Spanish Narrative Evolution: 1960s to Present
Stylistic Linear Narrative
Objectivity/Realism (narrator observer, direct language, dialogues, simple style). Temporary concentration.
Authors
Collective characters: Aldecoa Ignacio, Fernandez Santos, Sanchez Ferlosio, Caballero Bonald.
The Novel of the Year ’60
The publication in 1962 of Tiempo de Silencio (Time of Silence), by Luis Martín-Santos, started a new phase in Spanish narrative. Several factors influenced the development of this new narrative, such as:
- The influence of foreign reformers
- The success of the American novel
- The growing power of publishers, which helped a wider dissemination of published works
- Especially, the influence produced by the novel, Tiempo de Silencio, by Luis Martín-Santos, published in 1962, which proposed separating from political and social literature.
Martín-Santos’s novel brought together many of the characteristics of the experimental or structural novel:
- Characters with identity problems who seek the reasons for their existential angst.
- Criticism of an earlier era to the narrative, which marks the character of the protagonists of the plot.
- Disappearance of plot, difficult structure (chapters are removed and replaced by sequences).
- Use of multiple points of view, told from the perspective of different characters in the play (the counterpoint technique is usual, in which various stories cross, giving the reader a fragmented vision of facts).
- Dialogue is rare, replaced by free indirect style and, above all, by interior monologue.
- Linear rupture of time (constant jumps from past to future; the flashback technique, retreating to an earlier time, is common).
- Space is usually indefinite.
- Renewal of literary language (introducing neologisms, foreign words, cultisms, and colloquialisms, and blending different levels of language).
Other significant authors are: Gonzalo Torrente Ballester, Juan Benet, Juan Marsé, and Luis Goytisolo.
The Novel in the ’70s
In the last years of the dictatorship, some authors cultivated the traditional style novel, but many more continued the experimentalism and intellectuality of the previous decade, paying more attention to form than content. However, in the last years of the 1970s, the tendency was to write novels devoted to telling stories. With democracy also came disappointment; there are many police themes, black literature, intrigue, and science fiction. Some writers of this generation are: Luis Goytisolo, José María Vaz de Soto, José María Guelbenzu, and Eduardo Mendoza.
There is also a line oriented towards traditional forms of narrative, like the novel of intrigue and crime thrillers. On the other hand, we find Umbral, whose works are a mix of fiction, autobiography, journalistic chronicle, and essay. Some works are: Ballad of Hooligans, The Nymphs, Mortal and Pink, etc.
Recent Years (From the 70s)
The Spanish novel is characterized by the coexistence of different trends and styles (experimentalism, intimacy, realism). Most authors who have been released in the 80s are oriented toward more traditional narrative forms. Among the authors, we should point out are Alvaro Pombo (The Hero of the Mansard Roofs, 1983), Alejandro Gándara (The Average Distance, 1984), Eduardo Alonso (Insomnia of a Winter Night, the same year), Javier Marías (All Souls, A Heart So White), Julio Llamazares, José M. Merino, Luis Mateo Díez, Antonio Muñoz Molina (The Polish Rider). And we must be aware of authors such as Soledad Puértolas, José Pedro Aparicio, Carlos Pujol, Rosa Montero, to name authors of the very latest hour like Loriga or Javier Cercas.