Romantic Literature: Poetry, Novels, and Theater
Romantic Literature
Poetry
Romantic Poetry
Freedom manifested itself in verse, retrieving traditional metric forms and creating innovative mixes. Symbolic and connotative language shaped modern poetry. Two types can be distinguished:
- Narrative Poetry: Historical-legendary themes are discussed (e.g., The Student of Salamanca). Short narrative poems or ballads, often romantic or historical, predominate.
- Lyric Poetry: Impregnated with subjectivism and emotionalism. Intimate matters and grand themes prevail. Nature and its elements are animated and take on symbolic significance.
Lyrical-Romantic poetry features exalted rhetoric (Espronceda), reflecting a rebellious, fighting, and disenchanted spirit.
Postromantic lyric poetry became more intimate and essential, with a more natural and simple style (Becquer and Rosalia de Castro).
Gustavo Adolfo Becquer
Becquer is the most influential poet of the nineteenth century, thanks to his Rhymes, which express human concerns. These short poems (hendecasyllables and seven syllables) use broken meter and simple, natural language.
His prose Legends have romantic features (fantasy, mystery, night, etc.).
Rosalia de Castro
Rosalia de Castro shares this simplicity in On the Shores of Sar, with an intimate and sorrowful tone, exploring essential life concerns and her homeland. Her intimate tone does not neglect social commentary.
The Novel
The novel boomed due to the rise of the bourgeoisie. The historical novel (full of historical and legendary elements) set in the Middle Ages was preferred. The narrative is presented from a traditional stance. The social novel emerges.
Costumbrismo (Genre Scenes)
Costumbrismo consists of satirical narratives reflecting everyday life and traditional customs. These genre scenes form the novel of manners and anticipate the realistic novel.
Mariano José de Larra
Larra represents critical costumbrismo. He published some two hundred articles, grouped into political articles (against absolutism, Carlism, etc.), literary articles (on the literature of his time), and articles of customs, where he satirizes the defects of Spanish society and everything hindering progress, with an ironic and sarcastic tone. Larra wrote to change society.
Journalism experienced great development, with many novels published serially, making the novel a kind of mass media.
Theater
Romantic Drama
Romantic drama is the quintessential dramatic subgenre. Characterized by historical settings, it depicts themes like human passions and the conflicts of the romantic self. Creative freedom prevails, featuring the romantic hero. Scenery recreates exotic settings, intending to move the audience. The romantic conflict takes center stage.
Popular Theater
Baroque influence survived well into the century. Magic, saints, and heroic figures proliferated in comedies. These works feature many characters and are replete with special effects. Farce, a short piece performed during intermissions of comedies, was widely accepted and reflected popular language. Its main purpose was to entertain.
Neoclassical Theater
The debate continued between the enlightened and the defenders of popular theater. The enlightened criticized the poor preparation of actors and themes seeking only easy success, rejecting Baroque theater in both content and form. They sought to promote rule-based theater (subject to the three unities, separation of the tragic and the comic, avoidance of verbal outbursts, etc.).
Neoclassical Tragedy
Based on Italian and French models, it aimed to regenerate Spain. Its main theme is the struggle for freedom, developing strong characters. An example is The Rachel, which has a historical theme, respects neoclassical rules, and features situations with strong language. The author appears opposed to despotism.
Neoclassical Comedy
The Enlightenment created a new comedy where characters and audience belong to the middle class. Its features include presenting domestic social conflicts, emphasizing logic, having a simple plot, and providing an example of civility.
Sentimental Comedy
These are works of prose or verse with dramatic scenes. Their characters fail to achieve happiness due to social obstacles. Some critics consider it a manifestation of pre-Romanticism.
Trends and Milestones within Romanticism
Two different trends existed: fervent liberals who believed the bourgeoisie had frustrated the enlightened ideas of a new world, and traditionalist romantics who rejected the bourgeois world as revolutionary. The following stages are distinguished: pre-Romanticism, the heyday of Romanticism, and the persistence of Romanticism.
Concept and Characteristics of Romanticism
Romanticism is an ideological movement in literature and art, and also an attitude towards life. It emphasizes freedom, individualism, and the power of the ego. The irrational spirit breaks the limits of the rational. The conflict with the world creates the romantic rebel, and the romantic hero succumbs in the struggle against fate. These struggles lead to action to change the world and escape to a better life. Freedom and nature dictate art; freedom breaks the rules. Rules were rejected (mixing prose and verse, serious and grotesque, etc.), originality was sought, and romantic expression was excessive, sometimes with overly rhetorical treatment. Nature adapts to mood, as night prevails and leads to the supernatural and the macabre. Romantics sought identity and difference.