Spanish Society, Culture, and Avant-Garde Literature
Society and Culture
No Renewal. Technical progress: radio, telephone, cars, movies… New scientific theories: relativity theory (Einstein) and method of psychoanalysis (Sigmund Freud). This created a school of thought: human beings repressed since childhood by customs and traditions, limiting freedom. World War (1914-1918)… a crisis which affected all of Europe, leading to a search for new approaches and ways of living. Spain did not participate, but suffered the consequences. Primo de Rivera, Second Republic. Modernization of Spain. Civil War.
Avant-Garde Literature
The intention was to renew artistic expression: new art, a manner of expression which aims to break the formal and aesthetic mold of previous artistic trends. Avant-garde artistic movements seek to radically break with all previous aesthetic patterns, looking for provocation or reflection from the receiver. These movements emerged consciously and often used to write manifestos. The most significant were:
- Futurism: first published by Marinetti (1909). Favorite subjects: technical and urban world, new technology and machines.
- Cubism: calligrams, poems whose verses take on forms related to visual content. Guillaume Apollinaire.
- Dadaism: 1918, Tristan Tzara published “Dada Manifesto”. Provocation and rebellion, to express the absurd and inconsistent. The most radical. Short-lived, giving rise to surrealism.
- Creationism: Vicente Huidobro in 1918. Art work as an independent reality.
Introduction of the Avant-Garde in Spain
Stages of its development:
- The authors of the Generation of 14 (Novecento), disseminated new ideas about artistic creation.
- A vanguard movement of its own was created in Spain: Ultraism.
- Surrealism, which emerged in France in the mid-20s, influenced the work of Spanish poets.
- The aesthetic renovation culminated with the Generation of 27, poets who mixed modernism and tradition.
Novecento
A group of writers formed with the influence and approaches of the poets of ’98, which formed the basis of the artistic renewal that was to occur in Spain in the 20s. They were not avant-garde writers, but they laid the groundwork. They proposed that the new art was a pure art (an art which does not reproduce feelings or reality, but promotes reflection on the work itself). Authors emerged as theorists and essayists: Gabriel Miró, Ramón Pérez de Ayala, José Ortega y Gasset, and Ramón Gómez de la Serna (1888-1963): One of the most significant figures of Spanish art. He devoted himself enthusiastically to the dissemination of European avant-garde ideas in Spain. His work is very extensive and varied: novels, plays, essays… In his generation, his writings were very peculiar: he did not state theories about art, but he wrote quite avant-garde works and, believing in the renewal of art, he invented a literary genre known as the greguería. These are short sentences, using metaphors, similes, and puns, presenting a humorous, critical, or curious concept.
Ultraism
A Spanish avant-garde stream that brought together the salient features of various European movements. The creations include futuristic elements (machines, technology) and Cubist elements (calligrams). It rejects realism and sentimentality. A characteristic is the illogical imagery and juxtaposition of sentences without a clear logic, and no punctuation. Promoted by Guillermo de Torre (1900-1971).
Surrealism
A movement whose goal is the liberation of the artist’s unconscious, allowing their thoughts and emotions to flow without repression. From the mid-20s. Its initiator: André Breton, who published his first Surrealist Manifesto in 1924. In 1925, it reached Spain. Characterized by the use of rich imagery (the world of dreams), free verse (long range), language that seeks suggestion and implication (not description or realism), and for freedom of expression (rejects repression), hence striking metaphors and images (often provocative). These traits appear inconsistent and difficult to understand.