Spanish Literary Movements: Neoclassicism to Naturalism

Neoclassical Poetry: Storytelling and Didacticism

Neoclassical poetry tends to be didactic and beautiful, often deviating from intimacy. The fable form is particularly conducive to how language creates its ideals and satirical intentions.

  • Félix María de Samaniego
  • Tomás de Iriarte
  • Juan Meléndez Valdés

Neoclassical Theater

Leandro Fernández de Moratín

A prominent playwright whose most important rule for comedy was good taste, adhering to the rule of three unities (action, time, and place). His works

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Spanish Literary Movements and Verbal Periphrases

Spanish Literary Movements and Authors

Narrative of Exile: Spanish Pilgrimage

Many novelists went into exile, some having already achieved literary prestige, while others were slightly younger and less known. Excluded from literary canons and unable to publish their works, they were hardly known and influential writers in the weak domestic literary scene, especially after 1960.

Exile left its footprint on Rosa Chacel (1898-1994). Her novels moved away from realism, focusing on the analysis of emotions.

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Spain’s Democratic Transition: 1975-1982

Spain’s Democratic Transition: An Overview

The Spanish Democratic Transition and the 1978 Constitution began in 1975 after Franco’s death and extended until 1982 with the socialists’ rise to power. Franco’s wishes for an integral Spain were incompatible with the survival of modern Europe. Three political alternatives were proposed after the dictatorship: continuity, reformism, or rupture.

Key Figures and Early Reforms (1975-1977)

On November 22, 1975, Juan Carlos I was proclaimed king and expressed

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Medieval Spanish Literature: El Cantar de Mio Cid & Mester de Clerecía

El Cantar de Mio Cid: Epic Poem Analysis

El Cantar de Mio Cid is the most important epic poem in Spanish literature, and the only one with about 4000 verses that has come down to us almost completely. The preserved manuscript is a copy from the 14th century. However, the composition of the work appears to be earlier.

Date and Authorship of El Cantar de Mio Cid

According to Menéndez Pidal, the epic was composed in the 12th century by two anonymous minstrels from the Soria region. The first part conforms

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Literary Voices of Post-War Spain: Authors and Their Enduring Works

Juan Goytisolo: Innovative Narrative Techniques

Juan Goytisolo was one of the first novelists to abandon the plain language of realism, replacing it with an innovative narrative technique that often addressed social and economic realities. His early novels, such as Legerdemain and Duel in Paradise, adopted the hallmarks of a fiesta. In his renewal procedures, he narrated the return to Spain of exiled intellectuals and the imposition of a challenging new reality in the country.

Juan Marsé: Chronicler

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Major Spanish Poets: Works, Themes, and Literary Evolution

Pedro Salinas: Poetic Knowledge and Evolution

To Salinas, poetry is a form of knowledge, delving into the substance of things and life experiences. It aims to express not only beauty but also authenticity (the essential and intimate) and intelligence (conceptual and intellectual). His style follows the guidelines of pure poetry, dense and precise, utilizing paradoxical conceptist resources. He prefers short meters and rarely uses rhyme.

Salinas’s Poetic Phases

  • First Phase (until 1931): Pure Poetry

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