Spanish Romanticism: Key Features, Authors, and Works
Understanding Spanish Romanticism
Romanticism was a significant cultural and political movement in Europe and America during the late 18th and 19th centuries. It introduced a new way of understanding reality, emphasizing the sentiments, ideals, dreams, and fantasies of human beings.
General Features of Romanticism
- Break with Neoclassicism: Driven by a desire for freedom, Romanticism moved away from the closed, ordered, and rational ideals of Neoclassicism. It embraced the nocturnal, the irrational,
Understanding Romanticism: Themes, Features, and Impact
Introduction to Romanticism
Romanticism flourished in the first half of the nineteenth century, emerging as a reaction against Enlightenment thought. The rise of capitalism and the liberal state led to the bourgeoisie’s peak. However, this change was gradual due to the persistence of elements from the Old Regime. This period saw the impoverishment of the lower classes.
Romanticism represents the beginning of modernity, championing freedom morally, politically, and artistically. It emphasizes the subjective
Read MoreSpanish Romantic Literature: History, Authors, and Themes
The Spanish Romantic Literature: Historical Context
It opens with the French invasion in 1808, which provoked the uprising of May 2nd, 1808, and the War of Independence. During this period, a group of progressive bourgeois staged the first bourgeois revolution in Spain and drafted the Constitution of 1812 in an attempt to dismantle the structures of the Old Regime. The return of Ferdinand VII to Spain meant the cancellation of freedoms, a return to absolutist formulas, and estates in the social order.
Read MoreKey 20th Century Literary Figures and Movements
Early 20th Century European Novelists
Key figures in the early twentieth-century novel include:
- Marcel Proust: Author of the seven-novel cycle Remembrance of Things Past (also known as In Search of Lost Time).
- Franz Kafka: Expressed the anguish of human beings and the meaninglessness governing social relationships in novels such as The Metamorphosis.
- James Joyce: Wrote the seminal work Ulysses.
The Noucentista Novel in Spain
The Noucentista novel was characterized by two main features:
- Lyrical, descriptive
Antonio Machado’s ‘Solitudes’: Analysis & Themes
Antonio Machado’s ‘Solitudes’: A Deep Dive into Poem ‘X’
The poem, referred to as ‘X’, is found in Antonio Machado’s first book of poems, Solitudes (Soledades). In his youth, Machado was drawn to modernist aesthetics, particularly the influence of Romantic symbolists. This poem reflects those influences, focusing on the intimate and the poet’s dreams, presented as a form of insight. The themes are characteristic of post-romantic intimacy: love, the passage of time, loneliness, dreams, and memories.
Read MorePre-Renaissance Spanish Literature: Romancero & Poetry
Pre-Renaissance Spanish Literature
Romancero Viejo
Romancero Viejo (Old Romancero) refers to the epic-lyric compositions that arose from the fragmentation of ancient songs of chivalry. From the late fourteenth century, they were transmitted orally. Authors collected and included them in Cancioneros and Romanceros. From these Romanceros, Cervantes and Góngora made new or artistic ballads; they are written and transmitted outside the oral tradition and are of a more refined nature.
Themes
- Historical-