18th Century: The Century of Enlightenment in Spain
The Eighteenth Century or “Century of Light”
Historical Context, Social and Cultural Development: The Enlightenment
In the early decades of the century, the “crisis of European consciousness” took place, leading to a review of all religious and political aspects of the Ancien Régime. This marked the beginning of a reform movement: the Enlightenment.
This innovative intellectual movement championed reason as the sole guide towards progress and happiness, grounded in universal criticism and experimentation.
Originating in France, the Enlightenment spread throughout Europe. It drew upon the reformist ideas of Descartes (who emphasized reason as the basis of human knowledge), Locke, Newton, and the economic theories of Adam Smith. Key theorists included Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Rousseau. Enlightenment thinkers compiled the knowledge of the time in the Encyclopedia, led by Diderot, D’Alembert, and Rousseau. The Encyclopedia served as a vehicle for disseminating Enlightenment ideas.
Key Enlightenment reforms included:
- The establishment of enlightened despotism as a form of government. The slogan “everything for the people, but without the people” reflects the rulers’ implementation of reforms from above.
- The development of social welfare theory. Scientific discoveries (e.g., the steam engine, vaccines, electricity) contributed to an improved quality of life.
- The introduction of philosophy and science as fundamental knowledge. Enlightenment thinkers subjected everything to reason. From a religious standpoint, a strong anti-clericalism developed. Education was seen as the basis for progress. These ideas ultimately led to the outbreak of the French Revolution (1789), which dampened the enthusiasm of the Enlightenment.
The Eighteenth Century in Spain
The eighteenth century in Spain was a period of social, scientific, and cultural transformation. It began with the Bourbon dynasty, which embraced enlightened despotism. Philip V and Ferdinand VI initiated comprehensive reforms to address the nation’s decline and backwardness.
During the reign of Charles III, the Enlightenment flourished, bringing a series of political, economic, social, and cultural reforms. These included centralized administration, strengthening royal power over the Church and nobility (leading to the expulsion of the Jesuits), the establishment of Economic Societies of Friends of the Country to promote national advancement (e.g., the Basque Society promoted agriculture, trade, and industry), the introduction of public lighting, and the founding of cultural institutions: the Royal Spanish Academy (1713), which published the Dictionary of Authorities, Orthography, and Grammar; the National Library (1712), founded by Philip V; and the Royal Academy of History.
The Enlightenment arrived later in Spain, disseminated through Spanish intellectuals’ travels to Europe, newspapers and magazines (e.g., The Censor, El Pensador), and government initiatives. Spanish Enlightenment figures (Campomanes, Jovellanos, Olavide, and Feijoo) sought to transform the country’s mentality, but their efforts were often met with utopianism and idealism.
Following the death of Charles III, his son Charles IV ascended to the throne. However, the outbreak of the French Revolution halted the Enlightenment process, and some Spanish reformers shifted towards conservatism and counter-revolution.
Trends in Spanish Literature
Literature became a vehicle for transmitting Enlightenment ideas. Guided by the principle of “good taste,” it served as an instrument of reform under the motto of “teaching while delighting.” Its purpose was to benefit and modernize society.
Spanish literature of the eighteenth century can be divided into the following periods:
- Post-Baroque: During the first half of the century, the Baroque style persisted, imitating Góngora. The Rococo movement also emerged. Key figures of this period include Feijoo and Luzán.
- Neoclassicism: During the reign of Charles III, neoclassical aesthetics and Enlightenment literature took hold. Based on the imitation of nature from an Aristotelian perspective, it adhered to classical rules and rejected sentimentality. Prominent representatives of this trend include Leandro Fernández de Moratín and José Cadalso.
- Pre-Romanticism: In the final decades, neoclassical rules were challenged, and feelings were prioritized over reason. Some Enlightenment authors, such as Jovellanos and Cadalso, were influenced by this emerging Romantic sensibility.
Regarding literary genres, poetry continued to develop, modern prose was established, and the essay became the preeminent genre. Other cultivated forms included political and scientific reports, newspaper articles, literary reviews, epistolary literature, satire, and travel books.
Poetry
Cultivated poetic genres included:
- Anacreontic and pastoral poetry, influenced by the Renaissance. These poems celebrated the pleasures of love, wine, festivities, and dance.
- Satire, epistles, and odes, characteristic of social poetry. These addressed civic themes such as friendship and human discovery, including the invention of printing.
- Fables, reflecting the century’s educational concerns. Notable fabulists include Félix María de Samaniego, influenced by Aesop and La Fontaine (e.g., The Grasshopper and the Ant, The Fox and the Crow), and Tomás de Iriarte (e.g., The Donkey and the Flute, The Squirrel and the Horse, The Monkey and the Puppeteer).
Authors and Trends in Poetry
In the first half of the century, poetry exhibited a Baroque style imitating Góngora and Quevedo, but later showed the influence of Garcilaso. Prominent figures in this trend include Gabriel Álvarez de Toledo, Diego de Torres Villarroel, and Francisco Lobo.
Poetry gradually shifted towards simplicity, giving rise to Rococo poetry. Alonso Verdugo, Count of Torrepalma, and José Antonio Porcel represent this transitional period, characterized by refinement, short lines and stanzas, themes of nature, love, and female beauty, set against a backdrop of gallantry, coquetry, and frivolity.
In the second half of the century, neoclassical or Enlightenment poetry prevailed. Its principles are found in the poetry of Luzán: “Poetry is the imitation of nature with a dual purpose: utility and delight.” This poetry drew inspiration from great sixteenth-century Spanish poets (Garcilaso and Fray Luis de León), Horace, Anacreon, and popular traditions like romances and letrillas. Two schools of poetry emerged: Salamanca (Cadalso, Jovellanos, and Meléndez Valdés) and Madrid (Nicolás and Leandro Fernández de Moratín).
José Cadalso cultivated various literary genres, publishing his poems under the title Ocios de mi juventud. Notable are his sonnets on the power of time and his renunciation of love.
Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos was renowned for his satires, which expressed a deep desire for social reform (e.g., Sátira a Arnesto, criticizing the nobility; Epístola de Jovino a Anfriso desde el Paular).
Juan Meléndez Valdés is known for his Anacreontic poems about love (e.g., A una fuente, Filis, Filis ingrata). His models were Garcilaso and Fray Luis de León.
Nicolás Fernández de Moratín wrote poems of great artistic value, such as Fiesta de toros en Madrid. His son Leandro was famous for his satirical poetry criticizing the customs of the time (e.g., A Claudio).
At the end of the century, an intimate and sentimental phase emerged, foreshadowing nineteenth-century Romanticism. Writers of the Seville school, including Nicasio Álvarez de Cienfuegos, José Marchena, José María Blanco White, and Alberto Lista (teacher of Espronceda and Bécquer), belong to this period.
Prose: The Essay and Criticism
Prose in this period was closely linked to the didactic efforts of the time.
In the first half of the century, prose included lives of saints, sermons, historical books, and popular stories written in a Baroque style. A prominent author is Diego de Torres Villarroel, considered a follower of Quevedo. He wrote a series of Sueños, criticizing various social types, and an autobiographical picaresque novel: Vida, ascendencia, nacimiento, crianza y aventuras del Doctor Don Diego de Torres Villarroel.
By mid-century, the neoclassical period began, with two prominent genres: the essay and criticism.
The essay addressed topics such as the country’s decline, education, the social and cultural situation of women, the dignity of work, religion, and customs.
A pioneering essayist was Fray Benito Jerónimo Feijoo. He laid the foundation for the essay’s later agile and accessible style. He championed experience, observation, and criticism as the basis of human progress. His best-known works are Teatro crítico universal, which aimed to dispel errors in various fields of knowledge, and Cartas eruditas y curiosas. A defender of religion against superstition, he criticized educational flaws and promoted experimental physics. His themes included the common good, work, freedom, peace, and education. He advocated for a consumer society, opposing aristocratic idleness and disdain for work.
Another prominent Enlightenment figure was Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos. His works include Informe sobre los espectáculos públicos, which argued for incorporating entertainment into Enlightenment reform plans. He criticized bloody spectacles like bullfights, while defending theater that adhered to neoclassical rules. In Informe sobre la Ley Agraria, influenced by Adam Smith, he discussed the causes of agricultural backwardness and proposed solutions such as improved cultivation systems, irrigation, and the confiscation of land from the Church and nobility. In Informe sobre la educación pública, he emphasized education as the foundation of national prosperity, advocating for experimental methods, the learning of modern languages, and supplementary reading.
Criticism was often used to satirize customs. A key figure was José Cadalso, with his Cartas marruecas. Following the model of Montesquieu’s Persian Letters, the book offered a critique of Spain through the eyes of a foreigner. The criticism targeted various social types and customs: the useless and parasitic nobility, the excessive number of religious figures, the disdain for science, knowledge, trade, and industry. Cadalso’s subtle irony connects him to Quevedo and Gracián. He embodied Enlightenment ideals, but his intellectual pessimism and skepticism reflected his awareness of the difficulties of reform, anticipating Mariano José de Larra and the Generation of ’98.
Another vehicle for transmitting Enlightenment culture and ideas was the newspaper article. In addition to informational newspapers like La Gaceta de Madrid, controversial publications emerged, such as El Pensador by Luis García del Cañuelo and El Censor by José Clavijo y Fajardo.
Prose fiction was less successful, but José Francisco de Isla’s Historia del famoso predicador Fray Gerundio de Campazas, alias Zotes stands out. This fictionalized account offered a scathing critique of Baroque pulpit oratory.
In the last decades of the century, a trend emerged characterized by prose set in idealized and melancholic environments. José Cadalso’s Noches lúgubres exemplifies this, depicting the protagonist’s despair over the death of his beloved. The emphatic and sentimental language, along with the nighttime setting in a graveyard, anticipates Romantic prose.
Neoclassical Theater and Pre-Romantic Drama
Theater remained the most socially significant literary genre. Eighteenth-century theater functioned as a public school, disseminating Enlightenment ideas and promoting educational reform.
In the first decades of the century, Baroque comedy persisted, including magic comedies, saint plays, bandit comedies, comedies of manners, swashbuckling comedies, and heroic-military comedies that extolled patriotic sentiments and evoked national heroes. Key authors of this period include José de Cañizares and Antonio de Zamora, whose No hay plazo que no se cumpla ni deuda que no se pague (a reworking of El burlador de Sevilla) was performed until it was replaced by Zorrilla’s Don Juan Tenorio in the nineteenth century.
Enlightenment thinkers rebelled against the influence of Golden Age comedy, particularly Calderón de la Barca. A famous controversy about theater arose between reformers and traditionalists. The reformers aimed to restore classical precepts and imbue works with a didactic purpose.
Neoclassical Theater
Neoclassical theater emerged in the mid-eighteenth century. Aligned with Enlightenment ideas, it targeted the middle class and had a didactic purpose.
Characteristics of this period include the separation of genres, adherence to the classical rule of three unities (one action, taking place in a single location within 24 hours), didacticism, verisimilitude, and a three-act structure.
Represented genres were tragedy and comedy.
Neoclassical tragedy, modeled on Greek or French tragedy (Corneille and Racine), addressed themes from classical antiquity or national history, presenting role models for society. Examples include Nicolás Fernández de Moratín’s Guzmán el Bueno, Vicente García de la Huerta’s Raquel (about the love between a Jewish woman and a Christian knight in the court of Alfonso VIII), Jovellanos’s Pelayo, and Cadalso’s Sancho García, conde de Castilla.
Neoclassical comedy, or comedy of manners, achieved popularity with Leandro Fernández de Moratín, hence its designation as Moratinian comedy. His five comedies criticized social vices: El viejo y la niña and El sí de las niñas critique arranged marriages; La comedia nueva satirizes playwrights; La mojigata criticizes false piety, religious hypocrisy, and the poor education of youth; and El café satirizes those who frequent cafés. Moratín’s precedents include Tomás de Iriarte’s comedies (e.g., La señorita mal criada). Moratín’s work paved the way for nineteenth-century realistic comedy and twentieth-century high comedy, thanks to his natural dialogue, which moved away from the artificiality of earlier drama.
Popular dramatic genres included sainete (farce) and sentimental comedy.
The sainete was a short comic play performed during intermissions of longer works. Samaniego, Iriarte, and Moratín opposed this genre, as it distracted the audience and hindered the didactic purpose of the main play. A prominent sainete author is Ramón de la Cruz (e.g., La Plaza Mayor en Navidad, Manolo).
Pre-Romantic Theater
Sentimental comedy, a genre of French origin (comédie larmoyante), arrived in Spain in the 1770s. Jovellanos cultivated this genre with El delincuente honrado, criticizing the harsh laws that punished duelists with death.