Rubén Darío and Pío Baroja: Literary Titans of Their Time
Rubén Darío
Rubén Darío distinguished two types of literature: evasion and rootedness. A cosmopolitan, he declared his love for both America, France, and Spain. His personality was marked by loneliness and a fear of death. Among his activities, he excelled in diplomatic and journalistic roles. He began writing in his adolescence (1878-1881 and 1885). In his youth (1881-1887), he published two works, *Thistles* and *Rhymes*, considered transitional works. The following year, he published *Azul*, a masterpiece composed of prose and verse. This transcendent book represents a renewed attempt at prose. In 1896, he published *Profane Prose*, a work that showcases his stature as a great poet. It reflects his taste for Hispanic roots and French literature, and also shows great sensitivity through decorations, orientalism, musicality, etc. In 1905, he published *Songs of Life and Hope*. This work witnesses a change in style, a reaction against symbolism (fatigue), and a return to tradition and simplicity. It includes patriotic themes, the excitement of the race, and the fear of death. He practiced the hexameter and the sonnet, innovative and influential in postmodernism. He included two songs: “Wandering Song” and “Song to Argentina”.
Pío Baroja
Baroja is accurate in his pessimism and his negative vision of man and society, where only the strong survive. We highlight the following features of his fiction:
- Open Structure: Baroja conceived the novel as a succession of loose scenes or tiles, episodic, quilted by a main character where situations and varied characters accumulate.
- Spaces: They are very different: the Basque country (especially his mother’s home), Castilian villages, the Levant, Paris, and even the African jungle. The descriptions are impressionistic but significant, sometimes with lyrical elevation. The urban environment of Madrid is sometimes shown naturally, but with some skepticism about degraded characters and sordid social situations.
- Contemporary Time in the Third Person: Either close seasons and in the memories of Avinareta, where almost all of the 19th century is covered. The novel is concerned with small events as a cause of great events.
- Mind: The repercussions of reality in consciousness, not objective reality. Characters and narrator perceive men and society from existential pessimism. Baroja often introduced autobiographical experiences.
- Barojian Style: Although called a careless style, it is actually quite the contrary to 19th-century rhetoric. It is very vivid, natural, and dynamic. He narrates with precision, clarity, and speed, with short sentences and rather short paragraphs.
- Protagonists: Usually two types: men of action like the protagonist of *Zalacaín the Adventurer* or *The Adventures, Inventions, and Mystifications of Silvestre Paradox*. They are Nietzschean men of will who can end in failure.
- Trilogies: He tended to group his large production of novels into trilogies. Baroja himself distinguished two stages:
- Up to 1914: The period of his best novels, such as *The Way of Perfection* (1902), *The Quest* (1904), and *The Tree of Knowledge* (1911).
- From 1914: He lost creative energy and became repetitive. Predominantly historical and adventure novels, such as *Memoirs of a Man of Action*.