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Modern Spanish Poetry: Key Poets

Considered a pioneer of modernism, Rubén Darío was responsible for its dissemination in Spain, alongside poets such as Salvador Rueda, Antonio Machado, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Eduardo Marquina, and Manuel Machado. Their poetry acquired an intimate tone.

Rubén Darío

Rubén Darío was the creator and promoter of Modernism. His first book, Azul (Blue), was a mixture of verse and prose. With Prosas Profanas (Profane Prose), he established the model for modernist poetry, intimidating his supporters. These books also addressed universal human problems: political poems, existential anxieties, and irony.

Antonio Machado

Antonio Machado's poetry is characterized by its depth in topics such as intimacy, memories, the Castilian... Continue reading "Modern Spanish Poetry: Key Poets and Vanguard Movements" »

Introduction

During the Civil War, theater served as a means of political propaganda, exemplified by the Theater of the Falange and guerrilla theater. The post-war situation was catastrophic: authors like Valle-Inclán, Lorca, Muñoz Seca, Antonio Machado, and Unamuno perished; others, including Alberti, Casona, and Max Aub, went into exile; and those who remained in Spain (J. Álvarez Quintero, Arniches, Benavente, Manuel Machado, and Eduardo Marquina) saw limited premieres or ceased writing. Notably, exiled author Max Aub published San Juan in 1942, depicting a ship carrying Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis, denied port entry. Alejandro Casona premiered "La dama del alba" in Buenos Aires (1944).

1. Theater of Consumption

1.1. The Fifties: "

Baroque in 17th-Century Valencian Literature

Baroque is the period of Western culture that began in the 17th century. It was a very prolific period in all forms of artistic manifestation, in which there was always an attitude of disappointment.

Key Themes of the Baroque Period

• Transience of life
• The taste for the monstrous
• The passage of time
• Contrasts

Literary Devices in Baroque Literature

• Taste for ornamentation (hyperbole and hyperbaton)
• Confusion between reality and appearance (paradoxes, antitheses, and puns)

Literary Currents of the Baroque

• Conceptismo: Showcases sharpness of wit through the association of ideas and words.
• Culteranismo: Focuses on formal beauty, with a heavy and pompous style.

Prose in 17th-Century Valencian Literature

Authors:

1. Pere

In the first decades of the 20th century, a new narrative emerged in Spanish literature, influenced by modern trends and the Generation of '98. This period was characterized by a firm rejection of the 19th-century realist novel.

Modernism and the Generation of '98

Modernism reflected a cult of the sensory and plastic images, emphasizing linguistic and sensual musicality. The Generation of '98, on the other hand, adopted a regenerationist attitude towards Spain's problems, its history, and the national question.

Miguel de Unamuno: The Intellectual and Existential Novel

Miguel de Unamuno stands out in this era for his intellectual and existential novels. His works reflected his philosophical vision of the world. He famously coined the term "Nivola"... Continue reading "Spanish Novel's Evolution: Modernism, '98, and Avant-Garde Literary Movements" »

Nouveau Features

The creator, far from everyday reality, invents an aristocratic art, elegant and exotic. The environments evoke classical antiquity, with a medieval atmosphere in Paris. There is a cult of the beauty of form, collecting a wealth of themes ranging from classical to modern, symbolist attitudes, vision, and interpretation of reality. Poetic trends in modern poetry are an explosion where colors, sounds, and sensual aromas, etc., are an extreme idealization.

Generation of '98 - Features

A vision of Spain and Castile is absorbed, focusing on the authentically Spanish through landscape, history, and literature. Idealistic solutions are proposed to regenerate the country, a mixture of romantic and subjective attitudes with existentialism,... Continue reading "Spanish Literature: Key Movements, Authors, and Works" »

Impersonality in the Spanish Language

Syntactic Impersonality

• Natural phenomena and weather verbs
• Verbs do and have
• Have to + infinitive
• Attributive or pseudo-copulative verbs with "se" or reflexive

Semantic Impersonality

• Ignorance of the agent by the issuer
• Intention to hide the agent
• Agent indeterminacy
• Second passive (subject + be + past participle)
• Reflexive passive (be + verb + subject in agreement)
• Constructions in the 3rd person plural
• Constructions in the 2nd person plural
• Constructions in the 2nd person singular with one
• Use of the plurality of humility

Regional Variations in the Spanish Language

Northern Varieties

• Distinction of sounds "s" and "z"
• Unaspirated pronunciation of "s" at the end of a syllable
• Leísmo, laísmo, loísmo
• Asturias: Closure of

Medieval Lyric Poetry

Medieval lyric poetry, written during the Middle Ages (11th-15th centuries), primarily expresses emotions, often love, rather than narrating stories.

Types of Lyric Poetry

Popular Lyrics

• Features: Created by the people and transmitted orally; authorship is anonymous.
• Short poems, often expressing a woman's perspective on love.
• Three Manifestations:
  • Jarchas: Written in Mozarabic (the oldest form).
  • Friend Ballads: Written in Galician-Portuguese.
  • Carol: Written in later Castilian.

Cultured Lyrics

• Features: Written by known authors in palaces or castles and transmitted in writing. Love is a central theme, and compositions tend to be more extensive.
• Three Manifestations:
  • Troubadour Poetry: Written in Catalan.
  • Love Ballads: Written in Galician-

Joan Salvat Papasseit: Avant-Garde Catalan Poet

Joan Salvat Papasseit was born in Barcelona in 1894, in the maritime district of Barceloneta. At a very young age, he began working as an apprentice grocer. At seventeen, he decided to educate himself by attending classes and literary gatherings.

His early works included poems and manifestos aligned with anarchism, alongside the editing of magazines. Soon after, he began working in a bookstore where he was appointed director, a position that allowed him to discover avant-garde authors and painters.

Later, he left this position, and his commitment to anarchism and nationalism reached its peak. However, he was soon diagnosed with tuberculosis, which led to his death in Barcelona in 1924. Salvat Papasseit... Continue reading "Pioneering Catalan Writers: Papasseit, Foix, Sagarra" »

Spanish Social Realism and Experimental Theater

Post-War Theater of Social Engagement

The release of "Historia de una escalera" (Story of a Staircase) in 1949 marked the beginning of a prominent theatrical movement in 1950s Spain: realistic drama focused on political engagement and social commentary. Key figures in this movement were Antonio Buero Vallejo and Alfonso Sastre.

Sastre viewed theater as a tool for transforming the unjust world. He advocated for a "theater of emergency," prioritizing political messaging over artistic considerations. His most important work is "Escuadra hacia la muerte" (Squad to Death).

Buero Vallejo, while also critical of societal injustices, believed in working within the constraints of censorship to bring his works... Continue reading "Spanish Social Realism and Experimental Theater: A Mid-20th Century Overview" »

20th-Century Spanish Literature

Noucentisme (Early 20th Century)

From 1914, a shift from 19th-century literary traditions emerged with Noucentisme. Authors of this movement rejected sentimentalism, favoring serene and balanced perspectives. The aesthetic emphasized beauty and pure art, aiming for aesthetic pleasure. Writers meticulously crafted language, utilizing its poetic function. This resulted in literature appealing to a select minority; it was elitist.

Juan Ramón Jiménez (1881–1958)

Born in Moguer (Huelva), Jiménez's life was marked by the loss of religious faith and his father's death, leading to depression. His literary journey can be divided into three stages:

• Sensitive Period (Modernist Poetry): Preoccupied with time and death,