The Novecento Movement in Spanish Literature
The Generation of 1914, often referred to as the Novecento, marked a significant shift in Spanish intellectual and literary thought. It emerged from a serious consideration of the craft, where writers consciously avoided simplistic or awkward expression, striving for a refined prose. Nineteenth-century aesthetics, in particular, were characterized by a constant obsession with well-done, well-thought-out work, a principle that found its testing ground in the 1914 generation.
The Novecento: A Literary and Intellectual Movement
At its core, the Generation of ’14 was comprised of critics, historians, scholars, philosophers, and teachers, among others, though contemporary studies of this Novecentista generation also include writers from other genres. Essayists, in particular, held a remarkable place, with figures like Ortega y Gasset standing out. Eugenio d’Ors, for instance, exerted a definite and leading role; alongside Ortega, he was a great facilitator of intellectual and aesthetic developments. His most characteristic works are his brief comments, contained in several volumes of his Glosario.
Other notable figures include Gregorio Marañón, an eminent physician who was also a profound political figure and humanist, and Manuel Azaña, a Novecentista writer.
Novelists of this period can be divided into two lines: on one hand, those continuing narrative modes from the previous stage; on the other, various attempts at renewal, some of which linked with the avant-garde. Among the authors who, to a greater or lesser degree, represented a renewal were Gabriel Miró (with his novels) and Ramón Pérez de Ayala. They pushed the narrative and stylistic patterns of realism, though this refinement manifested in various ways: lyricism, irony and humor, intellectualism, or dehumanization.
Gabriel Miró stands out because of his amazing ability to capture sensations: light and color, sounds, aromas, flavors, filling his pages with a richness rarely equaled. This, combined with his strong lyrical sense, justifies the term “Great Poet in Prose” often used to define him. If his art has links with modernist prose and some contact with the Generation of ’98 (especially Azorín), his well-crafted work and certain narrative features align him with the Novecento.
Defining the Novecento
In the Generation of 1914, new ideological and aesthetic guidelines dominated, distinct from those of the ‘Noventayochismo’ or Generation of ’98, yet not fully embracing the avant-garde. Eugenio d’Ors coined the term “Novecentismo” to encompass essayists like Ortega y Gasset and novelists like Gabriel Miró and Ramón Pérez de Ayala. Accepting the term, P. Díaz Plaja defines its content through two negatives: it is neither modernist nor ‘Noventayochismo,’ and it does not yet lead to the so-called Generation of ’27.
Viewed this way, Noucentisme emerged in the first decade of the century, reaching its peak in cultural life around 1914 and coexisting with leading literature into the twenties. Its ideological and aesthetic decline came with the politicization of literature and the arts starting in 1930.
Ideological and Aesthetic Principles
Intellectual Profile
Culturally, Noucentisme involved the appearance of a new type of intellectual. Faced with the bohemian modernist, it celebrated neatness, a key concept of the moment. The self-education of the ‘Noventayochistas’ was now contrasted with a solid college preparation, often expanded abroad. Hence the proposal for a new intellectual discipline and a calm consideration of problems, with claims of objectivity or at least a certain distance. The irrationality and anguish of the ‘Noventayochistas’ were replaced by a clear rationalist inclination. Similarly, compared with previous traditionalism, Novecentists were defined by their Europeanism, embracing the universal and resisting the enclosed national perspective. In connection with this, one must note their preference for the urban over the rural.
Aesthetic Guidelines
In aesthetics, the Noucentists shared a common set of guidelines, which included:
- Flight from sentimentality and, consequently, the abandonment of interjectional diction, vehement tone, and passion (the prototype of which would be Unamuno’s style). This led to an emphasis on cleanliness, distance, and balance.
- This created a mandatory selection, generally producing a minority literature.
- Intellectualism, meanwhile, was a characteristic product of the concern to avoid sentimentality.
- This led to the ideal of “pure art,” proposing a new aesthetic pleasure.
- In the realm of forms, the main concern was language.