Spanish Novel Since 1975: Authors and Trends
Since the advent of democracy in 1975, the novel in Spain has offered a diverse landscape, making it virtually impossible to highlight specific features or trends above others. Each author undertakes a personal journey, aiming to differentiate themselves from their contemporaries. However, we will try to highlight the most significant features of this period:
- During the 1970s, some authors continued to cultivate the intellectual and experimental novel, largely stemming from Tiempo de silencio. They tended to pay more attention to the form than the content, with the plot almost disappearing. Stories abounded with fragmented interior monologues. This type of novel was aimed at an intelligent, educated reader with sufficient training to understand the syntactic difficulties proposed by the authors.
- Most of the authors of this period were against the Franco regime and began to publish between 1968 and 1975.
- With the advent of democracy, the novel became more easily accessible, leading to its spread and popularization as the most important genre of the late 20th century.
- Many authors returned to the traditional narrative, following the style of 19th-century realist authors or writers of the Generation of ’98.
- New subgenres began to emerge in the novel to expand the literary scene. Thus, from the late 1970s, we find thrillers, crime novels, sci-fi, adventure, romance, and espionage.
- The market imposed its weight on literature, leading to authors starting to blog to sell more of their work. Authors became popular as creators and opinion-makers in different media (press, radio, and television). The English term bestseller became established among our authors as a synonym for quality and success.
- In the last twenty years, the number of publications has increased dramatically due to the large number of literary awards that currently exist and the commercial publishers established through large retailers such as Fnac, La Casa del Libro, El Corte Inglés, and Ballantine Books.
- In recent times, adventure stories and historical novels have become the two most vigorous subgenres.
Most Important Authors in Recent Years
Eduardo Mendoza (1943)
Eduardo Mendoza is one of the major novelists of recent years. He began his literary career in 1975 with The Truth About the Savolta Case, characterized by intrigue and action. It chronicles the abuses that factory owners committed against their employees and the attempts of a humble journalist, Pajarito de Soto, to uncover the dirty business of arms smuggling by employers. This novel has a clear purpose of social criticism, particularly of the wealthy bourgeoisie of the early 20th century. In a similar vein, but closer to the detective novel, he published The Mystery of the Haunted Crypt (1979) and The Labyrinth of Olives (1982). The City of Marvels (1986) is one of his greatest novels. Through the life of Onofre Bouvila, a modest child, Mendoza describes the evolution of the city of Barcelona from the late 19th century. No News from Gurb (1991) is one of the wildest novels by our author. Serialized in the newspaper El País, it narrates the adventures of an alien, Gurb, lost in Barcelona just before the start of the 1992 Olympic Games. This is a novel full of humor, irony, and parody.
Antonio Muñoz Molina (1956)
Antonio Muñoz Molina, born in Úbeda (Jaén), is currently the youngest member of the Royal Spanish Academy of Language and one of the most important novelists of today. In his novels, he often mixes elements of police, history, and mystery. He started his career in 1986 with Beatus Ille. Success came quickly, receiving the National Book Award twice, once in 1988 for Winter in Lisbon and again in 1991 for The Polish Rider, which also received the Planeta Prize. In Beltenebros (1989), he develops his powers as a writer of detective novels with great success, skillfully mixing love and intrigue. A Manuscript of Ashes (1996) is a not uncritical evocation of his memories of military service. His latest novels are Carlota Fainberg (1999), In Her Absence (2000), Sepharad (2001), and The Windows of Manhattan (2004).