19th and 20th Century Spanish Literature: Realism to Avant-Garde

Posted on Sep 30, 2024 in Latin

19th and 20th Century Spanish Literature

REALISM (Nineteenth Century)

Realism aimed to react against the romantic excesses and abuse of subjectivity, imagination, the evasions of ancient and exotic worlds, and its bombastic style. It appreciated the thorough and accurate observation of contemporary reality. The dominant genre was the novel. This century was the heyday of the European novel: Flaubert, Stendhal, and Zola (France), Tolstoy, Dostoevsky (Russia), Dickens (Great Britain), and Eça de Queiroz (Portugal). In France, Naturalism was born (1870), which led to extremely realistic works. This movement traced the causes of human behavior in light of scientific ideas about human beings (determinism, biological inheritance, natural selection of species, etc.). Its maximum theoretical representative was Émile Zola. In Spain, the realist aesthetic was based on a literary tradition itself, as the Spanish realist literature analyzed and dissected the contemporary situation. The novelist Emilia Pardo Bazán reported naturalistic ideas in Spain in essays such as The Throbbing Issue.

Features:

  • Objective observation. The work stemmed from realistic observation and a previous analysis of reality.
  • Contemporary ambiance. The writing reflected the time in which the author lived, not fleeing to other times.
  • Thesis approach. The writing was guided by an ideological view that the author sought to defend in their creation and that they were trying to convince the reader of.
  • The psychological analysis of reality. The description of the nature of the characters led to a thorough study of the family environment, education, and past events as an explanation of a particular behavior.
  • The style. Natural language, sober and free of effusions and exaggerations. We distinguish between the language of the narrator (cultured, careful, and literary) and the language of the dialogues (real speech of the characters according to their social or intellectual and psychological characteristics).
  • Presence of an omniscient narrator. The most common type of narrator was omniscient.
  • The newspaper as a channel of distribution. The realist works were published in newspapers; this novel structure was meant to maintain interest, resulting in a subgenre characterized by the truculence of its argument. Authors: Wenceslao Ayguals de Izco and Manuel Fernández y González.

Benito Pérez Galdós

In his novels, Galdós portrayed his ideals, his political activities, the customs of his time, public and private life, and his conflicts with love.

The National Episodes are the most important part of his historical production. It is a fictionalized account of Spanish history of the nineteenth century, composed of five sets of ten volumes each, ranging from 1807 to the beginning of the Restoration (1875). The first series includes titles like Trafalgar or Bailén, reflecting the resurgence of patriotic ideals. The second set presents the rise of the middle class to power and the struggle between traditionalists and progressive ideas. The next series, beginning in 1898, includes titles like Zumalacárregui, O’Donnell, or Prim, with a pessimistic view of the nation betrayed by a corrupt bourgeoisie. In the National Episodes, there is a mix of real and invented characters, and there are parallels between historical facts and romanticized events. In the rest of his novels, we can distinguish several periods:

  • The novels of the early period. Thesis novels are attacking religious fanaticism and the clergy. An example is Doña Perfecta (1876).
  • Contemporary novels. These reflect a changing society, and their characters are from all social classes. Examples are Fortunata and Jacinta (1886-1887), El amigo Manso (1882), Torment (1884), and Miau (1888).
  • Spiritual and symbolic novels. Nazarene (1895) and Mercy (1897).

These novels are characterized by their dialogue form, the reproduction of actual speech, and fidelity to certain characters.

Galdós also cultivated the theater, which is divided into two stages: from 1892 to 1896, with adaptations of his novels such as Reality (1892) or Doña Perfecta (1896); and from 1901 to 1905, with Soul and Life and Electra (1901), which was anticlerical.

Leopoldo Alas “Clarín”

In the work of Clarín, his newspaper articles criticizing Spanish literature stand out. His collections Solos de Clarín (1881) and Palique (1893), written for the Madrid comic, are famous. His narrative work includes La Regenta (1884-1885) or Doña Berta. His short stories, such as The Lord, and the Rest are Short Stories (1893), Moral Tales (1896), and The Rooster Socrates (1901), are noteworthy; in them, the detailed study of the psychology of the characters dominates. His stories ¡Adiós, Cordera! and The Cough Duo are famous. Among his novels are La Regenta (1884-1885) and His Only Son (1891). La Regenta’s plot is simple and takes place in Vetusta (Oviedo). The structure of the work is harmonious: in its first fifteen chapters, stasis dominates (action needed to establish relationships between characters), and the story only takes three days; the next fifteen chapters cover three years, and in them, the action speeds up dynamically. Clarín has an excellent command of narrative resources, masterfully handling narration, description, and dialogue; Clarín commonly used free indirect style.

MODERNISM

Modernism was an aesthetic renewal in Latin America, emerging from currents influenced by French literature: Parnassianism, which had a taste for formal perfection, and Symbolism, a tendency to incorporate symbols, all kinds of synesthesia, and sensory images. It was also influenced by the decadent work of English and Italian writers (Oscar Wilde, D’Annunzio, etc.). The literature took on a regal air and enshrined the exaltation of Beauty; the writer adopted a lifestyle consistent with their conception of art: bohemian. Valle-Inclán (Bohemian Lights) and Rubén Darío entered this stream of literature in Spain following the publication of Profane Prose (1896). In the main lines of this current, the main themes are:

  • The escapist line featured a flight from everyday reality and vulgar taste for exotic, distant, and fantastic worlds.
  • The intimate line represented the poet’s discomfort with their surroundings; love and the world were viewed with melancholy. There was a desire for wholeness that was impossible.

Sensual descriptions: colors, sounds, smells, etc., were described with a language full of metaphors and imagery, synesthesia, and neologisms. In metrics, new or disused meters and stanzas were used, such as the Alexandrine. Modernism was a trend toward intimate tone poetry, more withdrawn and expressing existential concerns.

The most important authors are Rubén Darío, with works such as Azul (1888), Profane Prose (1896), and Songs of Life and Hope (1905), and Juan Ramón Jiménez, who wrote in a Modernist tone close to withdrawal: Sad Arias (1903), Sonorous Solitude (1908), and Platero and I (1914).

GENERATION OF ’98

Because of the colonial disaster of 1898 in Spain, awareness of the need for change in society arose. Azorín, Baroja, and Maeztu published a manifesto in 1901 denouncing the country’s situation and the urgent need for improvement. This need also invaded Miguel de Unamuno. Subsequently, Antonio Machado and Valle-Inclán were included within the group. Their desire for renewal was more targeted toward content than form; their main concern was Spain, their search for roots, the essence of Spanish in the life of the people of Castile. They were concerned about existential issues and the problem of Spain.

Topics of ’98:

  • The existential problem was related to the temporality of human beings, the fear of death, and finding consolation in religion or non-belief.
  • The issue of Spain: they sought the essence of what was Spanish in the people and the landscape, in the intrahistory (Unamuno).

The dominant genre was the essay. This lyric was represented by Antonio Machado, but Unamuno also expressed his existential angst and religious concerns in a book of poems, The Christ of Velázquez. In their language, they did not seek bright sounds but rather the words that best expressed their concerns.

Antonio Machado

Poetic:
  • Modernist stage poetry book, Solitudes (1903) and Solitudes, Galleries, and Other Poems (1907). He admired the work of Rubén Darío, but the tone of Machado’s work was more reflective and melancholy. It was an introspective poetry with emotional evocations of beauty and happiness that time had taken away forever.
  • Castilla. With the publication of Fields of Castile (1912), his orientation shifted toward the poetic landscape, the men, and the history of Castile, which became the symbol of Spain, a deeply patriotic concern. He felt the attraction of Soria, Castile, austere and rocky, but after the death of Leonor, he moved to Baeza, describing Castile as remembered, dreamed of, and always attached to the memory of Leonor. Over the years, his poems expressed his philosophical reflections (aphorisms of Proverbs and Songs) and his critical view of traditional Spain. These poems were introduced in the second edition of Fields of Castile (1917).
  • Final poetry. New Songs, a short book whose poems were varied and inspired by popular songs, was published in 1924. Pilar Valderrama (“Guiomar”) inspired a group of poems entitled Songs to Guiomar. The apocryphal songbook was published in editions of Complete Poems in 1928, 1933, and 1936.
  • Poetics Machado’s concept of poetry was “Poetry is the essential word in time.”

Antonio Machado honed his style toward sobriety and density, according to the anti-rhetorical nature of the writers of ’98.

AVANT-GARDE

This designation is used for the artistic movements produced in Europe between the World Wars, which aimed to innovate the arts and destroy the remnants of ancient literature and art.

European isms:

  • Futurism. Created in 1909 by Marinetti, it proclaimed its anti-passéism, namely the radical break with the past.
  • Dadaism. Founded in 1916 by Tristan Tzara, it was an absolute denial that went against everything, even against art and literature.
  • Surrealism. Born in 1924 with the publication of the Manifesto of Surrealism, this movement was more revolutionary and far-reaching. It emphasized automatic writing; another technique used was the collage.

In Spain, the Avant-garde was introduced by Ramón Gómez de la Serna in his journal Prometheus, which published early avant-garde manifestos. In 1910, the Proclamation of Spanish Futurism was included, which encouraged a radical break. Greguerías exerted their influence in the poetry of the isms cultivated by Hispanics and the Generation of ’27. Gathering places: Ramón Gómez de la Serna at the Café Rafael Pombo or Cansinos-Assens at the Café Colonial. Literary magazines such as Revista de Occidente and essays like The Dehumanization of Art (1925).

  • Creationism: arrived in Spain in 1918 with the founder of Creationism, Vicente Huidobro. Leading poets were Juan Larrea and Gerardo Diego.
  • Ultraism: launched in 1918, it was inspired by the European isms. Its means of distribution were magazines like Ultra or Greece. Among the outstanding poets were Rafael Cansinos-Assens and Guillermo de Torre.

POETIC GENERATION OR GROUP OF ’27

Their names: Pedro Salinas, Jorge Guillén, Rafael Alberti, Federico García Lorca, Luis Cernuda, Vicente Aleixandre, Gerardo Diego, and Dámaso Alonso. They were given this name because this date marks the third anniversary of the death of Góngora. They were characterized by openness, liberal and progressive knowledge. This literature took the form of essays and literary criticism, translations, etc. In their poems, there was the lyrical simplicity of folk poetry and the complexity of cutting-edge findings. They admired and learned from the Spanish classics: Manrique, Garcilaso, San Juan de la Cruz, Góngora, Quevedo, and Lope de Vega. In Lorca and Alberti, there was popular enthusiasm and lyrical songs. Bécquer’s neo-romanticism influenced Cernuda, Salinas, and Alberti, and the art of Rubén Darío was a reference point.

The features are:

  • In search of pure poetry. Their poetic preferences favored the abandonment of the human and the conception of the poem as a precisely produced artifact aimed at unleashing raw emotions and intellect. Metaphor and image were very important. Góngora’s influence led to some consequences of this concept of poetry: secrecy and difficulty.
  • Surrealism and rehumanization. At the end of the 1920s, they assimilated the surrealist movement. The manifestations of Spanish Surrealism differed from their French originals. The dream world and unconscious drives and hidden desires were translated into a surprising but well-calculated and controlled language. With the advent of surrealism, poetry recovered human conflict, criticism from the outside world, and rehumanization.
  • The war and exile. With the declaration of war in 1936, all the poets of ’27 were affected. Lorca was killed, and others fled into exile except for Gerardo Diego, Dámaso Alonso, and Vicente Aleixandre. In the final years of their lives, aging, loneliness, and nostalgia stained their poems with different emphases.

The poets are:

  • Federico García Lorca. He represented a fusion between tradition and the avant-garde. His style was based on striking metaphors, lively nature, and a personal system of symbols. Surrealism influenced Lorca after 1928. The Andalusian and popular line is present in Poem of the Deep Song (1931) and Gypsy Ballads (1928). Lorca’s success and a personal crisis led him to write Poet in New York (1929-1930).
  • Rafael Alberti. He followed several poetic lines: Neo-popular, Sailor on Land (1924); influence of Góngora and futurism, Lime and Song (1929); Surrealism, About the Angels (1929) and I Was a Fool and What I Saw Made Me Two Fools (1935); political commitment, A Specter is Haunting Europe (1933) or The Poet in the Street (1931-1936); the nostalgia of exile, Return of the Living Far Away (1952).
  • Luis Cernuda. The central theme of his work was unrequited love; he favored plain language. Works: under the title of Reality and Desire, his poetry books include the purist stage, such as Profile (1927); Surrealism and Romanticism, Forbidden Pleasures (1931) and Where Oblivion Dwells (1934). After the war, his poems reflected the physical and moral distance from his country: Living Without Living (1949) and Desolation of the Chimera (1962).