Spanish Novel Before the Civil War: Authors and Trends

Posted on Jan 29, 2025 in Philosophy and ethics

Spanish Novel Before the Civil War

The innovations in the Spanish novel before the Civil War are the result of the pessimistic view of Western culture in the early twentieth century.

Novel as a Reflection of the Pursuit of Inner Reality

The Influence of Schopenhauer

According to Schopenhauer, one can only overcome pain and suffering by renouncing the will to live and all the feelings and passions of human beings. With absolute stoicism, the individual can reach a non-objective vision of themself, allowing them to become the object of their own jokes.

Innovative Features

  1. It is important how the masses are aware of what counts as such.
  2. They focus on the inner world of characters: inner portrait.
  3. Fragmentation in the narration, no pictures, leading to an indetermination of the events described.
  4. Dramatization: the narrator fades, giving way to the characters speaking for themselves (dialogue).

Pio Baroja

  • Total freedom for the writer and the novel, open to all: philosophical or psychological reflection, adventure, criticism, humor, etc.
  • Preference for adventure themes.
  • Starring: misfit beings who often fail in their vital struggle. They are pessimistic. Women are few and are merely circumstantial figures.
  • Realistic dialogue. Simple and detailed description.
  • Features of serialized novels: full of adventure, like the scenes of the underworld, short paragraphs, common vocabulary.
  • Stages of his work:
    1. The best novels, variety of themes: The Way of Perfection, The Tree of Science, Zalacain the Adventurer, etc.
    2. Regular ironic perspective on them: The Labyrinth of Sirens, The Loves Later, The Priest of Monleon, etc.

Perez de Ayala

Experimental novel, concerned with the issue of consciousness. It uses dramatic dialogue and interspersed stories.

Gabriel Miro

Levantine landscape background. Though not lacking in action, emotion prevails.

Unamuno

Themes that obsessed him: affirmation of the personality, fighting instinct, a desire to dominate others, death.

Major works:

  1. Fog: subtitled “Nivola” (to emphasize the difference with the realist novel). It is also a metanovel.
  2. La Tia Tula: a strong character with a man without a will.
  3. San Manuel Bueno, Martyr: loss of faith of Don Manuel Bueno, a village priest who does not lack the will to believe.

Azorin

  • Annulment of movement and time: paintings or photos that scatter the desultory reader. Concept of perception different from the earlier novel.
  • Violent absence against established values, no link to anarchism. Concerns will later move to the subjective.
  • Works: The Will, Dona Ines.

Valle-Inclan

He rejects traditional realism by introducing technical innovations in fiction, leading to the creation of “esperpento”.

Esperpento: systematic deformation, a notice of caricature of reality in order to highlight the contradictions in society and its actual behavior. Human beings are degraded, featuring animalistic or puppet-like echoes; the outside world mixes reality and nightmare.

Major novels:

  1. The Sonatas: dominant theme of carnal love, along with death and religion.
  2. The Carlist War: confrontation between traditional Spain and liberal Spain.
  3. Tyrant Banderas: where the scarecrow appears.

Avant-garde Novel

  • Serna: forbidden subjects, carnal love, obsession with death.
  • Benjamin Jarnes: in whose novels we see the unique character of all, proclaiming an ideology of freedom and affirmation of the joy of life.