A Literary Journey from Realism to Contemporary Spanish Literature
Realism
Realist authors in the second half of the nineteenth century intended to reflect reality with an objective intention. Realistic literature has these characteristics:
- Observation of Reality: Authors followed a rigorous method of analyzing contemporary everyday life to achieve an accurate and credible portrait of the social environment around them (settings and characters). They pretended that their writing was a mirror of life.
- Social Portrait: Writers conducted realistic descriptions of different backgrounds and characters but most often focused on the life and customs of the bourgeoisie, often with critical intent.
- Triumph of the Novel: The novel became the ideal vehicle for realist novelists. The literature usually takes the viewpoint of an omniscient narrator (3rd person), develops the introspection of the figures, and uses sober and detailed dialogues adapted to their social status.
Among the various Spanish realist narrators of the time, Benito Pérez Galdós stands out. He was the creator of large and numerous novels. Fortunata and Jacinta, The Disinherited, La de Bringas, Miau, and Torquemada are a faithful portrait of the society of his time, and its author became a real social chronicler of the 19th century. Likewise, Leopoldo Alas <<Clarín>> with his work, La Regenta, represents the culmination of realism.
In its final phase, realistic literature was influenced by French Naturalism. This movement maximized the tenets of realism and included the most sordid aspects of reality as a product of social determinism.
Contemporary Literature
Literature from the Post-War Period to the Present
At the end of World War II (1939-1945), the world was divided into two blocs that established the Cold War. Europe gradually recovered its political, economic, and social stability but also saw the emergence of some ideological and moral currents. These currents would lead to a more socially inclusive literature while renewing experimental trends in artistic expression. From the decade of 1960 onward, major changes generated a new cultural climate and the development of a consumer society.
- The 1940s gave rise to an existentialist literature showing the rejection of the environment and religious concern.
- In the 1950s, literature drifted towards the social, committed to a vision of reality, a desire to transform society, and a form of opposition to the dictatorship.
- In the 1960s, with economic development and the start of Spain’s opening, outside influences created a technical renovation that culminated in the experimentalism of the 1970s, which mainly affected artistic expression.
- Since the 1980s, literature has provided an overview of diverse trends.
Poetry from the Post-War Period to the Present
- In the 1940s, according to Alonso, the Generation of ’36 brought together several poets who developed two different lines:
- The poesía arraigada (rooted poetry) characterized by religious sentiment, classical forms, and a worldview as an ordered and consistent whole.
- The poesía desarraigada (uprooted poetry), which was existentialist. This last line, expressed through harrowing images and free verse, reflected the agony of man and his religious doubts in a chaotic world without meaning. In this latter aspect, in addition to Dámaso Alonso, the following stand out: Victoriano Cremer, Eugenio de Nora, Blas de Otero, and Gabriel Celaya.
- In the 1950s, the uprooted poetry trend led to social poetry, which was derived from experience. This poetry built on intimacy without abandoning the concern for humanity or the moral or political commitment, with a maverick or skeptical attitude. These poets, known as the”generation of children of war” used an anti-rhetorical and conversational style that was also dense and refined with rigor, sometimes freely employing irony and versification. José Ángel Valente and the poets of the so-called Barcelona School, such as Jaime Gil de Biedma, are noteworthy.
- In 1970, the anthology Nueve novísimos poetas españoles (Nine Newest Spanish Poets) presented a group of authors born after the war who showcased the new cultural sensitivity of the Novísimos Generation of ’68. These poets, with their experimental and avant-garde vocation, collected and incorporated diverse influences with a maverick culturalist attitude, including historical events and characters, film, music, comedians, radio and television, etc. Ana María Moix and Manuel Vázquez Montalbán stand out.
- In the 1980s, trends such as the return to the poetry of experience in the line of Gil de Biedma, avant-garde experimentalism, and classicism stood out.
Blas de Otero
The poetic work of this author is a clear example of the stages that followed the Spanish postwar period. His poetry is part of the line of uprooted poetry and expresses deep existential and religious concerns through the sonnet form, as seen in Ángel fieramente humano (1950) and Redoble de conciencia (1951), to be found years later in Ancia (1958). He then shifted from the concerns of the self to those of humans in general (us) and began a poetry of social purpose that demanded freedom and justice, as seen in Pido la paz y la palabra (1955) and continued in En castellano (1964).