The Generation of ’98: Exploring Spanish Identity and Literature
1.2. The Generation of ’98: Themes, Style, Members
Themes:
Problems in Spain:
The Generation of ’98 focused on the so-called “tema de España,” seeking Spain’s identity through its landscape, people, history, and literary tradition. Writers took two opposing attitudes: critical and exalting. They denounced poverty, neglect, ignorance, and the country’s decline, but also found beauty, vibrancy, and spirituality in the land and its people.
Politics:
Initially, they held progressive ideas, sometimes bordering on anarchism, but later shifted towards conservative positions.
History:
A continuous source of meditation. Unamuno called it the “inside story”—the quiet life of millions without recorded history, whose daily work formed the foundation of historical reality.
Longing for Europeanization:
This desire for modernization and openness did not contradict their love for Spain.
Castilian Landscape:
Lyrical exaltation of Castile’s landscape and customs, where they saw the essence of Spain.
Time:
The interplay between physical and psychic time.
Reality and Fantasy Merge:
The Essay:
Emerged as a prominent literary genre favored by the Generation of ’98.
Existential Reflection:
The collapse of values during this period led them to reflect on existential themes: the passage of time, the obsession with death, human loneliness, disappointment, and religious issues. This created a neo-Romantic sentiment translated into anxiety, pessimism, and disgust.
Style:
The Generation of ’98 embraced modernist language but rejected its rhetorical excesses. They used plain, simple language, carefully crafted with a preference for traditional words.
Their aesthetic and emotional approach to reality imbued their language with lyricism. This subjectivity, projected onto people and things, took two forms: capturing feelings and impressions, and using highly expressive language, bordering on caricature, to criticize Spain’s painful reality.
They cultivated all genres (poetry, novels, drama), but their ideological focus and reflective nature favored prose, especially the essay.
Literary Language:
- Devotion to medieval literature, Fray Luis de León, Quevedo, and Cervantes.
- Rejection of grandiosity in earlier literature’s prose.
- Anti-rhetorical, sober, careful not to become prosaic.
- Preference for traditional words.
- Subjectivism and lyricism: merging landscape and soul.
Members:
These authors, despite sharing concerns, possessed strong individuality. Their aesthetic and ideological evolution followed different paths: Baroja’s independence, Antonio Machado’s commitment, Azorín’s conservatism, and Valle-Inclán’s progressivism.
Azorín:
Pseudonym of José Martínez Ruiz (1873-1967). Essayist. Politically active early in his career.
His writing predominantly explored Spain, eternity, and continuity symbolized by ancient peasant customs. He gained acclaim for essays like Spanish Soul (1900), Peoples (1904), and Castilla (1912). He’s best known for autobiographical novels: The Will (1902), Antonio Azorín (1903), and Confessions of a Little Philosopher (1904). Azorín introduced a vigorous new style to Spanish prose.
His work also stands out for its astute literary criticism, evident in texts like Literary Values (1913) and Beyond Classicism (1915). He was a leading figure of this generation.
Unamuno:
(1864-1936) Considered the most intellectual writer of the ’98 Generation.
Born in Bilbao, Unamuno studied at the University of Madrid, earning a doctorate in Philosophy and Letters. He taught Greek at the University of Salamanca from 1891 to 1901, later becoming rector.
His unsystematic philosophy permeated his work. Initially influenced by rationalism and positivism, he sympathized with socialism, contributing articles to the newspaper El Socialista, expressing concern for Spain’s situation. This concern is evident in essays collected in On Traditionalism (1895), Life of Don Quixote and Sancho (1905), and Lands of Portugal and Spain (1911). His poems often exalted Castile.
He explored all genres: poetry, novels, plays, and literary criticism. His narrative began with Peace in War (1897), followed by Mist (1914), Aunt Tula, and Saint Manuel Bueno, Martyr (both 1933).
His poetry highlights The Christ of Velázquez (1920), while his theater work achieved less success.
Antonio Machado:
(1875-1939) One of Spain’s greatest poets.
Born in Seville, he later lived in Madrid, where he studied. He published his first prose in 1893 and poems in 1901. A French professor, he married Leonor Izquierdo. In 1927, he was elected to the Royal Spanish Academy. During the 1920s and 1930s, he co-wrote plays with his brother, including La Lola se va a los puertos (1929) and The Duchess of Benamejí (1931). Exiled to Collioure, France, in January 1939, he died there in February.
His first book, Solitudes (1903), featured Modernist poems emphasizing fleeting emotions and hidden meanings in surroundings. Campos de Castilla (1912) poetically depicted the Castilian landscape and the pain of lost love. In 1917, he published Selected Pages and the first edition of Complete Poems. From this period comes his prose work The Complements, a collection of impressions, reflections on daily life, and sketches. New Songs (1914) continued his judgmental and philosophical line, with a growing emphasis on social critique without abandoning lyrical resonance. In 1936, he published Juan de Mairena. Sentences, Witticisms, Notes and Memories of an Apocryphal Teacher. The Civil War inspired him to write political and circumstantial poems.
Valle-Inclán:
(1866-1936) Spanish novelist, poet, playwright, short story writer, essayist, and journalist.
Born in Villanueva de Arosa, Pontevedra, he studied law in Santiago de Compostela but left to travel to Mexico, working as a journalist. In 1931, he held various positions, including Director of the School of Fine Arts in Rome. He later returned to Galicia, dying in Santiago de Compostela in January 1936.
His first book, Feminine (1895), was followed by Galician-inspired works with lyrical depictions of peasant life, such as Flower of Sainthood (1904) and the poetry collection Aromas of Legend (1907). He married Josefina Blanca in the same year and published his first play, Eagle’s Shield, followed by Romance de lobos (1908), both highly stylized dramatic works with a medieval, violent tone. Silver Face (1922), the trilogy’s third installment, marked a shift towards social criticism.
His second trip to Mexico likely inspired Tyrant Banderas (1926), considered his best novel.
Bohemian Lights (1920) established his aesthetic of distortion, stylizing the low and ugly with expressionistic gestures and caricature.
Valle-Inclán rewrote history in his novel series The Iberian Ring, based on Isabel II’s reign, offering a satirical view of Spanish reality. It comprises The Court of Miracles (1927), Long Live My Master (1928), and Baza de espadas.