Spanish Literary Movements: Novecento and Avant-Garde
Novecento: The Generation of 1914
Novecento opposed everything from the previous century. Key figures include Ortega y Gasset, Azaña, Marañón, and Pérez de Ayala. Also known as the Generation of 1914, coinciding with World War I. Artists were professionals (philosophers, scientists, linguists). Key features:
- Rationalism: Objective analysis and clarity, rejecting Modernist irrationalism.
- Anti-romanticism: Preference for the classic over the sentimental.
- Pure Art: Art for aesthetic pleasure, not personal or religious expression.
- Intellectual Style: Refined style, rejecting vulgarity, influencing Spanish reality and politics.
Novecentists were reformists and republicans, embracing European avant-garde movements, making it difficult to separate their ideals.
European Avant-Garde and its Spanish Impact
Avant-garde aimed for experimental art, rejecting tradition and romantic sentimentality. Provocative and aggressive towards the bourgeoisie. Key movements:
- Expressionism: Reveals inner reality through exaggerated traits and grotesque caricatures.
- Futurism: Exalts action, violence, and nationalism, influenced by Nietzsche.
- Cubism: Overlapping planes, multiple perspectives, and arbitrary element assembly.
- Dadaism: Random words, absurdity, illogical exaltation, and primitivism.
- Surrealism: Abstraction and enigmatic effects, the most significant avant-garde movement.
Avant-Garde Literature in Spain
Avant-garde echoes reached Spain slowly, with Ramón Gómez de la Serna as a key propagator. Vicente Huidobro introduced Creationism, influencing poets like Gerardo Diego and Juan Larrea.
Ultraism
Ultraism combined various avant-garde elements, seeking new forms beyond Modernism. It used literary magazines as a platform, featuring established poets like Juan Ramón Jiménez and Antonio Machado, and younger talents like Federico García Lorca and Rafael Alberti.
Ultraism emphasized formal experimentation, thematic hostility to tradition, and a fresh perception of the world. Poetry was seen as creating a new reality, with beauty found in technical mastery. It rejected traditional meters and stanzas for free verse, eliminated adjectives, and embraced fragmentation (Cubism). Metaphors broke logical connections, relying on intuition.
Ultraism had a short lifespan but acclimatized Spanish avant-garde ideas. Notable figures include Jorge Luis Borges and Guillermo de Torre.