Spanish Literature: 1902 Novels & Pre-War Theatre
Spanish Narrative Styles & 1902 Novels
Direct and Indirect Narrative Styles
Both direct and indirect styles are employed in narrative to reflect the words and thoughts of characters.
- In direct style, the character’s words are transcribed literally.
- In indirect style, the narrator reports what the character says or thinks.
Novels of 1902: A Turning Point
Four novels published in 1902 marked the beginning of the revival of the novel in the first third of the twentieth century. Common features found in these novels include:
- The prevalence of subjectivity and the inner world of characters, overcoming the focus on realism.
- Pessimism and an awareness of the meaninglessness of existence; characters are often characterized by abulia (lack of will), disorientation, deep convictions, and the will to live.
- Concern for the Spanish reality of the time, criticizing the excessive power of the church and the army.
Pío Baroja: Life as Struggle
Pío Baroja wrote over fifty novels. His starting point was the observation of reality, but he abandoned the hope of objectivity. In Baroja’s novels, life is conceived as a continuous struggle that lacks purpose. His most acclaimed novel is El árbol de la ciencia (The Tree of Knowledge). Pío Baroja was born in San Sebastián in 1872, studied medicine, but devoted himself exclusively to literature.
Miguel de Unamuno: Existential Questions
Miguel de Unamuno conceived the novel as a channel for expressing philosophical and existential questions. His novels often explore:
- The desire for immortality, which leads humans to believe in God and eternal life. This is the main theme of the novella starring a priest, San Manuel Bueno, mártir.
- The conception of life as fiction. Augusto Pérez, the protagonist of Niebla (Fog), confronts his own creator, Unamuno, and tries to control a life which is merely a story in the author’s mind.
Miguel de Unamuno was born in 1864 in Bilbao but resided most of his life in Salamanca, where he worked as a professor of Greek at the university.
Spanish Theatre Before 1936
Pre-Civil War Theatre Trends
Before the Spanish Civil War, theatre followed two main lines: a commercial theatre and an innovative theatre (teatro de renovación).
Commercial Theatre Successes
The more conventional works responded to public tastes:
- The bourgeois comedy and rural melodramas of Jacinto Benavente.
- The comic theatre of Carlos Arniches and the brothers Serafín and Joaquín Álvarez Quintero. Benavente gently criticized the hypocrisy of bourgeois society, governed by coexistence and money. Arniches and the Quinteros often depicted the idleness and perceived immorality of the young provincial bourgeoisie.
Valle-Inclán and the Esperpento
Ramón del Valle-Inclán created a new theatrical formulation called the esperpento. The esperpento is a grotesque caricature or deformation of reality, used to highlight the absurd and miserable aspects of existence. Its characteristics include:
- Recreation of violent and degraded environments.
- Animalization and objectification (cosificación) of characters.
The most successful example of the esperpento is Luces de bohemia (Bohemian Lights).
Federico García Lorca: Poetic Drama
Federico García Lorca is the leading playwright of the Generation of ’27. The most characteristic theme in Lorca’s theatre is frustration or dissatisfaction, often manifested as:
- A desire for freedom and erotic fullness, almost always embodied by a female character.
- The reality that opposes the fulfillment of these impulses.
Features of Lorca’s Theatre:
- Use of both verse and prose; some works, like Mariana Pineda, are written entirely in verse.
- Importance of nonverbal cues (music, dance, etc.), stemming from a conception of theatre as a total spectacle.
- Use of intensely poetic language saturated with similes, metaphors, and symbols.