The 18th Century and the Enlightenment in Spain: A Literary Overview

Posted on Sep 21, 2024 in Social sciences

UNIT 1: The Eighteenth Century and the Enlightenment

Concept

The Enlightenment emerged from man’s departure from his self-imposed minority, understanding minority as the inability to use one’s own understanding without the guidance of another.

Features

Throughout the eighteenth century, a new mindset developed in Europe, linked to anthropology and the Renaissance, breaking with the Baroque worldview. This new mentality, the Enlightenment, challenged the principle of authority and embraced the supremacy of reason based on experience.

Main Features of the Eighteenth Century:

• Rationalism: Reason is the only basis of knowledge.
• Empiricism: Rejection of faith and use of experimentation to understand the world and make progress.
• Criticism: Subjecting all prior knowledge to rational criticism.
• Desire for Knowledge: A desire to understand the entire inhabited world and the need to publicize newfound knowledge.
• Utopianism: Applying reason to all aspects of human life will lead to better social, economic, and cultural progress.
• Progress and Happiness: The priority is to achieve happiness in this world.
• Reformism: To achieve human progress, it is necessary to carry out a series of slow reforms led by kings and absolutist governments.

The Age of Enlightenment in Spain

Towards the last decades of the seventeenth century, Europe faced a crisis. The proposed solution was the use of reason as a universal method of knowledge and systematic critique. Knowledge spread throughout society, fostering a need to travel, learn other languages, and improve citizens’ living conditions. Scholars focused on proposing reforms in various aspects of culture and society. They moved away from religion and absolute monarchies, advocating for modern democracy, freedom, and the right to elect leaders. This movement spanned the entire eighteenth century and extended into the nineteenth.

Stages:

• Background: In the 17th century, Descartes and Spinoza highlighted the importance of reason as a means of understanding the world.
• Reformism: During most of the 18th century, enlightened thinking developed, and attempts were made to practically apply some of its principles.
• Revolution: In the late 18th century, there was a greater appreciation for feelings over reason. The American and French Revolutions marked the end of the Enlightenment.

Penetration of the Enlightenment in Spain

Enlightenment ideas entered Spain through various channels:

• The dissemination of ideas by enlightened figures like Feijoo.
• The spread of French encyclopedic ideas despite censorship.
• Study tours and observations of European life and customs by intellectuals.
• The emergence of newspapers and publications that disseminated Enlightenment ideas.
• The creation of cultural institutions like the Spanish Royal Academy.

The Enlightenment’s peak in Spain occurred during the reign of Carlos III, and its decline coincided with the French Revolution.

Illustrated Literature

Literary Trends:

• Postbarroco: Continued the style, techniques, and themes of the Baroque movement without significant innovation.
• Neoclassicism: A return to the classical world, applying literary rules, emphasizing the usefulness of art and literature, eliminating excessive emotion in artwork, and imitating nature.
• Preromanticism: Anticipated 19th-century Romanticism by prioritizing feelings over reason and featuring the emergence of horror fiction.

Prose

The most important genre of the 18th century was the essay, which found a significant distribution channel in newspapers. Journalism experienced full development during this period, leading to:

• The importance of systematic information.
• Government recognition of journalism’s influence on the public.

The purpose of newspapers in the 18th century was educational and informative. Other notable prose works took the form of letters, addressed to real or fictitious individuals.

Featured Authors:

• Villarroel: A Baroque writer considered a follower of Quevedo for the satirical nature of his works. His autobiography, almanacs, and prognostications are noteworthy.
• Feijoo: A monk and university professor, the quintessential enlightened figure. His most important work, Teatro crítico universal, defended reason and experience. His main ideas were peace, freedom, work, and education.
• Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos: The best representative of the Spanish Enlightenment. His writings were few but highly significant in Spanish prose. His notable work includes Informe sobre la Ley Agraria.
• Cadalso: His work reflects Enlightenment ideals and hopes for reform. Major works include Cartas marruecas and Noches lúgubres (a work in dialogue form).

Poetry

• Postbarroca Poetry: Occurred during the first half of the century, continuing Baroque poetry and imitating its masters, Góngora and Quevedo.
• Rococo Poetry: Between 1750 and 1770, a new form of poetry emerged, embracing new European trends. Features included a simpler style compared to the Baroque, with key themes of nature, love, and feminine beauty.
• Illustrated Poetry: From 1770 to 1790, themes of concern to the Enlightenment prevailed, such as friendship, solidarity, the pursuit of happiness, and the common good. Other characteristics included the revival of the Renaissance ideal, the belief that poetry should be didactic, and the emergence of Anacreontic poetry.
• Pre-Romantic Poetry: In the late 18th century, authors and works began to appear in which feelings were expressed without being subject to predetermined rules. Defining characteristics included themes of loneliness, failure, love, and death, a gloomy atmosphere, and the abundant use of exclamations and apostrophes.

The most prominent poet was Meléndez Valdés, who embraced both illustrated and Anacreontic poetry.

Theater

Similar to poetry, the first half of the century saw inherited forms of Baroque theater in both themes and forms, with little innovation. In the second half, neoclassical theater emerged, characterized by its didactic intent and adherence to rules, such as maintaining decorum, not mixing tragedy and comedy, using plain language, and eliminating the comical character.

Among the most prominent playwrights were Leandro Fernández de Moratín, who wrote El sí de las niñas, and his son, Nicolás Fernández de Moratín, who saw theater as a vital tool to combat inappropriate ideas and values, criticizing bad habits that persisted in Spain and promoting Enlightenment ideals.