Spanish Literature: Generation of ’27, 1940s Novels, and García Márquez
Generation of ’27: Key Stages and Authors
Stages of the Generation of ’27:
- 1st Stage (up to 1929): Coincided with the splendor of the avant-garde movements.
- 2nd Stage (1929-1936): Authors like Lorca experienced profound personal crises within Surrealism, finding ways to express their conflicts. New songs produced a rehumanization of poetry, coinciding with a complex political situation.
- 3rd Stage (from 1939): The Generation of ’27 was dramatically dispersed.
Federico García Lorca: Themes and Poetic Journey
Themes and Style: Lorca’s poetic world is tragic and violent. His themes include love, historical and existential frustration, disability, and death. His poems, metrics, and resources draw heavily from folk poetry, while at other times, he favors classical forms like the sonnet and free verse.
Poetic Works:
- Book of Poems
- Songs
- Gypsy Ballads
- Poet in New York
- Lament for Ignacio Sánchez Mejías
Gypsy Ballads: This work reflects a world centered on Andalusian Gypsies. The poems depict oppositions between the Gypsy and the Civil Guard, and between erotic fulfillment and love that leads to tragic death.
Poet in New York: Written after his time as a student at Columbia University, this book portrays the American city. The reality of the city produces a climate of anguish. Loneliness and suffering are constants. Close to the city, the poetic voice expresses pain.
Luis Cernuda: Themes and Stages
Main Theme: The constant opposition between reality and desire.
Other themes: Love, loneliness, time, and nature.
Stages:
- 1st Stage: The author collected all his poetry in a single book, Reality and Desire. Three distinct periods can be identified:
- Initial phase: A search for style (Profile of Air, Eclogue, Elegy, Ode).
- Surrealist avant-garde influence phase: Forbidden Pleasures.
- Consolidation phase: Combines various influences, acquiring its own mark (Where Oblivion Dwells, Reality and Desire).
- 2nd Stage: The works of this stage reiterate the aforementioned themes.
Spanish Novel of the 1940s
1. Nationalist Novel: Reflected the Falangist ideology, claiming values considered principal: war-mongering, family, and religion. These novels present a Manichean world divided into winners and losers. Examples include:
- Rafael García Serrano, *The Faithful Infantry*
- Gonzalo Torrente Ballester, *Javier Mariño*
2. Fantastic and Humorous Novel:
- Wenceslao Fernández Flórez, *The Living Forest*
3. Traditional Realism: The underlying theme is the life of the bourgeoisie, their values, and behaviors.
- Juan Antonio de Zunzunegui, *The Ship of Death*
- Ignacio Agustí, *Mariona Rebull* (Corrected title)
4. Camilo José Cela:
- The Family of Pascual Duarte
- Rest Home
- The Hive
The Family of Pascual Duarte: A sobering literary publication in a triumphalist atmosphere. The author uses narrative in the tradition of 19th-century realism and picaresque prose. It highlights the rawness of language, close to naturalism, and expertise in character description (ethopoeia).
5. Nada, Carmen Laforet: This novel initiates another form of stark realism based on the war.
6. The Novel of Exile:
- Ramón J. Sender, *The King and the Queen, Requiem for a Spanish Peasant*
- Max Aub, *Good Intentions, The Labyrinth of Magic: The Closed Field, Field of Blood, Field of the Moor* (Corrected title)
- Rosa Chacel, *Memoirs of Leticia Valle*
- Francisco Ayala, *Muertes de Perro, El Fondo del Vaso* (Corrected titles)
Gabriel García Márquez: *One Hundred Years of Solitude*
This novel tells the story of three generations of the Buendía family. José Arcadio Buendía and Úrsula Iguarán’s marriage is marked by transgression, as they are cousins. Myth says their children may be born with a pig’s tail. José has three children and founds the town of Macondo. The play alludes to manuscripts by the Gypsy Melquíades, who wrote the story a hundred years before. The prophecy states that the last Aureliano, who decrypts the manuscripts, will understand them after incest with his aunt Amaranta, and a child will be born with a pig’s tail.