20th Century Spanish Literature: Novel’s Evolution and Features
1. Introduction
In the early 20th century, Spanish literature explored diverse narrative paths. Realism persisted, upholding its stylistic and ideological traditions, alongside realism-naturalism. Simultaneously, the erotic novel, rooted in naturalism, and the novel of regeneration, reflecting the era’s ideological concerns, emerged.
Furthermore, a distinct novel emerged, diverging from 19th-century models. It rejected realism and mimetic representation, seeking a profound expression of inner reality.
2. Construction Features of the New Novel
2.1 Main Features
This new novel, often termed poetic due to its focus on the characters’ personal and intimate emotions, exhibits the following characteristics:
2.1.1. Diminished Importance of the Story
The plot (what is recounted) loses prominence compared to the discourse (how it is recounted).
2.1.2. Focus on the Protagonist’s Conflicts
The novel centers on the protagonist’s inner world and their perception of external reality.
2.1.3. Characteristics of the Protagonist
The protagonist is typically a bohemian artist, maladjusted, anti-bourgeois, and marginalized, searching for authentic values in a debased society. This leads to rebellion, scandal, nihilism, and amorality. The failure to assert individuality can result in physical and moral destruction.
2.1.4. Fragmentation and Emphasis on Moments
The narrative is often fragmented into impressions, reflecting the protagonist’s perceptions. Significant moments for the protagonist are selected, with frequent descriptive and reflective pauses and ellipses.
2.2. Dramatization Through Dialogue
The dialogic or dramatized novel diminishes the narrator’s presence, giving voice to the characters. The protagonist’s presence and thoughts are evident in dialogues, speeches, and indirect monologues, replacing the direct presentation of an omniscient narrator.
2.3. Perspective on Life
Pessimism characterizes the late 19th-century novelists, while optimism and a desire for modernization are prevalent among the noucentistes. Finally, there is a narrative linked to the avant-garde, showcasing the cult of progress and an inclination towards hedonism and playfulness.
2.4. Significant Authors
Among the most significant authors of this period are Pío Baroja, Miguel de Unamuno, Azorín, and Ramón María del Valle-Inclán (late 19th-century novel); noucentistes such as Ramón Pérez de Ayala and Gabriel Miró; and novelists associated with the avant-garde like Ramón Gómez de la Serna and Benjamin Jarnés.
3. The Novel of the Early 20th Century
3.1. Pío Baroja
Pío Baroja viewed the novel as a genre encompassing everything: philosophical and psychological reflection, adventure, criticism, and humor. His protagonists are misfits who fail in their life struggles. They are characterized by their actions, but above all by their words. In this sense, conversations constitute the essence of his stories. The characters defend their views through simple and plausible dialogue, making Baroja’s narrative the perfect model of the dialogic (or dramatized) novel. His style also highlights his mastery of description: the author selects the elements of each setting and meticulously recreates them with detail and objectivity for the reader.
3.1.1. Baroja’s Works
He organized his work into trilogies, sometimes grouped arbitrarily. Critics often recognize two stages in his production. The first phase (until 1912) is characterized by a variety of themes and characters, ranging from apathy to vitality, who fail or succeed in their struggle for life depending solely on their own will. This stage includes, among others, Baroja’s best creations, such as: The Way of Perfection, The Tree of Knowledge, and the trilogy The Struggle for Life. In the novels of the second stage, a historical background predominates, and an ironic perspective is common. Memoirs of a Man of Action stands out.
3.2. Miguel de Unamuno
For Miguel de Unamuno, the novel became the ideal medium to interpret reality, exploring themes such as the assertion of personality, the struggle for survival, the desire for domination, and death, focusing on the character’s inner conflicts, often generated by family.
3.2.1. Unamuno’s Principal Works
His principal works are: Mist, which addresses the fight against determinism (a philosophy that subordinates human will to the divine), highlighting the concept of metanovel, where the construction of the novel becomes the subject of the novel itself; and Saint Manuel Bueno, Martyr, which explores the problem of the loss of faith by its protagonist (Manuel Bueno), replaced by the will to believe.
3.3. Azorín
Azorín (José Martínez Ruiz) created texts that broke with the 19th-century conception of the novel. These novels suspend motion and time, becoming fragmented into snapshots that generally conduct a thorough analysis of perception.
3.3.1. Azorín’s Works
In his early works, such as The Will (1902) and Antonio Azorín (1903), he displays a violent rebellion, a social conscience, and a critique of all subjective spiritual concerns. After abandoning his revolutionary ideas, the writer’s focus shifts from the social to the subjective. An example is his novel Doña Inés (1925), which demonstrates sensitivity towards the characters, focusing descriptions on the environment and the characters’ personalities.
3.4. Ramón María del Valle-Inclán
Ramón María del Valle-Inclán is notable for his rejection of traditional realism, starting with a modernist narrative and gradually introducing changes that culminate in the esperpento (a distortion of reality through caricature, emphasizing the grotesque).
3.4.1. Valle-Inclán’s Works
His main works are the Sonatas, representing an allegory of human life; the Carlist Wars trilogy, which offers a vision of Spain confronting the traditional and the liberal; and finally, the culmination of his esperpentic narrative: Tirano Banderas and the Iberian Ring, a series of novels that offer a grotesque representation of Spain, seen as an arena or ring, symbolizing the eternal spectacle of violence and death.
4. The Noucentist Novel
The aim of the noucentist novelists was moral change, which presupposed an individual’s aesthetic education.
4.1. Ramón Pérez de Ayala
Ramón Pérez de Ayala created an experimental novel, concerned with the issue of consciousness, incorporating aspects of the unconscious and subconscious. He also utilized theatrical dialogue and interspersed stories, and experimented with perspectivism. His novels are grouped into autobiographical novels like Fox’s Leg, poetic novels like Prometheus, and novels with universal themes like Honeymoon, Honeymoon Gall.
4.2. Gabriel Miró
Gabriel Miró created a novel with powerful lyricism. Raw emotion prevails, and facts are lost in the fragmentation of impressions produced by the text. Modernist elements predominate in his early works, evolving into a more critical style based on suggestion. Despite his prose, descriptions of feelings and synesthesia are prominent. Our Father San Daniel, The Bishop Leprous, and The Cemetery of Oranges are among his major works.
5. The Avant-Garde Novel
Avant-garde novelists share common characteristics: stories take place in the modern city, heroes are detached and athletic, erotic conflicts become relevant, they display a cult of progress, and an inclination towards hedonism and the ludicrous. Characters are interested in their inner world and their own identity. Ramón Gómez de la Serna and Benjamin Jarnés stand out.
5.1. Ramón Gómez de la Serna
The White and Black Widow by Ramón Gómez de la Serna reflects the world of his time, incorporating sexual elements, but concealing details and revealing an obsession with death.
5.2. Benjamin Jarnés
Jarnés’ novels revolve around a single character who proclaims an ideology of freedom and affirms the joy of life. They are characterized by fragmentation and stylistic virtuosity. The best are The Red and the Blue and Scenes Near Death, among others.