20th-Century Spanish Literature: Poetry, Theater, and Social Commentary
Poetry of the 1940s
During the 1940s, Spanish poetry was dominated by expressions of religious and existential concerns. Post-war poetry began with two books published in 1944: Sons of Anger by Dámaso Alonso and Shadow of Paradise by Vicente Aleixandre. These works paved the way for younger poets like Blas de Otero (Angel Fierce Roll of Consciousness). These books reflect a pessimistic and anxious worldview, where a cruel and arbitrary God governs a meaningless, chaotic world. They express deep dissatisfaction with reality, though not explicitly referring to the political or social situation in Spain. In another fundamental book of this period, The Burning House, Luis Rosales presents a less agonizing experience, stating the hope found through the inseparable pain of existence. Miguel Hernández, who died prematurely in prison in 1942, deserves special mention. His works (The Ray That Does Not Stop and Songs and Ballads of Absences) connect thematically and stylistically to the poetry of the Generation of ’27.
Social Poetry
In the early 1950s, social poetry prevailed in Spain. Its main features include:
- A conception of literature as an instrument of social and political transformation.
- A commitment to critique and testify to the Spanish reality of the time, stirring readers’ consciences.
- A denunciation of social injustice and lack of freedom, thus escaping autobiographical expressions of feelings.
- The use of plain, deliberately mundane language, driven by the desire to write poetry accessible to the “vast majority,” as Blas de Otero wrote.
Key authors include Gabriel Celaya (Iberian Songs), Blas de Otero (Ask for Peace and the Word), and José Hierro (Quinta del 42).
Poets of the Mid-Century
In the late 1950s, a new wave of poets born just before the Spanish Civil War emerged. These mid-century poets began their journey within the principles of social verse. However, their works soon developed specific characteristics:
- Explicit ideological commitment disappeared, and the autobiographical component returned to the forefront, attempting to integrate individual experience within historical circumstance.
- Recurring themes included love, eroticism, the passage of time, and the evocation of childhood or adolescence.
- The social reality of Spain often served as a backdrop against which personal experiences were set.
- Conversational and intimate language contrasted with the declamatory style of social poets.
The poetry of this period shows the influence of Antonio Machado and Luis Cernuda.
Mihura and the Theater of the Absurd
Linked to the humor magazine La Codorniz, the theater of the absurd aimed to denounce the sentimentality and hypocrisy of bourgeois conventions. Miguel Mihura’s Three Top Hats, written in 1932 but premiered in 1952, is a foundational work of this genre.
Buero Vallejo and Social Theater
Antonio Buero Vallejo is the most prominent playwright of social theater. His work aimed to raise audience awareness, without self-deception, of the tragic human condition, marked by pain and uncertainty. His plays offered a critical analysis of the Spanish reality of the time, marked by poverty, ignorance, corruption, and lack of freedom. Some of his strategies included:
- Historical characters who fail in their attempts to achieve a more just and free society (e.g., Esquilache in A Dreamer for a People, Goya in The Sleep of Reason, Larra in The Denotation, Velázquez in Las Meninas).
- Immersive effects, placing the viewer within the consciousness of the characters (e.g., in Concert of San Ovid and The Burning Darkness, the scenes are sometimes dark, reflecting the blindness of the protagonists; in The Sleep of Reason, viewers, like the protagonist, cannot hear what other characters say).
Arrabal and Experimental Theater
Fernando Arrabal is the chief representative of experimental theater, which reacted against social theater in the 1960s. Its features include:
- Works as parables and allegories about the human condition, rather than faithful representations of reality.
- Emphasis on nonverbal signs: gestures, movements, scenery, music.
- Poetic or absurd dialogues that depart from everyday language.
- Provocative themes of sex, violence, and insanity.
Some major titles by Arrabal include Picnic, The Tricycle, The Automobile Graveyard, and The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria.
Connectors
Different types of connectors are used to organize and clarify text:
- Temporal: then, after, later
- Explanatory: that is, or rather, in other words
- Order: first, on the one hand, finally
- Contrast: on the contrary, however, but, nevertheless, yet
- Result: for, so, therefore, thus, hence
- Exemplary: for example, such as