Naturalism in 19th-Century Spanish Literature
Naturalism and Realism in 19th-Century Spanish Literature
In the final decades of the nineteenth century, realism evolved into naturalism, a movement fueled by French author Émile Zola. Carried to an extreme, naturalism proposed to apply scientific principles to the literature of the period. For Zola, man is the result of genetic inheritance and social conditions. Spanish writers of the time—Emilia Pardo Bazán, Galdós, Clarín, and Vicente Blasco Ibáñez—rejected Zola’s genetic determinism but incorporated some naturalistic techniques into their novels.
Characteristics of Naturalism
- Narrative Techniques: Naturalism employed extreme observation techniques of realism. Writers aspired to present reality using the scientific method, becoming observers analyzing the behavior of individuals in light of society and family, which determine their behavior. These accounts attenuate the weight of history for the benefit of the description, sometimes focusing on emaciated and cruel aspects.
- Narrator: These novels incorporate an objective narrator, trying to be impersonal, compared with the realistic narrator, who is involved with comments on the story.
- Themes and Characters: Naturalistic works present the most emaciated aspects of reality, and characters with flaws, without feelings, dominated by their physiology, whose language, sometimes rough and squalid, reflects the environment in which they live.
Clarín and La Regenta
Clarín, pseudonym of Leopoldo Alas, was known for his literary criticism. He was also a celebrated author of stories. His novel La Regenta (The Judge’s Wife) is considered one of the best novels in the Spanish language. Set in the city of Vetusta, La Regenta presents the conflict between two characters (Ana Ozores and Fermín de Pas) dominated by the longing for love in a hostile environment. Vetusta is a fictional representation of Oviedo and its inhabitants: a bourgeois society full of hypocrisy and convention. The detailed analysis of society (church, aristocracy, middle class, workers…) and the detailed study of the characters make this novel a great example of naturalism.
Leopoldo Alas (Clarín) (1852-1901)
Born in Zamora, he moved to Oviedo in 1863, where he studied law. He then moved to Madrid for a doctorate and began his journalism career there. He was Professor of Law at the University of Zaragoza, and later in Oviedo, where he developed his literary work, reflecting some aspects of his environment. His Republican ideas led him to address social injustice in his works, always standing for the weak.
Other Naturalist Narrators
The novels of E. Pardo Bazán contain a detailed study of the Galician countryside, whose decadent nobility maintained its power among the peasants. Her work Los Pazos de Ulloa (1886), which continues in Madre Naturaleza (Mother Nature) (1887), presents the decline of the nobility. Through the eyes of two characters from outside—Julián, the chaplain, in the first, and Gabriel, the protagonist’s uncle, in the second—the reader observes the social, moral, and physical decay of the Ulloa family, feudal lords of a vanishing world.
The naturalistic novels of Blasco Ibáñez have Valencia as their setting, focusing on three socio-economic areas: trade (in Arroz y tartana, 1894), agriculture (in La barraca, 1898), and fishing (Cañas y barro, 1902). The characters in these stories are dominated by primitive forces that determine their behavior. Violent environments are described in detail, not omitting the raw and unpleasant aspects.
Emilia Pardo Bazán (1851-1921)
Born in A Coruña into a progressive family, she received a careful education and met the greatest thinkers of the day. She traveled throughout Europe, enabling her to become acquainted with the new literature of her time, and participated actively in Spanish literary and cultural life. She wrote for various newspapers and created the magazine Nuevo Teatro Crítico, in addition to founding the Biblioteca de la Mujer (Woman’s Library). She was appointed Professor of Neo-Latin Literatures.
Vicente Blasco Ibáñez (1867-1928)
Born in Valencia, he soon joined the Republican movement. He was a deputy and founded and edited the anti-monarchist newspaper El Pueblo. Because of his political views, he was imprisoned and went into exile on several occasions. Some of his novels were made into films, such as The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, focusing on World War I, which brought him fame and prosperity.