Surrealist Poetry of the Generation of ’27
Surrealist Poetry in Spain: The Generation of ’27
Introduction
Artistic avant-garde movements represent a break from tradition, seeking artistic freedom. The devastation of World War I led to a rejection of European values and spurred an anti-realist aesthetic revolution. This new concept emphasized originality and surprise against the conventional. The avant-garde movements created a new sensitivity and new ways of expression, influenced by Cubism, Dadaism, and Surrealism.
Birth and Rise of the Avant-Garde (1908-1925)
The avant-garde first appeared in Spain around 1908 with Ramón Gómez de la Serna. Ultraism and Creationism emerged, carrying a recreational and vital Dadaist tone, fascinated by images, speed, and futurism. Key figures include Guillermo de Torre and Vicente Huidobro.
Surrealism and Rehumanization (1926-1936)
Surrealism’s influence brought a focus on rehumanization, embracing distress, emotions, and rebellion. By the 1930s, the new literary avant-garde addressed social and political issues.
Surrealism’s Presence in Spain
Surrealism radically changed the concept of art and the artist’s role. Cubist, Dadaist, and Surrealist components converged. André Breton and Philippe Soupault published the first Surrealist work, Les Champs Magnétiques (1919), followed by the Surrealist Manifesto (1924). Surrealism aimed to liberate humankind by releasing impulses and breaking social barriers. This liberation emphasized creative power, freedom, and imagination over logic, employing techniques like automatic writing, collage, and dream transcription. Surrealist poems mixed disparate elements, using subconscious feelings and reactions to evoke dark moods and emotions in the reader. This movement heavily influenced the Generation of ’27, particularly through the works of Juan Larrea and José María Hinojosa. While rarely employing automatic writing, the Generation of ’27 used imaginative freedom and broke formal language rules to convey feelings and experiences.
The Generation of ’27
Common Features
The Generation of ’27 shared similar ages, a strong literary culture, and intellectual curiosity. They enjoyed family comfort and engaged in non-political, liberal attitudes supporting the Republic. Strong friendships and personal relationships connected them, often as fellow students. The group commemorated the 300th anniversary of Luis de Góngora’s death in 1927, marking their aesthetic manifesto. They collaborated in the same magazines and were influenced by teachers like Juan Ramón Jiménez and José Ortega y Gasset. Their poetry blended tradition and avant-garde, combining popular taste with an interest in Spanish and European literature, studying authors from Garcilaso de la Vega and Fray Luis de León to Luis de Góngora and Lope de Vega. They also drew inspiration from Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Rubén Darío, and Juan Ramón Jiménez. From the avant-garde, they adopted originality, humor, and a playful break with tradition.
Aesthetic Trends
Their aesthetic trends encompassed classicism, pure poetry, Gongorism, neo-romanticism, neo-popularism, social poetry, and Surrealism. Early publications featured Dadaist and Futurist influences through Ultraism and Creationism.
Career
Initial Stage (to 1927)
Initially, they focused on pure poetry, influenced by Juan Ramón Jiménez. Poetry was seen as an expression of beauty, an intellectual product coexisting with dehumanized and neo-popularist poetry.
1928-Spanish Civil War
The period from 1928 to the Spanish Civil War saw a rehumanization of lyric poetry. The magazine Neruda showcased humanized poetry, exemplified by Vicente Aleixandre. A manifesto for pure poetry emerged, expressing human anguish and rebellion against societal problems. The group abandoned the aesthetic and dehumanized art of Juan Ramón Jiménez and José Ortega y Gasset. Social poetry boomed during the Second Republic and the Civil War. Surrealism influenced Rafael Alberti (Sobre los ángeles), Vicente Aleixandre (La destrucción o el amor), Luis Cernuda (Un río, un amor), and Federico García Lorca (Poeta en Nueva York).
Post-Civil War
The Civil War brought Lorca’s assassination and the exile of others, fracturing the group. Exile became a significant theme, especially for Aleixandre. Dámaso Alonso represented internal exile.
Subjects and Methods
Key themes included the city (symbolizing progress and the future, contrasted with negative aspects of human existence), nature and love (anti-romantic, focusing on the everyday), the irrelevant (art as play, embracing technology), and commitment (exploring life, time, art, and sociopolitical concerns). Their poetic language emphasized expression through metaphor and metric renovation. They combined traditional and visionary metaphors, with the latter perceived through emotion. Pure poetry employed conceptual metaphors. Metric renewal involved blending traditional and new structures, including free verse.