20th-Century Spanish Literature: From Novecentismo to Vanguard
20th-Century Spanish Literature
Novecentismo and the Vanguard
The Novecentismo movement, encompassing writers between the Generation of ’98 and the Generation of ’27, sought to revitalize Spanish literature and art in the 20th century. Key aesthetic principles included:
- Serenity, beauty, and balance as core values of pure art, focused on aesthetic pleasure.
- Precision and rigor of ideas.
- A departure from sentimental and romantic Modernism in poetry.
- A rejection of Realism in the novel, prioritizing artistic values like construction and style over faithful reproduction of reality.
The European Avant-Garde
The Avant-Garde, a series of artistic movements in early 20th-century Europe, aimed to revolutionize existing literature and art. Common characteristics include:
- A break from past artistic traditions, particularly Realism.
- Emphasis on originality and novelty, rejecting established norms.
- Experimentation with new techniques of expression.
- A disconnect from the general public.
- Short-lived movements, often defined by manifestos.
Key Avant-Garde movements include:
- Futurism: Founded by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, it celebrated technology, speed, and machines, rejecting human subjectivity and traditional syntax.
- Cubism: Championed by Guillaume Apollinaire, it emphasized the decomposition and reconstruction of reality, using techniques like collage and calligrams.
- Expressionism: Originating in Germany, it focused on the artist’s internal experience, projecting anxieties and a distorted view of the world.
- Dadaism: Founded in Zurich, it embraced the negation of all values, including art itself.
- Surrealism: This influential movement sought to explore the subconscious, liberating the individual from social and moral conventions.
The Spanish Avant-Garde
Two key Avant-Garde movements emerged in Spain, both primarily poetic:
- Creationism: Focused on creating new and independent realities within the poem itself.
- Ultraísmo: Aimed to transcend dominant aesthetics, rejecting narrative and sentimentality in favor of playfulness and escapism.
Prose
20th-century prose emphasized “pure” art, prioritizing formal qualities over human needs or realistic representation.
The Novel
Key figures include Ramón Pérez de Ayala (“Tinieblas en las cumbres”) and Gabriel Miró (“El obispo leproso”). Ramón Gómez de la Serna contributed to journals like “Revista de Occidente” and “La Gaceta Literaria.”
Poetry
Juan Ramón Jiménez’s poetic work can be divided into three phases: a sensitive period, an intellectual period (“Diario de un poeta recién casado”), and a “sufficient” or “true” period.
Theater
Commercial success often dictated theatrical trends before 1936. However, a renovating theater emerged, with three main currents: bourgeois comedy, poetic theater, and a comedic theater. Ramón del Valle-Inclán, a prominent figure in this movement, exemplified artistic evolution. His play “Luces de Bohemia” explores the bohemian life of an artist, structured in 15 scenes.