20th Century Galician Literature: From Regional Theater to Avant-Garde
The Theater
In the early 20th century, Galician theater was divided into several stages:
Regional Theater
Focused on local themes and established a Regional School of Declamation.
The House of the Brotherhood
Aimed to promote nationalist ideals through theater, establishing institutions like the National Conservatory and the Drama School. It encompassed several trends:
- Conservative, focusing on popular characters, customs, and agrarian life.
- Refreshing, with a more modern approach, incorporating symbolism, impressionism, and modernism.
- Intermediate, blending elements of both conservative and modern trends.
The Theater of the Avant-Garde
Followed the symbolist movement, where all elements of the scenario held symbolic meaning. Rafael Dieste was a prominent author in this movement.
The Theater Group Nodes
Marked the maturity of Galician theater, with all writers in the group exploring dramatic genres. Vicente Risco wrote The King’s Jester, and Castelao wrote The Children Should Not Fall. They sought a total theater experience, incorporating elements of folklore and exploring themes of the past, the blind, and the modern.
The Essay
The first third of the 20th century saw the emergence of the essay genre in Galician, reaching its peak with the Seminary of Galician Studies. Their focus was on understanding and interpreting the history of Galicia. The predominant type of essay was political, soon expanding to cultural, geographical, and historical themes. Key essay themes included:
The Theory of Nationalism
Represented by writers like Antón Vilar Ponte and Vicente Risco. Castelao’s Always in Portugal is considered a foundational text of Galician nationalism.
Geographical Essays
Focused on observations of the cultural, historical, and ideological aspects of the Galician landscape. Otero Pedrayo was a key figure in this area.
Historical Essays
Also notable for Pedrayo’s contributions, emphasizing the recovery of the past, particularly prehistory and the 19th century, with a focus on Atlanticism.
Ethnographic and Folklore Essays
Examined rural culture, which was undergoing transformation and crisis at the time. Vicente Risco and Xaquín Lorenzo were prominent figures in this area.
European Culture Essays
Vicente Risco’s Mitteleuropa, based on his travels to Germany shortly before Hitler’s rise to power.
Language Essays
Featuring texts by Rafael Dieste.
Essays were often initially published as articles and later compiled into books.
The Galician Avant-Garde
Between the two World Wars, a cultural movement known as the avant-garde emerged in Europe and America, seeking a complete break from the old and prioritizing originality and novelty. This movement also found adherents in Galicia, but the established literary system made it difficult to break with tradition. Two distinct trends emerged:
Full Avant-Garde
Aspired to a complete break from previous literature, rejecting the past. Manuel Antonio is considered one of the few truly avant-garde Galician writers.
Enxebre Avant-Garde
Followed an aesthetic approved by the Writers Guilds of Galicia, with two main trends:
- Neotrobadorismo, inspired by medieval songbooks, mimicking their rhyme, forms, and lexicon, but incorporating modern imagery and a playful tone.
- Hylozoism, the most successful trend, blending traditional elements like landscape, simple meters, and popular rhythms with innovative features like the juxtaposition of images and the use of visual and auditory elements.
Questioning the Avant-Garde, Asking if Nostalgia Hurts
The theme of nostalgia represents a clear example of cultural dialogue between Galicia and Portugal in the 19th and 20th centuries. Originating in Rosalía de Castro’s work “Adios rios, adios fontes,” which expresses a feeling of longing, Portuguese poet Teixeira de Pascoaes became its main practitioner and theorist.
Noreiga Varela and Julio Dantas produced some of their best work within this current, attempting to capture the essence of “galeguia,” a vague feeling often metaphorized through mist and moonlight.
Nostalgia reemerged as a theme after the Spanish Civil War, with essayists from Editorial Galaxia reviving the debate and framing nostalgia as an existential key to understanding modern man.
Manuel Antonio
Considered one of the few fully avant-garde Galician writers, Manuel Antonio followed the model of previous avant-garde movements, publishing manifestos outlining his ideas, which included:
- The need for a general renewal of Galician literature, breaking with tradition and previous writers.
- Defense of monolingualism by writers within the Galician literary system.
- The adoption of a critical spirit and the rejection of bourgeois art.
His only work published during his lifetime was De Catro a Catro, which aimed to capture the essence of things by eliminating sensory interference and rejecting sentimentality, particularly nostalgia. It is a work devoid of sentimentality or impressionistic weakness. His other works were published posthumously.