Postwar Spanish Novel: A Narrative of Social Change and Experimentation
Postwar Spanish Novel
Overview
The postwar Spanish novel emerged from a literary landscape marked by loss, exile, and censorship. Key figures like Unamuno and Valle-Inclán were gone, others like Ayala were in exile, foreign works were prohibited, and the country faced political and cultural isolation. This period witnessed a shift in narrative focus, exploring themes of social change, individual experience, and experimental forms.
1950s: Social Realism and Reconstruction
The 1950s saw the rise of social realism, with novels focused on reconstructing memory and critiquing the postwar reality. Authors explored themes of loneliness, inadequacy, frustration, and death, reflecting the squalor and bitterness of the war. Camilo José Cela’s work, characterized by alarmism (the depiction of harsh and sordid aspects of reality), exemplified this trend, drawing on 19th-century realism. La Colmena (The Hive) and Tiempo de silencio (Time of Silence) stand out as major works of this era, portraying poverty, worker alienation, and upper-class frivolity.
Two main aesthetic attitudes emerged within social realism: objectivism, which presented events without apparent authorial intervention, and critical realism, which emphasized social injustices and a spirit of complaint. Protagonists were often humble individuals suffering from societal injustices, with narratives focusing on rural hardship, the working world, and urban social issues.
La Colmena depicts the harsh realities of postwar Madrid, offering a bleak panorama of urban life. Critics often mark 1954 as the beginning of the social novel, with authors like Jesús Fernández Santos (Los bravos) and Ana María Matute (Primera memoria). This generation, known as the Generation of 1950, was heavily influenced by neorealism and American writers like Hemingway and Faulkner.
Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio’s El Jarama is another key work of this period. Dialogue is central to the novel, complemented by vivid descriptions at the beginning and end. The use of colloquial language captures the expressiveness of Madrid’s working class.
1960s and Beyond: Experimentation and Interiority
The 1960s marked a shift towards experimentalism. The narrative focus turned inwards, exploring the interiority of characters and narrators. This period also saw a flourishing of literature in exile, with writers like Francisco Ayala contributing significantly.
By 1975, signs of weariness with social realism emerged, leading authors to explore new narrative forms. These included:
- Loss of plot importance
- Use of second person and perspectivism
- Rupture of linear time
- Use of inner monologue
- Rich language
- Emphasis on the visual
Tiempo de silencio by Luis Martín-Santos marked a milestone in the contemporary Spanish novel, exploring the existential frustration of a researcher whose failure stems from social deprivation, scientific backwardness, and personal weakness. The novel makes extensive use of inner monologue.
Cinco horas con Mario by Miguel Delibes presents a unique narrative structure. Carmen, in a monologue addressed to her deceased husband, Mario, expresses a series of reproaches that reveal her frustrations and thoughts. This individual dispute becomes a reflection of a broader social situation, presenting two contrasting visions of Spain during that time.
Post-1975 Novel
Eduardo Mendoza’s La verdad sobre el caso Savolta marks a new era in Spanish narrative. The novel’s innovative structure, divided into two parts with multiple sequences, explores themes of hatred, violence, class conflict, business corruption, and the concealment and revelation of truth through madness.
While the lack of historical perspective makes it difficult to establish a definitive canon of recent authors and works, some key themes and aesthetics have emerged:
- Reconstruction of the Civil War and Franco’s regime
- Disillusionment with the ideals of a generation
- The failure of reality and exploration of imaginary realms
- Blurring the lines between reality and fiction