Spanish Lyric Poetry: Evolution from 1970s to Today
Introduction to Contemporary Spanish Lyric Poetry
With the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975, Spain began its transition to democracy. Key milestones included: the legalization of political parties in 1977, the promulgation of the Constitution in 1978, an attempted coup in 1981, and entry into the European Community in 1986. Key characteristics of Spanish literature in recent decades include a wide thematic and aesthetic range, diverse literary trends and movements, and a proliferation of authors.
Poetry of the 1970s: The “Novísimos” Generation
In 1970, José María Castellet published the anthology Nueve novísimos poetas españoles (Nine Newest Spanish Poets). This group comprised poets born between 1939 and 1949. Their key features included:
- Distance from ethical principles: They did not deny previous cultural traditions but rather distanced themselves from the Spanish literary tradition, with the exception of some poets from the Generation of ’27.
- Extensive intellectual background: Engaging with international cultural currents to differentiate themselves from earlier Spanish literature.
- Engagement with consumer society: Their training was rooted in media culture and mass media, leading to continuous references to consumer society: film, pop music, sports, and comics.
- Defense of poetry’s inadequacy: Explicit defense of poetry’s inadequacy to change the world, linking it with a playful approach to poetry. Poets focused on language and linguistic experimentation, which became the sole justification for artistic creation.
- New Avant-garde: In line with their refusal to view the poem as a means of interpreting the world, they defended the absolute freedom of the poet, employing techniques such as automatic writing, collage, ample free verse, visual and typographic poetry (visual poetry), and free prose.
Latest Trends in Spanish Poetry
The Novísimos aesthetic dominated from 1966 to 1985, seeking a more personal expression. While still present, other lines of poetry emerged, including metapoetry, experimental poetry, Greco-Roman classical poetry, Romanticism, Modernism, Baroque poetry, and “pure poetry.”
The Post-Novísimos Poets (Mid-1980s)
Two main streams emerged among Post-Novísimos poets in the mid-1980s: figurative poetry and elegiac poetry. Their representatives were poets born between 1954 and 1968. In 1986, they were featured in a new anthology, Postnovísimos. Their features included:
- Recovery of 1960s poets: Especially Jaime Gil de Biedma.
- Reinterpretation of tradition: Recovering meter, rhyme, and stanza.
- Return to narrative: And use of colloquial language.
- Renewal of subjects: Subjectivity, the passage of time, urban life, and everyday experiences.
- Use of humor: Pastiche, and parody.
Notable poets from the 1980s included: Juana Castro, Ana Rossetti, and Blanca Andreu.
Poetry Trends of the 1990s
Two significant trends from the 1980s gained prominence in the 1990s:
Poetry of Silence
A minimalist approach, drawing from the avant-garde, characterized by short poems where narrative is often absent. It is also reflective, philosophical, and intellectual. Poets sought to use vital, tense, polished, and concise language, following the principles of “pure poetry.”
Poetry of Experience
This trend dominated the poetry scene from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. These poets advocated a new sentimentality, creating realistic poetry that addressed urban life and everyday reality with colloquial expression, reassessing personal experience, mood, and emotion.
Poetry of Civil Commitment
Progressively, both trends began to express a rejection of moral relativism, favoring the poet’s social commitment in an unfair and unsupportive world, leading to a poetry of civil commitment that addressed the suffering of others. El hombre de la calle (The Man in the Street, 2001) is an anthology published by Fernando Beltrán, who cultivates an “intrusive” poetry exploring themes such as globalization, ecology, imperialist wars, underdevelopment, and neoliberalism.