developing an innovative
style in his works. His poetic works are difficult to be understandable
because of the dark symbolism he used, due to the double ascendency he
had. Moreover, his works are: complex, introverted, sarcastic,
discontented, imaginative, explosions of rhythsm and words of madness.
This characteristics made him be the director of a cultural movement:
Cultural Promotion and Fine Arts, which was found in 1949 and compound
of intellectuals and artists with different talents in writing. Indeed,
one of his works that include all of this characteristics is
"Tergiversaciones".
Later life and death
In 1965 de Greiff was awarded of
the Order of Boyaca with the rank of commander, which is one of the
highest honours he had. Also, in 1974 he was considered
"correspondiente" of the Academia Colombiana de la Lengua as being the
member of the Ministry of Culture Intitut Caro Y Cuervo. He died at the
age of 80 years old, at the early hours of Sunday July 11, 1976 in his
home in Bogota.
Famous Works
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Tergiversaciones (1925)
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Libro de los signos (1930)
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Variaciones alrededor de nada (1936)
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Prosas de Gaspar (1937)
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Farsa de los pinguinos peripatéticos (1942)
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Fárrago (1955)
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Velero paradójico (1959)
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