Notable Spanish Literary Figures
Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936)
Born in Bilbao, Miguel de Unamuno studied philosophy and literature in Madrid. He held the Chair of Greek at the University of Salamanca, serving as rector in 1901. He faced exile in France due to conflicts with Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship and later served as a deputy for the Republic. Unamuno died in Salamanca. He is considered one of the most brilliant intellectuals of Spanish culture.
Pío Baroja (1872-1956)
Pío Baroja y Nessi, born in San Sebastián, studied medicine in Madrid and Valencia. He managed the family bakery in Madrid, the city where he dedicated himself to literature and ultimately resided until his death. Elected to the Royal Academy in 1934, Baroja is a prominent figure in Spanish literature.
Works
Primarily a novelist, Baroja’s extensive work can be categorized chronologically and thematically.
- Before 1912: This prolific period includes notable works like The Way of Perfection (1902) and The Tree of Knowledge (1911), featuring archetypal characters like Fernando Osorio and Andrés Hurtado. This era also saw the creation of The Fight for Life trilogy, Zalacaín the Adventurer (1909), and The Concerns of Shanti Andia (1911), a transitional work.
- After 1912: This period encompasses diverse styles and themes, including the 22-work series Memories of a Man of Action.
Thematically, Baroja’s works can be grouped into cycles:
- Basque Country: The House of Aizgorri, The Firstborn of Labraz, Zalacaín the Adventurer
- Fantasy Life: Adventure, Inventions, and Mystification of Sylvester Paradox, Way of Perfection, Paradox, King
- The Fight for Life: The Search, Weed, Red Dawn
Style
Baroja’s novels, characterized by a lack of action, focus on character development. His precise, simple, and sober style, sometimes bordering on rude, showcases a measured development. He masterfully employs impressionistic descriptions and dialogue, along with a particularly bitter humor. Short sentences, minimal subordination, and a conversational style are prominent features. While he rarely uses figures of speech, his influence on later writers like Camilo José Cela and Luis Martín Santos is undeniable.
José Martínez Ruiz ‘Azorín’
Work: the will, the people, Castilla. His style is characterized by the purity and accuracy, for accuracy, and the short sentence and forceful, impressionistic markedly.
5.2. Ramón M ª del Valle-Inclán
Work: Although we will focus on his play, Valle-Inclan also enters the novel. The Sonatas are considered the best contribution of modernist prose. Are the memories of the Marquis de Bradomin, a Don Juan ugly, Catholic and sentimental. Tyrant Banderas (1926) is a mature novel, inspired by the tyranny of the Hispanic American dictators of the time. – Cycle myth. Consisting of works such as Divine words (1920) or the barbaric Comedy trilogy, characterized by a primitive and timeless Galician space where human passions and irrational forces are undergoing a process of mystification. – Cycle farce. – Cycle absurdity. In this case, the mechanism is not myth but the opposite. The work that opened the cycle typical, Luces de bohemia (1920), revolves around the last voyage of a “tragic hero”, the poet Max Estrella, a world unworthy, unfair and empty, as his partner Don Híspalis Latino. Travel terrifying and torn by fifteen areas of Madrid who have nothing mythical or glorious. Max has no other weapons to denounce and combat dehumanized reality cowardly to propose suicide, death. In parallel,Valle-Inclan uses a disfiguring aesthetic to reflect reality. Everything goes-even death itself, to violate the public. Without doubt, the cycle of absurdity is not the end of a long and fruitful way of innovations which put Spanish theater in the European dramatic art despite its limited commercial success.