Spanish Generation of ’27: Poets and Playwrights
Generation of ’27
The Generation of ’27 included Pedro Salinas, Jorge Guillén, Gerardo Diego, Federico García Lorca, Vicente Aleixandre, Rafael Alberti, Luis Cernuda, and Dámaso Alonso. The artistic and cultural splendor of this period has led to the denomination of this stage of Spanish culture as the “Silver Age”.
Evolution
The Generation of ’27 went through three phases:
- From 1918 to 1925: A period of training, with strong influence from Juan Ramón Jiménez and Ultraism.
- Between 1926 and 1929: These authors found a more personal voice.
- From 1930: Social and political concerns began, and the influence of Surrealism broke through in their work. After the Spanish Civil War, the group disbanded.
Neopopularism
The influence of traditional Spanish lyric and song determined a popular trend among the poets of the Generation of ’27, known as Neopopularism. Neopopularism is characterized by the use of short compositions of short verse, chorus, and some with great lyrical intensity through repetition, parallelism, and the elimination of superficial elements. The most representative works are:
- Rafael Alberti: Sailor on Land, The Lover, and The Dawn of Alhelí.
- García Lorca: Gypsy Ballads and Poem of the Flamenco Song.
Marinero en tierra (Sailor on Land)
The poems in this book set out the aching nostalgia of the poetic voice for having to leave their homeland to live inland. The lost paradise is represented by the sea of Cádiz, which also symbolizes freedom.
Gypsy Ballads
Lorca released eighteen ballads that make up this book before it was edited in 1928. The protagonists of the poems are members of the Gypsy people, socially marginalized. For the author, they represent the most intimate truth of the Andalusian people. The work is dominated by dissatisfaction, love, and death.
Classical Influences and Pure Poetry
Poets of the ’27 received the influence of Spanish classics: Góngora, Bécquer, and Juan Ramón Jiménez. This influence is seen in the use of forms like hendecasyllable, the tenth, and the royal sonnet. Bécquer’s presence is felt in the love poetry of Salinas’s The Voice Due to You and Reason for Love, and in Cernuda’s Forbidden Pleasures and Where Oblivion Dwells. The pure poetry of Juan Ramón influences Guillén’s Song and Alonso’s Pure Poetry, Poemillas of the City.
Vanguard Poetry
Vanguard movements that influenced the Generation of ’27 were Creationism, Ultraism, and Surrealism. The influence of Ultraism and Surrealism is evident in Gerardo Diego’s work Image and Manual of Foam. As for Surrealism, its greatest influence lies in the use of illogical images in works such as Lorca’s Poet in New York, Cernuda’s Forbidden Pleasures, and Aleixandre’s Destruction or Love.
In the book Forbidden Pleasures, Cernuda explores the limits of love, and desire appears as the highest aspiration. Although love is impossible, only loneliness remains. In the work Destruction or Love by Aleixandre, love is equated with death, the destruction of everything human.
In addition to poetry, members of the Generation of ’27 cultivated prose and the literary essay. In dramatic gender, Alberti (Deserted Men, Night of War in the Prado) and Lorca, director of the company La Barraca, stand out. Lorca was the creator of a new conception of dramatic theater characterized by major poetry.
Lorca’s most important works in the theater include The Butterfly’s Evil Spell, Mariana Pineda, The Shoemaker’s Prodigious Wife, Love of Don Perlimplín with Belisa in the Garden, and The Public.
Characteristics of Lorca’s Dramas
- Themes: Frustration, love, and death.
- Works of intense lyricism expressed through songs and symbolic characters, in which the author mixes verse and prose.
Key Plays
- Blood Wedding: The longing for love faces social standards. The bride runs off with Leonardo, a former love, on the day of her wedding. The boyfriend pursues them until finally there is a confrontation and death of the men.
- Yerma: The theme is the frustration of a woman due to her sterility.
- The House of Bernarda Alba: It raises the issue of family honor and the possible overcoming of social barriers.