Galician Prose: 1936-1976 – Authors, Themes, and Evolution
Galician Prose: 1936-1976
The period between 1936 and 1976 in Galician prose was significantly shaped by the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the subsequent Franco dictatorship (until 1975). This authoritarian regime suppressed basic freedoms, including speech and assembly, and imposed a single ideology, denying Spain’s linguistic and cultural diversity.
As a result, some authors associated with the Brotherhood and the Galeguista Party, such as Castelao, were forced into political exile, continuing their literary work in America. Those who remained in Galicia experienced what was known as ‘internal exile,’ leading to a period of literary silence and limited editorial activity during the 1940s.
In 1950, the establishment of Editorial Galaxia in Vigo marked the beginning of a literary recovery. Intellectuals like Ramón Piñeiro and Francisco Fernández del Riego, who edited the journal Grial, played a crucial role. They translated significant European works, re-edited pre-1936 texts, and created literary collections for new authors.
Key Figures of the 1950s Narrative
Among these new authors, three figures stand out in the narrative of the 1950s: Álvaro Cunqueiro, Anxeles Bellows, and Eduardo Blanco Amor. All three had begun their literary careers before the Civil War, contributing to newspapers and magazines and exploring other genres like poetry. However, they only fully developed their narrative work later in their careers. Despite this, they lacked a formal or thematic unity, each adopting a unique aesthetic approach.
Álvaro Cunqueiro
Cunqueiro primarily cultivated two narrative subgenres: the novel and the short story. His novels often feature a ‘mythical world,’ recreating characters and heroes from both Western (e.g., Hamlet, Merlin) and Eastern (e.g., Sinbad) literature, blending fable and legend with history. Examples include Merlin and Family (1955), The Chronicles of Sochantre (1956), and If the Old Sinbad Returned to the Islands (1961). His short stories, on the other hand, reflect the popular beliefs of rural Galicia, portraying typical Galician characters, as seen in The School of Menciñeiros (1960), People from Here and There (1971), and The Other Marketer (1979).
Anxeles Bellows
Bellows’ narrative work consists of several short story collections with a common thread. Her stories are set in rural areas, blending humor and fear, fantasy and magic. She also attempts to recreate oral narration, incorporating regional expressions and dialect from the Lugo region. Notable works include Fair Oil Lamp (1952) and Terra Brava (1955).
Eduardo Blanco Amor
Blanco Amor wrote novels and short stories in both Galician and Spanish. His Galician works are characterized by social realism, depicting the lives of the urban lower classes, using popular speech, and incorporating innovative techniques like monodiálogo. Key works include the novels The Esmorga (1959) and People Far Away (1972), and the short story collection The Biosbardos (1962).
The Narrative Strands of the 1960s
From the 1960s, three main narrative strands emerged: the continuation of the work of the authors mentioned above, a ruralist realistic narrative represented by Xosé Neira Vilas, and the so-called New Galician Narrative, introducing new themes and techniques, primarily through José Luis Méndez Ferrín and Carlos Casares.
Xosé Neira Vilas
Neira Vilas’ works, including his short stories, focus on social realist themes, particularly the Galician countryside, childhood experiences (e.g., Memoirs of a Peasant Boy, 1961), adulthood (e.g., People in Castor, 1965), and emigration (e.g., The Bretemoso Way, 1967, and Stories of Migrants, 1968).