18th-Century Spanish Literature: From Baroque to Enlightenment
18th-Century Spanish Literature
The Enlightenment
The 18th-century literary movement was based on empiricism and rationalism. Enlightened despotism was practiced, advocating for the elimination of privileges for the clergy and aristocracy. Political power became secular and independent of religious influence.
The Enlightenment in Spain
This period saw significant French influence. While moderate, several factors favored the development of the Enlightenment in Spain.
Language and Literature
Clarity was the ideal language. Modernization introduced French neologisms. Literature emphasized plausibility and rationality. The 18th century is divided into the following periods:
- Post-Baroque: A continuation of the Baroque style, surviving until mid-century.
- Enlightenment: Encompassing the following periods:
- Rococo: Artificial, delicate, and sensual. It emphasized classical and worldly pleasures, serving as a transition between Baroque and Neoclassicism.
- Neoclassicism: Based on French classicism, it emphasized harmony between man and nature. Its ideals were good taste and the combination of pleasure and utility.
- Pre-Romanticism: While adhering to Neoclassical rules and themes, it accommodated the author’s feelings.
Poetry
Post-Baroque Poetry
This style imitated the elaborate concepts of Quevedo and Góngora, encompassing both serious and humorous themes. It featured literary devices like hyperbaton, metaphors, and puns.
Rococo Poetry
Gallant and refined, Rococo poetry used dynamic language and abundant epithets. It featured bucolic/pastoral and sensualist themes, often employing motifs of flowers, birds, caves, and water.
Neoclassical Poetry
Neoclassical poetry explored civic and social issues with an enlightened perspective, often using elevated stanzas like hendecasyllables.
Pre-Romantic Poetry
Emerging in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, this style addressed social and philosophical issues with sensitivity, incorporating pre-Romantic themes and tones.
Prose
Didactic prose and essays flourished. While Baroque language persisted initially, a new zeal for reform emerged. The influx of new ideas sparked controversies, often represented in newspapers. Language modernized in syntax and vocabulary. Genres included articles, diaries, memoirs, epistolary novels, and letters.
Feijoo: A Precursor
Feijoo introduced Enlightenment ideas to Spain, influenced by philosophers and scientists. He wrote encyclopedic works covering various fields with a critical approach, aiming to debunk false beliefs. His writings, collected in two successful books, employed clear and entertaining language.
José Cadalso
Cadalso consolidated the essay genre initiated by Feijoo. Noches Lúgubres, published posthumously, features powerful prose where the protagonist exhumes his beloved’s corpse. Cartas Marruecas presents a narrative through letters written by three fictional characters offering their perspectives on society. It exhibits structural disorder, deep patriotism, humor, irony, and perspectivism.
Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos
Jovellanos exemplified the reformist spirit. His “Report on Public Spectacles” critiqued the decline of public entertainment, urging government reform. He also wrote on education.
Scholarly and Polemic Prose
Juan Pablo Forner, a fierce debater, refuted accusations of Spanish scientific backwardness. Philological and historical prose thrived with figures like Gregorio Mayans, who contributed to Neoclassical literary theory.
Romantic Poetry
Romantic poetry embraced freedom in verse, reviving and mixing metric forms. Symbolic and connotative language created modern poetry. Two types emerged:
- Narrative Poetry: Explored historical-legendary themes, often in short poems or ballads.
- Lyric Poetry: Characterized by subjectivism and emotionalism, focusing on intimate and grand themes. Nature and its elements took on symbolic meaning.
Lyrical-Romantic poetry, exemplified by Espronceda, used exalted rhetoric to express rebelliousness and disillusionment. Post-Romantic lyricism, seen in Bécquer and Rosalía de Castro, became more intimate, natural, and simple.
Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
Bécquer, the most influential 19th-century Spanish poet, is known for his Rimas, which express human concerns in short poems with simple language.
Rosalía de Castro
Rosalía de Castro shared Bécquer’s simplicity in En las orillas del Sar, exploring essential life concerns and her homeland with an intimate, sorrowful tone, while also incorporating social commentary.
The Novel
The novel flourished due to the rise of the bourgeoisie. The historical novel, set in the Middle Ages, was popular. Social novels also emerged.