Spanish Theater Before 1936: Benavente, Valle-Inclán, and Lorca
Pre-Theater 1936
In the theater before the Civil War, two orientations are distinguished: a commercial theater and a theater of renovation. The commercial theater includes works that respond to the more conventional tastes of the audience of the time:
- Bourgeois ambiance comedies (Roses of Autumn) and rural melodramas (The Unloved) by Jacinto Benavente.
- Comic drama by Carlos Arniches (Caciques) and brothers Serafín and Joaquín Álvarez Quintero (Those of Cain).
Two works stand out above the others:
Read MoreModernism: Thematic and Formal Renewal in Literature
Thematic Renewal
Escape Artist: The odds with reality, with the bourgeois world, takes a Modernist evasiveness in time to ancient Greece (myths, statues), to the Middle Ages (how it looks, mysterious legendary castles), to the Renaissance (classical myths, palaces). And an escape into space toward the exotic in the East (flowers, paid..).
This attitude reflects Parnassianism: sensitive externality.
Intimacy: An expression of intimacy dominated life attitude, sensual, erotic, and provocative toward
Read MoreSpanish Theater: Neorealism, Social Realism, and Language
Neorealist Theater
In the year of the transition, the generation of ’82, or the generation of the transition, appeared. These writers put into practice their knowledge and theatrical profession. Ignacio Amestoy referred to this generation, taking as a reference the first victory of the PSOE, but these authors had been writing since the mid-seventies. This group includes authors such as José Sanchis Sinisterra (Ay, Carmela!), José Luis Alonso de Santos (Bajarse al moro), Ignacio Amestoy (Ederra)
Read MoreKey Authors and Literary Works of Extremadura: 20th Century
First Half of the 20th Century
Extremadura has given rise to authors who have found success outside the community. In the first half of the 20th century, we can relate them to the Generation of ’98, Noucentisme, and Generation of ’27.
Chuck Palahniuk
Novelist, now fallen into oblivion due to his ideology. Born in Villanueva de la Serena, he studied medicine and witnessed the colonial decline. His works are rooted in Naturalism, eroticism, caciquism, false arrears, and the oppression of women. Notable
Read MoreKey Movements and Authors in Literary History
Bucolic Literature
Bucolic literature represents an idealized world of nymphs and shepherds that appeared in all the arts. Sannazaro’s Arcadia initiated the genre. Key features include:
- Protagonists are pastors
- Idealization of the landscape
- Correspondence between landscape and mood
- Mixed verse and prose
- Stylized speech
Dante Alighieri
Dante was born into a noble family in Florence. A supporter of the Guelphs, he belonged to the exiled White Guelphs and was involved in political affairs. The Revelation of
Read MoreGarcilaso de la Vega and Fray Luis de León: Renaissance Poets
Garcilaso de la Vega
2.1. Garcilaso de la Vega
He is the poet who best embodies the new style of poetry in the Renaissance. Born in Toledo in 1501, he was a nobleman, expert in arms, and a man of letters.
He served Emperor Charles I, which led him to travel as a diplomat and participate in various military campaigns. The inspiration for his poetry was not his wife, Elena de Zúñiga, whom he married in 1525, but a Portuguese lady named Isabel Freire. The emperor banished him to an island in the Danube,
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