20th Century Spanish Literature: Modernism, Generation of ’98, and Avant-Garde
Item 3: Early 20th Century Literature
1. The World at the Beginning of the 20th Century
Powerful countries like England, France, Germany, and the emerging United States controlled raw materials and trade. Spain experienced the Disaster of 1898, remaining a rural country reliant on agriculture, leading to emigration to America.
2. Modernism and the Generation of ’98
Modernist authors rebelled against bourgeois values, seeking originality. They explored primitive themes, decadent pleasures, human misery, and eroticism alongside anguish and death. Marginal figures like prostitutes, drinkers, and criminals populated their works. Cosmopolitanism, esotericism, and aestheticism were key elements.
3. Poetry of the Early 20th Century
Poetry emphasized colors, sounds, and refined aromas, often using flowers and plants. A desire for renewal and musicality led to varied metrics.
Antonio Machado (1875-1939)
Born in Seville, Machado was a French professor who married Leonor Izquierdo in 1909. She died three years later. Machado, severely ill, died in Collioure, France, in 1939. Campos de Castilla (1912) and Nuevas Canciones (1924) are among his notable works. He also published prose, including Juan de Mairena (1936).
Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936)
Born in Bilbao, Unamuno was a professor of Greek at the University of Salamanca. He wrote essays, novels, poetry, and dramas. His works explore existential angst, religious sentiment, family, landscapes, and philosophical problems. Notable works include the novel Niebla and the play Fedra.
Item 4: Post-World War I Literature
1. The World After World War I (1914-1918)
World War I resulted in enormous human sacrifice and economic depression in Europe. The monarchy and army attempted a coup led by Primo de Rivera in 1923.
2. Noucentisme
This cultural movement of the 1920s arose after World War I. It emphasized rationalism, antiromanticism, pure art, and an aristocratic intellectual style.
3. European Avant-Garde and its Development in Spain
This artistic movement challenged previous culture, breaking with 19th-century art. Key movements included Expressionism, Futurism, Cubism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Creationism, and Ultraism.
Item 5: Poetry of the 1920s and 1930s
1. Poetry of the Time
This period saw the elimination of superficial rhetoric and sentimentality, emphasizing intellectualism and reworking traditional poetry or breaking with it entirely.
Juan Ramón Jiménez (1881-1958)
Born in Moguer, Jiménez married Zenobia Camprubí Aymar in 1916 and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1956.
Ramón del Valle-Inclán (1866-1936)
Born in Villanueva de Arosa, Valle-Inclán traveled to America and became a leading proponent of Modernism in Madrid. His works span decadence, primitivism, farce, and the nonsensical.
2. Surrealism
Surrealism, led by André Breton, emerged as a dominant avant-garde movement.
3. Spanish Poetry of the 1920s, 1930s, and the Generation of ’27
This generation disseminated avant-garde ideas. Three stages are discernible: a juvenile stage, a generation of young poets, and a progressive rehumanization of poetry.
Federico García Lorca (1898-1936)
Lorca’s work explored frustration, pain, love, rebellion, and death. He was a playwright who experimented with puppet theater, farce, avant-garde theater, and realistic theater, often focusing on social marginalization.
Rafael Alberti (1902-1999)
Alberti’s extensive poetic work includes initial books, avant-garde poetry, poetry of the Republic, and poetry from his long exile. Early works include Marinero en tierra.
Luis Cernuda (1902-1963)
Cernuda’s poetry, collected under the title La realidad y el deseo, is characterized by meditation, sobriety, and a focus on inner experience.
Miguel Hernández (1910-1942)
Hernández’s early work, like Perito en lunas, shows Góngora’s influence. His later work, including Cancionero y romancero de ausencias, written in prison, expresses existential anguish with intensity.