Galician Narrative of the 1950s and 1960s
The Generation of the 50s
After the forced silence of the immediate postwar period, the first novel of the postwar era, The People of the Barrier by Ricardo Carvalho Calero, was published in 1951. In the following decade, thanks to the publisher Galaxia, works by Alvaro Cunqueiro, Eduardo Blanco Amor, and Anxeles Bellows began to be published.
Alvaro Cunqueiro
Alvaro Cunqueiro collaborated with Galicianism and became known as a poet. A journalist, he began his literary work in Spanish. In the 1950s, he joined the Galaxia project and recovered Galician for his literary work. His work is one of the most original of Portuguese culture, cultivating narrative, poetry, and theater. He distinguished himself by creating a world where the daily mixes with the wonderful, the real with the mythical, the ironic with the humorous, and popular tradition with universal culture.
His works include:
- Merlin and Family (1955)
- The Chronicles of Sochantre (1956)
- If the Old Sinbad Returns to the Islands (1961)
Cunqueiro recreates literary characters and myths that suit his mood. His works share a common structure: a principal narrator introduces other characters who tell other stories that enrich the narrative.
He published three books of short stories:
- School of Menciñeiros (1960)
- People from Here and There (1971)
- The Other Marketer (1979)
These collections of stories are related to the oral tradition of the Galician people, mixing the real and the wonderful as usual. They are small anecdotes where humor and imagination are combined from a Galician perspective.
Eduardo Blanco Amor
In the postwar period, Eduardo Blanco Amor lived in Argentina and developed a great cultural work related to Galicia (live theater, radio, journalism…) and published most of his work. He returned to Galicia in 1962. He was a poet and playwright, but he is noted as a great narrator of contemporary Galician literature. His prose is realistic and socially critical. His works are always narratives set in the Auria environment.
His notable works include:
- A Esmorga (1959)
- The Biosbardos (1962)
- People Far Away (1972)
Anxeles Bellows
Anxeles Bellows stands out as a writer of short stories. Her technique is based on the oral tradition of folk tales, stories told by a character to other characters who make up the audience with whom a dialogue is established. The themes come from the Galician oral tradition: stories of wolves, witches, apparitions, premonitions, warnings of death, and folk tales. Her goal is to suggest the supernatural atmosphere of mystery and tension. The vast majority of her stories take place in Lugo.
Her works include:
- At the Fair Oil Lamp (1953)
- Terra Brava (1955)
- Tales of the Fog (1973)
Characteristics of the New Narrative
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Galician literature showed a clear willingness to break with traditional forms and themes. Thus arose the “New Galician Narrative” trend, which assimilated currents that renewed the novel in Europe and the United States in the 20th century.
Formal Aspects
The New Narrative bets on breaking the linear chronology of the argument, giving prominence to the interior monologue (directly expressing the characters’ mental discourse), and implementing the technique of the cinematic eye (the narrator is like a camera).
Thematic Aspects
The works have anonymous characters, marginalized, violence-prone, and prone to self-destruction. Through them, the absurdity of existence, the hidden aggression of human beings, and the influence of the subconscious on people’s behavior are suggested. The stories take place in oppressive and claustrophobic environments that further enhance the characters’ intimate obsessions.
Authors of the New Narrative
Xosé Luís Méndez Ferrín
Xosé Luís Méndez Ferrín participated in the Brais Pinto group in Madrid. He is a professor of literature and a multifaceted author, cultivating poetry, narrative, essay, and newspaper articles. In prose fiction, three phases are distinguished:
- Initial Phase: Starting with the story books Percival and Other Stories (1958), The Dusk and the Ants (1961), and the novel Northern Suburb (1964).
- Second Phase: Focused on providing a political interpretation of an imaginary nation: Tagen Ata, which is itself a metaphor for Galicia. We highlight the novel Return to Tagen Ata (1971) and several books of short stories.
- Since 1980: Combines fantasy, symbolism, realism, recreating the Matter of Britain, political commitment, and recovery of the memory of Franco’s repression. This stage begins in 1982 with tales like Love of Arthur (1982), Arnoia, Arnoia (1987), Arraiano (1991), and arrives today with In the Womb of Silence (1999).
Carlos Casares Mouriño
Carlos Casares Mouriño joined the Galician movement thanks to Ramon Piñeiro. Elected Member of Parliament for the Galician Socialist lists in 1982, he alternated his political activity with literature and journalism. He addressed different cultural institutions, such as Editorial Galaxia, Grial magazine, and the Council of Galician Culture.
- First Stage: Bound to formal renewal, his works reflect the autobiographical and the Galician society of the Franco regime. Stories: Wind Wounded (1967). Novels: Change in Three (1969), Toys for a Time Prohibited (1975).
- Second Stage: Recovers a more traditional narrative approach. Stories: The Dark Dreams of Clio (1979). Begins a new cycle with Ilustrísima (1980) and ends with The Summer Sun (2002), posthumously.
The themes of his works express a skeptical view of the world: characters frustrated by intolerance, violence, and social hypocrisy. But the critical vision of society does not prevent emotion, humor, and tenderness when portraying the inner world of the characters.
Xosé Neira Vilas
Alongside the Galician narrative themes, his style is also characteristic of his narrative. He spent his childhood in rural areas, which he recreates in his works. In 1949 he emigrated to Argentina.
His narrative is in the tradition of the realist novel of social issues and is structured around two themes: Galicia’s rural interior and the immigrant.
With Memoirs of a Peasant Boy (1961), he starts a cycle of works set in the countryside with a child/adolescent perspective. The work has a simple structure and popular language.
Gentes de Castor (1965) presents the rural point of view from an adult perspective.
Stories of Migrants (1968) and Shadow Remuíño (1973) explore the world of emigration, denouncing the injustices that provoke anxiety, longing, and the daily struggle to escape from misery. The only way out is revolution and solidarity with the oppressed.
y with the oppressed.