Alfonso Reyes as an intellectual figure of transition

Abstract

The Youth Athenaeum, as a movement of reform and "opposition" to the positivist regime of the early XX century, housed the figure of an intellectual who, in addition to manifesting a civic commitment through the institution - such is the case of José Vasconcelos and Justo Sierra with their respective educational projects - also gave an account of the above through literary resources, such is the case of Alfonso Reyes and Pedro Henríquez Ureña. It is interesting to look at the written production of Alfonso Reyes during his time at the Athenaeum, which is not evidently a writing of protest or manifesto but rather focuses on Greece and Hellenic philosophy, translation and readings of universal classical literature. Although a few decades later Reyes would write about the politics and positivist culture of this period, establishing a critical and testimonial stance, a mostly referential stance within his essay production, it is important to emphasize the importance of his writing in the immediacy of his experience within the Ateneo, since this was primarily constitutive of a collective ideal of universality as a vehicle leading towards modernity.