Spanish Literature: Generation of ’14 and Generation of ’27
The Generation of ’14 or Noventiscismo
Movement led by José Ortega y Gasset, with a European vision of reality, reflecting on Spain from a less dramatic perspective than the Generation of ’98. Avant-garde art was conceived as a game of chance, guided only by originality and creative freedom. Ramón Gómez de la Serna and the Chilean Vicente Huidobro introduced it to Spain, initiating Creationism, a movement that conceived of poetry as creation rather than an absolute representation of reality.
The Generation of ’27
This group of poets was supported by authors such as Juan Ramón Jiménez and Ortega y Gasset, and influenced by Creationism and Surrealism.
Poets: Federico García Lorca, Rafael Alberti, Pedro Salinas, Jorge Guillén, Luis Cernuda, Vicente Aleixandre, Manuel Altoaguirre, Emilio Prados, Gerardo Diego, and Dámaso Alonso. Essayist María Zambrano and novelists Francisco Ayala and Rosa Chacel were also associated.
The Generation of ’27 shares a common feature: seeking balance between tradition and originality, and between popular and high culture, while attaching great importance to creative freedom.
Trend of the Generation of ’27
Neopopularismo
This trend emphasizes the metric, attractiveness, and style of popular poetry from oral tradition. Works include: Marinero en tierra by Rafael Alberti, and The Gypsy Ballads by García Lorca. Octosyllabic verse, rhyme, assonance, and parallelism are prominent.
Avant-Garde
- Initially influenced by Creationism, then Surrealism.
Highlights of Creationism include Gerardo Diego’s Handbook with foam, and within Surrealism, Federico García Lorca’s Poet in New York. The breakdown of syntax, removal of punctuation marks, and use of striking imagery are characteristic of these works.
Pure Poetry
This trend was inaugurated by Jorge Guillén with Cántico, a book that follows in the footsteps of Juan Ramón Jiménez, seeking to express the fullness of being.
Developments in the Generation of ’27
Stages of Initiation
This period includes poets who published their first books, such as Gerardo Diego with his Creationist works, and Rafael Alberti with Marinero en tierra.
Stage of Maturity
This is considered the golden age of the group. In 1928, two important books were published: Jorge Guillén’s Cántico and García Lorca’s Gypsy Ballads. Within the avant-garde trend, Creationism was replaced by Surrealism in books like Vicente Aleixandre’s The Passion of the Land. Towards the end of this stage, a greater social commitment emerged.
Stage of Disintegration
This began in 1936 when the Civil War scattered the group. Lorca was killed in Granada, and Alberti, Cernuda, Guillén, Altoaguirre, and Prados went into exile. The experience of war and exile influenced their works, leading to a shift away from the avant-garde towards poetry concerned with the great problems of human existence:
- Guillén – Clamor – expresses the horror of war.
- Alberti – The Carnation and the Sword, Return of the Living Far – reflects nostalgia for the homeland and lost youth.
- Aleixandre – History of the Heart – joined the post-war social poetry movement.
Themes
Amoroso (Love)
Highlights the passionate vision in which pleasure and pain mingle, as seen in poets like Vicente Aleixandre and Luis Cernuda. Pedro Salinas conceived of love as an art that requires imagination and a daily effort that transforms the lovers.
Fullness
Jorge Guillén captures this in Cántico, expressing the surprise produced by the harmony of nature. Conversely, Cernuda expresses the theme of loneliness and rootlessness (Desolation of the Chimera).
Death
This theme is not accepted with resignation by any of the poets of ’27. In Lorca’s earliest poems, it appears as a foreshadowing of his own destiny.