Spanish Literary Movements: Generations of ’98 & ’27
Generation of ’98
A group of writers who emerged due to two circumstances: the current political, economic, and moral state of Spain, and the depletion of narrative forms of the realistic movement. They favored prose, the novel, and the essay, with a greater concern for the political and social life of the time.
Themes:
- Concern for Spain, focusing on the Spanish soul in three ways:
- The landscape, reflecting the austerity of its inhabitants.
- History, rescuing the past from the common man’s perspective (Unamuno’s ‘intrahistory’).
- Literature, exploring the essence of Spanish character in medieval and classic works.
- Existential concerns: the meaning of life, religion, and doubts.
Key Authors:
Miguel de Unamuno: Known for ‘nivolas,’ novels exploring the spiritual and psychological complexities of protagonists (e.g., Fog and San Manuel Bueno, Martyr).
Pio Baroja: Divided his novels into two groups: philosophical novels (e.g., The Tree of Science) and action novels (e.g., Zalacain the Adventurer and Shanti Andia). Notable for his fast-paced prose, avoiding rhetoric.
Ramon Maria del Valle-Inclan: A unique and original writer, both a novelist and playwright.
Generation of ’27
This generation was influenced by the avant-garde or ‘isms,’ artistic movements in Europe between the two World Wars. These movements aimed to break with traditional culture and propose new, modern, and original art and literature.
Main Movements:
- Cubism
- Futurism
- Dadaism
- Expressionism
- Surrealism
The Avant-Garde in Spain:
Ramon Gomez de la Serna was a key figure. In Spain, two main movements emerged: Creationism, emphasizing absolute freedom in artistic creation, and Ultraism, incorporating futuristic themes in poems about modern technology.
Analysis of Sentences: Juxtaposed and Coordinated
To analyze a complex sentence, follow these steps:
- Locate the various verbal forms.
- Identify subjects and predicates.
- Analyze the elements of each clause.
- Observe the syntactic relationship between clauses (independent or dependent).
- For independent clauses, check for the presence or absence of links.
- For compound sentences by coordination, verify the nature of the coordinating conjunction.
The Substantive Subject
Subordinate substantive clauses function as nouns in complex sentences.
Connectors for Subordinate Clauses:
- Conjunctions: that and if.
- Interrogative pronouns (what, who, which) or adverbs (how, when, where).
- Infinitive verbs with complements.
Functions of Subordinate Clauses:
Subordinate substantive clauses can function as a noun: subject, attribute, direct object, complement, complement of a noun, adjective, or adverb.