Spanish Novel 1939-1975: Post-War to Renewal
The Spanish Novel: 1939-1975
From Post-War to Literary Renewal
The Early Post-War Years (1939-1949)
The Spanish Civil War’s end in 1939 brought a disastrous economic and social situation, compounded by post-World War II international isolation. The war caused a literary rupture, forcing many novelists (e.g., Ramón J. Sender, Max Aub, Francisco Ayala, Rosa Chacel) into exile. Those who remained wrote under strict censorship. Traditional narratives, like Ignacio Agustí’s Mariona Rebull (a story of a Catalan bourgeois family), dominated. Agustí also co-founded the Nadal Prize, crucial for the Spanish novel’s development.
An “existentialist novel” emerged, portraying pessimistic visions of confused characters in a threatening world. Carmen Laforet’s Nada (Nadal Prize, 1944) exemplifies this, depicting Andrea’s disorientation upon arriving in Barcelona amidst a squalid family atmosphere. Camilo José Cela’s The Family of Pascual Duarte (1942) presents a biography of crimes and atrocities, portraying the protagonist as both murderer and victim of a barbarous environment. Later, Cela’s Journey to the Alcarria (1948) inaugurated a series of travel books offering a critical view of Spain.
The Fifties: Social Realism (1950-1959)
As Spain emerged from isolation, censorship shifted from politics to social concerns, giving rise to social realism. This movement featured:
- Collective protagonists (sectors, groups, or society)
- Short timeframes and concrete settings
- Themes reflecting the harshness of Spanish life, social injustice, and labor problems
- Deceptively simple narrative techniques, mimicking colloquial language
- Social and political denunciation as the primary aim
Cela’s The Hive (1951), published in Buenos Aires due to censorship, portrays over 300 characters navigating a hopeless Madrid. The mosaic structure, like a beehive, reflects the fragmented lives of its characters. The author’s objective stance occasionally shifts to omniscient narration or ironic commentary.
Other key titles include Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio’s The Jarama (Nadal Prize, 1955), depicting the emptiness of young lives through behavioral techniques, and Miguel Delibes’ works: The Road (1950), idealizing rural life; The Red Leaf (1959), presenting a retiree’s perspective; and Rats (1962), showcasing the harsh life in a Castilian village.
The Sixties and Early Seventies: Literary Renewal (1960-1975)
The exhaustion of social realism led to a desire for aesthetic renewal, influenced by European and North American techniques and the Latin American Boom. This renewal involved:
- Problematic and indefinite characters
- Non-linear time and compressed spaces
- Emphasis on narrative technique over plot
- Perspectivism (single or multiple)
- Interior monologue and stream of consciousness
- Counterpoint narratives
- Linguistic and typographic experimentation
Luis Martín Santos’ Time of Silence (1962) marked the triumph of these techniques in Spain. Delibes’ Five Hours with Mario (1966) uses an interior monologue to reveal the contrasting perspectives of a conservative wife and her socially conscious husband. Cela’s experimentalism intensified with San Camilo 1936 (1969) and Oficio de tinieblas 5 (1973). Other notable authors include Gonzalo Torrente Ballester, Juan Goytisolo, Juan Benet, and Juan Marsé.