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The Spanish Generation of '27

A Poetic Renaissance

The Generation of '27, a prominent group of Spanish writers, emerged around 1927, coinciding with the tercentenary of Baroque poet Luis de Góngora's death. These writers, including Miguel Hernández, embraced Góngora's complex poetic style (culteranismo), which had been criticized in the 19th century. The tercentenary celebrations, including conferences and tributes at the University of Seville, served as a catalyst for the group's formation.

A literary generation comprises writers born around the same time, influenced by similar events, and sharing comparable perspectives on contemporary issues.

Defining the Generation of '27

• A Collective of Writers: Key figures include Pedro Salinas, Jorge

The Spanish Generation of '98

Author: Antonio Machado (1875-1939) wrote prose and drama, stressing his role as a poet. Initially modernist (Soledades, Galerías y Otros Poemas, 1907), his modernism is intimate, with existential angst as a prominent theme. His works feature decadent landscapes (fountains, gardens) and symbolism (late treadmill).

Campos de Castilla (1912) addresses political and social issues, using the Castilian landscape, its inhabitants, and its history to critique Spanish conduct (envy of those who don't work, praise for those who strive). Other poems lament his wife's death and include philosophical reflections.

Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1946) wrote essays, novels, poetry, and drama.

Topics Cultivated:

• Spain's backwardness in social,

Spanish Narrative: 1930s to 1960s

The 1930s: Rehumanization and Exile

The novels of the 1930s, much like poetry, moved towards rehumanization and social commitment, contrasting with the dehumanization of the 1920s. Authors like Francisco Ayala and Rosa Chacel championed this trend. Their support for the Republic led to their exile after the war, and their work, developed outside Spain, often emphasized themes of war.

The Early Post-War Years

The cultural landscape in 1939 was bleak. Many writers were in exile, and censorship heavily restricted literary expression, making explicit denunciation impossible. Exceptional figures like Torrente Ballester, Camilo José Cela, Carmen Laforet, and Miguel Delibes emerged in the 1940s, embodying two main... Continue reading "Spanish Narrative Evolution: 1930s to 1960s" »

Generation of '98 and Antonio Machado

While other authors of the Generation of '98, such as Unamuno, also cultivated poetry, Antonio Machado is often seen as the representative poet of the Generation. However, his relationship with the group was complex; some consider him an epigonal member, as the theme of Spain only prominently features in his work starting with Campos de Castilla. His training and early work align more closely with Modernism.

Machado's poetic style is notable for its economy of expression: concise, refined, sober, and conceptually dense. In this aspect, he converges with other artists of his time and generation who professed an open anti-rhetoricism. Regarding his works, we can cite:

• Soledades (1903), revised and expanded in

Life, Death, and Love in Miguel Hernández

To sum up Miguel Hernández's poetry, one could qualify it as love poetry. No poem falls outside the meaning of love: nature, women, sons, friends, the people, or life itself. We can distinguish several approaches: sexual awakening, love, pain, love-hate, hope...

Furthermore, Miguel Hernández's poetry is a poetry of experience. Indeed, the poetic world is defined by love and death, intertwined with life. These are the three main themes, or variants of the same theme: love. Life and death are joined in two ways:

1. In the existential sense, man is a being born to die.
2. In the sense of solidarity of death easily embraced.

Life definitely embraces death in the late poems and ballads of Cancionero y Romancero

The Sixties: Experimental Fiction

Novelists felt the need to seek new formulas, more complex approaches, and greater attention to literary language. Two main factors contributed to this shift in literature:

• The influence of foreign novelists of the century: Marcel Proust (French), Franz Kafka (Czech-German), James Joyce (Irish), and William Faulkner (American).
• The discovery of the American novel of the moment, with titles such as Hopscotch (1963) by Julio Cortázar, La Ciudad y los Perros (1963) by Mario Vargas Llosa, or One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) by Gabriel García Márquez, and authors of previous generations such as the Argentine Jorge Luis Borges, Alejo Carpentier (Cuban), and Juan Rulfo (Mexican).

Authors of the Experimental Narrative

The... Continue reading "Spanish Experimental Fiction: Authors and Trends" »

Trends in 20th Century Hispanic Fiction

Two major trends shaped the vision of authors in 20th-century Hispanic fiction:

• The Realistic Trend: Aimed to objectively reflect perceived reality.
• The Narrative Trend: Broke with the realistic view, influenced by Jorge Luis Borges and surrealism. This trend solidified in the 1960s, manifesting in various forms, including magical realism (integrating marvelous elements) and fantastic realism (incorporating irrational elements).

Later developments included testimonial literature of protest and denunciation in the late 1970s, postmodernism (experimental and anti-realist), and a resurgence of realism with elements of humor, feminism, and love, as seen in the works of Isabel Allende and Laura Esquivel.

Features

Medieval Terminology

Objects and Places

• Elm: Helmet.
• Palio: Canvas roof supported by four rods; shelter for processions.
• Wait: Sharp piece of metal on a boot heel for mounting.
• Lesson: Enclosed field for tournaments and fairs.
• Rest: Part of armor where a spear rests.
• Award: Garment or object given as a token of love.
• Papafigos: Hooded cloth covering the neck, leaving only eyes and nose exposed.
• Proa: Front of a boat.
• Popa: Back of a boat.
• Palermo: Capital of Sicily.
• Maroma: Thick rope of vegetable fiber.
• Keel: Long, curved piece under a boat, forming its base.
• Buc: Underwater part of a ship's hull.
• Ausberg: Robe made of iron rings (chainmail).
• Girth: Strap securing a saddle under a horse's belly.
• Rai: Raft of logs for river navigation.
• Throat: Narrow passage

Spanish Theater After the Civil War

The Aftermath and Early Trends

After the Civil War, the Spanish theatrical landscape was marked by the exile and disappearance of major playwrights. Following the war, a national theater emerged, supported by the dictatorship and used to transmit its ideology. Both the State and the Church exercised rigid censorship.

Two main dramatic lines developed:

• Teatro de humor (Theater of Humor): Focused on portraying truth through humor. Notable authors include:
  • Enrique Jardiel Poncela (Los ladrones somos honrados - The Thieves Are Honest People)
  • Miguel Miura (Tres sombreros de copa - Three Top Hats)
• Comedia burguesa (Bourgeois Comedy): Aimed to educate through the praise of virtue. Works were characterized by perfect construction

Romance in Spanish Literature

Romance: A romance is a series of indefinite assonant rhyming eight-syllable verses in pairs. The rhyme is the repetition of phonemes in the final verse from the last accented vowel. When all phonemes agree, it is a consonant rhyme, and when only the vowel sounds match, it is an assonant rhyme.

The Origin of Romance

Romance is an indefinite series of eight-syllable verses because they have no proper structure. They are an import of what were the "epics". These songs were oral poems, songs of people who were in town for minstrels. There comes a time when some parts of the most popular songs were made, then the people started again and learned, becoming a new poem. Thus, the romance was born. All parts did not remember... Continue reading "Understanding Romance in Spanish Literature: Definition and Characteristics" »