Spanish Narrative: From 1960s Realism to Modern Trends
Stylistic Linear Narrative
Objectivity and Realism
Stylistic linear narrative. Objectivity and realism are characterized by an observer narrator, direct language, dialogues, and a simple style. There is also a temporary concentration.
Authors
Collective characters include Aldecoa Ignacio, Fernandez Santos, Sanchez Ferlosio, and Caballero Bonald.
The Novel of the 1960s
The publication of Tiempo de Silencio (Time of Silence) by Luis Martin Santos in 1962 started a new phase in Spanish narrative. Several factors influenced the development of this new narrative:
- 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 proposes to separate political and social literature.
The novel by Martin Santos 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 a difficult structure (the chapters are removed and replaced by sequences)
- Use of multiple points of view, which is told from the perspective of different characters in the play (the counterpoint technique is usual, in which various stories are going across, giving the reader a fragmented vision of the facts)
- Rare dialogue, replaced by the free indirect style and, above all, by the interior monologue
- Linear rupture of time (there are constant jumps from past to future; the flashback technique is common, retreating to an earlier time)
- The space is usually indefinite
- Renewal of literary language (introducing neologisms, foreign words, cultism, and colloquialisms, and blending different levels of language)
Other significant authors include Gonzalo Torrente Ballester, Juan Benet, Juan Marse, and Luis Goytisolo.
The Novel in the 1970s
In the last years of the dictatorship, some authors cultivated the traditional style of the 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 a type of novel devoted to telling stories. With democracy also came disappointment; there are many police issues, black literature, intrigue, and science fiction. Some writers of this generation are Luis Goytisolo, Jose Maria Vaz de Soto, Jose Maria Guelbenzu, and Eduardo Mendoza.
There is also a line oriented toward 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, and so on.
Recent Years from the 1970s
Since the 1970s, the Spanish novel has been characterized by the coexistence of different trends and styles (experimentalism, intimacy, realism). Most authors who have been released in the 1980s 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 Gandara (The Average Distance, 1984), Eduardo Alonso (Insomnia of a Winter Night, the same year), Javier Marias (All Souls, A Heart So White), Julio Llamazares, José M. Merino, Luis Mateo Diez, and Antonio Munoz Molina (The Polish Rider). We must also be aware of authors such as Soledad Puértolas, Jose Pedro Aparicio, Carlos Pujol, Rosa Montero, and, to name authors of the very latest hour, Loriga and Javier Cercas.