Spanish Literature: From 19th Century to the Generation of ’27
Spanish Historical Context
The nineteenth century in Spain ended with the so-called Disaster of ’98. Spain lost its last overseas colonies—Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines—as a result of the military defeat suffered against the U.S. fleet. These events took place at a time when the country was experiencing strong social tensions due to the poor living conditions of the proletariat. The scientific and technological backwardness, coupled with the unstable social situation, worried the intellectuals of the time, who raised measures to modernize and rebuild the country. This reforming zeal was reflected in most of the authors of the Generation of ’98. Politically, the twentieth century began with the coming of age of Alfonso XII (1902). The monarch, in 1923, supported the coup of Primo de Rivera, who imposed a dictatorship that lasted until 1930.
Modernism
In the late nineteenth century, an art movement known as Modernism triumphed. Modernism has its origin in Latin America, and José Martí and Rubén Darío are the authors who spread it. The publication in 1888 of Azul…, by Rubén Darío, has always been considered the start of Modernism, as this work clearly shows the characteristic features of the movement.
The main features are:
- Aesthetic Literature: It looks for beauty above all. For this reason, poetry gives great importance to rhythm and musicality, which will bring a renewal of metrical forms.
- The authors seek to escape from reality, placing their work in remote settings both in space and in time. So it is usual to talk about the past, luxury rooms, etc., in their texts.
- Themes: They often express feelings like boredom, melancholy, and ennui. This is vital because the authors have sought refuge in the dream worlds of their works.
- The use of symbolic elements, like the swan, which became a symbol of modernist aesthetics.
Generation of ’98
This is the name given to a group of authors born in the late nineteenth century who addressed two fundamental issues in their texts: the decline of Spain and existential angst. The principal authors are Miguel de Unamuno, Pío Baroja, José Martínez Ruiz, and Ramiro de Maeztu.
In the texts of the Generation of ’98, there is a strong influence of the currents of thought at the time.
In their reflections on the national situation, the authors of ’98 often resorted to the description of landscapes. The writers of ’98 pursued a refined literary language and looked for a natural and easy tone in which there was no place for the superfluous.
Avant-garde
Around 1910, the European artistic and literary avant-garde emerged. The avant-garde is a set of movements that reject traditional art forms and advocate experimentation, adopting new themes and new forms of expression. Among those that achieved greater significance in literature are Creationism and Surrealism.
- Creationism: Hispanic Creationism sought to create reality within the work itself, for which it made use of many linguistic games.
- Surrealism: Of French origin, it was intended to express the emotions and thoughts of the subconscious. Among its favorite resources was automatic writing, which resulted in irrational images.
Generation of ’27
In the 1920s, a new group of writers known as the Generation of ’27 emerged. They get this name because they met in 1927 to commemorate the tercentenary of the death of Luis de Góngora.
These authors, with solid intellectual backgrounds, admired the poetry of Juan Ramón Jiménez and the ideas of Ortega y Gasset. However, the poets of ’27 were not content with imitating the model of pure and dehumanized poetry and art, but added new formal and thematic elements, fusing art and tradition in their works.
To this generation belong Federico García Lorca, Rafael Alberti, Luis Cernuda, and Pedro Salinas, among others.