The Spanish Novel in the 20th Century: From Modernism to the Avant-Garde
1. The Spanish Novel in the Early 20th Century
1.1 The Novel of Modernism and the Generation of ’98
The Modernist aesthetic renovation of poetic language extended to prose and fiction. Its themes and attitudes mirrored those of poetry: sensuality, idealization, and stylization of reality. Examples include Sonatas by Valle-Inclán and Platero and I by Juan Ramón Jiménez. These works showcase the modernist prose accumulation of rhetorical and emotional elements, its escape from everyday reality, and its atmosphere of nostalgia and melancholy.
The Generation of ’98, while retaining significant modernist aspects (such as innovative language, impressionistic description, and nostalgic idealization of the landscape), reacted against the “vulgar” style of Realism. In some cases, it incorporated thematic and ideological legacies of Naturalism (e.g., Baroja). In others, it explored the intellectual and existential weight of German thought (e.g., Unamuno). And in others still, it embraced a new sensitivity based on linguistic accuracy or nostalgic recollections of Romanticism (e.g., Azorín).
Other notable novelists of the era, in addition to Unamuno, Baroja, Valle-Inclán, and Azorín, include Manuel Ciges Aparicio and Concha Espina in the realistic trend; Eduardo Zamacois and Felipe Trigo in the erotic novel; and Wenceslao Fernández Flórez in the lyrical or atmospheric trend.
1.1.1 Unamuno: The Intellectual and Existential Novel
Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936), born in Bilbao and a university professor of Greek, was known for his vast culture. His prolific output necessitates a broad study of his work beyond just narrative. We see him as a playwright and poet, notable for his vigorous language and sensory imagery, especially in his idealization of the Castilian landscape. We also recognize him as an essayist, intellectual, and thinker—one of the most influential of his time—for the depth of his thought and his existential concerns.
The literary genre that Unamuno renewed, however, is the novel. It became a testing ground where he responded to the previous schemes of Realism. His novels, with their existentialist character, reflect his intellectual attitude, his philosophical worldview, and his ideological and existential concerns. Examples include the search for personality and the conflict between creator and character in Mist (1914); the Cain-and-Abel envy in Abel Sánchez (1917); the feeling of frustrated maternity in Aunt Tula (1921); and religious transcendence and immortality in Saint Manuel Bueno, Martyr (1933).
Furthermore, Unamuno’s novels reflect his intention to renew language, form, and narrative techniques, aligning with the tenets of Modernism. He called his novel a nivola, distancing it from realism. In realism, the language is straightforward, and the author, to show reality, allows his characters to act according to their own free will. In the nivola, the language is more intellectual, and the author invades the order of objective reality, manipulating it according to the laws and criteria that he imposes.
1.1.2 Baroja
In his literary work, Baroja combines the despair and anguish of Romanticism, inherited by Modernism, with the deterministic worldview of Naturalism and modern forms recognizable in Impressionism (e.g., descriptive psychological environments and characters) or the tendency towards nostalgic evocation.
Unlike 19th-century realists, Baroja creates diffuse character profiles, barely delving into their psychology (hence the large number of characters in each book). He describes settings in quick, Impressionistic brushstrokes, like a spectator of human life, redirecting our gaze towards social issues.
Among his titles, mostly grouped in trilogies, are: The Way of Perfection (1902) and The Search (1904), which explore the struggle for life; Zalacaín the Adventurer (1909), set in the Basque Country; Caesar or Nothing (1910); and, above all, The Tree of Knowledge (1911).
1.1.3 Valle-Inclán: The Modernist and Avant-Garde Novel
Ramón del Valle-Inclán (1866-1936), born in Villanueva de Arosa (Pontevedra), whom we also recognize as a playwright, attempted to make his life and work a consistent aesthetic invention, blending reality and fantasy. Dedicated exclusively to literature, he represented the prototype of bohemianism at the time. His ideology combined progressive aestheticism with radical leftist positions.
Always attentive to the issue of renewal, particularly the formal aspects of his work, Valle-Inclán was guided by a particular concept of freedom, both in his view of literature and in his transformation of language and techniques within Modernism. An exceptional playwright who brought Spanish theater to the highest standards of modernity, he also revolutionized the novel, breaking with the traditional concept of the genre.
Valle-Inclán’s Sonatas (Autumn Sonata, 1902; Summer Sonata, 1903; Spring Sonata, 1904; and Winter Sonata, 1905) exemplify Modernism at its most exuberant, full of flashy, bright images and language where sensory elements are used for the stylization and idealization of the Galician environment. These masterpieces of modernist prose recreate the decadent adventures of the refined and perverse Marquis of Bradomín, a Don Juan figure. In the same style of idealization, we find the historical trilogy of the Carlist War: The Crusaders of the Cause (1908), The Glow of the Bonfire (1909), and The Tyrants of Yesteryear (1909).
In a second period, from 1920 onwards, Valle-Inclán’s modernism moved towards distorting and stylizing classic rules, mirroring the trends in avant-garde painting. He embraced the grotesque, pushing expressionist realism to its limits, aiming to remove the mask of reality through grotesque deformation and thus reveal its true image. This embrace of the absurd is one of the great Spanish contributions to European art.
Alternating between artificiality and social commentary, the absurd provides a critical view of the world and bourgeois society, exposing its most corrupt, ruthless, and false aspects. At the same time, it brings about the renewal of literary genres—the grotesque becomes a new literary genre—and language, based on the plasticity of sensory images, especially visual ones, which are superimposed on violent and direct expressions.
Examples of grotesque novels include Tirano Banderas (1926), one of the great novels of the century, which parodies the figure of the dictator and whose deforming technique is advanced in its time sequence, structure, and cinematographic point of view. Another example is the Iberian Ring cycle, covering the historical period from Elizabeth II to Alfonso XIII, comprising The Court of Miracles (1927), Long Live My Master (1928), Baza de Espadas (unfinished), and The Rumble of Gold (only structured).
1.2 The Novel of Novecentismo
Although some critics labeled the Generation of 1914 as noucentistes, and some essayists (Ortega y Gasset, Eugeni d’Ors, or Gregorio Marañón) and novelists (Pérez de Ayala, Gabriel Miró, Gómez de la Serna) are associated with it, others argue that these authors are merely followers of Modernism. In some cases, they intellectually purified literary expression (Miró and Ayala), and in others, they progressed towards the avant-garde (Gómez de la Serna).
1.2.1 Gabriel Miró and Ramón Pérez de Ayala
Gabriel Miró (1879-1930), from Alicante, is the most faithful follower of Modernism in his accumulation of emotions and idealization of landscapes. His novels, rather than constructing plots, reflect the goal of transforming perceptions into the art of the word. His notable works include The Cemetery of Oranges (1910), The Grandfather of the King (1912), Our Father San Daniel (1921), and The Leper Bishop (1926).
Ramón Pérez de Ayala (1880-1962), from Asturias, combines modernist symbolism with the intellectual attitude of Novecentismo in his major novels: Belarmino and Apolonio (1921), Tiger Juan (1926), and its sequel, The Healer of His Honor (1926). He had previously published autobiographical novels such as A.M.D.G. (1910) and Troteras and Danzaderas (1913).
1.3 The Avant-Garde Novel
In terms of aesthetics, the avant-garde novel is identified with formalism and experimentation. Between 1910 and 1930, many writers, in line with European trends, analyzed the theory of the novel and its technical problems. They developed a new type of novel that broke ties with existing conventions, playing with reality and fantasy, implausibility and inconsistency, structures and syntax.
1.3.1 Ramón Gómez de la Serna
These characteristics are evident in the work of Ramón Gómez de la Serna. In his worldview, which he saw as a chaotic space without a hierarchy of values, the writer proposes a possible mode of order through literature. However, it is a free literature shaped by the greguería.
Thus, the greguería—a short, witty sentence that expresses a philosophical or humorous thought—is the basis of his narrative art from his early novels (The Improbable Doctor, 1914; The Blond Black Shaggy Dog, 1917; The Incongruous, 1922; or The Fifth Little Palm Tree, 1923). This tendency intensifies, coinciding with the dehumanization of literature, from The Bullfighter Caracho (1926) onwards, followed by The Amber Woman (1927), The Knight of the Gray Mold (1928), and his masterpiece, The Lost Man (1946).
1.4 The Novel of the Generation of ’27
Influenced by European art and Ortega y Gasset’s theories on the “dehumanized” new art and the novel as a problem—requiring the discovery of new themes and approaches for its recovery, including formal requirements—the authors of the Generation of ’27 developed a new type of novel. They renewed structures, built narratives on metaphors (thus avoiding realistic settings), and practiced play and experimentation. Their only commitment was to art, following the line of Gómez de la Serna. However, not all novelists of the time opted for this solution. Thus, two trends should be noted: the avant-garde novel and the social realist novel.
1.4.1 The Avant-Garde Novel
This novel aligns with the aforementioned aesthetics, which, from an intensely subjective and abstract perspective and an intellectual and formalist approach, seeks experimentation. We should remember Benjamín Jarnés and his novels The Useless Professor (1926), The Barber and Ruilita (1929), and There Is No Madness or Death (1929); Antonio Espina with The Bird (1927) and Drinking the Moon (1929); Pierre Drieu La Rochelle with Eve’s Joy (1926); and, above all, in his early works, Max Aub with Geography (1923), The Green Legend (1933), and Luis Álvarez Pettiwa (1934); Francisco Ayala with Tales of the Boxer and an Angel (1929) and The Hunter at Dawn (1930); and Rosa Chacel with Return to Station (1930).
1.4.2 The Social Realist Novel
This trend contrasts with the previous one. By 1930, some novelists committed to the political situation produced a revolutionary romantic literature, a blend of testimony and denunciation. A key figure is Ramón J. Sender (1902-1982), who initiated this trend with Countdown (1930), followed by Seven Red Sundays (1932), Mr. Witt in the Canton (1935), and The Night of the Hundred Utes (1934). In exile, he wrote a vast and valuable body of work, with titles such as Epithalamium of Trinidad Prieto (1942), The King and the Queen (1948), or Requiem for a Spanish Peasant (1953).
Alongside Sender, we must remember César M. Arconada, with The Turbine (1930); Joaquín Arderíus, with Farmworkers (1931); and Andrés Carranque de Ríos with The Difficult Life (1935).