Spanish Literary Movements: From Noucentisme to Post-War Eras

Posted on Aug 1, 2025 in Latin

Generation of 14 and Noucentisme

  • Authors with strong intellectual formation.
  • View Europe as a role model.
  • Eagerness for modernization.
  • Rigorously analyze the problems adversely affecting Spain.
  • Emerged after the First World War.
  • Most important authors: José Ortega y Gasset, Ramón Pérez de Ayala, Juan Ramón Jiménez.
  • Aim for a dehumanized literature.
  • Influenced by the avant-garde.

Avant-Garde Movements

Artistic movements that arose in Europe. Their intention was to renew and break from everything previous. Main movements include:

  • Surrealism: Born in France, it seeks to discover reality through dreams and automatic writing.
  • Futurism
  • Creationism

Juan Ramón Jiménez

Genre: Poetry

Stages:

  • Modernist: Melancholy intimacy, dominated by descriptions, adjectives, and synaesthesia.
  • Second Stage: Publishes Diario de un poeta recién casado (Journal of a Newlywed Poet).
  • Pure Poetry: The poet aims to name the essential with the fewest words.
  • Third Stage: Focus on essence, eternity, God, beauty. Works include Piedra y cielo (Stone and Sky) and Platero y yo (Platero and I) (poetic prose).

Generation of ’27

  • A generation of poets.
  • Most important poets: Pedro Salinas, Jorge Guillén, Gerardo Diego, Federico García Lorca, Vicente Aleixandre, Rafael Alberti, Luis Cernuda, Dámaso Alonso.
  • Strong bonds of friendship, similar birth dates, and cultural exchange.
  • Góngora was one of their great masters; in 1927, they gathered to commemorate the 300th anniversary of his death.
  • Involved in cultural life, published literary magazines, and knowledgeable of both Spanish literary tradition and the avant-garde.
  • Three Movements:
  1. (1918-1925) Formation and influence by Juan Ramón Jiménez and Ultraism.
  2. Personal voice: love, death, friendship.
  3. Social and political concerns, influenced by Surrealism. The group disbanded after the Civil War.

Neopopularism

  • Return to traditional lyric poetry.
  • Characteristics: Ballads, songs, short compositions, short verses, refrains, repetitions, parallelism.
  • Poet Rafael Alberti: Marinero en tierra (Sailor on Land).
  • Federico García Lorca: Romancero Gitano (Gypsy Ballads).

Federico García Lorca

  • Mixture of popular and Andalusian literary influences.
  • Three Poetic Lines:
    • Revitalization of tradition.
    • Incorporation of Surrealism.
    • Search for balance.

Lorca’s Theater

  • Genre: Drama
  • Author: Federico García Lorca
  • Plays: Bodas de Sangre (Blood Wedding), Yerma, La Casa de Bernarda Alba (The House of Bernarda Alba).
  • Characteristics:
    • Themes: Frustration, love, death.
    • Characters: Women, Romani people, marginalized figures.
    • Blend of the traditional with the avant-garde.

Spanish Post-War Literature

  • Main Stages:
  1. 1940s: Initial Period
    • Exaltation of dominant ideas.
    • Works reflecting the anguish of the situation.
  2. 1950s: Social Literature
    • Ideological opening.
    • Works of testimony.
    • Focus on social problems.
  3. 1960s: Formal Renewal
    • Developing economy.
    • Foreign literary influences.
    • Formal renewal.
  4. From 1975: Latest Trends (Democracy)
    • Authors express themselves freely.
    • Diverse orientations.

Post-War Lyric Poetry

  • Author: Miguel Hernández
  • Themes: Love, death, pain, social and political commitment.