Narrative Trends in Spanish Literature: From Postwar to the Present
1. Postwar Period (1940s-1970s)
1.1. The 1940s
The postwar novel emerged in 1942 with Camilo José Cela’s The Family of Pascual Duarte. This period was characterized by a sense of alarmism, reflected in the appearance of characters such as criminals, individuals with intellectual disabilities, and prostitutes in literature. Other successful novels of this time include Mariona Rebull by Ignacio Agusti and Nada by Carmen Laforet.
1.2. The 1950s
The 1950s saw the rise of social realism, characterized by:
Read MoreRealism and Regionalism in Latin American Novels: A Historical Overview
Novelistic Developments Pre-20th Century: Realism and Regionalism
The novelistic genre emerged relatively late in Latin America. El Periquillo Sarmiento by José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi, published in Mexico in 1816, is considered the first Latin American novel. Romantic novels like María by Colombian author Jorge Isaacs and Amalia by Argentine author José Mármol followed, marking the beginning of Hispanic nature taking center stage in literature. Modernist approaches led to two novelistic
Read MoreIntroduction to Literary Genres and Forms
Prose and Verse
Prose is the form of expression most literary works resemble. It mirrors everyday speech in its structure and flow. Verse, on the other hand, is characterized by its musicality. This musicality is achieved through:
- Accents
- Rhyme
- Syllable count
Figures of Repetition
- Alliteration: Repetition of one or more phonemes in a verse to imitate a sound.
- Anaphora: Repetition of a word at the beginning of a verse or phrase.
- Parallelism: Repetition of similar syntactic structures.
- Pleonasm: Use of unnecessary
Post-War Spanish Literature: A Comprehensive Overview
Post-War Spanish Literature
Jaime Gil de Biedma
(February 2, 1929 – January 8, 1990)
A poet of the School of Barcelona, Jaime Gil de Biedma is a clear representative of the poetic renewal that occurred in early 1960s poetry. His work focuses on the exploration of personal experiences to develop, from the anecdotal, moral, or intimate reflection, and offers a disenchanted picture of the bourgeois world to which he belonged. Biedma achieves this through a cordial tone that oscillates between irony and
Read MoreA Guide to Literary Genres and Forms
Prose and Verse
Prose is the form of expression most literary works use. It resembles everyday speech in its distribution. Verse is characterized by its musicality. This musicality is achieved by:
- Accents
- Rhyme
- Syllable count
Figures of Repetition
- Alliteration: Repetition of one or more phonemes in a verse to imitate a sound.
- Anaphora: Repetition of a word at the beginning of a verse or phrase.
- Parallelism: Repetition of similar syntactic structures.
- Pleonasm: Use of unnecessary words in the verse for emphasis
18th Century Spanish Literature: Enlightenment and Neoclassicism
The Enlightenment in Spain
During the eighteenth century, Europe was strengthened by the Enlightenment, whose fundamental principle is the defense of reason as a source of knowledge. Initially, it was not as welcome in Spain as in other countries. In addition to a new form of government, the enlightened despot, whose motto was “Everything for the people, but without the people,” emerged. New schools were created, while the development of the sciences was shielded. The Enlightenment reduced the power
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