SOURCE: Taylor, Terry O. “Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera: Originality and the Question of Literary Borrowings.” Symposium 27, no. 3 (fall 1973): 269-78.

In the following essay, Taylor answers those critics of Nájera's who claim that the writer's work is derivative and lacks originality.

The topic of literary relationships in the work of Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera is not new. In fact the question has been pursued to the point where Gutiérrez Nájera is all but denied literary individuality. Justo Sierra, unintentionally I believe, laid the groundwork for exaggeration when he wrote in 1895 that el Duque wrote poetry that consisted of “pensamientos franceses en versos españoles.”¹ Carlos Díaz Dufóo, whose good intentions are also beyond question, followed Sierra's example and noted the influence of Daudet, the Goncourt brothers, Flaubert, Banville, Musset, Coppée, and Gautier.² The implication is that Gutiérrez Nájera was...