Spanish Theater: From Pre-Civil War to the Present
Spanish Theater Before the Civil War
Before the Civil War, Spanish theater had been immobile and limited. Successful commercial theater followed several trends. Galdós attempted to overcome the rhetoric of Romanticism by introducing naturalism, real environments, and contentious issues. Jacinto Benavente shaped the new writing style, with works featuring little conflict and witty dialogue. He wrote comedies and stressed the unloved bourgeois. Costumbrista comedies also triumphed, as well as poetic
Read MoreRomanticism, Realism, Modernism, and the Avant-Garde
Literary Styles
Romanticism Style
Facing the neoclassical rules, Romantic creators defended originality and genius. They often used vivid language, with numerous questions, exclamations, and apostrophes, which helped to underline the feelings. When representing nature, landscapes also echoed those tormented sentiments.
Characteristics of Realism
Realism is distinguished by the following features, except that it cared more for the inner world:
- Interest in reality. The author cannot be oblivious to the
Latin American Novel: Evolution and Key Authors
The 20th Century Latin American Novel
The twentieth-century Latin American novel opens with a novel of manners, inherited from the nineteenth century, without any attempt at formal innovation. From the 1940s, the first attempts to renew the aesthetic of the novel began, exploring what is specifically American while being influenced by the avant-garde European movements, especially Surrealism. The World is Wide and Alien by Ciro Alegria, in showing the peculiar psychology of the Indians expelled from
Read MoreModernism: Origins, Characteristics, and Key Authors
Modernism: Origins and Development
In the late 19th century, a general artistic and cultural crisis led to the emergence of modernism. This movement developed in the Hispanic world at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Modernism represented a reaction by artists against bourgeois utilitarianism. It also took root in Latin America, where it joined the anti-imperialist sentiment of many countries struggling for independence from Spain, influenced by the United States.
Characteristics of Modernist
Read MoreRomanticism: A 19th-Century Cultural Revolution
Romanticism was a cultural and political movement that originated in Germany and the United Kingdom in the late 18th century. It was a revolutionary reaction against the rationalism of the Enlightenment and Classicism, giving importance to feeling. Its key feature was the break with classical tradition based on a stereotypical set of rules. Real freedom is the constant search of Romanticism, which is why its revolutionary feature is unquestionable. Because romance is a way of feeling and designing
Read More20th-Century Literature: Trends, Movements, and Key Figures
20th-Century Aesthetic Trends
Three main trends define 20th-century aesthetics:
- Existentialist Art: This trend reflects anxiety about the meaning of life and despair in the face of pain and death. It emerged especially early in the century and after World War II. Prominent Spanish writers from the Generation of ’98, such as Unamuno and Baroja, exemplify this trend.
- Experimental Art: Characterized by a desire to break with all prior norms and search for original innovations, this trend culminated