19th-Century Literature: Post-Romanticism and Realism

Posted on Oct 2, 2024 in Latin

Realism

General Features

  • Positivism: Focus on visible facts and experimentation.
  • Influence of evolutionism.
  • Influence of Marxism in the latter half of the century.
  • Real-life as an aesthetic object.
  • Focus on everyday events.
  • Critique of sociopolitical issues.
  • Simple and sober style.
  • Emphasis on the novel.

Typical Novel Features

  • Characters with problematic relationships.
  • Realistic stories and fragments of reality.
  • Omniscient narrator.
  • Didactic and moral intent.
  • Linear timeline.
  • Detailed descriptions.
  • Colloquial language.

Naturalism

  • Promoted by Émile Zola.
  • Literature as social science.
  • Predetermination of man by social status and genetics.
  • Miserable settings and characters.
  • Impersonal and objective narrator.
  • Moralizing intention.
  • Key Authors: Emilia Pardo Bazán, Benito Pérez Galdós (The Disinherited), Palacio Valdés, and Clarín (The Regent).

Poetry

Characteristics

  • Abundant and varied.
  • Predominantly moralizing.
  • Exaltation of religious values.
  • Scientific themes of progress.

Main Poetic Trends

Realistic/Anti-rhetorical Poetry
  • Rejection of Romanticism.
  • Prosaic language.
  • Ramón de Campoamor: simple language, irony, skepticism (Pain, Small Poetry, Humor).
Realistic/Grandiloquent Poetry
  • Civic themes.
  • Strong style.
  • Gaspar Núñez de Arce.
Post-Romantic/Intimate Poetry
  • Rosalía de Castro: subjectivity, inner world, emotional expression (Galician Songs, New Leaves, On the Banks of the Sar).
  • Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer: expression of emotions, short poems, symbolism, love as an ideal, disillusionment, careful wording, popular forms, simple language, metaphors and similes, nature and music themes, presymbolic meanings, opera legend genre (Legends, Rhymes).

Prose

Characteristics

  • Rise of journalism.
  • Direct and flexible prose.
  • Short stories and costumbrismo.
  • Regional novels.
  • Conservative realists (idyllic rural life) vs. Liberal realists (cities as modern).
  • Thesis novels defending ideologies.
  • Serial novels.
  • Influences from Romantic historical novels.

Authors

  • Fernán Caballero (Cecilia Böhl de Faber): precursor of realism (The Seagull, The Family of Alvareda).
  • Pedro Antonio de Alarcón: pre-realist, close to Romanticism (The Three-Cornered Hat).
  • Juan Valera: focus on pleasing the reader, academic style, irony, love themes (Pepita Jiménez).
  • José María de Pereda: traditional and regional novels, conservative perspective (Sotileza, Pedro Sánchez).
  • Emilia Pardo Bazán: defender of Naturalism, diverse themes (The House of Ulloa, The Tribune, Mother Nature).
  • Benito Pérez Galdós: playwright (Grandfather, Saint Quintin), novelist depicting society, psychological development, dialogues, inner dialogues (The Fountain of Gold, Doña Perfecta, The Disinherited, Miau, Fortunata and Jacinta, The Locket, The Regent), National Episodes series.
  • Leopoldo Alas “Clarín”: journalist, literary critic, novelist (The Regent, His Only Son), short stories (Moral Tales, The Rooster of Socrates, The Judge’s Wife).

Theater

Characteristics

  • Adaptation to bourgeois society.
  • Different theater for different social classes.
  • Move away from Romantic molds.

Types of Theater

High Comedy
  • Bourgeois audience.
  • Themes of domestic life.
  • Moralizing character.
  • Adelardo López de Ayala (The Percentage) and Manuel Tamayo y Baus (A New Drama).
Neo-Romantic Theater
  • Mix of realism and grandstanding.
  • Exaggerated effects.
  • José de Echegaray (The Great Galeoto).
Naturalist Theater
  • Prose and dramatic language.
  • Contemporary social issues.
  • Galdós, Clarín, and Joaquín Dicenta.