Key 20th Century Literary Figures and Movements

Posted on Mar 26, 2025 in Modern Philology. English

Early 20th Century European Novelists

Key figures in the early twentieth-century novel include:

  • Marcel Proust: Author of the seven-novel cycle Remembrance of Things Past (also known as In Search of Lost Time).
  • Franz Kafka: Expressed the anguish of human beings and the meaninglessness governing social relationships in novels such as The Metamorphosis.
  • James Joyce: Wrote the seminal work Ulysses.

The Noucentista Novel in Spain

The Noucentista novel was characterized by two main features:

  1. Lyrical, descriptive landscapes.
  2. The presence of non-fiction elements, meaning the focus is not primarily on the action.

Among the novelists of the Generation of ’14, notable figures included Gabriel Miró, Pérez de Ayala, and Ramón Gómez de la Serna, who was a main counterpart of the vanguards in Spain and the creator of the greguerías.

Spain’s Generation of ’27 Poets

The Generation of ’27 is named because its members met in 1927 to commemorate the tercentenary of the death of Góngora. These authors admired Juan Ramón Jiménez and the ideas of Ortega y Gasset. The poets were not content to merely imitate the model of Jiménez’s “naked poetry” or Ortega’s “dehumanized art”; they also introduced new formal and thematic elements, blending modernism and tradition in their works.

Members include:

  • Federico García Lorca
  • Rafael Alberti
  • Luis Cernuda
  • Pedro Salinas
  • Jorge Guillén
  • Gerardo Diego

The significance of the Generation of ’27 was huge, especially in poetry.

Rafael Alberti: Neopopularism and Surrealism

Rafael Alberti’s work includes:

  • Marinero en tierra (Sailor on Land): Belongs to a Neopopularist current, defending the use of forms from popular Spanish poetry.
  • Sobre los ángeles (Concerning the Angels): Uses surrealist techniques to express the anguish and personal disorientation of the poet.

Jorge Guillén and Pure Poetry

Jorge Guillén was a maximum representative of “pure poetry,” influenced by Jiménez. His major works include:

  • Cántico: A collection of poems exalting the happiness of being alive.
  • Clamor: Addresses societal problems such as poverty, death, and suffering.
  • Homenaje (Tribute): A set of poems praising different personalities from art and science.

Juan Ramón Jiménez: Poetic Evolution

Juan Ramón Jiménez’s work is characterized by the constant search for an ideal of perfection. Different stages can be distinguished in his production:

  • Sensitive Stage: Marked by the influence of Modernism. Poems like Arias tristes and Elegías feature prominent sound patterns, musicality, rich adjectivization, and Modernist symbols and motifs (e.g., sunset, moon).
  • Intellectual Stage: Begins with Diario de un poeta recién casado (Diary of a Newly Married Poet). This stage is characterized by formal nudity (“naked poetry”) and the presence of more complex themes.
  • Sufficient or True Stage: Represented by works like Dios deseado y deseante (God Desired and Desiring). Here, Jiménez sought transcendence through perfection and beauty.

Common Literary Devices Defined

Alliteration
The repetition of the same consonant, vowel, or syllable within a syntactic or metric unit.
Paronomasia
Placing words close together that sound similar but have different meanings.
Hyperbaton
Altering the logical or common syntactic order of words in a sentence.
Parallelism
Correspondence in grammatical structure between several parts (often multiple members) of a syntactic whole.
Anaphora
The repetition of elements at the beginning of two or more successive verses or phrases.
Polysyndeton
The use of multiple conjunctions in close succession within a coordinated construction.
Asyndeton
The omission of conjunctions between coordinated elements.
Hyperbole
Using exaggeration to describe things or values beyond their normal proportions for emphasis or effect.
Metaphor
Identifying an item with another term with which it shares a relationship of analogy.
Synesthesia
Attributing a sensation associated with one sense to a reality perceived through another sense.
Simile or Comparison
Explicitly stating a relationship of similarity between two elements, often using words like “like” or “as”.