20th-Century Literature: Trends, Movements, and Key Figures

Posted on Dec 15, 2024 in Latin

20th-Century Aesthetic Trends

Three main trends define 20th-century aesthetics:

  • Existentialist Art: This trend reflects anxiety about the meaning of life and despair in the face of pain and death. It emerged especially early in the century and after World War II. Prominent Spanish writers from the Generation of ’98, such as Unamuno and Baroja, exemplify this trend.
  • Experimental Art: Characterized by a desire to break with all prior norms and search for original innovations, this trend culminated in the avant-garde movements of the 1920s and 1960s. Experimental literature particularly developed in the 1920s.
  • Social Art: This trend exposes social or political problems. In the 20th century, it unfolded primarily in connection with Marxism and during periods of conflict. In Spain, poets Rafael Alberti and Miguel Hernandez represent this current, as well as Hispanic Americans like Cesar Vallejo and Pablo Neruda.

Spanish Literature of the 20th Century

Spanish literature of the 20th century began with Modernism and the Generation of ’98, which were followed by Noucentisme, the avant-garde, and the Generation of ’27. After the Civil War, literature passed through an existentialist stage that evolved toward social realism. In the 1960s and 1970s, experimental works dominated, while from the 1980s onward, a more traditional literature was recovered.

Modernism

Modernism manifests as a vital attitude of rebellion and a desire to renew all fields of life and art. As an aesthetic movement, Modernism is related to the world of bohemia. Notable Modernist writers include Antonio Machado, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Valle-Inclán, and the Nicaraguan Rubén Darío, the most renowned Modernist poet. Modernism is mainly expressed through literature and is characterized by the diversity of influences from Romanticism, French poetry, and American Modernism. Key themes include rejection of the status quo and rootlessness.

The preferred genres of the Modernists are poetry and lyrical prose.

Pío Baroja

Pío Baroja wrote numerous novels, short stories, memoirs, and some essays. He stands out as the most important novelist of his time, especially brilliant in the portrayal of characters, the description of environments, and in dialogues. He conceives the novel as a genre that can include all other genres. Baroja’s reality is often impregnated by his pessimism. His characters tend to be asocial beings or rebels. He predominantly depicts suburban environments, the life of the poor, and their social, political, and economic circumstances. Baroja’s style is characterized by simplicity, reflecting the living language and using an anti-rhetorical language. He classified his work in trilogies, the most outstanding being The Struggle for Life, The Basque Land, and Race.

The Poetry of Antonio Machado

Machado’s poetry moves away from the Modernist conception of form as merely the sum of the arts. For him, musicality and good rhyme are not enough if there is not something intimate and personal. The verb is most important because it expresses time; he considers temporality essential. However, he does not disdain some Modernist elements, but without abusing them. He uses a complex network of personal symbols and introduces a new stanza, the silva arromanzada, consisting of odd-numbered verses of major and minor art, including Alexandrine verses (7+7), with assonance rhyme in even-numbered verses. Poetry, for Machado, is the intimate expression of the poet’s personal feeling, but, although intimate, it is meant to be universal. He rejects Creationism, which cultivates an image for its own sake. He also emphasizes the sentiment that must imbue the image. Images that do not arise from feeling, but only from the intellect, are worthless. He also rejects Surrealist poetry because it lacks logical structure. For him, this is dehumanizing, a view he does not share. Poetry should speak from the heart.

Novecentismo

Novecentismo emerged around 1910 when a group of young intellectuals expressed their rejection of the visceral and subjective tone of their elders and the art of the 19th century. They were liberal intellectuals, especially essayists, who sought to modernize society and bring it closer to Europe. They are known as the Generation of ’14. The rise of Noucentisme occurred in the 1920s, and the group declined in the 1930s. Notable figures include the thinker Ortega y Gasset, the writer Pérez de Ayala, and Dr. Gregorio Marañón. In Catalonia, the inspirer of Noucentisme was the writer Eugeni d’Ors.

Characteristics of Novecentismo

  • Intellectualism: They defend rationality and intellectual rigor. They usually have a solid background.
  • Europeanism: They advocate for the intellectual modernization of the country and its connection to European culture.
  • Presence in Cultural Life and Politics: They take advantage of the levers of power to influence society.
  • Universalist Ideal: They show a preference for urban culture, which opposes the rurality of the Generation of ’98 and localism.
  • Aestheticism: The work of art is conceived as a self-sufficient and beautiful object: pure art, away from sentimentality and realism.
  • Formal Concern: They admire the intellectual rigor of a job well done in all areas and minority and intellectual art.

The Avant-Garde Movements

Avant-garde movements and isms, such as Cubism, Futurism, Dadaism, Expressionism, and Surrealism, began in Europe around World War I and triumphed in the Roaring Twenties. The avant-garde had a quick reception in Spain. The avant-garde movements that developed the most were Creationism and Surrealism, both born in Paris. Ultraism emerged as an autochthonous avant-garde, led by Guillermo de Torre, one of the most active poets and theorists of the time. The end of the avant-garde occurred in the 1930s.

Periods of the Spanish Avant-Garde

  • Birth and Rise of Modernism – Creationism: They defend the creative potential of images.
  • Ultraism: It attempts to capture reality through fragmentary and illogical perceptions and images.
  • Surrealism and Rehumanization: The influence of Surrealism initiated rehumanization, which then incorporated emotions, angst, and rebellion against modern society.