Spanish Poetry: Francoism, Social Poetry, and the Mid-Century Poets
Poetry in the Franco Era (1939-1975)
Between 1939 and 1975, Spain lived under the dictatorship of Franco. Features of the period include: restriction of liberties, slow regeneration of Spanish culture, self-sufficiency, and shortages.
During the 1940s, Spanish poetry prevailed in the expression of religious and existential concerns.
Postwar poetry begins with two books by authors of the Generation of ’27, published in 1944: Hijos de la ira (Children of Wrath) by Dámaso Alonso and Sombra del paraíso (Shadow of Paradise) by Vicente Aleixandre. Along with Blas de Otero, they paved the way for younger poets.
These books reflect a pessimistic, anxious world, governed by a cruel God. They express discontent with reality, but do not refer to the political and social situation in Spain.
In another book, Casa encendida (Burning House) by Luis Rosales, we find an agonistic experience that affirms hope despite the pain of existence.
Special mention deserves Miguel Hernández, who died in prison in 1942. His works tie in thematically and stylistically with the lyric of ’27.
Social Poetry
Other trends appeared: the Cántico group, formed by poets from Córdoba, who grew a beautician of modernist poetry, and Surrealism.
In the early 1950s, Social Poetry predominated in Spain. Its main features, as developed by authors Gabriel Celaya, Blas de Otero, and José Hierro, are as follows:
- It responds to a conception of literature as an instrument of social and political transformation. This is a poem critical of the committed fact of the Spanish era to stir the consciences of readers.
- It aims to expose social injustice and the lack of freedom, and flees from the expression of autobiographical sentiments. Writing a useful poem, as Blas de Otero wrote, translates into a plain language, deliberately prosaic.
The Poets of the Mid-Century
Featured authors: Ángel González, José Ángel Valente, Jaime Gil de Biedma, José Agustín Goytisolo, Claudio Rodríguez, and others.
In the late 1950s, a new promotion of poets born before the Civil War burst onto the scene.
Mid-century poets begin their journey within social poetry. Some features are strengthened in their early works:
- Explicit ideological commitment disappears and re-emerges as a major component of autobiographical experience, trying to integrate the individual into the historical circumstances.
- The themes are love and eroticism, the passage of time, and the evocation of childhood or adolescence; the social reality of Spain serves as the background against which personal experiences are cut.
- The language, conversational and intimate, contrasts with the declamatory tone of social poets.
The lyric of the mid-century shows the influence of Antonio Machado and Luis Cernuda.
Conjunctions
- Copulative: and (e), or
- Adversative: but, nevertheless, yet, however
- Disjunctive: o (u), or
- Explanatory: i.e., that is, in other words
Subordinate Clauses
- Substantive (Noun) Clauses: Introduced by ‘that’, ‘if’, no conjunction, or interrogative pronouns.
- Adjective (Relative) Clauses: Introduced by relative pronouns (who, whom, whose, which, that), where, whose.
- Adverbial Clauses:
- Time: when, while, as, as soon as, just
- Manner: as, as if, as though, according to
- Place: where
- Causal: because, since, due to, as, given that
- Final: for (that), in order that, with the aim of, with a view to
- Concessive: although, though, even if, while, for more than
- Conditional: if, unless, provided that, as long as
- Consecutive: therefore, so, then, consequently, so that