20th Century Spanish Narrative: New Models & Trends
Item 7: New Models of Narrative in the Second Half of the 20th Century
The Spanish Civil War marked a significant shift in the evolution of the novel. The exile of many young novelists of the ’27 Generation’ led to a return to traditional styles among those who remained in Spain. Examples of this include Mariona Rebull by Ignacio Agustí and The Living Forest by Wenceslao Fernández Flórez. However, the defining characteristic of this period is the existential novel, deeply influenced by the war’s circumstances.
Pessimistic views emerged, portraying characters adrift in a threatening and incomprehensible world. This is evident in Nada by Carmen Laforet and The Shadow of the Cypress is Long by Miguel Delibes. The 1940s saw the first works of Camilo José Cela, including La familia de Pascual Duarte. In this novel, the protagonist narrates his own biography, a series of crimes and atrocities largely conditioned by a barbarous and unjust environment of poverty and deprivation. This portrayal makes the hero both a murderer and a victim. The novel was considered “alarmist” at the time due to its graphic depiction of violence.
Social Realism (1950s)
From the 1950s, attention shifted to political and social criticism in the so-called social realism movement. Its main features include:
- A collective protagonist: a sector, group, class, or society in general.
- Plots developed over a few days and in very specific areas.
- Themes reflecting the mediocre reality of Spanish society.
- The author as a simple transcriber of reality, accurately reflecting everyday language.
- A focus on social or political complaint over artistic values.
Camilo José Cela initiated this stage with The Hive. It is structured as a mosaic of short, unnumbered chapters reflecting the daily lives of over three hundred characters who navigate a hopeless present. The novel lacks a strict chronological order, constantly shifting between scenes. It is an open novel without a defined plot or traditional ending.
Miguel Delibes published works like The Road, Red Leaf, and Rats during this period. These novels champion human values and natural life against a materialistic and superficial society, employing a sober style devoid of superfluous adjectives. Another significant title of this era is The Jarama by Sánchez Ferlosio.
Experimentalism (1960s)
The decline of social realism in the 1960s led to a desire for renewal, drawing upon techniques that had emerged in Europe and North America since the 1920s. These include:
- Problematic or indefinite characters.
- Non-linear time, with duration dependent on the impression events have on the protagonist or narrator.
- Emphasis on narrative technique over plot.
- Rejection of authorial omniscience, with the story told from a specific perspective using interior monologue or stream of consciousness.
- Counterpoint (telling stories that happen simultaneously in different places).
- Anecdotal innovations (invention of words, multiple entries).
This period was also influenced by the “Boom” of Latin American novels in the 1960s and magical realism (Vargas Llosa, Cortázar, Gabriel García Márquez). Key elements include:
- Magical Realism: Blurring the boundaries between the real and the fantastical.
- Focus on language experimentation.
In 1962, Luis Martín-Santos published Time of Silence, which exemplified the experimental trends. In 1966, Delibes published Five Hours with Mario, where Carmen recalls her life with her husband through an ongoing interior monologue. Other important novels followed, such as The Holy Innocents and The Heretic. Cela intensified his experimentalism in the late 1960s with San Camilo 1936 and Office of Darkness 5.
Latin American Influence and Later Trends
Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude is a seminal work of this era. It tells the story of the Buendía family, paralleling the construction and destruction of Macondo, a mythical town. The repetition of names and character types emphasizes the cyclical and fatalistic nature of events. The interconnected stories form a “fairy tale” with all the hallmarks of the Latin American novel of the 1960s. Other notable titles include Chronicle of a Death Foretold and Love in the Time of Cholera. García Márquez won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982.
During the last quarter of the century, following the exhaustion of experimental excesses, there was a return to traditional narrative styles and subgenres like the thriller, historical novel, and adventure novel. This shift began with the publication of The Truth about the Savolta Case by Eduardo Mendoza. This period also saw the growing influence of social media on literature.