Novecentismo and the Avant-Garde: A Literary Analysis
Novecentismo and the Avant-Garde
In Spain, the literary group that succeeded the modernists and the Generation of ’98 is known as Novecentismo or the Generation of 1914. Its members are characterized by a European orientation and a conception of art as an activity separate from social and political concerns.
During the early decades of the 20th century, Europe saw the rise of various artistic movements, called the avant-garde, which radically broke with the themes and expressive techniques of Romanticism and Realism. Avant-garde artists were interested in technological advances (Futurism), decomposing reality (Cubism), or replacing it with the dream world (Surrealism).
The Noucentists easily connected with the avant-garde, seeing in it the completion of their commitment to an art form that was a product of entertainment and freedom, testing the intellectual and expressive ability of the artist.
Language, Literature, and the Avant-Garde in Novecentismo
The salient features of the language of the Noucentists are conceptual precision, reflecting their solid intellectual formation, and the expression of the subjective, reflecting their creative side and materialized mainly through metaphor. The most representative literary genres are Novecentismo lyrics, expressed in both prose and verse, and essays, disseminated mainly through newspapers and magazines.
The Essay
The Novecentismo brought together people from different fields who played an active role in the society of their time, using the essay as the ideal means of disseminating their ideas and knowledge. (José Ortega y Gasset is considered the most important essayist of this group, and his texts represent the thinking and mood of his generation).
The Novel
The Noucentista novel continued the path of subjectivism and renovation begun by the Generation of ’98. The authors tended to manipulate Noucentista situations to express their views on diverse topics. (Gabriel Miró used lyricism; Wenceslao Fernández Flórez chose humor).
The Lyrical Novecentismo and its Measures
The lyrical production of these years is very diverse, making it difficult to generalize about its characteristics. While all the poets were motivated by the common desire to end the sentimentality and rhetoric inherited from Romanticism and Modernism, the Noucentists were concerned with conveying a precise and clear message to faithfully transmit the idea, unlike the modernists who sought to provide new versions of the universe. However, among the Noucentists, there were personalities difficult to categorize, going well beyond the so-called dehumanized art (León Felipe) or its complex creative path (Juan Ramón Jiménez).
On the other side of the avant-garde lyric scene, Ramón Gómez de la Serna stands out, facilitating the entry of new artistic trends into Spain, where the most important avant-garde movements were Creationism (Vicente Huidobro), Ultraism, and Surrealism, which significantly influenced the movement.
Creationism and Ultraism have in common the search for new typographic forms, such as the calligram, but the first continues the metaphor, and the second prefers machinery and technical-scientific lexicon.
Juan Ramón Jiménez (1881-1958): Pure Poetry
Juan Ramón Jiménez is considered one of the best poets of the 20th century. In 1956, he received the Nobel Prize for Literature and exerted a great influence on later poets. His style is refined, containing features of learned poetry, popular poetry, and the avant-garde, but what best defines it is the constant search for precise expression that clearly shows his understanding of the world and himself.
A recurring theme in his work is nature, whose treatment changes as the stages succeed each other, which the poet called sensory, intellectual, and sufficient.
Stages:
- Sensory: The poems show Romantic and Modernist influences, and nature is treated in a descriptive way (La soledad sonora).
- Intellectual: The poet flees from ornaments and seeks simplicity and purity of expression (Diary of a Newly Married Poet).
- Sufficient: He achieved his desire for eternity and beauty by merging with nature (On the Other Side).
Among his works written in prose, Platero and I stands out. In a tone of elegy, the poet recalls scenes and missing people from his land, using the donkey Platero.