Spanish Literature: Generation of ’27, ’98, Modernism & Avant-garde

Posted on Oct 12, 2024 in Latin

Generation of ’27

Features:

  • Aesthetic renovation of poetry, incorporating avant-garde innovations and Spanish influences.
  • Renewal of poetic language through religious vocabulary, colloquialisms, etc.
  • Use of metaphors to express surreal content.
  • Variety of metric forms, including sonnets, romances, carols, blank verse, and free verse.
  • Evolution of themes from a focus on the poem itself to a humanized poetry influenced by Surrealism.

Key Authors:

Pedro Salinas (1891-1951):
  • Poetry as a way to access the essence of things.
  • Themes: love (of people and things), search for essential realities of existence.
  • Afan absolute: understanding and knowledge, integration between self and world.
  • Characterized by the expression of feelings and lexical selection.
Jorge Guillén (1893-1984):
  • Themes: joyous affirmation of being, love, time, chance, chaos.
  • Rigorous selection process in poetry to communicate the underlying idea or sentiment.
Gerardo Diego (1896-1987):
  • Formal and thematic variety.
  • Themes: love, landscape, bullfighting, religion, music.
  • Poetry Relative: based on reality.
  • Poetry Absolute: self-sustained.
Rafael Alberti (1902-1999):
  • Poetry as a form of communication for life experiences.
  • Themes: nostalgia for paradise lost, anguish, social concern.
  • Constants: visual imagery and musicality.
Luis Cernuda (1902-1963):
  • Symbolic representation of his own biography in poetry.
  • Main theme: opposition between reality and desire.
  • Other constants: love, time, nature.
Vicente Aleixandre (1898-1984):
  • Total dedication to poetry.
  • Themes: love, erotic and vital impulse, destructive force of nature.
  • Use of hendecasyllables interspersed with short and long poems.
Federico García Lorca (1898-1936):
  • Overwhelming personality and extraordinary creativity.
  • Predominance of tragic tone and the presence of death.
  • Use of metaphors and images to create highly original works.
  • Themes: Andalusian folklore, gypsy ballads, flamenco song, surrealism (Poet in New York).
Miguel Hernández (1910-1942):
  • Passionate poetry full of ardor and vehemence.
  • Notable works: The ray that does not stop, Wind of the people, Elegy and Ramon Sijé Ballad Songbook and absences.

Avant-garde

Features:

  • Inherited a taste for the exceptional and strange symbolism.
  • Early 20th-century artistic movements revolting against art based on imitation of reality.
  • Shared features: anti-realism, autonomy of art, irrationality, desire for originality, aesthetic experimentation.

European Avant-Gardes (Isms):

Futurism:
  • Emerged in Italy (Marinetti).
  • Proclaimed antiromanticism and extolled mechanical and urban civilization and new technologies.
  • Introduced new literary topics.
  • Advocated for a total renovation of poetic language.
Cubism:
  • Decomposition of reality into geometric shapes.
  • New way of looking at the world through the juxtaposition of planes.
Surrealism:
  • Originated from Dadaism.
  • Aimed to explore the unconscious mind and express its mysterious workings.
  • Employed techniques like automatic writing to communicate the vision of the surreal world.

Avant-garde in Spain:

  • Futurism, Creationism, Surrealism.
Ramón Gómez de la Serna:
  • Known for”greguería”: short texts offering surprising and illogical associations of everyday objects or circumstances.
Ultraism:
  • Rejection of poetry imitating reality.
  • Breaking logical discourse and emphasizing perception and metaphor.
Creationism:
  • Proposed the removal of storytelling and emotions from poetry.
  • Recovered symbolism with the intention of creating the poem’s own reality to move the reader.

Modernism and Generation of ’98

In the late 19th century, Modernism and the Generation of ’98 emerged. Writers expressed concerns about Spain’s future and explored themes of love, time, and death.

Modernism:

  • Originated in Latin America with Rubén Darío, who created a new poetic language.
  • Features:
    • Aestheticism: art for art’s sake, rejecting romantic sentimentality and focusing on a beautiful, imagined world.
    • Exoticism: seeking exotic and distant worlds to represent human nature, beauty, and sensuality.
  • Preference for poetry, but also notable prose works like Valle-Inclán’s sonatas.

Generation of ’98:

  • Named after the year Spain lost its last colonies.
  • Proposed the regeneration of the country.
  • Features: Castilian focus, subjectivism, longing for beauty.
Key Authors:
Antonio Machado (1875-1939):
  • Poetry of intense emotion and insight.
  • Defined poetry as a dialogue between a man and his time.
  • Main themes: time, sleep, love.
  • Expressed anguish over the passing of time, nostalgia, and the nature of sleep.
  • Notable works: Solitudes (reflection on life and time), Campos de Castilla (faith in Spain’s renewal), Juan de Mairena (philosophical aphorisms).
Juan Ramón Jiménez (1881-1958):
  • Early work influenced by Aestheticism, Decadence, Symbolism, and Modernism.
  • Three poetic stages:
    • Sensitive Stage: modernist poetry with romantic influences (Arias Tristes, Platero and I).
    • Intellectual Stage: pure poetry (Notes on a Recently Married Poet).
    • True Stage: poems exploring the image of God representing the world’s perfection and harmony.