Essayists of the 98 and Noucentisme Generations in Spain
Essayists of the 98 Generation
The Generation of 1898 found its best expression in the reflective and confidential tone of the essay. All authors of this generation wrote collaborations in newspapers and magazines, later collected into books. Their essays drew inspiration from three main sources:
- Travels through the lands and peoples of Spain: They depicted customs, traditions, backwardness, poverty, the beauty of the landscape, and the dignity of its people in a subjective way.
- Readings of the classics: They recreated, manipulated, and adapted memories of landscapes and environments, placing their works within them and reflecting on the timeliness of their themes.
- Introspection and a confessional tone: They dealt with feelings, desires, and moods. This exercise in sincerity often masked a critical tone with an irrational, romantic, and more poetic than reflective approach.
Unamuno and Azorín: Key Essayists
The essayistic themes of the Generation of ’98 are twofold:
- Essays glossing external reality, especially customs in Castile. Around 1895, they reflected on the essence of Spanish identity, between traditionalism and modernism. Unamuno, a traditional regenerator, raised his theory of “intra-history” and engine civilizations.
- Essays posing existential questions. Unamuno explored the contradiction between pragmatism and idealism, modeled on Don Quixote, and grappled with the anxiety of God’s existence and the urgent need for faith. Key works include Tragic Sense of Life and The Agony of Christianity.
Azorín’s essays reflect a peaceful, contemplative nature. His initial critical tones give way to a sentimental view of the meaning of life, marked by melancholy and suffering. With an evocative and nostalgic tone, he draws an imagined world through historical review and readings of the classics. His essays can be classified into:
- Visions of the people and landscapes of Spain (The People and Tragic Andalusia).
- Recreation of characters, landscapes, and cities (The Route of Don Quixote, Cervantes, An Hour of Spain, and above all, Castilla).
- Essays of literary criticism (Spanish Readings, Classical and Modern Literary Values, Duke of Rivas and Larra, etc.).
Azorín’s works feature an impressionistic style, shining in descriptions. Cumulative enumerations dominate, depicting landscape elements or the trades and activities of daily life, seen with unique delicacy and emotion.
Noucentisme
The members of Noucentisme, the mainstream cultural movement following the Generation of ’98, had a solid university education and were outstanding teachers of philosophy, science, philology, law, etc. The renewal they brought was linked to new media, where they broadcast an intellectual, liberal, and pro-European ideology.
They created new academic institutions, significantly impacting university training, research, and the dissemination of knowledge. They offered a renewed vision connecting art and avant-garde aesthetic principles, anticipating the Generation of ’27. Noucentisme is characterized by:
- Intellectualism
- A pure conception of art: Dehumanized art, resulting from intellectual reflection and artistic development.
- Aesthetic refinement: Careful style, away from modernist motifs, based primarily on visionary images and metaphors that have nothing to do with reality but are the result of purely aesthetic development.
Most Important Essayists of Noucentisme
Ortega y Gasset is the great intellectual of the first third of the century, author of influential works such as:
- Essays on artistic and literary themes: Meditations on Don Quixote, Ideas on the Novel, and The Dehumanization of Art.
- Essays on political and philosophical themes: Invertebrate Spain, The Revolt of the Masses, and numerous essays collected under the title of The Spectator.
Eugenio d’Ors wrote numerous articles on a variety of issues, known by the title of “Glosses,” and famous artistic essays such as Three Hours in the Prado Museum and The Baroque.
Manuel Azaña, President of the Second Republic, published critical essays and socio-political reflections such as Vigil in Benicarló.
Gregorio Marañón authored famous studies on artistic, historical, and literary topics, including Don Juan, El Conde Duque de Olivares, and El Greco and Toledo.
Other figures deserving wider notice include Américo Castro, Claudio Sánchez Albornoz, Salvador de Madariaga, etc.