Understanding Avant-Garde Literature: Movements and Authors
Avant-Garde Literature
New Art: Avant-garde literature is a form of expression that aims to break the formal and aesthetic mold of previous artistic trends.
Avant-Garde: These are artistic movements that sought to radically break with all previous aesthetic canons, provoking reflection on the artwork.
Current Cutting-Edge Movements
Futurism
The First Futurist Manifesto was published by the Italian poet Marinetti. Its favorite subjects are technical advances of the moment, the urban world, innovative
Read MoreCurial e Guelfa & Tirant lo Blanc: A Comparative Analysis
Curial e Guelfa: A Fifteenth-Century Romance
Curial e Guelfa: Written in the fifteenth century by an anonymous author, possibly a Valencian secretary of the court of Alfonso the Magnanimous, this is a story of love and war. Curial is made a knight and nobly struggles for Guelfa. Rooted in Greco-Roman classical tradition, the work is divided into three books:
- Book 1: The Theme of Love: A young, humble Curial enters the court where Guelfa, a widow, falls in love with him. Curial travels to Austria,
Understanding Spanish Ballads and Celestina
Spanish Ballads
Ballads are a manifestation of oral transmission, a learned form of Spanish folk poetry.
The earliest known ballads date from the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
Method
A series of rhyming verses with 8 syllables and assonance in pairs.
Both primitive troubadour ballads are part of “Old Ballads” and are epic in character, lyrical, and cover various topics.
Classes of Romances
- Historical
- Border
- Topic Carolingian or Breton
- Romantic and lyrical
The romances mixed narration and dialogue
Read MoreAusiàs March: Life, Poetry, and Literary Impact
Ausiàs March (1397-1459)
Linked to Beniarjó and Gandia (Valencia), Ausiàs March came from a family of knights and poets, being the son of Pere March and nephew of Jaume March. He belonged to the minor nobility. As a knight, he participated in Alfonso V of Aragon’s military campaign in Italy (1420-1425) and was rewarded with land and privileges. In 1425, he was appointed Royal Falconer.
He married Isabel Martorell (sister of Joanot Martorell, author of Tirant lo Blanc). After Isabel’s death, he
Read MoreSpanish Postwar Theater & 1950s Social Realism Novels
Spanish Theater in the Immediate Postwar Period (1940s)
In the immediate postwar period, the dominant theatrical genres were comedy and escapist drama. These two trends persisted in later theater.
The theater of the early postwar years was quite poor, marked by the absence of major playwrights like Valle-Inclán, Lorca, and Muñoz Seca. Other factors included censorship and cultural isolation. Entertainment comedy and ideological or political drama triumphed, featuring playwrights like Jacinto Benavente
Read MoreKey Spanish and Latin American Authors of the Mid-20th Century
Spanish Novelists (Mid-20th C.)
Luis Martín Santos (1924-1964)
Luis Martín Santos, a renowned psychiatrist, died in a traffic accident that prematurely interrupted a brilliant career. He published works on psychiatry before his untimely death.
Juan Marsé (1933-2020)
Juan Marsé (Barcelona) was self-taught and a natural novelist. Consistently realistic, but employing renewed techniques, he criticized the complacent bourgeoisie in his early novels. He achieved a more ideologically charged critique
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