Generation of ’27: Evolution and Poetic Stages
The Evolution of the Generation of ’27
The evolution of the Generation of ’27 is not uniform. This analysis outlines three key stages, acknowledging that not all poets participated to the same extent or at the same time.
Stage 1: The Twenties (1920-1927) – Pure Poetry
During this period, influenced by Góngora, Juan Ramón Jiménez, and the avant-garde movement, poets cultivated a style that emphasized:
- Formal rigor: Striving to create beauty through precise word choice and structure.
- Abstract Poetry: Removing direct emotional or sentimental content, focusing on conceptual and “dehumanized” art.
- Elitist Lyricism: Conceptual and abstract nature made it difficult, obscure, and intended for a select audience.
Stage 2: The Thirties (1927-1939) – Rehumanization
The homage to Góngora in 1927 marked the peak and decline of the aesthetic ideals characteristic of the first stage. A weariness of pure formalism emerged, fostering a desire for closer, warmer communication, initiating a rehumanization of poetry in two phases:
- Surrealism: Recovering emotional spaces of the human spirit, feelings became increasingly perceptible in poetic space. Surrealism served as a vehicle for:
- Expressing deep personal crises.
- Critiquing the dehumanization of modern life and progress.
- Inquiring into the deepest feelings of the human soul: love, longing, etc. Some critics even note a romantic influence, reminiscent of Bécquer.
- Committed Poetry: The problematic social situation, characterized by social conflict and political tension. In Spain, the fall of the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera and the monarchy, and the proclamation of the Republic; in Europe, the rise of fascism. This led the poets of the Generation of ’27 to recognize the need to replace secrecy and poetic games with denunciation of injustices and testimony of the pain and suffering of the disadvantaged. The language became more direct, and the lyrical tone shifted from serene to impassioned. The social and political stress entered the poetry, influenced by the presence in Spain of the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. Many members of the Generation of ’27 took concrete political action (Communism), and all were more or less actively in favor of the Republic at the outbreak of the Civil War.
Stage 3: The Forties – Exile and Existentialism
After the Civil War, the group dispersed. Lorca, one of its most significant members, was murdered, and the rest, except for a few, went into a long exile. Each followed their own path, but common notes included pessimism, bitterness, rootlessness, and pain.
The new direction of their poetry requires a dual distinction:
- Exile: For poets in exile, the dominant note was nostalgia for the lost homeland and imprecations against the victors.
- Poetry in Spain: Existential poetry, a distraught humanism dealing with issues like the war, the uprooting of man in the world, despair, the search for God, etc.