Avant-Garde Movements & Generation of ’27: Key Features
The Avant-Garde: An Overview
1 – What are the avant-garde?
The avant-garde encompasses a collection of literary and artistic movements that developed in Europe and America during the first third of the twentieth century.
2 – What was the most important feature of the avant-garde?
The most important feature is a break not only with prior art and literature, but with all accidental aesthetic tradition.
3 – Common features of the avant-garde:
There are four:
- Antirealism: a break with the idea of art and literature as an imitation of the outside world.
- Primitivism: the myth of primitive man.
- Irrationalism: rejection of reason and science as pillars of progress. Art is irrational, based on chance and the unconscious.
4 – Main avant-garde movements: characteristics and authors.
- Futurism: The key feature is the exaltation of speed, technique, sport, and strength. It is characterized by the use of onomatopoeia, non-verbal signs, and typographic innovations. Author: Filippo Marinetti.
- Dada: A return to a state of original innocence, associated with primitivism. The authors present an absurd and provocative character. Author: Tristan Tzara.
- Surrealism: Advocated the liberation of man from the tyranny of reason and morality, through literature and art born of the unconscious. The writers were inspired by dreams and practiced automatic writing. Author: André Breton.
- Cubism: Claimed the autonomy of works of art. The writer seeks to capture the simultaneity of reality. Author: Guillaume Apollinaire.
5 – The founder of the avant-garde in Spain and his work:
The initiator of the avant-garde in Spain was Ramón Gómez de la Serna, creator of the greguerías.
The Generation of ’27: A Literary Group
1 – Generation of ’27: definition and members:
The Generation of ’27 is formed by a group of poets who published their first works between 1920 and 1930. This generation includes: Pedro Salinas, Jorge Guillén, Gerardo Diego, Federico García Lorca, Vicente Aleixandre, Alonso, Emilio Prados, Rafael Alberti, Luis Cernuda, and Manuel Altolaguirre.
2 – Features of the Generation of ’27:
- They came from liberal middle-class families and shared a strong literary background.
- They presented a common aesthetic attitude (a synthesis between tradition and modernity). They dealt with universal themes in their poems and used established metrical schemes. At the same time, they were influenced by ultraism, creationism, and surrealism.
- During the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera and the Second Republic, they held a joint evolution. The Civil War, the assassination of Lorca, and exile encouraged the dispersion of the group.
3 – Why is it called the Generation of ’27?
His name is a homage to Góngora (for the third anniversary of his death) they did in 1927 at the Ateneo de Sevilla.
4 – What two currents developed in the Generation of ’27?
- Neopopularismo: used resources and metrical forms of Spanish folk poetry.
- Gypsy Ballads (García Lorca).
- Marinero en tierra (Rafael Alberti).
- Pure poetry:
- The voice you love due and Reason (Pedro Salinas).
- Song (Jorge Guillén)
5 – Major works of ’27 poets who were influenced by Surrealism:
- The reality and desire (Luis Cernuda).
- About Angels (Rafael Alberti).
- Poet in New York (Garcia Lorca).
- The destruction or love, like lips and Shoulders (Vicente Aleixandre).