Spanish Literature: Machado, Unamuno, and Lorca
Antonio Machado: Life and Poetic Style
Antonio Machado was born into a family of progressive intellectuals and educated at the *Institución Libre de Enseñanza*. He spent his youth working as a translator in Paris, where he attended lectures by the philosopher Henri Bergson at the Sorbonne. True to his Republican ideology, at the end of the Civil War, he was forced into exile in France, where he died.
Machado’s Work and Style
Machado’s poetry, which defended the word as intensely lyrical, eventually cooled to become very austere. It shows no superficial beauty but captures the authenticity of feeling and emotion, as well as the passage of time. His work begins with *Soledades*, a book influenced by Bécquer and Rubén Darío. It is predominantly melancholic in tone and filled with symbols with which the poet expressed his loneliness and his dreams.
Soledades, Galerías, Otros Poemas is a previous book. Some poems develop the themes of remembrance and intimate emotion in the flow of time, which are characteristic of Machado. *Campos de Castilla* proposes that the poet overcome his previous poetic style with a critical reflection on Spain. In these verses, the landscape symbolizes Castilla. The poems are inspired by the death of his wife, showing a negative view of the countryside.
Miguel de Unamuno: Philosopher and Writer
Miguel de Unamuno was the most prestigious and influential writer of his generation. In his youth, he defended socialist ideas, which he abandoned after a religious crisis and a period of grappling with existential spiritual problems. A professor and rector of the University of Salamanca for many years, he never failed to intervene in the politics and social life of the country. At the end of his life, after showing some initial ambiguity, he opposed the military uprising of 1936.
Unamuno’s Work and Style
Unamuno cultivated all literary genres, which he transformed with his taste for doubt, contradiction, and paradox. His vehement style, unadorned and dense with ideas, is best expressed in his essays. His most profound work expresses the idea of incompatibility between reason and faith.
His novels, which he called *nivolas*, are the opposite of realist styles and techniques. They are exempt from dramatic realism and descriptions. They reflect on the essential realities of the individual. The most noteworthy are *Love and Pedagogy*; *Niebla* (whose main character is revealed to the author); *Abel Sánchez* (which shows the drama of jealousy and Cainism); and *San Manuel Bueno, Mártir* (whose protagonist is a priest who pretends to have faith to comfort his parishioners with the idea of the immortality of the soul).
Federico García Lorca: Poet and Playwright
Federico García Lorca was characterized by his charm and vitality. He studied music and, at the *Residencia de Estudiantes*, befriended Salvador Dalí, Luis Buñuel, and the poets of his generation. He founded the university theater *La Barraca* at the behest of the Republican government. Shortly after the start of the Civil War, he was assassinated by Francoist forces.
Lorca’s Poetry and Plays
Lorca’s poetry is exuberant in its imagery and authentic in its human themes, often inspired by the lives of marginalized people. His first book of poems is influenced by Bécquer and modernist poets. In a neopopularist vein, he wrote songs inspired by avant-garde language but with childlike and tragic themes.
Lorca spent time in New York during the 1929-1930 academic year, coinciding with the American stock market crash and its social consequences. *Poet in New York* expresses the protest and anxiety that he experienced in that city, described with a surrealist language. Irrational and terrible images underscored the view of the absurdity and pain of a society in crisis.
Lorca’s plays have a strong poetic quality, both in their language and in their original metaphors. They symbolize the imagination of their development, and their dramatic plasticity increases their social character. He reinterprets classic myths through figures condemned to solitude.