Spanish Theater Evolution: 1939 to Present
Item 9: The Theater From 1939 Until Today
1. Introduction
At the end of the Spanish Civil War, the two major playwrights of the first third of the century, Valle-Inclán and Lorca, had died, and other established artists went into exile. The Spanish stage began a slow recovery, closely monitored by censorship, which has always been particularly zealous of the theater due to its unique ability to communicate.
2. Dramatic Trends in the Postwar Period
In the 1940s, theater was “national,” at the service
Read MoreÉmile Zola: Biography and “J’accuse…!”
Émile Zola: A Brief Biography
Émile Zola was born in Paris. His father died early, and he had to work to overcome serious economic difficulties. In 1862, he wrote his first book and collaborated on the literary sections of several newspapers. He married Alexandrine Mélay in 1870. Zola began to meet people with such prestige as Édouard Manet, Camille Pissarro, and the brothers Edmond and Jules Goncourt. He became the head of the Naturalist movement.
The Dreyfus Affair and “J’accuse…!”
On January
Read More20th Century World: Wars, Spain, Literature & Modernism
The 20th Century World
Wars
- Russo-Japanese War (1905)
- World War I (1914-1918)
- World War II (1940-1945)
- Cold War (1947-1991)
Spain in the 20th Century
A period of crisis, economy, and society. Spain was a rural country that favored the development of socialism and anarchism. In politics, it suffered the latest loss of colonies. Spain endured the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, the proclamation of the Second Republic, and the outbreak of civil war, after which the dictatorship of Franco was established
Read MoreGothic Sculpture: Features, Styles, and Evolution
Gothic Sculpture: General Features
Naturalism: A major change occurred as a ‘living breath’ animated figures. Attitudes and gestures became more natural and realistic, reaching surprising heights. Expression increased on faces, revealing feelings. Romanesque constraints disappeared, and sculpture was released from architectural constraints. Figures appeared more independent, and there was a clearer exposition of topics. Cathedrals became the primary site for sculptures.
Sculptures adorned archivolts,
Read MoreSpanish Drama Before 1939: Trends and Key Authors
Spanish Drama Up To 1939
Spanish theater of the twentieth century, with the exception of Valle-Inclán and Lorca, is quite poor, both in theater and in the dramatic, without being involved in innovations in European theater. In the reporting period, drama has two models: one that wins, which has the support of the public, and another that does not achieve success despite its superior literary value.
Popular Theater
Popular theater includes three trends:
- Bourgeois Drama: Realistic and gently critical.
Spanish Renaissance Lyric Poetry: Schools and Authors
Lyric Poetry in the Second Spanish Renaissance
Petrarchan Lyric
This trend continued to develop the poetic forms that Boscán introduced into Spanish literature, and Garcilaso brought to perfection. Poets who followed this trend showed a preference for themes of love and a more ornate and rhetorical language. Fernando de Herrera changed poetry both in its theoretical concepts and in the search for a renewed language. His Annotations on the poetry of Garcilaso involve an examination of the poetry of
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