18th Century Spanish Literature: The Rise of the Essay
Theme 1: The Essay in the 18th Century – Jovellanos
The Enlightenment and Neoclassicism
The 18th century, also known as the Age of Enlightenment, challenged traditional societal structures based on tradition, authority, and revelation. Enlightened despotism emerged in politics, advocating for government control for the benefit of society, deemed incapable of self-governance due to tradition and ignorance. In art, Neoclassicism arose, emphasizing imitation of classical works according to established rules, with the goal of “teaching delight.” The Encyclopedia, a collaborative effort of French intellectuals, became a cornerstone of this era, disseminating rational knowledge and the spirit of the Enlightenment throughout Europe.
The Enlightenment in Spain
The Enlightenment reached Spain through various channels:
- The work of influential figures like Father Feijoo.
- European study tours undertaken by scholars and intellectuals.
- Translation of books and the emergence of newspapers and magazines.
- The establishment of cultural institutions like the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) and the Royal Botanical Garden.
The Rise of the Essay
The essay became a prominent genre in the 18th century. It offered a platform for personal perspectives on diverse topics with a clear, practical intent: to educate. Essays were typically concise, published in newspapers or magazines, and sometimes collected in volumes. The burgeoning press aimed to shape public opinion, educate, and disseminate ideas promoting social transformation and adaptation to the changing times.
Key Figures of the Spanish Essay
Father Feijoo
Father Feijoo stands as a representative figure of the 18th century. His prolific work, spanning eight volumes of the Universal Critical Theatre and five volumes of the Learned Letters, sparked significant debate, even requiring King Ferdinand VI to defend him by appointing him as an honorary advisor. Feijoo’s writings aimed to spread new knowledge and critique superstition, prejudice, and false beliefs prevalent at the time. He covered a wide range of subjects, including economics, politics, astronomy, physics, botany, mathematics, and history, while refraining from addressing religious matters of faith. Regarding language, he advocated for the use of Castilian as a language of culture, challenging the dominance of Latin in universities, and encouraged the adoption of new vocabulary from various sources. His writing style is characterized by simplicity, clarity, and naturalness.
Cadalso
is the prototype of the enlightened man. As a poet wrote the book Pastimes of my youth. His love affair with the actress María Ignacia Ibáñez you to the theater, for which he wrote with little success tragedySancho García. His death led him to write the gloomy nights where, in dialogue form, recounts his attempt to rescue from the grave the body of his beloved, costing his banishment to Salamanca. Within the essay genre are violet Scholars, seven lessons in which satirizes the false intellectuals and the Moroccan Letters, published after his death. The letters are crossing Gazel, a Muslim who was visiting Spain, his friend and teacher in Morocco, Ben Beley, and Nuño Núñez, a Christian friend. Through them it is a critique of the historical reality of Spain and its decline with a style full of irony and sincerity. Jovellanos is the most important eighteenth-century Spanish essayist. He studied law and was stationed in Seville as a judge. They participated in various literary gatherings in the youth who read his verses and romantic comedy The offender honored. He moved to Madrid in the period culminating in the illustration. Intervened in all activities reformers and was a member of several academies for which he wrote reports, speeches and articles on all sorts of issues, most notably the Report on the Agrarian Law. Differences with the government, banished out Gijón, where he spent ten years. There, he founded the Institute of Asturian Studies and returned to promote reforms of all kinds and to participate in debates and discussions. Godoy was appointed Minister of Grace and Justice and then Minister of State, but again fell into disfavor and was banished to the Castillo de Bellver in Mallorca. There also remained interested in all matters that exemplifies his description Bellver Castle on the past and present of what was then his prison. With the Napoleonic invasion was released. Although Joseph Bonaparte offered him the post of minister in a government of reformers who were part like him, took up the cause of independence and in 1808 became part of the Central Board, for which he wrote a memoir in defense of the Central Board when it was blamed for the military defeats. He died while trying to move to Cadiz during a storm. Las Cortes de Cádiz proclaimed him shortly after “worthy of the country in an eminent degree, and heroic.” Besides the works mentioned, we must take account of their diaries and letters, testimony to both their privacy and their interest in all sorts of subjects: art, geography, economy, social life and popular prints of landscapes, judgments on facts and people … And all this in clear, concise, sober and elegant Jovellanos makes the writer more representative of the Spanish eighteenth century.