Romanticism and Realism in 19th Century Spanish Literature
Romanticism
Overview
Romanticism, a prominent cultural movement in 19th-century Europe, encompassed literature and art. The Industrial Revolution and burgeoning commerce propelled the bourgeoisie to social dominance. This era witnessed the rise of liberalism, advocating economic and political freedom, and idealism, emphasizing the dominance of spirit and ideas. Romantics sought unattainable ideals, particularly in love, reflecting an idealistic yearning for the infinite.
Main Features
- Imagination and Feeling:
- Individualism and Subjectivism: The individual’s personality and aspirations took center stage, often clashing with reality, leading to dissatisfaction, protest, and isolation.
- Freedom: Opposition to neoclassical rules in literature highlighted the value of imagination and individual genius.
- Nationalism: A renewed appreciation for national customs, culture, language, and folk traditions emerged.
Major Topics
- Feelings: Authors explored personal feelings and intimacy, often expressing dissatisfaction with the world through themes of sadness, loneliness, and idealized love.
- Rebellion and Evasion: The clash between ideals and reality manifested as rebellion against the established order or escape into exotic worlds.
- Nature and Landscape: Landscape descriptions mirrored the author’s moods, often featuring melancholic scenes reflecting their inner turmoil.
Key Figures and Works
- Larra: Known for his critical personality, reformist attitude, and ironic observations of reality.
- Romanticism in Spain: A late and short-lived movement, peaking with the premiere of Don Álvaro. Notable exceptions include Bécquer and Rosalía de Castro.
Postromantic Poets
Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
Bécquer, along with Rosalía de Castro, represents the intimate and sentimental current of Spanish Romanticism. His simple yet emotionally rich poetry contrasted with the earlier Romantic style. His Rhymes, short compositions with assonance rhyme and wide meter, explored themes of poetry, love, disappointment, loneliness, and despair.
Rosalía de Castro
Marked by her illegitimate birth, Galician heritage, and marriage to Manuel Murguía, Rosalía de Castro’s life influenced her introspective writing. Her works, including Galician Songs and Follas Novas, showcased her sentimental style and explored themes of realism and Galician identity. She later transitioned to writing in Castilian, with On the Banks of Sar further solidifying her Romantic style.
Romantic Prose
Genres
- Pictures of Manners: Short stories depicting folk customs and human types.
- Historical Novel:
- Newspaper Article:
- Legend:
Romantic Drama
Romantic drama, alongside lyric poetry, epitomized Romanticism. Rejecting neoclassical rules, it blended tragedy and comedy, employed prose and verse, and explored legendary, historical, and romantic themes. It aimed to evoke strong emotions in the viewer, showcasing characters driven by freedom, rebellion, and impossible love.
Realism
Overview
Realism emerged around 1850, aiming to accurately reflect contemporary realities through observation and description. The bourgeoisie’s dominance and the rise of positivism shaped the literary landscape. The novel became a critical genre, portraying social and psychological conflicts within a rapidly changing society.
Key Characteristics
- Social Commentary:
- Psychological Depth:
- Objectivity:
- Linear Narrative:
- Dialogue:
Naturalism
is a special form of realism that emerged in France in the last decades of s. 19. Its creator was the novelist Émile Zola.
Bases that took: – biological and social determinism ? The man is not free, although it may seem. Human behavior is the result of physiological and social constraints.- Experimental method ? The novelist, as did the naturalist or scientist in their research, experiment with their characters. This puts them in situations that allow to see their behavior and their reactions to verify the influence of heredity and social circumstances. – Materialism ? The spiritual part of man and his psychic reactions have an organic explanation and material. What explains the physiological psychology. All this results in a novel with the following features: ? Affairs and characters with human misery. Thus the novel incorporates the social sectors more depressed and marginalized, the realism was just busy. ? Documentation thorough and rigorous observation of reality as a working method. The novel Aspitos well to have a documentary and sociological value. Facet realist writers (novelists who collect what they’re writing is the worst). They bring it all to end CLARÍN Leopoldo Alas was born in Zamora in 1852. In 1859 the whole family moved to Oviedo, and since then his life was always linked to this city. He studied law and from a young age and began working in newspapers and magazine under the pseudonym Clarín. Since 1883 he was professor (professor) of law at the University of Oviedo, a profession he alternated with intense literary activity until his death in Oviedo in 1901. It was a Republican, defender of freedom of thought and conscience and an enemy of fanaticism and reactionary traditionalism. He was a moralist writer, crusader for justice and truth. Genres: literary criticism, short story and novel. Work narrative: in addition to several books of short stories and novels, wrote two novels: The judge’s wifeand His only son. They adopted the principles of realism, with some influences naturalists. THE REGENT (1884) did not have much success at the time, today is considered one of the best novels of Spanish literature. It is a slow acting work, which has a special interest the description of the social environment and psychology of the characters. The theme of the novel is not only the drama of the protagonist’s dissatisfaction, but moral and social portrait of a provincial town and boring and, by extension, the Spain of the Restoration era. The novel takes place in Vetusta (Oviedo today) and the heroine is Ana Ozores (prototype sensitive, dreamy woman who lives in a hostile world and mediocre). Anna succumbs to the ambient pressure and in what is clearly a natural feature, the oppressive social atmosphere eventually suffocate Vetusta their sensitive nature. For this reason it has been considered the model of the Spanish novel “romance of disillusionment.” NOVEL IN THE 50s The mainstream in this decade is that of social realism. Features: “The novel is conceived as direct testimony the historical moment and as an instrument of social criticism and politics. “The novelist’s function is to record events with total objectivity and external behaviors of people or groups, are comments and personal reviews (objectivism = disappearance of the author).” Preference for simple structure and linear narrative, the chronological order of events. “The action usually takes place in a short space of time.” The fundamental importance of dialogue, only way to express inside the characters. “Protagonist representative of a class or social group.”Simple language, accessible to the public.” As to the themes, are intended to reflect the Spanish society of the period, with an implicit purpose of denouncing social injustices. Main authors: – Camilo Jose Cela ? released in 1951 The Beehive. – Miguel Delibes ? El Camino (1950). – Rafael Sanchez Ferlosio ? El Jarama (1956). – Carmen Martin Gaite ? His novel Between curtains (1958) is a critical portrait of middle-class life in a city of provinces. [between curtains = life hidden (spy on the lives of others).] NOVEL FROM 1939 The 3 years of civil war left behind a trail of pain, hate, death and destruction. The 40’s are tough times, fear and deprivation. The cultural climate of poor marks this time, a logical consequence of civil strife, was exacerbated by isolation, this brought a cultural isolation, so that the country was outside the major cultural currents of the western world. In the literary field, the civil war was a sharp cutoff and radical. This was aided by some grievous events like the murder of Garcia Lorca (entity other authors). Another fact that influenced on the literary activity was the imposition of severecensorship, which precluded the free establishment. This situation began to change in the ’50s, thanks to a slight opening to the outside. The change was much greater in the 60. Social transformations and Police will accelerate with the death of Franco in 1975. The Novel in the 40 predominant existential novel. Main features:-Issues relating to poverty and squalor of everyday life, frustration and personal anguish , social adjustment, loneliness and death. “Plenty of characters uprooted, confused or marginalized.” Using the narrative techniques of the traditional realist novel. Autores most significant: ? Camilo Jose Cela: Production fiction is often described sometimes novel “alarmist” by the great harshness and violence of the environments, situations and characters in it are reflected. His first novel was The Family of Pascual Duarte (1942), which was quite an event in the literary scene off of those times. All his work is characterized by bitter and pessimistic vision of the world and life, grotesque distortion of reality, humor torn, constant renewal of the narrative techniques and expertise in the domain of language. ? Carmen Laforet : became known for his novel nothing (1921). ? Miguel Delibes.