18th-Century Literature in Spain: Movements & Trends
Contributions of Eighteenth-Century Literature
Interest in new ideas, based on criteria of utility, service, and progress in the service of humanity and Spain, are central themes of reason and good taste. Feelings are repressed; there is no passion. The literature is literal and aims for moderation. Its task is to study the diffusion of new ideas and education. The author’s pen is imposed by the desire to teach with delight. The aesthetic ideal is the rigorous standard of French Neoclassicism, restraining imaginative literary flight and expressive spontaneity. Writers admire the Spanish Renaissance, and some of its manifestations are present.
Essays and epistles are genres *par excellence*.
Key Literary Movements and Trends
- Post-Baroque: A literary trend that continues the ideals and style of the Baroque in the eighteenth century.
- Neoclassicism: Aims to restore the models of classical art. It arises from the need for a new style. Key figures include Nicolás and Leandro Fernández de Moratín.
- Anacreontic: Poetic compositions derived from Anacreon, exalting love, wine, and other pleasures.
- Enlightenment: A movement that started in Europe (France) and follows the ideas of the philosopher Kant, whose maxim is “Dare to know.” It is based on rationalism.
- Rococo: French-influenced poetry of aristocratic salons, concerned with the pleasures of good food, music, dance, and female beauty, all in an ideal and artificial world.
- Costumbrismo (Article of Customs): A short prose article that dispenses with any argument, reduced to an outline that describes the lifestyle or customs of the time.
- Romanticism: A cultural and political movement originating in Germany and England at the end of the eighteenth century. It was a revolutionary reaction against Enlightenment rationalism and classicism, giving importance to sentiment. Its general characteristics are:
- Subjectivism
- Rejection of Neoclassicism
- Interest in the world that surrounds them
- Attraction to the nocturnal and mysterious
- Realism: A 19th-century literary movement that arose as a reaction to the excesses of Romantic subjectivism. It tends toward a thorough observation of reality, captured in all its details, using descriptions of environments, characters, and reproductions of colloquial language. The most important genre is the novel, which is coupled to the circumstances of the era: the rise of positivism, scientific advances, and the bourgeoisie. It was necessary to abandon sentimental legends and focus on everyday life. The novel is its favorite genre.
Characteristics of Realism
- Interest in reality: The author is no stranger to the social changes that occur and attempts to portray the society of their time, its contradictions, and conflicts.
- Tendency toward objectivity: Environments, behaviors, and dialogues are actual and credible. The author uses abundant observation and description. Dialogues reflect each character’s education and way of being.
- Claim to objectivity: The author’s voice has considerable weight in the narrative. The narrator has an overview of the facts, knows the thoughts and behaviors of all characters, and intervenes with their own observations about the developments.