Franco's Dictatorship and its Impact on Spanish Poetry

Historical Context

Historical Context: After the Civil War ended, General Franco established a dictatorship that abolished basic freedoms and suppressed workers' demands, autonomy, etc. Franco's dictatorship was supported by the Army, the Falange, and the Church, who provided its legitimacy. The internal transformation of Spanish society and international circumstances forced him to go through different phases:

• Autarky (1940-1955, approximately): During these years, the Franco regime was isolated from the outside and was absent from international institutions. The interior policy was harshly repressive. During the war, Spain remained outside the economic, social, cultural, and technological development of previous decades.
• Opening (1955-1970, approximately): The regime felt the need to be internationally accepted and tried to modernize the country's economic structures. This made the people become aware of the political, economic, and social advantages of democratic regimes. These factors favored, in domestic policy, a relaxation of the repressive elements.
• Crisis (1970-1977, approximately): During this period, civil society was transformed. Franco was an obstacle to development and growth. Large social sectors (workers, businessmen, intellectuals, officials, students, etc.) promoted the transformation of the regime into a full democracy, a process that was completed successfully in the Democratic Transition (1975-1978).

Spanish writers in exile maintained a high level of literary expression. Poets such as Juan Ramón Jiménez, Leon Felipe, Rafael Alberti, and Luis Cernuda produced some of their best work in exile. There were also great novelists, such as Max Aub, Francisco Ayala, and Ramon J. Sender.

Poetry

• First Stage

  The great poet and literary critic Dámaso Alonso distinguished two tendencies in the poetry of the first stage of Franco: rooted poetry and uprooted poetry.

  • Rooted Poetry

    It is characterized by addressing issues that express the feeling of belonging of human beings to the world, such as love, family, landscape, and religious feelings. Poets from this trend were Luis Rosales, Leopoldo Panero, and Dionisio Ridruejo.

  • Uprooted Poetry

    Characterized by a torn and desolate tone, it is an expression of extreme anguish and loneliness of the human being in a violent, inhospitable, and cruel world, where God's absence is experienced. Examples of uprooted poetry are: Human Fiery Angel (1950) by Blas de Otero, Sons of Wrath (1944) by Dámaso Alonso, and The Rock and a Hard Place (1949) by Victoriano Crémer.

• Second Stage

  In the 1950s, social realism emerged, a tendency aimed at the expression of rebellion against social injustice and oppression. The writers employed a harsh tone, and poetic language became more plain, almost colloquial, to give priority to the committed message over the carefully crafted poetic form. Emerging poets included Gabriel Celaya, José Hierro, and Ángel González.

• Third Phase

  In the 1960s, poetry involved more intimate and personal themes while maintaining its commitment to the ideals of freedom and justice. José Ángel Valente and Jaime Gil de Biedma innovated by using poetic language with elements of pure poetry. At the end of the 1960s, there was a very young generation of poets, called Novísimos, who, while not abandoning the above issues, proposed very bold and imaginative formulas for poetry.