20th Century Spanish Literature: Modernism & Generation of ’27
20th Century Spanish Literature
Modernism (Late 19th – Early 20th Century)
Beginning in Latin America during the late 19th century and coinciding with World War I, Modernism was a literary movement with Rubén Darío as its leading figure.
Characteristics:
- Rebellion against bourgeois aesthetics.
- Evasion: Setting works in exotic and remote locations.
- Alternation of melancholic and vital tones.
- Eroticism.
- Renewal of poetic language and metrics.
Key Figures:
Rubén Darío (1867-1916, Nicaragua)
Poetry Books: Azul, Prosas Profanas, Cantos de Vida y Esperanza
Juan Ramón Jiménez (1881-1958, Spain)
Early Works: Arias Tristes, Jardines Lejanos
Influenced by Rubén Darío, he published Soledad Sonora in 1916 and later adopted free verse, advocating for pure poetry.
Other Works: Platero y Yo, Animal de Fondo
Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936, Spain)
Essays: En Torno al Casticismo, Vida de Don Quijote y Sancho
Novels (Nivolas): Niebla, San Manuel Bueno, Mártir
Pío Baroja (1862-1956, Spain)
Novels: La Casa de Aizgorri, El Mayorazgo de Labraz, Zalacaín el Aventurero
Ramón del Valle-Inclán (1866-1936, Spain)
Known for his Sonatas, fictional works featuring the character Bradomín.
In the 1920s, he created esperpentos, grotesque and satirical depictions of Spanish society.
Other Works: Las Galas del Difunto, Luces de Bohemia
Antonio Machado (1875-1939, Spain)
Modernist Trend: Soledades
Generation of ’98 Trend: Campos de Castilla
Other Works: Nuevas Canciones, Proverbios y Cantares
Created the philosophical poet-professor character, Juan de Mairena.
Symbolism
Valued subjective emotion and intuition, expressed through symbols. Originated in France with Charles Baudelaire.
Key Figures: Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, Stéphane Mallarmé
Argumentation
Using arguments to persuade the reader.
Types of Reasoning:
- Inductive: Thesis presented at the end.
- Deductive: Thesis presented at the beginning.
Generation of ’27
A group of poets influenced by Juan Ramón Jiménez, José Ortega y Gasset, Surrealism, and Creationism.
Common Feature: Seeking balance between tradition and originality, and between the cultured and the popular.
Trends:
Neopopularism
Used popular forms like songs (e.g., La Pesca en la Tierra by Rafael Alberti) and romances (e.g., Romancero Gitano by Federico García Lorca).
Predominantly used octosyllabic verse and assonance, and introduced parallelisms.
Vanguardism
- Creationism: Represented by Gerardo Diego (e.g., Manual de Espumas).
- Surrealism: Represented by Federico García Lorca (e.g., Poeta en Nueva York).
Characteristics: Breaking syntax, irrational imagery, elimination of punctuation, pure poetry.
Jorge Guillén’s Cántico follows in the footsteps of Juan Ramón Jiménez, seeking to express the fullness of being through poetry.
Stages:
Early Stage
Poets published their first books. Gerardo Diego (creationist works) was precocious. Lorca and Alberti also belonged to this stage.
Mature Stage (1928-1936)
A period of splendor. Cántico (Jorge Guillén) and Romancero Gitano (Lorca) were published. Surrealism replaced Creationism.
Disintegration (Post-1936)
The Spanish Civil War divided the group. Lorca was assassinated, and others went into exile.
- Jorge Guillén published Clamor, expressing the horror of war.
- Rafael Alberti expressed nostalgia for his country and lost youth in Entre el Clavel y la Espada and Retornos de lo Vivo Lejano.
- Vicente Aleixandre (remained in Spain) published Historia del Corazón, incorporating the trend of postwar poetry.
Themes:
- Love: Highlighted the passionate vision, including both pleasure and pain.
- Fullness of Being: Expressed in Jorge Guillén’s Cántico.
- Solitude and Desolation: Expressed by Luis Cernuda in La Realidad y el Deseo.
- Death: Not accepted by any of the Generation of ’27 poets. It appears in Lorca’s early poems, foreshadowing his own destiny.
Federico García Lorca
Neopopularist Stage
Embraced popular culture, imitating Andalusian metrics and styles in traditional songs and romances.
Surrealist Stage
Surrealism’s influence is evident in Poeta en Nueva York. The visionary images of desolation express the alienation produced by capitalist society.
Balance between Tradition and Vanguardism
Wrote major plays: Yerma, Bodas de Sangre, La Casa de Bernarda Alba.
Poetry Books: El Diván del Tamarit, Sonetos del Amor Oscuro, Llanto por Ignacio Sánchez Mejías
Lorca’s diverse work is unified by themes of frustrated love and tragic destiny. The figure of the marginalized individual who cannot integrate into a hostile society is central to his poems and plays.
Vanguardism
A set of artistic movements (or”ism”) that developed in Europe and America in the early 20th century, advocating for a new conception of art.
Futurism (Filippo Tommaso Marinetti)
Celebrated progress and technology, advocating for a language free from syntactic constraints.
Dadaism (Tristan Tzara)
A violent rejection of the logic of a society that had led to the absurdity of war. Incoherence in language expressed rejection of social conventions.
Surrealism (André Breton)
Advocated for the liberation of the human subconscious in creative expression.