Evolution of the Spanish Novel: Narrative Renewal

Throughout this decade, there is a process of narrative renewal. The main charges against the social novelists of the fifties were the futility of their conception of literature as an instrument of social change and the impoverishment of the artistic quality. There appears a kind of experimental novel, more concerned with formal and linguistic aspects of the story than the objective reproduction of reality: the how is of as much interest as what counts.

Viewpoint

Although the omniscient narrator or the narrator with a social objective of the fifties are no longer used, the narrator-player is often used, which lets you focus the story from several perspectives. Some novelists even advocate the disappearance of the author, who would only give the word to the characters.

Structure

Chapters often disappear, replaced by sequences, usually not numbered, and separated by spaces.

The Action

The action is sometimes presented in the form of simultaneous stories that alternate and combine. Many novels also have an 'open structure', which concludes without revealing the outcome.

Time

Compared to the classical linear time, a temporary disorder is preferred. In this sense, a common technique is the flash-back or jump back in time.

Plot

In addition to traditional realistic arguments, imaginative, dreamlike, and symbolic elements are also of interest. A process of interior monologue is used, with which you try to capture in writing the thoughts of a character, which sometimes are removed signs. This change was influenced by three factors:

• Knowledge of the great European and American novelists:
• Marcel Proust, whose work In Search of Lost Time is a key example.
• Thomas Mann, the creator of the novel-essay "The Magic Mountain."
• Franz Kafka, with his novel token and allegorical, completely away from the realistic tendencies, The Metamorphosis, about a modest employee who wakes up one morning turned into an insect.
• James Joyce. His novel Ulysses, published, is the most revolutionary and experimental of the twentieth century. In it, rather than the argument, eighteen hours of a day in the life of two characters are explored.
• The American storytellers called the "Lost Generation," like Ernest Hemingway.
• The discovery of the new Latin American novel, with two key works: The City and the Dogs (1962) by Mario Vargas Llosa, and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez.
• Publication of Tiempo de Silencio by Luis Martin Santos, a work that marks the beginning of a new phase of Spanish fiction.