20th Century Spanish Literature: Poetry and Theater

Posted on Oct 2, 2024 in Latin

Poetry

The Civil War and Exile

The Spanish Civil War had a profound impact on Spanish poetry. Many poets went into exile, including those from the Generation of ’14 (like Juan Ramón Jiménez), the Generation of ’27 (like Vicente Aleixandre), and emerging poets whose careers were interrupted by the war. A prominent theme in this period was the loss of homeland and family.

Miguel Hernández: A tragic figure, Hernández’s life and work were cut short by the war. He served as a bridge between the Generation of ’27 and the Generation of ’36. His powerful and emotional poetry, characterized by its human touch, resonated deeply with readers. His work can be divided into stages:

  1. Early Works and Fullness (Perito en lunas): This period culminated in El rayo que no cesa, a book exploring life, love, and death.
  2. War and Imprisonment: With the outbreak of war, Hernández wrote committed poems collected in Viento del pueblo. While imprisoned, he produced Cancionero y romancero de ausencias.

Post-war Poetry Trends

The post-war period saw a variety of poetic trends emerge:

  1. First Post-war Years: Poets who remained in Spain followed different paths, which Dámaso Alonso categorized as:
    1. Rooted Poetry (Garcilasismo): Represented by poets like Luis Rosales, this trend focused on traditional forms and themes.
    2. Uprooted Poetry: Led by Dámaso Alonso himself (Hijos de la ira), this trend embraced a tragic tone, reflecting the broken and chaotic post-war world. Poets like Carlos Bousoño and Gabriel Celaya found a home in the magazine Espadaña.
  2. Other Trends: Alongside these two main trends, other notable movements emerged, including:
    • Poets difficult to classify (like José Hierro)
    • Postismo (founded by Carlos Edmundo de Ory, emphasizing freedom of expression, imagination, and playfulness)
    • The Song Group (cultivating intimate poetry, represented by Pablo García Baena)
    • Gloria Fuertes, with her unique personal style
    • Social Poetry (represented by Blas de Otero and Gabriel Celaya), which evolved from uprooted poetry and viewed poetry as a tool for social change, focusing on the problems of Spain with a political lens and employing a simple style accessible to a wider audience.

Blas de Otero: His poetry reflects the evolution of Spanish poetry over several decades, moving from a focus on the self to a broader social consciousness.

  1. Uprooted Poetry: Dominated by existential angst, Otero questioned the meaning of life and grappled with the concept of God. His language was characterized by expressive violence.
  2. Social Poetry: Beginning in 1955 with Pido la paz y la palabra and En castellano, Otero shifted his focus to social issues, seeking solidarity with the suffering. He adopted a simpler language to reach a wider audience.
  3. Later Stage: During the 1960s, a sense of fatigue with social poetry emerged. Otero’s commitment to social justice remained, but his poetry evolved. While still addressing social and political problems, his work incorporated more personal themes.
The Group of ’50: While social poetry continued into the 1960s, new poets emerged in the 1950s, including Ángel González and Jaime Gil de Biedma. These poets, sometimes grouped as the Generation of ’50, shared certain characteristics:
  • A fundamental concern for humanity
  • Nonconformity with the established order
  • Poetry as a reflection of personal experience
  • A return to intimate and everyday themes
  • Skepticism and awareness of isolation
The Novísimos: In 1970, the anthology Nueve novísimos poetas españoles (edited by José María Castellet) introduced a new generation of poets born after the war, including Pere Gimferrer and Leopoldo María Panero. These poets were influenced by popular culture (movies, music, television) and embraced a mix of personal and public themes, often with a provocative and sarcastic tone. They were nonconformist and critical of consumer society, prioritizing the renewal of poetic language.Later Poetic Generations: These include poets associated with various trends, such as:
  • Classical line (Luis Alberto de Cuenca)
  • Baroque (Antonio Carvajal)
  • Experimental and avant-garde (Pere Gimferrer)
  • Culturalism (Antonio Colinas)
  • Minimalism and conceptualism (Amparo Amorós)
  • New eroticism (Ana Rossetti)
  • Poetry of experience (Justo Navarro)
  • The other sentimentality (Luis García Montero)

Theater

The Forties

Traditional currents dominated the theater of the 1940s. Influenced by bourgeois society and its ideology, it was characterized by comedy, musicals, and historical-political dramas. Two main lines of creation existed:

  1. Bourgeois Drama: This included high comedy and drawing-room comedy, defending traditional values (represented by José María Pemán).
  2. Theater of Humor: The most interesting trend of the period, led by Enrique Jardiel Poncela and Miguel Mihura, attempted to create a daring comedy that broke with traditional forms of humor. However, it faced resistance from the public and critics. Mihura’s Tres sombreros de copa, a surreal and absurdist play, was initially rejected, leading him to adapt his style to more conventional tastes with works like Maribel y la extraña familia.

The Fifties

This decade opened with three significant premieres: Historia de una escalera (Antonio Buero Vallejo), Tres sombreros de copa (Miguel Mihura), and Escuadra hacia la muerte (Alfonso Sastre). Buero Vallejo and Sastre introduced the possibility of a different kind of theater, reflecting contemporary problems within an existentialist framework that later evolved into social realism and protest theater.

Antonio Buero Vallejo: The most important playwright of the post-war period, Buero Vallejo’s work is characterized by its engagement with human, existential, and social issues. He aimed to provoke reflection and reaction in the audience. His plays can be divided into three groups:

  1. Dramas of human beings caught in social conflicts: (e.g., Historia de una escalera)
  2. Historical dramas: (e.g., El tragaluz)
  3. Dramas of characters with physical or psychological limitations: (e.g., En la ardiente oscuridad)

The Sixties and Seventies

These decades saw a growing fatigue with social realism and attempts to create a new, experimental theater, albeit still with a critical edge. There was an increased interest in foreign theater, particularly the epic theater of Bertolt Brecht and the theater of the absurd. New forms and techniques were explored, and independent theater groups like Els Joglars and Els Comediants emerged, emphasizing collective creation, improvisation, and audience participation.

Individual playwrights like Francisco Nieva and Fernando Arrabal pushed the boundaries of theatrical conventions, but their work often faced resistance from the public.

Recent Years

After the end of the Franco dictatorship, a new era of freedom led to the establishment of cultural institutions like the Centro Dramático Nacional and the Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico, as well as theater festivals. However, these initiatives did not lead to a significant flourishing of new playwrights and works that resonated with a wide audience. Antonio Gala and Fernando Fernán Gómez achieved some success, with Fernán Gómez’s Las bicicletas son para el verano being a notable example. In recent years, the theater scene has been characterized by a lack of groundbreaking new works.