Romanticism in Spanish Literature: Espronceda, Rosalia, and Becquer
Romanticism in Spanish Literature
Romanticism had its origins in Germany in the “Sturm und Drang” movement and was introduced into Spain by José Cadalso with his work *Noches lúgubres* (*Mournful Nights*). This writer championed imagination, emotions, and lofty rhetoric in literary creation. Romanticism is a vital attitude that seeks freedom, but perceives that reality continually puts limits on one’s desires. It stems from a vital pessimism (tedium vitae): they feel stranded.
Romantic Poetry
In general, Romantic poetry is characterized by the assertion of feeling, by subjectivism, and by a fusion of the poet with reality, which provides both formal experimentation. We can consider “La canción del pirata” (“The Pirate’s Song”) by José de Espronceda as the lyrical manifesto of Romanticism for its exalted defense of freedom, the nature of the character, and the boldness of the images and rhythms.
José de Espronceda
The life of this artist was marked by political events. His liberal ideology ultimately led to his election to the Cortes Generales (Spanish Parliament) by the Progressive Party. His love life was hectic, maintaining a romantic relationship with Teresa Mancha. His break with her led to a new interpretation of love, which flowed into sexual excess, disappointment, and death. “Canto a Teresa” (“Song to Teresa”) is a model of romantic elegy.
“El estudiante de Salamanca” (“The Student of Salamanca”) is a kind of scary story in verse. Spanish literature incorporates the resources of the English Gothic novel. It presents the world as the physical embodiment of evil spirits. The diabolical character D. Félix de Montemar, a second Don Juan and a second Satan, makes a descent into hell like Dante because he has no fear of eternal damnation. The poet’s use of verse is amazing: long verses for the more thoughtful moments and very brief ones when he wants to hasten the pace of the narrative.
Rosalía de Castro
Espronceda was influential in the first book of poetry by Rosalía de Castro, *La flor* (*The Flower*). This woman’s ideology was marked by democracy, progressivism, and her strong Galician convictions. Her pessimism is the metaphysical pessimism that comes from understanding the essential failure of human beings. In her poetry in Castilian, *En las orillas del Sar* (*On the Banks of the Sar*), she transcends particularism to universalism: she expresses the sorrows of her country but also the most harrowing and wonderful experiences of being human.
Her key themes include:
- “Shadows” are the presences of those who have died.
- Complex and contradictory religion.
- Death and suicide as the end of suffering.
- “The sad” or predestined to pain, called the Polycrates Complex.
- The scarcity of love.
- “Others” as a source of misunderstanding.
- Nature, identified as beautiful and miserable, is linked to Galicia by emigration.
- “Saudade,” which Rosalía sees as an ontological experience of loneliness.
Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer was born into a family of artists and acquired a pictorial and musical training evident in the wealth of images and plastic rhythms of his literature. The poetic ideal of Bécquer’s generation was to develop an intimate lyricism, authentic emotions, expressed with sincerity of tone, simplicity of form, and ease of style: it eludes description, intensifies emotion, shuns elaborate metaphors, and embraces assonant rhyme.
*Rimas* (*Rhymes*)
*Rimas* can be explained through two stylistic trends:
- Revaluation of popular poetry.
- Aesthetic sense: poetry, like God’s creation, is a work of love.
Both the external world and the poet’s inner world are a mess until the feeling of love brings order. The man in love seeks the secret of nature, but it is ephemeral and leads to disappointment and death. The fundamental issue is the failure of love and the impossibility of poetry.
*Leyendas* (*Legends*)
*Leyendas* were born out of an interest in popular literature and are authentic poetry in prose. They conceive of fantasy as a cognitive tool deeper than reason. Light plays a symbolic role: light and shadow are examples of the dramatic struggle between tradition and progress, love and oblivion, life and death. The transmission of images, smells, and tastes make Bécquer a precursor of modernism.