20th Century Spanish Narrative and Theater
Narrative in the First Half of the 20th Century
The crisis of 1898 necessitates an approach to existential issues. “He leaves the writers iflujo realistic”.
Currents
End of the Century (Modernism and Generation of ’98)
- Breaks with realism and naturalism
- Intimate, lyrical perspective
- Introduces structural innovations, including monologues
- Uses careful lexicon
Authors: Azorín, Baroja, Unamuno, etc.
1914 (Novecentismo or Generation of ’14)
- Intellectualism and formal restoration
- Influence of Ortega y Gasset and his ideas about the novel
- Includes new themes, the plot disappears
Authors: W. Fernández Flores, Gabriel Miró…
1920s (Avant-Garde)
- Follows the dictates of Novecentismo
- Linked to the Generation of ’27
- Uses techniques pioneered by narrators like Marcel Proust
- Sometimes influenced by currents like Surrealism
Authors: Ramón Gómez de la Serna and Benjamín Jarnés.
The 1930s (Rehumanization)
- Reports on social injustices
- Invites the reader to take sides and engage in the social and political transformation of the country
Authors: César Arconada and Ramón J. Sender.
Civil War
Censorship, poverty, and isolation break the line of continuity with the culture of the republican era. European literature is unknown at this time.
The Novel of Exile
The integrated novelists who belonged to the forefront during the 1920s. Every novelist personally evolved.
Authors: Francisco Ayala, Max Aub, Arturo Barea, Rosa Chacel, and Ramón J. Sender.
The Novel in Spain in the 1940s
Edited minor works until the appearance of the existentialist current. Tremendismo appears in the novel.
Novel of Winners
Exalts the heroic and military virtues of Franco from an ideological position.
Authors: Agustín de Foxá and Rafael García Serrano.
Neorealism
Continues with the realistic aesthetics and draws on models like Galdós and Baroja.
Authors: Juan Antonio de Zunzunegui and Ignacio Agustí.
Existentialist Novel
Describes reality, highlighting the discomfort and anguish of society and individuals.
Authors: Camilo José Cela, Carmen Laforet.
Narrative in the Second Half of the 20th Century
1950s
- End of isolation and industrial development
- New narrative: social realism, which had two mixed sides: objectivist realism and critical realism
- Collective-feature characters that testify to the truth
Authors: Camilo José Cela, Juan Goytisolo, and Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio.
Novel of the 1960s
- Characteristics of the experimental novel
- Presence of characters with identity problems trying to meet and find reasons for their existential angst
- Time-critical prior to the narrative, which has marked the existence and character of the protagonists
- Disappearance of the argument
- Structural problem: the narrative is organized in a complex way, using the multiple viewpoint, which is told from the perspective of different characters in the play
- Usual technique of counterpoint
- Dialogue is unusual: it is replaced by free indirect style and interior monologue
- Linear time rupture
- Renewal of literary language, introducing neologisms, foreign words, etc.
Authors: Luis Martín Santos, Juan Marsé, and Miguel Delibes.
Novel from 1975
- Return to traditional narrative and plot
- Indulgence in the personal and intimate; the narrator is usually the protagonist
- Influence of the media, which encourages a taste for genres such as the reportage novel
- Attention to form: they are well-written works with a traditional realistic style and utilize short sentences
- Spaces between the known
Historical Novel
Turns to the historical past.
Author: Eduardo Mendoza.
Intimate Novel
Turns to the private and psychological analysis of characters.
Authors: Juan José Millás, Javier Marías, and Almudena Grandes.
Metafiction
A reflection on the textual aspects of the more complex novel.
Author: Antonio Muñoz Molina.
Neorealist Novel
Situated in a known area, the provincial town.
Author: Manuel Vázquez Montalbán.
Novel of Political Criticism
Reflects the ideological disappointment of the 1980s and 1990s.
Author: Juan Madrid.
Spanish Theater in the First Half of the 20th Century
The Civil War divided theater into: 1) picture-frame theater, 2) Valle-Inclán and the release of theater, and 3) Lorca and the overall spectacle.
1936-1950 in Spanish Theater
The panorama of the Spanish scene is poor due to circumstance: “The companies still depend on the interests of some businessmen who subject themselves to the preferences of a bourgeois public of questionable taste.” Next to them are worse ideological constraints, censorship exercised by the “ferrea”.
The Postwar Theater (1940-1950)
The Civil War was a deep cut for the course of Spanish theater. At the end of the war, some playwrights died (Valle, Lorca…); others suffered exile; interest is so low that even old masters like Benavente or Arniches fit.
Noted Lines:
- A type of high comedy in the line of Benavente’s theater: the stage is characterized by a “preponderance of salon comedy” and a concern for “well-done” work.
- Comic theater contains one of the most interesting facets of those years: the line that goes from Jardiel Poncela to Mihura.
- Birth of a serious drama, which is inserted into an existentialist stream. Two dates are key: 1949’s “Historia de una escalera” by Buero Vallejo and 1953’s “Escuadra hacia la muerte” by Alfonso Sastre.