Generation of ’27: Prose & Poetry of the Spanish Avant-Garde
The Prose of the Generation of ’27
It moved from a strictly literary conception of the avant-garde to the consideration that artwork should also express the moral, social, and political concerns of the authors.
Ortega’s ideas about the novel had a decisive influence. Important aspects were originality, unusual scenes, the use of fantasy and imagination, creating environments, as well as humor, wit, and irony.
Key Prose Writers
Benjamin Jarnés
The most important of the avant-garde narrators. Some titles are Zumbel Theory (1930) and Death Scenes (1931).
Francisco Ayala
Like Jarnés, he published several stories in the magazine Occidente. Subsequently, after the Civil War, he resumed his writing in exile.
Max Aub
He wrote several novels characteristic of the experimental prose of the time, such as Geography (1928) and Green Fable (1933).
Corpus Barga
Wrote avant-garde stories, for example, Passion and Death, Apocalypse (1930).
Rosa Chacel
Her experimental novel, a long introspective monologue, is Station and Back (1930), her first novel.
The Poetic Group of ’27
Federico García Lorca (1898-1936)
Born in Fuentevaqueros (Granada), Lorca studied Law and Philosophy. In Madrid, he stayed at the Residencia de Estudiantes, where he came into contact with leading scholars. Besides being a poet, he was devoted to music and painting. During his life, marked by triumph, he cultivated poetry and theater with equal success. In fact, today he can be considered one of the essential authors of our literary history. He was shot near Granada because of his support for the Republic.
Book of Poems was published in 1921 and Songs in 1922, making him one of the first to publish within the Generation of ’27. In these works, he shows a great influence of Bécquer and Modernism. He slowly found his own poetic voice, and in Song of the Deep Song (composed in 1921, published in 1931) it is already formed. The Andalusian spirit in this book is represented by flamenco songs whose main theme is death. He covers popular topics from a religious point of view and prints each poem with his own unmistakable stamp.
Gypsy Ballads (1928) is one of his great poetic works. The author associates the world of gypsies, completely stylized and unreal, with freedom and joy. As opposed to this, we see the Civil Guard, a symbol of repression and sadness. It is, in fact, the opposition of life and death. In this work, we find the connection between art and tradition. The art appears in the images and the use of metaphor, sometimes difficult to interpret, while the tradition is in the constant use of romance. The Andalusian world appears from a perspective that is unreal and fantastic.
Lorca traveled to New York in 1929 and was deeply impressed by the great American city. This impact is the reason for Poet in New York (1935). Through Surrealism, he depicts this city as representing the most negative aspects of civilization, basically the dehumanization of its buildings. Lorca expresses his disdain for this kind of life with the use of very innovative metaphors and images. With this work, Lorca gives a twist to his style. From now on, illogical and dreamlike images, bizarre associations, and free verse frequently appear in his poetry. Surrealism also appears in Divan del Tamarit (1931-1934), composed of eighteen short poems centered on Arabic and Andalusian culture.
Lament for the Death of Ignacio Sánchez Mejías (1934) is one of his best works. Dedicated to the death of his friend Sánchez Mejías, bullfighter and poet, in the bullring, it is a summary and compendium of Lorca’s world: it combines the popular with Surrealism, the language is stylized to the absolute limits, and the use of metaphor and repetition is masterful.
Lorca’s poetry is perhaps the best of the Generation of ’27. Like no one else, he knew how to mix religion and the popular. The color and brilliance of his poems are undisputed, and Lorca’s seal becomes unmistakable.
Lorca’s theater is crucial to our literature, as discussed in the context of Spanish theater of the first half of the twentieth century.
Vicente Aleixandre (1898-1984)
Born in Seville, Aleixandre spent most of his childhood in Malaga. He moved to Madrid, where he studied law. He devoted himself fully to literature, work for which he received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1977. Aleixandre became one of the masters of postwar poetry.
His early works are a little later than those of other members of the Generation. In 1928 he published Ambit and in 1932 one of his greatest works, Swords like Lips. These works were written using the techniques of Surrealism. Also under this influence comes in 1934 his major work, Destruction or Love. The world appears as a total unit in which man is forced to love because everything invites him to do so. He used free verse, very long lines, and solemn language.
Shadow of Paradise (composed in 1939, published in 1944) chronicles the consequences of war. Amid the pain, Aleixandre searches for beauty. History of the Heart (1954) focuses on human solidarity as the way forward. His style matures, and we enter his third stage with two works: Poems of the Consummation (1968) and Dialogues of Knowledge (1974). In them, the author links back to his initial Surrealism.
He was regarded as one of the masters of postwar poetry, especially through the use of two basic themes: love and life.
Luis Cernuda (1902-1963)
Born in Seville, Cernuda earned a law degree. He decided to devote himself to literature and was appointed Reader in Spanish at the Ecole Normale de Toulouse. He subsequently lived in Madrid. During the Civil War, he was exiled to England and never returned to Spain. He taught at English and American universities. In 1952 he moved to Mexico, where he died.
He was a lonely and sorrowful man. He felt himself an outsider, perhaps because of his homosexuality, which is why he was isolated and rebelled against everything. Throughout his life, he wrote about the impossibility of achieving his dreams in a reality as hostile as his surroundings. Frustration, longing for a more livable world, boredom, and love are the most frequent themes in his poetry.
Bécquer’s influence is felt in most of his poems. He rejects pompous and bombastic language and uses a conversational tone with everyday words and colloquialisms. He uses long verses and dispenses with rhyme. He reflects his inner world in each of his poems with a great romantic feeling.
Influenced by Jorge Guillén, he published Profile in the Air (1927), poems composed in his youth. In A River, Love (1929) and Forbidden Pleasures (1931), the theme is love. Cernuda began applying surrealist techniques, which resulted in Where Oblivion Dwells (1932-33). He leaves love aside and is forgotten. He gathered all his poems so far in Reality and Desire (1936). The Romantic themes are repeated—love, death, loneliness—and the language is clear and sincere.
After the war, Cernuda expanded the themes he wrote about. Exile and war appear in works such as Clouds (1940) and Living Without Living (1944-49). Desolation of the Chimera (1962) is his best work. He bids farewell as a poet and returns to discuss childhood, love, exile, and art.
Cernuda wrote two books of prose poetry: Ocnos (1942-1963) and Variations on a Mexican Theme (1949-1950), reminiscent of Andalusia in the first and Mexico in the second.
As a literary critic, his essay Studies on Contemporary Spanish Poetry (1957) stands out.
Rafael Alberti (1902-1999)
He is the member of the Generation of ’27 who lived the longest. Born in Puerto de Santa María (Cádiz), he began dedicating himself to painting but abandoned it for poetry. In 1934 he founded the revolutionary magazine October. Because of the Civil War, he went into exile in Argentina, and in 1962 he moved to Rome. He died in his hometown.
Alberti had a deep knowledge of Spanish literature, which shines through in his work. The influences of the ballads and the Cancionero, Garcilaso, Góngora, Lope, Bécquer, Juan Ramón Jiménez, and Antonio Machado are evident. He cultivated different styles: the popular, Surrealism, pure poetry, and humanized poetry. Along with Lorca, he is the best example of neo-popular poetry of the Generation of ’27.
Sailor on Land (1924), the author’s first work, won the National Book Award. It consists of short poems with popular themes, dominated by light grace and musicality. It’s about the sea and longing for his homeland. The Lover (1925) is the result of the author’s journey through Spain. Like the previous one, it is inspired by popular poetry.
With Lime and Stone (1929), the author turns to the influence of the avant-garde and learned poetry. Still, there is the influence of Góngora, which is accentuated in Concerning the Angels (1929). This is a book full of a surreal world dominated by a turbulent and distressing atmosphere.
In a third stage, Alberti, influenced by the Civil War, published Poet in the Street (1938) and From One Moment to Another (1937-39). He joined the Communist Party and played an important propaganda role for the Republic. These are poems committed to the cause, humanized, sometimes pamphlets.
Once in exile, Alberti published a lot of work. To Painting (1948) is one that pays homage to one of his passions. In Return of the Living from Afar (1952) and Ora Maritima (1953), he writes about Spain, nostalgic poems dedicated to his distant homeland. Ballads and Songs of Paraná (1954) continues the theme of nostalgia because of exile. Finally, Alberti pays tribute to Rome, the city where he lived his last period in exile, in Rome, Danger for Pedestrians (1968).