Generation of ’98 and Avant-Garde Literature in Spain

Posted on Sep 25, 2024 in Latin

Generation of ’98

Narrative

– Fiction: 98 writers experimented with new narrative techniques to overcome outdated tendencies. These included:

Narration
Unique character (the plot revolves around a single character)
Life experiences (the action is in the internal struggle of the protagonist)
Dialogue (the narrator becomes unimportant)

– Themes and Styles: Aligned with the ideology of the Generation of ’98:

Concern for Spain (reflecting the political and social decay)
Intrahistory (telling the story of the people)
Enduring Values (rebellion, lack of moral conscience, and failure with negative implications)
Subjective reality (loss of the concept of objective reality)
Landscape (almost another character)

The novels of this phase are not uniform in style but emphasize an anti-rhetorical aesthetic with short, simple sentences. However, Baroja’s style is similar to Unamuno’s, much less so to Valle-Inclán’s.

Essay

– Definition: The three major literary genres were lyrical, narrative, and later, dramatic. The didactic genre emerged, with the essay reaching its peak in the 18th century, aided by the appearance of the written press. It is defined as a literary genre written in prose that addresses issues of general interest, where the author expresses their ideas and thoughts freely, without in-depth treatment.

– Features:

Subjectivity: the author is present in the text and expresses their opinion.
Variety: any subject can be an essay topic.
Brevity: essays are of limited length.
Materials: seeks to reflect on the reader or convey some moral education.
Persuasion: aims to change the reader’s thoughts.
Freedom: there is no predetermined structure for an essay; prose is the preferred form of expression, and exhibitions are used to transmit ideas and arguments.

Authors of the Generation of ’98

Pío Baroja

Born in San Sebastian in 1872 and died in Madrid in 1956. He frequented literary circles that soon guided him towards writing. His work is characterized by deep pessimism.

– Characteristics:

Religious skepticism (transmitted through his characters, who felt like outsiders in a time of spiritual crisis)
Distrust in humans (life seems absurd)
Influence of European philosophical currents (Nietzsche and Schopenhauer)
Personalities (nonconformist, adventurous, and opposed to the establishment)

– Themes: Stem directly from his life experiences. The themes reflect the lower classes in cities like Madrid, the recreation of environments and everyday situations, the description of landscapes, and his own experiences in the form of reports.

– Works: Divided into two stages:

Centered on generational issues: The Way of Perfection, The Tree of Knowledge, Zalacain the Adventurer
Predominantly historical themes: Memories of a Man of Action, The Labyrinth of the Sirens, The So Late Love

Miguel de Unamuno

Born in Bilbao in 1864 and died in 1936. His literary work revolves around major generational issues: the problem of Spain, time, and the meaning of life. His work is characterized by its restlessness.

– Features: Unamuno conceived of life as a struggle, an agony in search of peace that is never found, embodied in what he called his nivolas, a term he used to distance himself from the realistic novel. The features of his novels are:

Characters (called agonists, they live and suffer a relentless pursuit of God, threatened by death and anguish. This is what Unamuno called the tragic sense of life)
Little interest in the space-time framework (descriptions become almost abstract)
Importance of dialogue (takes precedence over narration)

– Works:

Mist: The protagonist is abandoned at the altar and decides to commit suicide, but not before asking the author of the novel for his opinion, who decides to kill him (Augusto Pérez).
Saint Manuel Bueno, Martyr: Exposes the loss of faith of a priest, who replaces his lack of faith with the desire to have it.

Ramón María del Valle-Inclán

Born in Pontevedra in 1866 and died in Santiago de Compostela in 1936. A bohemian with an unmistakable style who frequented gatherings in Madrid.

– Stages: His style evolved through several stages, parallel to his ideological changes:

Decadent stage of the Sonatas: Exalts a nostalgic and aristocratic status.
Stage between the Sonatas and his novels: Filled with rural environments and strong contrasts, with violent characters and the use of rude language.
Esperpentic stage: The esperpento also takes hold of his novels, where he uses satire to address social themes with violent styles.

– Themes and Styles: The themes of his novels change and evolve. The relevant themes are love, death, religion, and rural Spain. His commitment to changing the narrative genre led him to a personal and unique style that refers to musical language and meticulous care.

– Works: Sonatas, Carlist War, Tirano Banderas, and The Iberian Circle.

Azorín

Born in Alicante in 1873. He associated with authors such as Baroja and Maeztu, who were actually called the Group of Three. He was exiled to France during the Civil War and died in Madrid in 1967.

– Characteristics: His autobiographical narrative production encompasses several genres. However, several characteristics can be highlighted:

Lightly autobiographical plot
Graphic character
Opposition to the passage of time and the transience of life

– Themes and Styles: The most frequent themes of his work are the landscape and the past of Spain. He maintained a personal style. The most prominent features are precision and clarity in every word used, short and simple sentences. He utilizes a technique based on detailed description and evocation.

– Works: Novels: La Voluntad, Antonio Azorín, Doña Inés. Essays: Literary Criticism, Small Philosophical Essays.

Generation of ’98: Theater and Authors

Commercial Theater

This type of theater was designed to meet the entertainment demands of the bourgeoisie. It was characterized by manners, comedy, or melodrama, avoiding ideological conflicts and continuing with the traditional dramatic trend. Environments abound with attention to detail and realistic staging. Three currents of commercial theater can be distinguished:

Bourgeois realism comedy: Characterized by the dialogues used. Contains criticism against bourgeois habits. Its most representative author is Jacinto Benavente.
Poetic verse theater: Acquires a musical inclination, and its themes are historical or fantastical. It highlights noble values and national myths in response to the spiritual crisis of the time. Its most representative authors are Francisco Villaespesa and Eduardo Marquina.
Comic theater: Based on the usual and popular types in the form of sketches or género chico. Its most influential authors are Carlos Arniches, the Alvarez Quintero brothers, and Pedro Muñoz Seca.

Jacinto Benavente

Born in Madrid in 1866 and linked to the world of theater from a young age. He was a master of stagecraft and dialogues full of wit. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1922.

His most cited works are set in high society and criticize its vices and customs, but in a subtle and amiable way. His theater is centered on dialogues that dominate the action, placing the characters in shallow psychological positions. Love usually triumphs over materialism and frivolity in these works. The most important are:

Vested Interests (discusses the struggle between private interests and the ideals of Crispin and Leandro in a web of love and farce)
The Unloved (incestuous love between father and daughter sets off a terrible tragedy)
The Alien Nest (very controversial in its time for addressing the subject of oppression and discrimination of a housewife)

Innovative Theater

There were several attempts at stage renewal, led by Unamuno, Azorín, and especially by Valle-Inclán. They never enjoyed great popular acceptance but posed a significant contribution to later theater. Several stages can be distinguished in the evolution of Valle-Inclán’s plays based on theme and form:

Poetic theater: Refined to the point of ridicule and close to the modernist style of the time. The most important works are Wilderness of Souls and The Marquis of Bradomín.
Rural and mythical theater: The predominant themes in these dramas are Galician location, lust, cruelty, despotism, superstition, and magic. The most important work is the trilogy Comedias Bárbaras.
Farces: Characterized mainly by the use of puppet characters. The plots are the most important part of the theater. The most important works are the trilogy Marionettes and Tablado de marionetas para la educación de príncipes.
Esperpentos: Grotesque distortion of characters, situations, and environments, destroying reality and transforming its apparent image. This reveals a critique of society and the stage. The main works are Luces de Bohemia and Martes de Carnaval.

Valle-Inclán

Generation of ’14

The Generation of ’14, also called Novecentismo, encompasses a group of authors who are between the Generation of ’98 and the Generation of ’27. They sought to renew the literature and art of the time, characteristic of the 20th century.

– Features: These writers share certain features, not only literary but also social and political:

Social and political reform (support for reform measures, given their liberal condition)
Feelings of Spain as part of Europe (defended the influence that Europe could exert on a country anchored in the past)
Search for beauty and pure art (through thought and not vital experience)
Contributions to other movements (Modernism and Generation of ’98)
Effective language (to achieve a rigorous practice)

Author: José Ortega y Gasset

Born in Madrid in 1883. He combined journalism and politics, featuring prominently in the intellectual life of Spain. He founded the magazine Revista de Occidente, which became one of the most prestigious publications of its time.

One of the most important philosophers in the history of Spain, his work includes sociological, philosophical, historical, and literary works. He defended intellectual dominance over sentimentality. According to him, his intention was to provoke the dehumanization of art. Among his most important works are The Invertebrate Spain, The Revolt of the Masses, and The Dehumanization of Art.

The Avant-Garde

A series of artistic movements (Futurism, Cubism, Expressionism, Dadaism, Surrealism, etc.) that emerged in Europe at the beginning of the century and reached their peak after the First World War.

The purpose of the avant-garde was to radically renew art and literature, primarily by breaking with realism. The avant-garde sought continuous experimentation with forms, approaches, and techniques, freeing art from all conventions and traditional constraints. Such works involved a provocation against established social norms.

In Spain, the initiator was Ramón Gómez de la Serna, who introduced Futurism in 1909. A few years later, Ultraísmo and Creationism began to develop, reaching their peak with the Generation of ’27.

Ramón Gómez de la Serna

The work of this author was instrumental in the dissemination of the avant-garde. His work is original and innovative, a precedent for the Ultraísmo movement. He wrote novels, plays, essays, etc., but he is most famous for his greguerías. This name designates a type of composition that combines metaphor, humor, and conceptual acuity. They are witty texts that are unusual descriptions of everyday objects. It is pure verbal play that surprises with its boldness and often with its poetic lyricism: “Water lets her hair down in the waterfalls,” “The rainbow is the scarf from heaven,” etc.

Creationism and Ultraísmo

Two avant-garde movements of Hispanic origin.

Creationism: Aims to create new poems as objects independent of the reality that surrounds us. The poem becomes another reality created by the poet, who is considered a “little god.” The poet must undertake a search for expressive resources, breaking with techniques inherited from tradition.
Ultraísmo: Its very name suggests a desire to go further, to form a new aesthetic. Among its postulates are the prioritization of metaphor, the stripping of art, the removal of punctuation and rhyme, and a rejection of sentimentality. It also used “visual poems.” Its main promoter was Guillermo de la Torre, known for his tendency to strip poetry of everything that was not strictly poetic, thus becoming a major influence on the youth movement that would succeed it.

These avant-garde movements led to a literary climate of restoration and paved the way for the development of great works by the poets of the Generation of ’27.