Spanish Literature and Language Overview
Spanish Literature Overview
Authors and Styles
Camilo José Cela (1916-2002)
Born in Iria Flavia (La Coruña), Cela studied various subjects but never completed any degree. Illness led him to dedicate a long period of rest to reading classical literature. Following the success of his first novel, he devoted himself mainly to literature. He died in Madrid.
Ana María Matute (1926-2014)
Born in Barcelona in 1926, Matute composed her first novel at 17. She was one of the pioneering female writers of the 20th century. Style: Her writing has always stood out for its rich use of adjectives and ability to create evocative, sensory, and visually descriptive images.
Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio (1927-2019)
Born to a Roman father and a Spanish mother. Style: In his novel El Jarama, dialogue dominates, transcribing the various moments of the day. The narrative is fragmented, offering glimpses of reality. He was a meticulous writer, populating his stories with images and comparisons, highlighting the condensation of time.
Miguel Hernández (1910-1942)
His life exemplifies perseverance. Born into a humble family in Orihuela, he managed to complete his studies despite hardship. In 1940, he was tried and sentenced to death, later commuted to thirty years in prison. Seriously ill, he died in prison in Alicante at 32. Style: Hernández’s aesthetic evolved into a polished, sober, and neobarroque poetry, heavily influenced by popular and traditional lyrical forms (parallelisms, anaphoras, refrains).
Blas de Otero (1916-1979)
Born in Bilbao, his writing was deeply influenced by his life experiences. Style: He was a master of literary language and its resources. His style is impressive for its high degree of perfection, with meticulous attention to detail, from phonetics to lexicon.
José Hierro (1922-2002)
Born in Madrid, he later moved to Santander.
Ángel González (1925-2008)
A prominent representative of the Generation of ’50. Poetic Style: González’s stylistic diversity is notable. His main aesthetic features include a rich vocabulary, a conversational (though often elevated) tone, and the presence of urban settings as backdrops for his poems. His style is characterized by aesthetic simplicity, yet rhetorical elements are also present.
Enrique Jardiel Poncela (1905-1952)
Jardiel’s theater is known for its humor, exploring improbable and absurd situations. He always strived to adapt his arguments to the logical and technical demands of theater and stage.
Miguel Mihura (1905-1977)
Born in Madrid, he achieved early success selling stories to literary periodicals. Evolution: Mihura’s career was marked by an inability to replicate the success of his play Tres sombreros de copa.
Antonio Buero Vallejo (1916-2000)
Born in Guadalajara.
Alfonso Sastre (1926-2021)
Born and died in Madrid. A committed author and advocate for social theater.
History of the Spanish Language
Pre-Romanesque Linguistic Division
Pre-Indo-European, Indo-European (Celts), Phoenicians and Greeks, Iberians, and Tartessians.
The Arab Contribution
The Arab influence is significant in the lexicon (around 4,000 words in Spanish). They also contributed a preposition (hasta), two interjections (ay and the now obsolete ojalá), and the suffix -í (of Iranian origin). Words of Arabic origin include ojalá, adiós (from “may God be with you”), and si Dios quiere (“God willing”).
The Primitive Castilian
Before the Arab invasion, Alfonso I took refuge in the north, where the Reconquista began, both politically and linguistically. The image of a fan, used by Menéndez Pidal, illustrates the penetration of Castilian, leaving the edges of the northern peninsula to other Romance languages (Galician and Catalan). The conscious use of Castilian began in the 9th century. Some documents written in Latin feature notes in the margins—words or complete sentences—that translate the text into the emerging Castilian language. These are the famous glosas, found in the monasteries of San Millán de la Cogolla (Glosas Emilianenses) and Santo Domingo de Silos (Glosas Silenses). It wasn’t until the mid-13th century, under Alfonso X the Wise, that Castilian reached the status of a classical language during the Golden Age.
Current Linguistic Situation in Spain
Five official languages coexist in Spain: Basque, Castilian, Catalan, Galician, and Valencian. Extremadura, Murcia, and Andalusia are predominantly Castilian-speaking regions.
Dialects: Concepts and Modes
Dialect Definition
A dialect is defined as a linguistic system with a certain homogeneity that doesn’t differ entirely from other systems and isn’t typically used for literary purposes.
Modes of Spanish
- Northern Mode: Derived from Latin.
- Southern Mode: Not directly derived from Latin.
Features of Andalusian Spanish
- Many nuances of articulation.
- Differences between the eastern and western regions.
- The most characteristic phenomenon of Andalusian vocalism is the weakening of vowels.
- Aspiration and, in some cases, the loss of the final -s causes the preceding vowel to open.
- Neutralization of the plural.
Innovative Phonetic Phenomena in Andalusian
- Lisp/Ceceo
- Yeísmo
- Spirantization of /s/ and /θ/ to /h/
Archaic Phonetic Phenomena in Andalusian
- Initial aspiration of /h/ from Latin /f/, also present in Latin America.
- Strong aspiration of the consonant /j/.
Other Phonetic Features of Andalusian
- Neutralization of syllable-final consonants.
- Disappearance of consonants, leading to the loss of the phonological distinction between the alveolar trill and the lateral alveolar.
- Frequent disappearance of final sounds.
Morphological and Syntactic Traits of Andalusian
- More widespread use of the future tense than in standard Castilian.
- Peculiar use of the second person plural pronoun (ustedes).
- Use of colloquial and informal language in speech.
Standard Language in Andalusia
The concept of standard language is based on two essential criteria: historical and social. Socially, the concept of standard is currently configured in each community around a linguistic ideal.