Spanish Literature Since the 1970s: Trends and Key Authors
0. Introduction
Although the 1970s began almost with the oil crisis that would shake Western economies for over a decade, the major historical event that marked this period in Spain was the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975. With Franco’s death occurred the so-called transition to democracy: 1977, the legalization of political parties; 1978, the promulgation of the Constitution; 1981, a failed coup; NATO in 1982; and the European Community in 1986. Also, the democratic period saw the decentralization of the state. Spain is organized into 17 autonomous communities, some for several legislatures governed by parties of nationalist vocation like PNV, CiU, and CC. As regards the central power, following the collapse of the UCD, the party that had ruled Spain during the democratic transition, there was an alternation in government between the two state parties with a majority vote. Thus, the PSOE won the elections in 1982 and remained in office until 1996. From that year until 2004, the PP ruled Spain, losing elections on that date against the PSOE.
The impact of these political developments outlined above on Spanish literary life was clear: the disappearance of censorship, the recovery of exiled writers, openness to foreign literature (European and Latin American, mainly), political impetus to literary languages different from Spanish, a policy of generous government grants to authors, multiplication of awards, literary festivals, and book fairs, and the growth and expansion of powerful communication and publishing groups (PRISA, Planeta, RBA). Book treatment, in particular, the novel, in mass society as a consumer product rather than allowed in some runs of several hundred cases of thousands, even millions, of copies (best sellers), so that publishers and authors seek characters already known or famous (journalists, politicians, or talk show hosts), which lighten the cost of publicity and dissemination.
Features of Spanish literature of recent decades are the thematic and aesthetic range, the diversity of literary trends and currents, and the spread of authors.
However, this diversity can also be due to the lack of the necessary period of time needed in the history of literature to assess and judge the literary texts that appear in an exorbitant number each year. The editorial production in Spain tends to gigantism: some 75,000 titles are published each year, of which about 10,000 are new. As the average print run is 3,500 copies, this means, in total, some 35 million copies of news.
1. The Experimental Novel
A direct influence of Time of Silence by Luis Martín Santos and authors of other promotions that we have seen in the previous topic (Delibes, Cela, Torrente Ballester, Juan Marsé) who practice various innovations, joined that of the new Latin American novel (Vargas Llosa, Carlos Fuentes, G. García Márquez) and the French nouveau roman, and the late U.S. and European novel of the twentieth century (Proust, Joyce, Kafka, Faulkner) on a new class of novelists. Therefore, they openly chose experimentalism. Their first works were published between the late sixties and early seventies. These authors include José María Guelbenzu, Ramón Hernández, Germán Sánchez Espeso, Miguel Espinosa, Antonio F. Molina, Raúl Guerra Garrido, José Leyva, Pedro Antonio Urbina, and Juan Benet.
They cultivate a minority and cultural rights, sealed and experimental novel, whose concern is the language (fetched lexicon, syntactic breaks, very long and complicated sentences, and colloquial and vulgar language). The most important thing is not to tell a story; the novel rejected the argument. The story is not linear but is split and is based on repeated counterpoints, and the characters do not have attributes that define or differentiate them.
The narrative techniques that had appeared were already deployed in the previous period. The inner monologue becomes a stream of consciousness, i.e., a chaotic monologue, which ends up losing consciousness. Routinely used is the second-person narration, claims the expressive effect of typography (as did the European avant-garde of the century), additional pages are blank, punctuation is ignored, or hand check from “collage” is used repeatedly, perspectivism (or multiple views), behaviorism (objectivist techniques), and different time-space treatments (reduced concentration of time – one or more days, just a few hours, “time-flash-breaks back, circular time, spaces disappear, tablets, and even physical spaces). There is talk of antinovel and metaliterature.
Some evidence of this trend are: The Ox in the Slaughterhouse (1967) by Ramón Hernández; A Snail in the Kitchen (1970) and The Lion Fresh from the Hairdresser (1971) by Antonio F. Molina; Ay! (1972) by Raúl Guerra Garrido; The Spring of Bats (1974) by José Leyva; and Mandarins School (1974) by Miguel Espinosa.
Much of these novels and authors, over time, have fallen into oblivion. Perhaps the most enduring famous author in this trend is Juan Benet. In 1967 he published You Will Return to Region. In this novel, he creates a tight place, a mythical space, Region, and it is told with a very complex syntax, with digressions of all kinds, not chronologically, with fuzzy characters. However, in his later novels (mid-1980s), Benet opts for a simpler and more traditional narrative technique.
2. Current Trends in the Novel
After the death of Franco and the advent of democracy, by 1975, a new promotion began publishing. They react against experimental complexity; there is a shift to the realist conception of the novel. Realism is talked of as RENOVATED. A key work of this outlook is The Truth About the Savolta Case (1975) by Eduardo Mendoza. It claimed the pleasure to tell: a story with intrigue, adventure, plot, and love affairs (elements of the serialized novel). From the moment we are interested in telling a story and plot, the argument is the shaft. Usually, they return to the classical conception; a single action is narrated in linear form (Minor Crimes (1986) by Álvaro Pombo, Wolf Moon (1985) by Julio Llamazares, The City of Wonders (1986) by Eduardo Mendoza, or Belver Yin (1986) by Jesús Ferrero). Also returning to the story, it usually has an end that is closed and explicit (On Days Like These (1981) by Lourdes Ortiz).
There is a significant change to the traditional people of the story, the first and third. The second will persist in some established authors who have participated in certain findings and renewals of experimentalism, as is the case with Gonzalo Torrente Ballester in Hyacinths Island Cut (1980).
These new realism novels expose the attributes of modern man, the confusion of modern man forced to reflect on the reality that surrounds him, to seek a sense because he has lost faith in those values that guaranteed and explained the world. The characters in this novel are helpless, insecure, confused, and in search of their identity.
At present, there is also this trend of new realism, a great freedom and diversity of trends. Do not forget that the novel is the subject of a diversified consumer publishing market. Let’s review some of these trends:
a. Metanovel
The narrator reflects the theoretical aspects of the novel that typically transferred to fiction as a theme or motive of the story. One of the common resources used by novelists is the invention of a character writer, or teacher of literature or belonging to the publishing world, which investigates and discusses literary themes on how to write a novel. Some examples: The Dark Side by José María Merino; Games of the Late Age by Luis Landero; The Vain Yesterday by Isaac Rosa; or Unheeded by Juan José Millás.
b. Historical Novel
This trend is highly valued by readers. It is part of a European trend to recover old masters like Robert Graves, M. Yourcenar, and Gore Vidal or new forms such as The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. It is a type of novel, usually historically accurate, that forces the writer to document the period, events, and characters on which it intends to novelize. Along with the historical novel whose main task is to faithfully reflect certain events is one that calls into question the interpretation of those facts and establishes a new or different truth, as in the novels of Javier Vázquez Montalbán or Cercas. Within this trend, we can cite: The Crimson Manuscript by Antonio Gala; Galíndez by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán; The Heretic by Miguel Delibes; Captain Alatriste by Arturo Pérez Reverte; Rusty Spears by Juan Benet; The Blind Sunflowers by Alberto Méndez; Soldiers of Salamis or Anatomy of a Moment by Javier Cercas.
c. Detective and Thriller
In the 1970s there was an invasion of translations of European and American crime novels. Spanish authors take these models and adapt them (Andreu Martín, Juan Madrid), and in other cases, transgress to serve other purposes (the series Carvalho by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán and chronic socio-political, poignant and ironic, democratic transition). Other works are: The Flanders Panel by Arturo Pérez Reverte; The Winter in Lisbon by Antonio Muñoz Molina; The Impatient Alchemist by Lorenzo Silva; The Shadow of the Wind by C. Ruiz Zafón; Round Guinardó by Juan Marsé.
e. Neo-realist Novel or Generation X
This kind of narrative was popular during the years between the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) until September 11, 2001, when the nihilism of this generation of writers lost the favor of readers. Their interest focused on the thematic representation of the conduct of the then-young adolescents, their nights out in the big cities, the use and abuse of drugs, sex, alcohol, and rock music. These works are representative of this trend: Historias del Kronen (1994) by José Ángel Mañas, which kicked off this trend; Ray Loriga with Heroes; Lucía Etxebarría in Love, Curiosity, Sex, Prozac, and Doubts.
f. Other Trends
- Lyrical Novel: The essential value is the technical quality with which it is written, the search for formal perfection: The Yellow Rain by Julio Llamazares; The Fountain of Age by Luis Mateo Díez; Manuel Rivas, The Carpenter’s Pencil.
- Autobiographical Novel: A Heart So White by Javier Marías; Burning Warrior by Antonio Muñoz Molina. Many of these novels have dealt with the Franco years and the struggle against the dictatorship (The Moon River by José María Guelbenzu) and the disillusionment with the political transition (The Gods Themselves by Juan José Armas Marcelo).
- Culturalist Novel: In recent years there have appeared a number of young writers who make a novel that deals with analyzing and explaining various aspects of Western culture from very scholarly positions. It’s what Juan Manuel de Prada does with Masks of the Hero or The Tempest.
In general, from an ideological viewpoint, they reject ethical and moral codes. There is a marked individualism of the authors; the authors do not actually form groups because there is no clear trend (aesthetic affinity and/or ideological) that brings them together. Given the collective problems, they manifest a glance away, a bitter or humorous cynicism that sometimes manifests itself as a triviality. The existential concerns, problems in the realization of one’s personality (the idea of romanticism, the “apotheosis of the private”) are still the prevailing reasons such as loneliness, the difficulty of interpersonal relationships, intimacy, love, eroticism, and death.