Spanish Theater and Literature of the Early 20th Century

Posted on Oct 2, 2024 in Latin

Pre-Theater 1936

The Theater that Trumped

The nature of the show, particularly concerning the theater, faced strong commercial constraints due to the dominance of local private entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs had to consider the tastes of the aristocratic and bourgeois public. According to Francisco Ruiz Ramon’s History of the Theater, two trends emerged:

Bourgeois Comedy

The bourgeois public sought entertainment rather than moral dilemmas in theater. Consequently, authors catered to public taste to make a living.

Jacinto Benavente

Jacinto Benavente, a Nobel laureate in Literature (1922), was a prominent figure in the early 20th-century Spanish theater scene. Known for his formal neatness, elegance, discretion, and criticism, his early play The Alien Nest faced public outrage and was removed from the stage. Subsequently, Benavente adapted to public limitations, moderating his satire and tone to remain within acceptable boundaries. His works often align with the style of drawing-room comedy. However, his masterpiece, Vested Interests (1907), stands apart. This work utilizes the language and characters of the Italian Commedia dell’Arte to present a cynical view of bourgeois ideals.

Verse Drama

This form of theater continued the poetic traditions of the 19th century while incorporating modernist verbal art. It often conveyed a traditionalist ideology. Notable authors include:

  • Francisco Villaespesa and Eduardo Marquina, whose dramas explored past glories.
  • Antonio and Manuel Machado, who blended historical theater with modern dramas, exemplified by The Lola is Going to Ports.

Comic Theater: Types and Scenes

Thoroughbred types and scenes, or environments, had been a constant in the sketches of Ramón de la Cruz in the 18th century and in the manners and customs of late 19th-century operettas. Authors who excelled in this line include:

  • Hermanos Álvarez Quintero, known for their works with Andalusian ambiance.
  • Carlos Arniches, who focused on the atmosphere of Madrid.
  • Pedro Muñoz Seca, who created a new genre called Astrakhan, characterized by outlandish comedies filled with jokes aimed at provoking laughter. His most significant work, Don Mendo’s Revenge, hilariously parodies Zorrilla’s dramas and rejects verse drama.

The Theater that Aims to Innovate

El Teatro Del 98 and Vanguard

In contrast to the prevailing trends, some playwrights embraced innovation. These include:

  • The ’98 Generation authors Unamuno and Azorín, whose works reflected existential themes.
  • Jacinto Grau, who pursued a distinct, culturally ambitious theater often inspired by literary themes or myths, as seen in The Lord of Pygmalion.
  • Ramón Gómez de la Serna, who anticipated later trends (e.g., Eugène Ionesco) with his anti-theatrical works driven by a desire for a theater for reading in the cold tomb. His play The Media presents things instead of characters on a completely black stage, with characters in half-black bodies to symbolize their incomplete and frustrated personalities.

Ramón María del Valle-Inclán

Valle-Inclán introduced a new concept of stage space, breaking the rigidity of the time and foreshadowing later avant-garde approaches. Critics often categorize his dramatic works into three cycles:

  • Mythical: Featuring modernist and personal evocations of the Galician countryside. The trilogy Barbarian Comedy, comprising Eagle (1907), Romance de Lobos (1908), and Cara de Plata (1922), is a notable example.
  • Farce: Introducing mockery and social criticism in works like The Head of the Dragon (1914).
  • Esperpento: Offering a grotesque and distorted view of reality (time, social issues, personalities). Luces de Bohemia (1924) and the trilogy Bohemian Lights, consisting of Mardi Gras, Horns of a Gift, Friolera (1921), Late Galas (1926), and The Captain’s Daughter (1927), are examples of this style. In prose, Tirano Banderas (1926) stands out.

Valle-Inclán himself defines esperpento in Luces de Bohemia as a means to present a tragic vision of human and social reality, aiming to make the viewer (or reader) aware of society’s true nature. He achieves this by:

  • Using the grotesque as a form of expression, distorting reality while presenting it as credible and unique, causing surprise and perplexity.
  • Creating a caricature of society and its inhabitants, animalizing and objectifying human beings, turning them into insensitive puppets.
  • Employing various resources: violent contrasts, the presence of death, morality conveyed through sarcastic humor, and the use of popular speech.

Theater of 27

The 1920s witnessed significant theatrical innovations. Prominent authors include:

  • Federico García Lorca
  • Rafael Alberti with The Eyesore
  • Alejandro Casona with Our Natasha
  • Max Aub, who developed his work in exile

Federico García Lorca

Lorca, alongside Valle-Inclán, is a major innovator of contemporary Spanish theater. His dramas explore the pain of living. In 1936, García Lorca stated: “The theater is poetry that rises from the book and becomes human. And when it is made, it talks and shouts, cries and despairs. The theater needs characters that appear on the stage crying and laughing and, at the same time, that they see the bones, the blood.”

His dramatic career began with The Curse of the Butterfly (1919) and concluded with The House of Bernarda Alba (1936). His works can be grouped into:

  • Puppet farce works, such as The Blackjack Puppets (1923)
  • Human farces, like The Love of Don Perlimplín and Belisa in the Garden (1931)
  • Avant-garde works challenging to represent, such as A Way to Spend Five Years (1931)
  • Works centered on the land of Granada, including Mariana Pineda (1924)
  • Tragedies

Tragedies: Set in rural areas, these works connect with the Golden Age theater (Lope de Vega, Calderón de la Barca) through shared themes of love, honor, and the use of popular elements like tunes and the combination of verse and prose in dialogue. The overarching theme is the struggle of characters against the social order to achieve liberation.

  • Blood Wedding: Depicts a bride’s escape on her wedding day with her former lover, leading to the groom killing the lover and dying in the conflict. It highlights female honor in a hostile male world.
  • Yerma: In a society where motherhood is paramount, a woman, frustrated by her inability to conceive and her husband’s lack of understanding, commits murder. The play reflects the inevitability of fate.
  • The House of Bernarda Alba: A recently widowed mother fights to preserve her daughters’ chastity, clashing with their desire for freedom. This struggle between authority and freedom ends tragically in death.

Lorca’s style employs simple language in his pursuit of a popular theater. However, his signature symbolism, characteristic of his work, remains present. In The House of Bernarda Alba, for example, Angustias’ engagement ring and pearls symbolize tears and pain, foreshadowing the tragic fate of her courtship.

Generation of 98

The term “Generation of 98” traditionally refers to a group of late 19th-century writers, contemporaries of the modernists, who shared concerns about the social, historical, and cultural consequences of the Crisis of 98, triggered by the loss of Cuba and the Philippines in 1898. Key figures include Miguel de Unamuno, Pío Baroja, José Martínez Ruiz (Azorín), Ramiro de Maeztu, and Antonio Machado. Ramón del Valle-Inclán deserves special mention, as his work cannot be strictly categorized within the Generation of ’98.

This literary trend emerged from the “Group of Three,” comprising Maeztu, Pío Baroja, and Azorín, who believed that “the group could not remain inert to the painful Spanish reality; it had to intervene,” referring to the Spain of their time.

Style

Common stylistic features of the Generation of 98 authors include:

  • Use of simple language characterized by anti-rhetoricism
  • Enrichment of language with etymology and popular expressions
  • Abundance of coordinated structures in syntax and short paragraphs
  • Renewal of the art of the novel
  • Predilection for the essay

Subject

The writers of ’98 expressed two main concerns:

  • The issue of Spain
  • The meaning of life

They demonstrated a deep love for Spain, acknowledging its backwardness and seeking solutions to its problems. Their concerns revolved around the following:

The issue of Spain is reflected in their exploration of landscape and history. The writers discovered and appreciated the austere and impoverished Castilian landscape as the essence of Spain. They depicted the landscape realistically and objectively, like the Realist authors, but also subjectively, projecting their spirit onto it. They sought to elevate their soul and, through it, the soul of Castile and the true Spain, expressing both sadness and love.

From a historical perspective, they initially attributed Spain’s woes to its recent history. However, from 1905 onwards, they delved into the past to uncover the intrinsic values of Castile and Spain. They were drawn not to external history (conflicts, conquests, inheritance, rivalries) but to what Miguel de Unamuno termed intrahistoria – the quiet life of millions of ordinary people who are the true protagonists of Spain’s deep history.

Their profound love for Castile and Spain led them to yearn for the Europeanization of Spain: an openness towards Europe and its essential values to revitalize the country (purism). In many cases, they sought historical reality in earlier literature, particularly in traditional characters.

The meaning of life is reflected in their concern for existential problems. The writers of the Generation of ’98 connected with the philosophy of the previous century and, like the modernists, felt uneasy about the world they inhabited. They questioned the meaning of human existence, the passage of time, death, and, finding no answers, experienced profound anguish. Although mostly agnostic, religion also featured in their literary production, particularly in the works of Miguel de Unamuno.

The Novel

The novelists of the Generation of ’98 favored a narrative form that portrayed reality but focused primarily on the exposition of ideas and environments from a subjective viewpoint, rejecting the realist and naturalist aesthetics. Their novels primarily reflected the existential problems that plagued their characters: the struggle for survival, the fear of death, the transience of life, and loneliness. They did not adhere to a traditional structure; some novels were a series of episodes, anecdotes, and digressions with characters appearing and disappearing (Pío Baroja) or narratives based on philosophical assumptions (Unamuno).

The protagonists were often anti-heroes (The Tree of Knowledge), social outcasts struggling to survive, or characters who succumbed to pessimism due to the absurdity of their existence (Augusto Pérez in Unamuno’s Niebla). The style was sober and anti-rhetorical.

Pío Baroja (1872-1956)

Considered the greatest novelist of the Generation of ’98 for his prolific output, Baroja’s narrative is organized into trilogies, groups of three novels revolving around a common theme:

  • The Basque Country (House of Aizgorri (1900), The Birthright of Labraz (1903), and The Adventurer Zalacaín (1909))
  • The Struggle for Life (La Busca, 1904)
  • The Fantastic Life (Way of Perfection, 1902)
  • Race and the Sea (The Tree of Knowledge, 1911)

His historical works comprise twenty-two novels integrated into Memoirs of a Man of Action (1913-1935), blending history and fiction with autobiographical elements. His style is fast-paced, precise, and vivid.

Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936)

Unamuno’s work revolves around humanity, death, and God. His novels are generally projections of life’s problems and his inner struggles. He preferred to call them “nivolas” rather than novels: short stories in which the author, to delve deeper into the drama of human existence, avoids specific locations and descriptions.

Literary critic Ángel del Río, acknowledging the difficulty of categorizing Unamuno’s work, classified his novels as:

  • Historical: Peace in War (1897)
  • Ideological and existential: Love and Pedagogy (1902) and Fog (1914)
  • Tragic: Abel Sánchez (1917) and The Aunt Tula (1921)

On a separate level, he included the novel San Manuel Bueno, Martyr (1933), which portrays a parish priest who, despite losing his faith, continues to minister to his congregation, who consider him a saint and martyr, highlighting the priest’s inner contradiction.

José Martínez Ruiz, Azorín (1873-1967)

Although primarily known for his essays and newspaper articles, Azorín also produced novels. His work revolves around the passage of time and the issue of Spain (attempting to redeem its past glory through the Castilian landscape and traditional literature). His impressionistic, clear, and precise style serves to describe objects and landscapes. Some of his novels include:

  • The Will (1902)
  • Antonio Azorín (1903)
  • Confessions of a Young Philosopher (1904)

Great Novel Authors

In the first decades of the 20th century, between modernism and the intellectual novel of Noucentisme, two other authors stand out:

  • Ramón Pérez de Ayala: Belarmino and Apolonio (1921) and Tigre Juan (1926)
  • Gabriel Miró: Our Father, Saint Daniel and The Leper Bishop (1926)

The Essay

The essay is the most prolific genre of the Generation of ’98. However, we will study this topic in a dedicated section.